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Claire hardened her heart against the onslaught of smouldering caramel eyes of gold. ‘Well, Iam. You have to wait for me to feel clean.’
And Raif laughed, utterly charmed by her as always. Her frank nature enchanted him. There was nothing hidden, no secret tripwires, no manipulation. Following an exhausting afternoon, delicately treading round the government officials besetting him with demands, hopes and persuasions on matters on which he needed to remain neutral, her open natural response to him was as precious as water in the desert to him.
‘I will wait,’ he murmured softly, nudging her hair back from her neck to plunge his long fingers into the thick golden strands and claim a single scorching kiss that lit her up in a starburst of sensation from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.
Still tingling, Claire laughed and stepped straight into the shower, happiness humming through her in a sensual wave. Forty minutes later, they sat down together at the new dining table. ‘Where on earth did you get it from? I’ve been eating off trays and at my desk,’ Raif confided.
‘I couldn’t have done it without Nahla, and I don’t know where she got the set from. I didn’t ask.’ For a moment, Claire looked comically guilty. ‘Oh, my goodness, I hope some other couple aren’t sitting with trays now just because we get first dibs on stuff as King and Queen!’
Raif, however, didn’t laugh, indeed didn’t even look amused. ‘Nahla?’ he queried, his brows pleating in confusion. ‘Nahla who?’
‘You know her!’ Claire quipped. ‘Your uncle’s ward. He was so pushy about me giving her a job.’
‘I’ve dealt with that. You don’t need to worry about hiring her,’ Raif informed her stiffly. ‘Umar can be too demanding.’
‘Well, that doesn’t matter,’ Claire assured him hastily, worried that she had offended him by being too outspoken about the uncle she knew he was fond of. ‘Nahla was worried that he had been rude, and she called up here to apologise and explain that she wasn’t expecting to work for me.’
‘That’s good.’ The tense set of Raif’s broad shoulders relaxed a little as the first course arrived at the table and then his speech became constrained again. ‘Working as your assistant would be viewed as a plum job in the palace hierarchy. It is wiser that such a position does not go to my royal uncle’s ward. It could look like nepotism.’
Claire grimaced. ‘Oh, dear,’ she breathed in consternation. ‘I hired her on the spot—’
‘You did...what?’ Raif demanded in a tone she had never heard from him before. It was both angry and disbelieving and his dark golden eyes had flared like metallic storm warnings.
‘I’m sorry, Raif...if you don’t approve,’ Claire tacked on uncomfortably, taken aback by his annoyance. ‘I should’ve consulted you first. I can see that now but at the time I just liked her and she does seem to be a genuinely nice person.’
Raif’s lean, darkly handsome features were rigid. ‘I have never heard a bad word spoken of her and she is, certainly, having a difficult time at the moment. My uncle filled me in on her late husband’s bankruptcy and all the rest of it. Many of my uncle’s friends lost money when the business collapsed, and it is difficult for them to have Nahla and her children in their home at present.’
‘But that’s notherfault!’ Claire exclaimed.
‘Of course not,’ he agreed, relieving her of her fear that he had no compassion for Nahla’s plight. ‘And that bad feeling and embarrassment will ebb eventually, but Umar is not a patient man, and he is well aware that working at the palace would restore Nahla’s reputation.’
‘Will it?’ Claire grinned at that assurance. ‘Well, thank goodness I picked her, then. Ireallylike her, Raif.’
Raif gritted his even white teeth behind a resolute smile. ‘Yes, I am getting that message.’
‘So, it’s okay, then? Even if some people say that her getting the job is royal nepotism at work?’
‘It will have to be,’ Raif conceded, long brown fingers flexing round his knife and fork as he finally lifted them to begin eating. ‘You can hardly go back on your word.’
‘She felt like a best friend, and I miss Lottie, so it was lovely feeling as though I have a friend here where everything is different,’ Claire framed in a rush.
‘When we have settled in, when we no longer have to borrow or steal a dining table...’ His tension ebbing because he could recognise afaitaccompliwhen it happened and accept the inevitable, he continued, ‘You’ll be able to invite your friend, Lottie, and her family to visit once we have a few more rooms available for use here.’
The speed and brightness of Claire’s happy smile at that news was his reward. Claire liked Nahla, Raif conceded ruefully. At this point, it seemed wiser to retain his secret than to tell the unfortunate truth, bearing in mind that Claire had strictly warned himneverto tell her the name of the woman he loved. And perhaps it would be good for him, he reflected ruefully. Perhaps he could finally put those feelings behind him where they belonged, now that the woman he had once obsessed over and rarely seen would be around him occasionally. In all honesty, he didn’twantto tell Claire that secret, he acknowledged, not if it might hurt or upset her. He felt quite sick at the idea of Claire being hurt in any way...and especially over anything for which he was responsible.
‘I explored this whole bit of the palace this afternoon and I’ve had some ideas.’
Claire wanted a small kitchen installed for her own use and Raif almost laughed when she asked if that would be achievable. ‘Anything you want is possible,’ he assured her levelly. ‘This place must feel like your home as well for you to be content here.’
‘And I picked a room for the baby, just across the corridor from what will ultimately be our bedroom,’ she warned him. ‘I’ll want to choose the decoration myself.’
Raif grinned, amused that she could think such simple normal requests could be out of order. ‘I want to contribute my ideas too—’
‘Well, I don’t want it all blue just because he’s a boy. That’s kind of a dated approach.’
‘My father was truly full of joy when I told him we were having a boy,’ Raif informed her in a tight undertone. ‘In spite of all our differences, I wanted him to have that comfort and consolation in his last hours. Knowing that the succession to the throne was secured meant more to him than anything else. That was the only reason I told him that you were pregnant.’
Claire was thoroughly disconcerted by that sudden unexpected confession and she went very still, watching the unguarded emotions of regret and sorrow flit through Raif’s expressive dark eyes. ‘You managed to speak to him, then,before—’
