Читать книгу Modern Romance December Books 5-8 - Дженнифер Хейворд - Страница 17

CHAPTER SIX

Three months later...

FROZEN TO THE spot on the tiled floor of the restaurant where she was working her second job on King’s Dock, Lucy was stunned to see Tadj again. How many more shocks could she take?

As many as necessary, she told herself firmly after taking a few steadying breaths. Only an hour or so ago she had received a panicked phone call from her mother, to warn Lucy that her stepfather had unexpectedly received parole, and was due to be set free from prison, which meant they were both in danger. She had felt sick inside knowing there was an unborn child involved now.

And now this...

‘Get away from here,’ her mother had pleaded. ‘It’s the only way you can help me. You have to get out of the country, because if your stepfather finds you, he’ll find a way to hurt me through you. Our lives are in danger, Lucy. I can’t rest until I know you’re safely out of his reach.’ This was no exaggeration. Lucy knew only too well from past experience how dangerous her stepfather could be, and how utterly ruthless.

Holding Tadj’s gaze steadily, she stamped on the urge to tell him everything right away. She knew her eyes might give her away. Tadj had always been able to read her, and the fact that she was carrying his child couldn’t be hidden for long. She didn’t want to hide it—she was happy to think that in a few months’ time there would be a baby—but she wasn’t so certain how she felt about the fact that a child would bind them together for life, whether either of them wanted that or not.

‘We meet again,’ the Emir of Qalala intoned without a flicker of emotion on his dazzlingly handsome face.

She knew immediately that this was not the fun-loving guy from the café, but a very different animal, as Tadj regarded her as coolly as if they’d shared nothing more than a passing acquaintance. He’d drawn to a halt just a few steps away, and she could see nothing of the man she’d known in his eyes, yet somehow she must persuade this hostile stranger to take her away from here. This wasn’t just a shock encounter, but a lucky quirk of fate that she must take advantage of. She’d go to Qalala, if she had to—whatever it took to keep her mother and baby safe.

All these thoughts were jangling in Lucy’s head as they confronted each other. She would have liked more time to frame her argument and persuade him to take her with him, but there was no time.

With an almost imperceptible nod of his head, the Emir of Qalala summoned the maître d’. ‘Lucy and I haven’t seen each other for some time,’ Tadj explained, ‘and would appreciate your giving her the night off.’

This wasn’t a question, but an instruction, Lucy thought as the maître d’ gushed a response. Of course she could leave. ‘Whatever suits you, Your Majesty,’ he insisted.

The lift of one ebony brow was all it took for Tadj to remind the maître d’ that the Emir of Qalala was eating in his restaurant incognito, and that he didn’t welcome reference to his royal status. This sent the hapless maître d’ into a tailspin. ‘I’ll get your coat,’ he told Lucy, rushing off.

At least fate was on her mother’s side, Lucy thought as Tadj continued to stare at her. She’d had a genuine reason for leaving him three months ago, and could only hope that he didn’t harbour grudges for long.

The distinguished gentleman who had been sitting with Tadj at the table made no complaint when his dining experience was brought to an abrupt end. Bowing politely over Lucy’s hand, he excused himself, and within moments she noticed an official limousine sweeping away. So far, so good, she thought, as Tadj indicated that she should now sit down. ‘We won’t be staying long,’ he told her. ‘A glass of water, perhaps?’

If it hadn’t been for her condition, a stiff brandy might have been more appropriate, Lucy reasoned, trying to dredge up some humour from what was a not so funny situation. Tadj’s mention of leaving the restaurant was an additional reminder to keep a clear head. ‘A glass of water would be nice,’ she agreed, swallowing down her apprehension on a dry throat.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Tadj frowned. Cold as he was towards her, he was fundamentally a decent man. ‘The shock of seeing me again hasn’t been too much for you?’

The irony in his tone was the only warning she needed to be cautious, and she shot him a sharp look. Tadj’s expression remained stony, while she remained silent. They had so much to say to each other, but the door of communication between them had slammed shut, and the mouth that had kissed her into oblivion remained set in a harsh line. Obviously, he was angry that she’d walked out on him. Who would do that to the Emir of Qalala? Who did that to anyone without a word of explanation? Lucy reflected unhappily, knowing she had to find a way to make this right, or the opportunity fate had so unexpectedly provided, to escape the country, and tell Tadj about their baby, would be lost.

She downed the water gratefully, and then plunged right in. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye that night on the Sapphire, but you were asleep.’

‘And you didn’t think to wake me?’

He wasn’t going to make this easy for her, and more than anything she wanted to tell him about the baby, but not here in a busy restaurant. It was such momentous news, she wanted to tell him in private so they could both take in what it meant.

‘Perhaps you need something stronger than water?’ Tadj suggested, in a way that warned he could read her easily.

Determined that she would not be bounced into blurting out the facts, she stated firmly, ‘I never drink on duty, and I still have work to do.’

‘You won’t be working again tonight, so I don’t see that’s an issue.’ His black stare dared her to disagree as he added, ‘In my opinion a drink might settle you.’

‘I hardly drink at the best of times,’ she pointed out.

‘And this isn’t the best of times?’

Irony dripped off his every word. Sitting up straight, she came to a decision. No one could accuse her of being a coward. She had stood on her own two feet for long enough; she was about to become a mother. Not only had her stepfather failed to crush her spirit, she refused to run scared, and would do whatever it took to protect both her child and her mother, and when it came to defending herself she would fight. Drawing a deep breath, she said, ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’

‘You’re pregnant,’ Tadj stated without emotion.

Shock sucked the breath from her lungs. He’d guessed before she’d had chance to say anything. ‘How did you know?’

‘I know you,’ he said. ‘Three months?’

‘Yes.’

‘So my child,’ he confirmed.

‘Well, no other,’ she said hotly.

The realisation that Lucy was expecting his child had hit him like a punch in the gut. He was about to become a father. What did he know about that? Precisely nothing. If he followed the example set by his socialite, uncaring father, the future of his child was grim.

Memories flooded back as he remembered how it felt to be the only child left sitting on his suitcase when the school holidays came around. Staff at the boarding school he’d attended had always done their best to make up for the neglect of his parents by calling Abdullah, a man who had cared for Tadj since Tadj was one of many in the nursery, to collect him from school. Being welcomed into Abdullah’s happy family home had proved how children could live, not in palaces, but surrounded by love. How he’d longed for Abdullah to be his father, rather than to have been born a royal prince to parents who couldn’t care less about him. Horror filled him at the thought that he could ever do that to a child. Stifling the dread, he moved on to practicalities that called for decisions, rather than maudlin recollections. He could have everything he wanted, including a ready-made family and a woman who had engaged his attention from the start, but this child would bind them together for life, which he hadn’t planned for.

Lucy’s face was pale and creased with worry as she waited for his reaction. His world had been jolted, but his logical mind had quickly kicked in. Safeguards must be put in place immediately for both mother and child. Three months ago, sex had been the only thing on his mind. He and Lucy had been lost in an erotic jungle, but they were back with far more than they’d set out with. He had no trouble accepting that he was the father of Lucy’s child. No birth control was one hundred per cent effective. And on a positive note, the position of mistress was filled. He hadn’t reckoned on a pregnant mistress, but putting Lucy and the child under his protection was vital, so the sooner he could get her away from here, the better.

Decision made, he stood. ‘We’re leaving,’ he said, waiting for her to join him.

‘Leaving?’ Lucy flashed a glance outside, where another sleek black limousine had drawn up at the kerb.

‘For my country house, and then on to Qalala,’ he explained. ‘We need to talk, and I’m not prepared to do that here.’

‘Your country house?’ Lucy queried, her voice shaking as if she was not quite in command of it. ‘And then Qalala?’

Was he mistaken, or had she brightened at the prospect of leaving the country? No...she wasn’t just pleased, she was relieved, he thought, as suspicion twisted inside him. ‘We travel to my country house first, so that plans can be made for your arrival in Qalala. My staff need prior warning.’

Don’t rock the boat, Lucy thought, though Tadj’s tone was chilling, and hardly boded well if she went with him now, but however cold he felt towards her for leaving him three months ago, and however shocked he might be about the baby, leaving the country was a priority, to keep her mother and her baby out of danger. What could be safer than leaving under the protection of the Emir of Qalala? Diplomatic protection would provide a safeguard from her vicious stepfather, leaving no loopholes for him to snake through.

Decision made, she stood, but then saw black-clad figures stepping out of the shadows. For a moment she thought her stepfather’s thugs had found her, but when Tadj sent them off with a nod she realised they were his men. Out of the frying pan into the fire? she wondered.

‘You don’t need guards to make me come with you,’ she told Tadj. ‘I’ll come quietly,’ she added in a lame attempt at the humour they’d once shared.

Tadj said nothing, and seemed, if anything, more remote than ever. She had to give him a chance to get over the shock of learning she was expecting his baby, Lucy reminded herself. She wasn’t the only one who’d been sent reeling with shock this evening.

‘Now,’ he prompted in a quiet, firm tone, glancing at the door.

She wasted a few more seconds, searching in vain for some sign of the warmth they’d once shared. Leaving the safe and familiar with a man she thought she knew, but suddenly couldn’t be sure of, was quite an intimidating prospect. It was one thing knowing that Tadj was the Emir of Qalala, and quite another to feel the brush of his power.

‘Get in,’ he snapped when his chauffeur opened the door of the official limousine.

He joined her in the luxurious interior, but sat with his face averted as if he couldn’t bear to look at her. Or, maybe he was deep in thought, Lucy reasoned. ‘Are you kidnapping me?’ she asked in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

‘Are you over-dramatising?’ he asked coldly as his driver closed the door.

No amount of luxury could soothe her in this confined space with a man who seemed so hostile. It takes two to tango, she wanted to tell him, but, so soon after her mother’s alarming phone call, Lucy couldn’t afford to rock the boat. This was the perfect opportunity to leave the country, and she couldn’t allow anything to get in the way. His manner suggested that trust was a huge issue for Tadj, and if he suspected she was using him to escape her stepfather and keep her mother safe, she doubted he would ever forgive her.

‘What have you been doing these past three months?’ he demanded.

Jolted rudely back to the present, she turned to face him, and held his harsh stare steadily. ‘I’ve been working...studying.’ The moment she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d secured a second job at the restaurant close by the laundry, and was working hard to complete her studies at college. Her schedule didn’t leave much spare time, but she’d needed the extra money for the deposit on a small garden flat she’d found close to King’s Dock. With a tiny garden, this was where she had hoped to raise her child, but now her stepfather was free, she had to change her plans.

Everything had happened in such a rush, with Tadj appearing out of the blue and Lucy leaving with him. She would have to contact her employers, and talk to them both to explain that she was going away for a while. Luckily, college had broken up for the holidays, so that was one problem out of the way.

‘Why, Lucy?’

‘Why what?’ Tadj’s voice had shocked her tense and upright.

‘Why did you walk out on me? Why have you taken so long to tell me about the baby? I thought we trusted each other.’

‘We did—we do,’ Lucy insisted.

Tadj’s tone was harsh, and his black stare chilled her. She had the sense of clinging by her fingertips to any chance of having him take her out of the country where her stepfather couldn’t find her, and use Lucy to blackmail her mother into allowing him back home.

Tadj’s mouth twisted with scorn. ‘Really?’

As he speared a disbelieving stare into her eyes, she hated the changes between them, and wished she could do something to bring back the man she’d met three months ago. He was so hostile she felt increasingly uncomfortable.

‘You said we were going to your country house before we leave for Qalala. Is it much further?’ She stared out of the window as the limousine sped along, only now realising how distracted she’d been, and how far they must have travelled.

‘Does it matter?’

‘Yes, of course it matters. People will miss me. They might call the police. I can’t just disappear.’

Tadj’s expression had blackened into a frown, making him appear even more intimidating. And alarmingly sexy, Lucy reluctantly conceded. The same attraction she’d felt three months ago still flashed between them like an unseen force.

‘Why don’t you call them, and reassure them?’ he said.

‘I would if I knew where we were going.’

Tone it down, Lucy thought. Arguing with the Emir of Qalala would get her nowhere. This wasn’t the reasonable guy she’d met in a café, but someone else altogether.

And who was she?

A mother, Lucy thought as she folded her hands protectively over her still-flat stomach. She might hate the role of schemer, but now this opportunity had dropped into her lap, she had to make the most of it.

‘What are you hiding?’ Tadj demanded suspiciously.

He knew her too well. Even after so short a time, he could read her like a book. ‘Nothing.’ Guilt stabbed her.

‘You seem tense to me,’ he observed, clearly not convinced.

‘If you’d give me an address, maybe I’d relax. I don’t think you’d like to be in this position.’

‘I wouldn’t put myself in your position,’ he assured her coldly. ‘And, if I did, I wouldn’t make a song and dance about it. I’d find a way out.’

He was distracted by a phone call, which left Lucy to gaze out of the window as Tadj spoke in Qalalan, and the limousine picked up speed as it moved seamlessly onto the Motorway.

‘Are you ready to tell me what’s on your mind?’ he said when he cut the call. ‘Perhaps an apology for walking out on me?’ he suggested cuttingly. ‘I get that you have a job, college and responsibilities. What I don’t get is why you couldn’t wake me before you left. My take is that you got what you wanted and had no more reason to stay.’

‘What I wanted?’ Lucy queried, frowning.

‘Sex with the Emir,’ Tadj derided. ‘Was that something to brag about to your friends when you returned to the laundry? Or were you going to sell your story to the press?’

‘Clearly not or everyone would know by now,’ she said tensely, finding it harder every minute to stay cool.

Even as his face twisted with scorn, her heart squeezed tight to think of everything they’d lost. Everything? She had got what she wanted that night, but not in the way that Tadj imagined. The explosion of joy she’d experienced in his arms would stay with her all her life.

‘I mistakenly thought we had something worth pursuing,’ he said in the same cold tone. ‘You slept in my arms, but when I woke you were gone. How do you expect me to trust you after that?’

‘The way I felt about you frightened me,’ she admitted bluntly.

‘So you walked away,’ he said with a disbelieving shake of his head.

‘If I hadn’t felt an instant connection, I wouldn’t have trusted you enough to stay, let alone have sex with you.’

‘I trusted you.’

He made it sound like an accusation. ‘I wish we could start over,’ Lucy admitted, longing for a return to the ease they’d enjoyed when they’d first met.

‘I’m sure you do,’ he agreed coldly.

‘So why am I here, if you’re so angry with me?’

‘You mentioned a child?’ he gritted out.

His tone was like a file, grinding her down...if she allowed it to. ‘I never meant to mislead you. I was trying to be realistic, and didn’t want either of us to regret what happened that night.’

The limousine slowed and Lucy realised they must have reached their destination. She stared out of the window to see towering gates illuminated by powerful security lights, opening onto a long, wide drive. She felt increasingly isolated and uncertain as the limousine began its stately progress towards a large and extremely impressive house. An awe-inspiring sense of history surrounded the building that only emphasised the fact that this was Tadj’s territory. But she was about to become a mother, the most fearsome warrior of all, and there was no chance she was going to fail her baby, or her mother.

* * *

Issues had always been black and white in the past, Tadj brooded as they approached the house, but that was pre-Lucy. Nothing was straightforward now. The depth of his feelings when he saw her in the restaurant had stunned him, as had the discovery that she was pregnant. What else was she hiding? Why should he believe anything she said now?

Yes, he had trust issues. Being abandoned as a child had left its mark, and he doubted his ability to trust could ever be rebuilt. But where Lucy was concerned, was it his pride at stake troubling him most? No woman had ever refused him, let alone walked out on him. No woman had ever moved him enough to care if she had. Doubt nagged at him. When their child was born, would she make a good mother, or would she desert the child as she’d deserted him? He’d believed Lucy to be different: unique, special. Was his judgement flawed? As the limousine approached the house, he remembered a woman in his youth telling him she loved him, before walking out with every portable treasure she could carry, as well as his overly generous loan for her so-called business. Lucy had asked for nothing, and had taken nothing, other than a surprisingly large chunk of his stone-clad heart.

‘Did I hurt you? Was I inconsiderate in any way? Was that why you didn’t tell me about the baby?’

‘No,’ she exclaimed so forcefully he believed her. ‘I couldn’t get hold of you—no one on your staff would put me through.’

‘You didn’t try hard enough.’

‘Maybe,’ she conceded. ‘But neither did I want you thinking I was after your support. For all I knew, you might have forgotten that night. And I couldn’t put my life on hold for you,’ she added, in a reminder that Lucy was no one’s for the taking, but would have to be won.

A line of uniformed staff was waiting to greet them. Lucy tensed at his side. He felt some sympathy for her being catapulted into this very different world, and also some admiration for a woman who judged him as a man, not a king. Lucy’s brutal honesty was good for him. It was her reluctance to share information he found irritating. It made him wonder what she was hiding. He would make it his business to find out. What could possibly be bigger news than the baby?

His thoughts were put on hold as the driver opened the door, and the formalities of the meet-and-greet began.