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Aisha looked around. ‘Why isn’t Tora here? You did invite her to have lunch with us, didn’t you?’
He rolled his eyes.
‘You didn’t!’ said Marina, eyes wide with accusation. ‘Don’t tell me you treat her like the hired help?’
‘She is the hired help.’ But that wasn’t true either, he had to concede. She was more than that. Much more. He just didn’t know what to do about it. ‘Anyway, I did invite her to lunch and she declined—said she didn’t want to get in the way of a desert-brothers-and-their-families reunion . Is that good enough for you?’
Nobody else thought so, which was why one minute later he was on his way to insist Tora join them for lunch.
* * *
Tora turned off her tablet still smiling. Sally had emailed with the news that Steve was installed at the clinic and that treatment had commenced and to keep her fingers and toes crossed.
Good news. She sent up a silent prayer. At least something was going right at last.
‘Excuse me, Tora,’ Yousra said. ‘His Excellency is here to see you.’
Tora braced herself. She’d known there’d be a fallout from his friends discovering about the marriage, although for the life of her she couldn’t believe how he had ever thought he’d manage to keep them from finding out.
She expected anger. What she didn’t expect was him insisting she join him and his desert brothers and their wives for lunch.
‘Are you sure?’ she said. ‘It won’t give them the wrong idea?’
‘They’ve already got the wrong idea. How about we prove them wrong and show them there’s nothing going on? Besides,’ he added, ‘it seems you’re a hit with the women. They threatened that if I failed to bring you back, then they would come and bodily drag you to lunch themselves.’
She laughed. ‘In that case, how can I refuse?’
‘Did you want to bring Atiyah?’
Tora shook her head. ‘Yousra will have no problem. Atiyah had so much fun with the children this morning, she’ll probably sleep for a week. I think the children coming is the best thing that could have happened.’
‘Speaking of Atiyah,’ he said as they walked down the passageway, past fabulous treasures, brightly coloured urns and dishes set in recesses in the walls, ‘have you thought any more about staying on? At least until you can give me some more lessons in handling her.’
Tora sucked in a lungful of air. She hadn’t for a moment believed he’d been serious when he’d suggested it and no, she hadn’t given it any more thought. She couldn’t stay longer and he couldn’t expect her to. It wasn’t fair on Atiyah and it certainly wasn’t fair on her.
As it was, she was struggling to remember all the reasons she shouldn’t care about Rashid. She was only a temporary fixture but the longer she was here, the more she liked him. And she didn’t want to feel that way, not when it would make it harder to forget him when she was gone.
Not when it would be easier to resist him...
‘Rashid—’
‘No,’ he said, stopping her just shy of the doors beyond which his friends waited, ‘don’t say anything now. Take your time to think about it. I do want the best for Atiyah, even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’m learning, Tora, what she needs. Maybe too slowly for your liking, but I am determined to do right by her.’
He took her hand then, wrapping it between his own, warming her skin as his eyes were warm and tugging on her heart.
‘Just promise me you’ll think about it. I know it’s asking a lot but I won’t expect you to stay for nothing. We can work something out.
‘What I want now is for Atiyah to feel secure, and she feels secure with you. So will you think about it? Will you think about what it would take to make you stay—even just a little longer?’
Tora looked up at this man, who once she thought was hard and unflinching, arrogant and overbearing, but who she knew to be trying his best.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she promised, although she knew that whatever it would take to make her stay was nothing to how much it would ultimately cost.
‘Finally,’ came the cry from inside when Rashid opened the door. ‘We were about to send out a posse.’
‘Welcome, Tora, come and join us,’ said another. ‘At last, some adult company for you. It will make a nice change from Rashid, I am sure.’
Tora smiled and looked at Rashid, who was scowling. ‘My desert brothers,’ he said, introducing the three men, ‘whom I love with my life. Apart from the times I want to kill them, that is.’
