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‘Apparently. She says that the tapes are set to be aired at midday, and she went into some rather salacious details.’ He smiled down as Maggie looked up and frowned at his calm reaction. ‘I was concerned, as I believe Hazin is, that they might have recorded your conversation. If that were the case, then reluctantly I might have had to consider their demands. However, you and I know that nothing untoward happened and they clearly don’t have a recording of voices, or they would be using that to bribe us now. The yacht has been checked and it would seem a camera might have been placed in a vent over the bed. There would have been no sound. It must be a rather boring few hours of footage...’
They both laughed and the sound of them joyful together was more beautiful than any sound Maggie had ever heard. ‘I was sitting on a desk, chatting. Hazin was lounging on the bed...’
It was funny, really, to think of Suzanne and whoever else tearing their hair out at the complete lack of action.
And then their laughter faded and she knew what was coming, for the night was fast leaving them.
‘Stay,’ Ilyas said.
Maggie swallowed. ‘For how long?’
He didn’t answer and so Maggie drew her own conclusion. ‘Until you get tired of me.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ Ilyas responded, but she pulled from his embrace and sat up.
‘But you shall.’
It had happened on too many occasions in her life for her not to believe it now, but Ilyas denied it would be like that.
‘You would be beautifully looked after,’ he told her.
She would be his on-call lover, Maggie knew. She looked up at the velvet rope that hung above them.
‘I don’t answer to bells,’ Maggie said.
‘I would send Kumu for you, then.’
His answer was so wrong but so telling. Clearly, she would not be in his bed; she would just be summoned when he so desired. It would not be a partnership, a relationship. It would just be sex, and it would all be onhisterms.
‘What if youdon’tgrow tired of me?’ Maggie asked.
‘Maggie...’ Ilyas shook his head, refusing to get into that, but Maggie was insistent.
‘No, answer me. What if, say, a year from now, we’re still sitting under the stars at night and still feeling as we do now?’
He didn’t answer, and she was glad of that. Unlike the foster family that had finally broken her, he did not say the right thing in the moment and make promises he had no intention of keeping.
‘Can we ever be more than this?’ Maggie asked. ‘More than just lovers?’
In truth, he had never considered there ever being more to them than this. He was a lone wolf. Yes, he would marry, but that would be to produce an heir. Certainly the loving relationship she alluded to was not part of his plan, and so he answered her honestly.
‘No.’
He didn’t sweeten it, he did not lie, and Maggie admired him for that. She had been lied to so many times in her life that promises had little meaning.
She looked up at the sky that was changing too fast. Stars were disappearing, like the lights being turned off one by one as a building was vacated. She knew it was time to leave.
‘I’d better get back. Kumu will be coming for me soon.’
‘Not yet,’ Ilyas said, for he wanted to have her again. But she avoided his kiss and climbed from his arms. ‘Maggie!’ he called, but she headed back to the pool and started collecting her things.
‘Stay,’ he said again. ‘Even just for a few days. I will arrange another flight.’
‘I wantthatflight,’ Maggie said. ‘My mother paid for it.’
‘You’re being sentimental.’
‘Yes,’ Maggie said, and she stood and pulled on the tiny bikini she had so readily discarded. ‘And I intend to remain so.’ She looked at the man who didn’t get the little things that made her heart beat in time. ‘I’m going home today, because you think you can send a maid to knock on my door because you want sex. This conversation is pointless.’
