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Leila chattered in voluble toddler-speak and Lucia listened, her little fingers twisting at her copper curls and her thumb creeping into her mouth until her mother pulled it out again. Nazir, replete after a feed, snored gently below his mother’s chin.
‘Auntie Maya,’ Leila framed. ‘Like Auntie Maya.’
‘I should hope so.’ Izzy was almost bouncing with excitement at the prospect of seeing her twin and the rest of her family.
It was their twenty-fourth birthday and Maya and Izzy were having a joint celebration at the Alihreza palace. Helicopters had been flying in all afternoon, ferrying loads of VIPs to the party being staged.
Having ascended the throne and become King, Rafiq had become less sensitive about his father’s troubled legacy and the sleazy goings-on he had once associated with the desert building. After all, he and Izzy, their girls and their newborn son, Nazir, were now very much a family and Alihreza was the perfect place to unwind after a busy week of activity at the royal palace. It also provided an even more perfect backdrop for a large party because it offered plenty of luxurious accommodation for family members, who were staying on for a holiday.
Nazir had not been a planned baby. Traumatised by the twins’ emergency birth, Rafiq had announced that two children were quite sufficient for them and that there was no way he would allow Izzy to risk herself again with a second pregnancy. Even though Izzy had wheeled in medical support to underline the truth that she had simply been unlucky and that twin pregnancies were more likely to encounter complications, Rafiq had taken an immoveable stance. That had been a shock to Izzy’s system as usually Rafiq was willing to move heaven and earth just to give her whatever she wanted.
In fact, they had had heated discussions for weeks over whether or not they should have another child and then fate, that Rafiq was generally so fond of, had intervened and Izzy had discovered that she was expecting again. Of course, she wasn’t taking contraceptive pills any longer because the several brands she had tried after the twins’ birth hadn’t agreed with her and Rafiq had taken charge of the contraception. She had been three months pregnant by the time she finally appreciated that once again she had conceived. She had been overjoyed by the surprise but Rafiq’s reaction had been more shock and concern for her well-being.
Mercifully none of his fears had come to fruition during her second pregnancy. She had suffered minimal nausea and the delivery had been straightforward. Happy now to consider their family complete, she was even more grateful for the fact that Nazir was a wonderfully easy, good-natured baby, who slept when he should, ate at regular hours and smiled beatifically at everyone.
Leila had needed very little sleep and after a few weeks of sleepless nights they had hired an official nanny. It had amazed Izzy that Lucia could slumber on peacefully even though she was only feet away from her screaming sibling. But the twins were very different, Izzy conceded fondly. Leila was altogether a louder personality, a little extrovert in the making. Copper-haired Lucia was quieter and prone to wandering off to amuse herself with imaginative games with her toys, leaving Leila the one to follow her. Leila went looking for her twin the minute she moved out of sight, but Lucia was more independent. Izzy loved seeing the children’s different personalities emerging.
At that moment her mother, Lucia, walked up and stole Nazir out of her elder daughter’s arms, rocking him and murmuring sweet nothings to the sleeping bundle. ‘I swear an earthquake could go off and this child wouldn’t notice!’ she carolled appreciatively. ‘Matt is so excited about being put forward for the stem cell treatment, Izzy. We’ll never be able to thank Rafiq enough for doing that for him, even if it doesn’t provide either an improvement of his condition or a miraculous cure.’
Izzy swallowed hard. It had been Rafiq who had suggested that they sought stem cell treatment for her kid brother’s paralysis. Her family could never have afforded the costs involved. Matt had recently undergone a series of tests, which had concluded with him being offered a place in ground-breaking trials. She was married to a man with a huge heart, even if it was a heart that he often felt he had to bury deep and hide from notice, and if anything two years of marriage had only made her love her husband more deeply than ever. The happiness their relationship gave her was infinite.
Izzy watched as Rafiq snatched Leila back in the nick of time from the edge of an ornamental pond and scolded her. The little girl threw a massive tantrum and Rafiq just stood there watching it play out while Lucia sucked her thumb and stared. Izzy began to move in their direction. She gave her father a fond hug on the way, teased Matt about the latest piece of technology he was playing games with and greeted and kissed Rafiq’s uncle and aunt on the cheek, pausing to chat with the older couple for a few minutes. By the end of it, Leila was still stubbornly going strong.
‘Leila...’ she intervened sharply.
The tantrum died with Izzy’s arrival, but Leila ran off in a sulk instead, causing Rafiq to roll his eyes and groan out.
‘It’ll blow over,’ Izzy told him soothingly. ‘It’s the result of too much excitement and the annoyance of me choosing what she had to wear today.’
‘She’s very wilful,’ he said with a frown.
‘She’ll learn, just like we all have to learn how to behave,’ Izzy countered. ‘Just don’t tell her any more stories about the warrior queen who preceded her in case it gives her ideas.’
Laughing, Rafiq tugged her back under an archway onto the shaded terrace. ‘You look pretty spectacular in that dress,’ he remarked huskily. ‘Dark blue suits you, matches your eyes.’
Izzy lounged back against a sandstone pillar and preened herself like an old-style sex siren, looking up at her husband cheekily from beneath her lashes. She leant closer to walk her fingertips up over his shirted abdomen, one at a time, the spirit of wantonness personified as she stroked his lean muscled torso, appreciating his physical beauty with every fibre of her being and loving that he was all hers for ever. She watched his gorgeous eyes light up as golden as the sun and noticed with a wicked little grin how he shifted position to contain his arousal.
‘I married a shameless hussy.’
‘And you love that shamelessness, Your Majesty,’ she whispered, gazing up at him with her heart in her eyes.
‘I do and I always will. I will cherish my memory of the virgin who told me not to be a party pooper for ever,’ he husked, lowering his head to claim a single burning kiss that lit her up like a firework.
‘I love you,’ Izzy said sunnily, squeezing his hand. ‘You may be a king but you’re still my bathroom guy...’
Rafiq winced. ‘Are you ever going to let me forget our first meeting?’
‘Probably not.’ She laughed as they joined the festivities to mingle and chat and ensure that their guests had as good a time as they planned to have for the rest of their lives.
