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'Zahir has one exactly the same,' he said It is very precious, and the gift of this ring is rarely made ' 'Which means your mother must really have meant something to him — do you think she knew that?'
He shrugged 'Who knows?' He doubted it She had been too busy struggling to survive and trying to hide her son from a man who could have helped her Had he inherited his mistrust of others from her example 1 ? he suddenly found himself wondering
'Maybe it was easier for her that way,' he said slowly 'Because if you think someone cares it's all too easy to keep a dream alive — no matter how hopeless it is '
Laura put her glass down 'She never tried to tell him?'
Xavier shook his head, knowing that it would have been easy to shift the blame to his mother, for having denied him a father and having inculcated him with fear But with the benefit of age and experience he could see now why she had acted as she had.
'He had no legitimate heir of his own in a land where male supremacy is unquestioned,' he said 'Perhaps she was frightened that if he learned of my existence he might exercise his vast power to try to take me away from her Presumably that was why she kept her own family in the dark, too — for fear that someone e lse might be persuaded to tell him That was why she simply "disappeared", and we lived our strange life in the shadows, poor as church mice. '
'Poor?' asked Laura surprised
Xavier gave the ghost of a laugh , 'cherie, poor — I was not born wealthy, you know But we lived well — with food on the table and a fire at the grate' Yet he recognised now the lasting legacy of his upbringing Had the struggle and the secrecy of their lives been the driving force behind his need to acquire enough personal wealth for a million lifetimes, without acquiring any emotional baggage along the way?
'So why did he want to see you? And why now?'
'Because his wife died last year and that gave him the freedom to act — to tie up all the loose ends in his life He felt that as long as the Sheikha was alive, it would be distressing to confront her with an illegitimate child ' His mouth twisted into an odd kind of smile It seems that he is capable of respect, if not fidelity'
Is he going to make you his heir?'
'He said something rather strange about that,' answered Xavier, recalling the way the Sheikh had brought it into the conversation almost absently — like a man reciting from a poem 'That a crown could never be chosen, only inherited'
'What does that mean?'
Xavier's eyes narrowed He had already told her far too much — and now it seemed that she was getting turned on by the fact that one day he might rule a country like this Would that make her more accessible to his bed? he wondered Wasn't it about time he found out?
A pulse beat deep in his groin Was he going crazy? Alone in a darkened room with a beautiful woman and what was he doing? Telling her stuff, Giving her access to his innermost thoughts Instead of losing himself in the sweet sanctuary of her body.
He could feel the pulsing of his blood intensify as he stared at her 'You have let your hair down,' he said suddenly
Laura felt something in the atmosphere shift, alter Something in his eyes had changed, too Their blackness now seemed a beguiling contradiction — like a kaleidescope which could change from moment to moment, from hard and glittering to soft with promise
'You have let your hair down,' he repeated huskily 'Running like a blood-red waterfall down your back'
It was an erotic image and her mouth dried to dust, all her earlier fluency dissolved by the sensual caress of his words
Slowly and deliberately he hooked a finger in the air to beckon to her
'Viens' he whispered 'Come here '
It should have been easy to say no — and if he had said the same thing earlier, in a different mood and a different time, then Laura might have done.
But his disclosures had changed something — had smashed through her defences to leave her vulnerable to the longing which was now flooding into her unguarded body He had reached out to her in a way she could never have imagined, and his confidences had humbled her and made her feel connected to him in a way that somehow went beyond the physical attraction she had felt for him from the word go She wanted more than sex from this black-eyed Frenchman She wanted to hold him and to comfort him, to draw him to her breast and stroke his ruffled black hair — but did she dare? Did she dare give in to those desires?
He raised his eyebrows Had he ever had to ask a woman more than once? Never. 'Yet you hesitate?'
Laura drank in his dark beauty while a fierce battle raged within her Would it be so wrong? He had paved the way for intimacy with all the things he had just told her — surely that must mean he also respected her?
And wouldn't this be a kind of balm to her spirit — to help erase the memories of her disastrous time with Josh with a man who seemed to be everything a woman could ever want?
And then what? What if you give your heart to him — because this man is in a different league from Josh
and he could easily smash it into a million pieces'?
She wouldn't.
Men could just enjoy sex for what it was — so why couldn't a woman? Lots of her friends did.
