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‘Does it matter?’
‘Yes, of course it matters. People will miss me. They might call the police. I can’t just disappear.’
Tadj’s expression had blackened into a frown, making him appear even more intimidating. And alarmingly sexy, Lucy reluctantly conceded. The same attraction she’d felt three months ago still flashed between them like an unseen force.
‘Why don’t you call them, and reassure them?’ he said.
‘I would if I knew where we were going.’
Tone it down, Lucy thought. Arguing with the Emir of Qalala would get her nowhere. This wasn’t the reasonable guy she’d met in a café, but someone else altogether.
And who was she?
A mother, Lucy thought as she folded her hands protectively over her still-flat stomach. She might hate the role of schemer, but now this opportunity had dropped into her lap, she had to make the most of it.
‘What are you hiding?’ Tadj demanded suspiciously.
He knew her too well. Even after so short a time, he could read her like a book. ‘Nothing.’ Guilt stabbed her.
‘You seem tense to me,’ he observed, clearly not convinced.
‘If you’d give me an address, maybe I’d relax. I don’t think you’d like to be in this position.’
‘I wouldn’t put myself in your position,’ he assured her coldly. ‘And, if I did, I wouldn’t make a song and dance about it. I’d find a way out.’
He was distracted by a phone call, which left Lucy to gaze out of the window as Tadj spoke in Qalalan, and the limousine picked up speed as it moved seamlessly onto the Motorway.
‘Are you ready to tell me what’s on your mind?’ he said when he cut the call. ‘Perhaps an apology for walking out on me?’ he suggested cuttingly. ‘I get that you have a job, college and responsibilities. What I don’t get is why you couldn’t wake me before you left. My take is that you got what you wanted and had no more reason to stay.’
‘What I wanted?’ Lucy queried, frowning.
‘Sex with the Emir,’ Tadj derided. ‘Was that something to brag about to your friends when you returned to the laundry? Or were you going to sell your story to the press?’
‘Clearly not or everyone would know by now,’ she said tensely, finding it harder every minute to stay cool.
Even as his face twisted with scorn, her heart squeezed tight to think of everything they’d lost. Everything? She had got what she wanted that night, but not in the way that Tadj imagined. The explosion of joy she’d experienced in his arms would stay with her all her life.
‘I mistakenly thought we had something worth pursuing,’ he said in the same cold tone. ‘You slept in my arms, but when I woke you were gone. How do you expect me to trust you after that?’
‘The way I felt about you frightened me,’ she admitted bluntly.
‘So you walked away,’ he said with a disbelieving shake of his head.
‘If I hadn’t felt an instant connection, I wouldn’t have trusted you enough to stay, let alone have sex with you.’
‘I trusted you.’
He made it sound like an accusation. ‘I wish we could start over,’ Lucy admitted, longing for a return to the ease they’d enjoyed when they’d first met.
‘I’m sure you do,’ he agreed coldly.
‘So why am I here, if you’re so angry with me?’
‘You mentioned a child?’ he gritted out.
His tone was like a file, grinding her down...if she allowed it to. ‘I never meant to mislead you. I was trying to be realistic, and didn’t want either of us to regret what happened that night.’
The limousine slowed and Lucy realised they must have reached their destination. She stared out of the window to see towering gates illuminated by powerful security lights, opening onto a long, wide drive. She felt increasingly isolated and uncertain as the limousine began its stately progress towards a large and extremely impressive house. An awe-inspiring sense of history surrounded the building that only emphasised the fact that this was Tadj’s territory. But she was about to become a mother, the most fearsome warrior of all, and there was no chance she was going to fail her baby, or her mother.
* * *
Issues had always been black and white in the past, Tadj brooded as they approached the house, but that was pre-Lucy. Nothing was straightforward now. The depth of his feelings when he saw her in the restaurant had stunned him, as had the discovery that she was pregnant. What else was she hiding? Why should he believe anything she said now?
Yes, he had trust issues. Being abandoned as a child had left its mark, and he doubted his ability to trust could ever be rebuilt. But where Lucy was concerned, was it his pride at stake troubling him most? No woman had ever refused him, let alone walked out on him. No woman had ever moved him enough to care if she had. Doubt nagged at him. When their child was born, would she make a good mother, or would she desert the child as she’d deserted him? He’d believed Lucy to be different: unique, special. Was his judgement flawed? As the limousine approached the house, he remembered a woman in his youth telling him she loved him, before walking out with every portable treasure she could carry, as well as his overly generous loan for her so-called business. Lucy had asked for nothing, and had taken nothing, other than a surprisingly large chunk of his stone-clad heart.
‘Did I hurt you? Was I inconsiderate in any way? Was that why you didn’t tell me about the baby?’
‘No,’ she exclaimed so forcefully he believed her. ‘I couldn’t get hold of you—no one on your staff would put me through.’
‘You didn’t try hard enough.’
‘Maybe,’ she conceded. ‘But neither did I want you thinking I was after your support. For all I knew, you might have forgotten that night. And I couldn’t put my life on hold for you,’ she added, in a reminder that Lucy was no one’s for the taking, but would have to be won.
A line of uniformed staff was waiting to greet them. Lucy tensed at his side. He felt some sympathy for her being catapulted into this very different world, and also some admiration for a woman who judged him as a man, not a king. Lucy’s brutal honesty was good for him. It was her reluctance to share information he found irritating. It made him wonder what she was hiding. He would make it his business to find out. What could possibly be bigger news than the baby?
His thoughts were put on hold as the driver opened the door, and the formalities of the meet-and-greet began.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LOVE WAS HARD when it was all one-sided. Tadj’s formal manner chilled her as he introduced Lucy to his staff. There was no easy path, and she couldn’t help the way she felt about him. If love came with blame and guilt and pain, as well as aching loneliness when it ended, she’d take that, for a chance to be with him. And if only it were that straightforward, she thought as she returned the smiles of his staff.
The last member of staff to greet her was Tadj’s housekeeper, who invited her inside the Emir of Qalala’s beautiful country home, making Lucy feel so welcome she could almost believe this was more than an escape route for Lucy and a necessary pause for Tadj during which time he could soak in the startling fact that she was pregnant with his child and make plans accordingly.
She had just been shown into the library. Tadj was waiting in the huge and very beautiful book-lined room, where the scent of old leather and a roaring fire created a deceptively relaxed setting. Lucy perched on the edge of a sofa, while the housekeeper said she would order tea. When the door had closed behind her, Tadj lost no time making his intentions clear. This wasn’t the fun guy from the café, but the Emir of Qalala claiming his prize. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said. ‘I believe we have unfinished business.’
His look scorched her, and with a million and one things she could have said—and maybe should have said—what came to her lips was, ‘Yes...’
His big stride ate up the room, an
d within moments he had raised her to her feet. Cupping her face in his hands, he stared deep into her eyes as if he would know every secret in her heart.
With only the thin stuff of Lucy’s red dress dividing them, he could feel her heart beating against his chest like the thrum of a hummingbird’s wing.
