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‘Why?’
Piercing eyes probed hers, his intentions blazing ferociously. ‘Because I love you. I will give my life to protect you and our child. I regret taking your choices away. Because I’m obsessed with you, with your passion. With your body. With your grace. With the humbling thought that you’re the one carrying my child, giving me the opportunity to be the kind of father I wanted mine to be.’
The depth of feeling in his voice shook her to the core. ‘Zak...’
‘Most of all, I want to do everything in my power to make you the happiest woman alive if it’s your intention to stay or move mountains to earn your love at some point in the future.’
‘So you’re not going to sic your lawyers on me?’ she teased.
‘They’re at the ready to agree to your every stipulation.’
‘Carte blanche? Really?’
A humbled look crossed his face, but since Zak was who he was, it didn’t linger for long. ‘I trust you, Violet. I’ve seen into your heart. I know you won’t keep my child from me simply to make us both suffer.’
Perhaps it was that final endorsement. Perhaps it was the pregnancy hormones. With a tearful gasp, she leaned into him until their noses brushed, until she was breathing his essence into herself, filling every cracked corner of her heart with him, letting him make her whole again.
‘Zak?’
‘Si, cara?’ he replied thickly, his gaze shifting from her eyes to her mouth.
‘I was going to say yes. Because I love and adore you too. Because I want to wear that ring you kept threatening me with. Because I want to be not just the Principessa on paper but the queen of your heart. Because I want half a dozen babies, and you seem enthusiastic enough to fulfil that particular fantasy.’
He caught her in his arms and laid her on the plush carpet in the aisle. ‘I don’t know, amore, it’s been a whole twelve hours since I last had you. I could be rusty, you know.’
She slid her arms around his neck. ‘Then we’d better find out, yes?’
‘Indeed, mi amore,’ he breathed as he divested her of her clothes. ‘With my love, my soul, and my everlasting pleasure.’
Coming next month
THE SECRET KEPT FROM THE KING
Clare Connelly
‘No.’ He held onto her wrist as though he could tell she was about to run from the room. ‘Stop.’
Her eyes lifted to his and she jerked on her wrist so she could lift her fingers to her eyes and brush away her tears. Panic was filling her, panic and disbelief at the mess she found herself in.
‘How is this upsetting to you?’ he asked more gently, pressing his hands to her shoulders, stroking his thumbs over her collarbone. ‘We agreed at the hotel that we could only have two nights together, and you were fine with that. I’m offering you three months, on exactly those same terms, and you’re acting as though I’ve asked you to parade naked through the streets of Shajarah.’
‘You’re ashamed of me,’ she said simply. ‘In New York we were two people who wanted to be together. What you’re proposing turns me into your possession.’
He stared at her, his eyes narrowed. ‘The money I will give you is beside the point.’
More tears sparkled on her lashes. ‘Not to me it’s not.’
‘Then don’t take the money,’ he said, urgently. ‘Come to the RKH and be my lover because you want to be with me.’
‘I can’t.’ Tears fell freely down her face now. ‘I need that money. I need it.’
A muscle jerked in his jaw. ‘So have both.’
‘No, you don’t understand.’
She was a live wire of panic but she had to tell him, so that he understood why his offer was so revolting to her. She pulled away from him, pacing towards the windows, looking out on this city she loved. The trees at Bryant Park whistled in the fall breeze and she watched them for a moment, remembering the first time she’d seen them. She’d been a little girl, five, maybe six, and her dad had been performing at the restaurant on the fringes of the park. She’d worn her Very Best dress, and, despite the heat, she’d worn tights that were so uncomfortable she could vividly remember that feeling now. But the park had been beautiful and her dad’s music had, as always, filled her heart with pleasure and joy.
Sariq was behind her now, she felt him, but didn’t turn to look at him.
