Читать книгу Modern Romance August 2016 Books 1-4 - Miranda Lee - Страница 19
ОглавлениеWITH THE LIFE-ALTERING words uttered, Allegra held her breath, expecting the world to crash around her. After all, who would want a virtual stranger with questionable integrity to suddenly announce they were to be the mother of your unborn child in a little over seven months?
Allegra hadn’t quite got over her shock of seeing Rahim again. She’d barely been able to keep it together on the stage after spotting him seated right in front of her, his body draped in a three-piece designer suit, and his face draped in volcanic rage.
Conducting her speech, knowing she faced an epic battle for survival that could very well end her once the conference was over, had been the most difficult thing Allegra had done.
Or so she’d thought...
At the continued thick silence that chilled her to the soul, Allegra glanced up. ‘Say something. Please.’
Rahim’s face was frozen. And ashen. Only his eyes moved. They searched her face, then dropped to her stomach for several tense heartbeats, before they snapped back up.
‘You’re pregnant.’ His voice was a rough husk, all emotion bled from it. ‘With my child. My heir?’
‘Y-yes.’
He jumped to his feet, paced with jerky strides to the opposite sofa. Shrugging off his bespoke Savile Row suit jacket, he flung it down. His vest and pinstripe tie met the same fate. Then he was heading back for her, his face an icy, furious mask as he bent towards her, hands planted on either side of her. ‘We created a child together two months ago...and you were planning on telling me when?’ Eyes like twin black vortices filled her with blinding dread.
Allegra nervously licked her lips. ‘I’d planned to get in touch after the conference.’
‘Because your schedule was too tight in the eight weeks prior to make time to deliver the news to the father of your child?’ he blazed down at her.
‘I didn’t find out until last month,’ she retorted.
He gave a single dismissive shake of his head. ‘Don’t hide behind semantics. Did you plan this?’ he grated.
She sucked in a horrified breath. ‘No!’
‘So we find ourselves in the position of being the one percent of individuals to suffer a failure of contraception.’ His eyes darkened and he straightened to his full, regal and bristling height. ‘Nevertheless, Allegra, you’ve known for a whole month.’
‘And it’s been a month of hell, I assure you,’ she countered before she could stop herself. ‘Don’t think I’ve had it easy, Rahim.’
He stilled, his gaze narrow-eyed and piercing. ‘Define hell, if you please.’
Despite the insanity of her situation, her pulse tripped at the exotic intonation of Rahim’s words. ‘You mean besides the twenty-four-hour nausea and the knowing I’d have to account to you at some point for what I did? Or that my child would suffer for any mistakes I make?’
‘Explain,’ he reiterated. ‘Make me understand how anything less than a personal catastrophe that rendered you deaf, dumb and blind excuses you from not telling me the moment you found out.’
‘How about being terrified that I’ll be a terrible parent?’ she slashed back, her innate flaw that had lived with her for so long surging to the surface.
He propped his hands on his lean hips, a frown still wedged firmly between his brows. ‘I may be wrong in my assumption, but I doubt that expectant parents get the perfect blueprint detailing their potential brilliance in child rearing.’
‘Perhaps not, but templates matter. Whether we like it or not our pasts have a direct bearing on our future. It was why I never wanted children.’
Colour leached from his usually vibrant complexion. ‘You want to get rid of the baby?’ he whispered jaggedly.
‘No!’ Allegra’s hand shot up, the very thought of not having this baby growing inside her filling her with desperate desolation. ‘It was what I believed I wanted before this happened. But now it’s here... I want it more than anything. Please believe me.’
Rahim swallowed hard, his chest moving deeply as he exhaled. ‘I’m sure you’ll agree that asking me to believe you on anything will be a leap for me. How do I know you won’t change your mind again a week or two down the road?’ he asked imperiously from his eagle-eyed stance across the room.
‘I won’t!’ Her hand cradled her flat belly, her words and gesture both woefully inadequate against the ire raining down on her.
‘And I’m just to take your word for it? After you’ve admitted contemplating not having children in the first place?’
Allegra scrambled round for the words to explain how she felt without exposing herself and her many flaws. ‘That was because I don’t know... I don’t think I’ll be a good mother, Rahim. Some women are built to be mothers. I’m not one of them.’
‘Why not? Because you take drugs on a regular basis, perhaps?’ he asked. ‘Tear around New York City while off your head with booze, hurling abuse at every child you come across?’
‘Of course not!’
‘Do you plan to?’ he pressed.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Rahim.’ She stopped and calmed herself down. ‘I had planned to tell you about the baby, but I wasn’t sure how you would take it...whether you’d even want this child, especially...’
‘Especially what?’
Her breath stuttered in her lungs. ‘With me as its mother.’
He regarded her for a solid minute. His square jaw tilted upward, his whole body vibrating with suppressed anger. ‘I am a sheikh, Allegra, and you’re carrying the heir to my throne. That is the situation we find ourselves in. Wishing the reality we’re faced with to be different is a futile exercise.’
Like a moth seeking a deadly flame, Allegra wanted to ask him to state in plain terms what he truly believed—that given the choice his heir would’ve been born by a different woman. A suitable woman. But she pulled back at the last moment, the sick dread and pain dredging through her already too much.
‘There is only one way to take this. For me to be fully involved in our child’s life,’ he stressed.
‘Rahim...’
‘There’s nothing more to say on the subject. If you truly want this child, then the only way is forward.’ Rahim’s frowning glance raked her from head to foot. ‘Is the morning sickness the reason you’ve lost so much weight?’
She shrugged. ‘I guess.’
‘And you didn’t think to cancel this conference?’
‘I’m pregnant, Rahim, not suffering from a debilitating illness. This conference was important. Maybe even to Dar-Aman...’
His head snapped up as if she’d offended him. ‘I see we’re back to dangling empty promises.’
She sat forward and set the glass on the table. ‘It’s not an empty promise. I’ve done some more research since I got back. I think I can help the situation in Dar-Aman.’ She thought about what he was asking, and took a risky gamble. ‘If you could see it in your heart to let my grandfather keep the box, I’ll give you whatever...’
‘I don’t give a damn about the infernal box! Dammit, Allegra, you’re carrying my child. You think I care about a blasted trinket?’
‘I don’t know. Do you?’ she countered, unable to come right out and ask how he felt about the baby, besides the imperious and proprietorial claim he’d made on it.
A single Arabic curse vaulted from his lips and he resumed pacing.
Allegra stared, heart in her mouth, as he caught the top button of his pristine white shirt and ripped it open. His chest heaved, as if he was gripped in a fever. For endless minutes, he paced a tight circle in front of her. Just when she thought he’d rip a hole in the carpet, he snatched up his jacket.
‘I need to get out of here.’
The breath exploded from her lungs at the thought that he was leaving. ‘What?’
He launched a tight-lipped smile. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back. And just in case you get it into your head to sneak off, I’ll be posting a bodyguard outside your suite. For your sake, I hope you don’t attempt anything foolhardy.’
Allegra opened her mouth, but no words emerged. The sheer volley of emotions wrung from her in the past hour seemed to have affected her ability to speak. Silently, she watched him stab his arms through his jacket sleeves, the raised collar bracing his nape. For the first time since she met Rahim Al-Hadi, he looked dishevelled, but God, even that state was dangerously sexy enough to trigger a series of ripples through her belly.
Her breathing altered, her pulse racing wildly as her gaze raked upward from his washboard torso, past his broad shoulders to his mouth.
When her gaze clashed with his, Rahim froze, his eyes darkening dramatically as the air thickened and pulsed with volatile sensual charges.
Pushing back the heavy fall of her hair, Allegra licked her tingling lower lip, the need cloying through her body almost unbearable.
‘Rahim...’
‘Careful,’ he growled. ‘You’re in no state to issue invitations with your eyes that your body can’t handle, habibi. And I’m in no state to be gentle with you. Stay put. Rest. If you need anything, Ahmed will be right outside. Or pick up the phone and dial my personal butler. But you are not to leave this suite. Is that understood?’
Annoyance at his high-handedness snapped her spine straight, the lust wearing off a little. ‘You can’t keep me prisoner here, Rahim.’
He raised sleek eyebrows. ‘Are you absolutely certain about that?’
She gasped, but he was striding to the door. Before she could blink, he was gone. She sank back against the plush sofa, deflated and exhausted, her mind whirling at a thousand miles an hour.
The only way is forward...
Allegra had no idea what those words meant. But what she did know was that nothing about her pregnancy had brought Rahim anything even close to joy. His shocking disbelief, followed by a rigid acceptance, had done nothing to allay her own fears of the role her heart was already embracing but logic insisted she would fail at.
Despair crushed harder, brimming her eyes with hopeless tears. She brushed them away, but they surged again.
She knew how transient life could be. How volatile and uncertain.
She was bringing a child into this world without knowing its father’s true feelings about being a parent, or even what he intended to do with the bombshell she’d dropped at his feet. Besides staking his ownership of their child, Rahim had done very little else.
And there was still the issue over the stolen Fabergé box. Allegra groaned and stretched out on the sofa. She was trapped here till Rahim returned. She could either wallow in despair, or use the time to make further plans for her child’s future. Now that Rahim knew about the baby, there was the equally daunting matter of telling her family.
She would tell them...as soon as she found a way to prevent Rahim from sending her to jail for stealing!
* * *
Rahim cradled the single-malt Scotch in his hand, his gaze lost in the swirls of the amber liquid. He had yet to take a drink in the six hours since he entered the private gentlemen’s club in the exclusive street in Geneva.
He was to become a father.
His level of alarm wasn’t as catastrophic as he’d imagined it would be. But neither had he believed a single night of madness would set his life on this roller-coaster path.
And he’d yet to formulate a different plan than the single one blazing a path through his brain.
In all things he made contingencies but for this he had none. Allegra was pregnant with his child. A child whose blood was already stamped with the same destiny Rahim had been born with. A child whose gestation and eventual birth carried the same risks his mother had been subjected to.
The hand clutching his crystal tumbler shook. He tightened his grip and threw back the drink, welcoming its bracing sting.
Glancing up for the first time in hours, Rahim saw that the club had filled. He recognised a few faces but didn’t return the greetings nodded his way. The scowl on his face discouraged patronage, but it drove home the fact that he was recognised wherever he went in the world. People had seen him with Allegra, both in Dar-Aman and here in Geneva. Rahim had made it his business to confirm she hadn’t dated anyone in the past two months. Once evidence of her pregnancy became public knowledge, it wouldn’t take a genius to work out he was the father of her child. Not that he intended to hide that fact.
Which brought him to the matter of how his subjects would take a child born out of wedlock. His people had been through the wringer economically and even socially.
What kind of ruler would he be to throw another scandal into their lives when they were reeling from the legacy his father had left them with? Not to mention the further damage to his personal reputation that could set back months of negotiation for a better future for his people.
He shook his head as his personal valet stepped forward bearing the silver tray that held the Scotch bottle. Rahim shook his head, knowing his choices couldn’t be found in drink. But the more he stared into the bottom of the empty glass, the larger the answer blazed.
For his heir.
For his people.
For himself.
There was only one choice.
* * *
‘Marry me.’
The shock wave that powered through her made Allegra grip the cushion beneath her as she struggled upright. The magazine she’d fallen asleep leafing through fell to the floor. ‘Rahim, you’re back!’
‘Marry me.’
‘What?’
Rahim stood before her, still in his jacket, his hair spiked in all directions, like he’d run his fingers through it many times. ‘You’re carrying my child.’
‘So?’ she squeaked, her mind scrambling past the visual wallop he packed just by being him.
Eyes turned a burnished bronze blazed at her. ‘Marry me.’
Numbly she shook her head, the few words she’d managed so far the extent of her vocal ability as she tried to absorb what Rahim had just asked of her. She was still shaking her head when he reached forward and cupped her jaw.
‘If you have arguments, speak them now.’
Hysteria bubbled up inside her. Frantically, she tried to pull herself together, speak the words that would restore sanity. ‘I can’t.’
His grip tightened. Imperceptibly. But she felt it. And she saw the cold withdrawal in his eyes before he freed her.
Turning, he strode to the bar set on the far side of the elegant living room, and poured a shot of amber liquor. Throwing it back, he rolled the side of the glass over his lips before he set it down with a sharp click.
Slowly he strolled back to her. Despite the steady, unhurried pace, Allegra’s spine tingled with dread.
‘Are you prepared to lose everything you’ve spent your life building without due consideration?’ he enquired casually, his balled fists sliding into his pockets.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about your foundation. Your freedom.’
Ice-cold fear climbed into her throat. ‘My freedom?’
‘Once the disappearance of the box is discovered, you can be assured charges will be brought.’
Allegra gasped. ‘You said you didn’t give a damn about the box,’ she muttered through frozen lips.
A hard light momentarily gleamed in his eyes. ‘I don’t. But there are others who do. It wasn’t just a personal possession you stole. Before my mother died, she expressed a wish to have her collection made a national treasure, to be displayed in the Dar-Aman National Museum upon her death. My father could never bring himself to honour that wish.’ His face tightened for a moment before his features neutralised. ‘As Dar-Aman’s ruler, the collection is now mine. I’ve had my hands full with other matters of state to get it done. But my mother’s wish is one I intend to honour in the coming months. The theft of such a treasure is an offence punishable by a lengthy prison term.’
Panic clawed through her. ‘And how does marrying you change my fate?’
He shrugged. ‘As my queen you’d have to answer to no one. The box can be my wedding gift to you. Marry me, and your grandfather need not lose his precious keepsake. Your foundation will continue to thrive, free from the scandal that could see all your hard work turned to dust overnight. My people won’t have to suffer the consequence of the scandal of an illegitimate child. And most importantly, our child won’t suffer the stain of being called illegitimate. He or she will be my true heir, with an unchallenged birthright.’
The calculated way he enumerated his wishes chilled her soul. On the one hand, she knew he was offering her personal salvation and a safe start to her child’s life. And yet, looking at him, seeing no softness in Rahim, her heart dropped to her stomach.
Was this to be another failure to add to her ever growing list? In the hours since Rahim had left her alone, she’d tried to convince herself she could do this alone, if need be. After all, millions of women had succeeded, hadn’t they? But now Allegra realised that she hadn’t really believed herself. What she’d hoped for was a sign that Rahim would be willing to undertake this journey with her, not out of duty but because a part of him, no matter how small, wanted this child too. Looking at him now, fresh doubts flooded her.
Her parents had provided legitimacy and the occasional bout of twisted affection and nothing much else. Allegra knew the fierce glow that burned within her each time she thought of the child growing in her womb was a different emotion to what she’d experienced as a child. It was even different from what she felt for her siblings.
It was deeper, and fiercely intense. One that she would lay down her life to protect.
But would it thrive in an atmosphere filled with recrimination? Like her parents, would that love eventually become distorted once she accepted a ring from a man she barely knew? A man whose sole reason for being here was duty?
‘Allegra.’
She looked at Rahim. ‘Was this why you left? To make this cold and calculating plan?’
His face hardened further, drawing a shiver from her. ‘Our marriage won’t be cold and calculating. Only the planning and execution of it.’
‘Is that supposed to reassure me?’
‘You’re a pragmatist, Allegra. Same as I. We are faced with a situation and we have to find the best way forward. This is the only way forward.’
No mention of love. No mention of hearts and roses. Allegra told herself it wasn’t what she’d expected anyway. She didn’t fool herself for a moment into thinking Rahim would feel the same newly discovered love she felt for the baby growing inside her.
But even as the alien hurt lodged itself in her chest, she forced herself to think past it. She reminded herself that to Rahim she was a stranger. Yet he was willing to tie himself to a woman he’d had a one-night stand with for a lifetime. Even if it was just for the sake of their child, it was a huge sacrifice. One she couldn’t dismiss out of hand.
And as calculating as it seemed, perhaps she was better off halving the risk of failing as a mother with Rahim by her side rather than not. He had known a better childhood than her...could perhaps even find affection for his child once it was born...
The endless darting thoughts ground to a halt when his hands jerked out of his pockets and he stormed forward. ‘Allegra...you do want this baby, don’t you? You haven’t changed your mind?’ The question fired from him, white-hot and bullet sharp.
Seeing the lethal tension spiking higher by the second, Allegra swallowed. Surely if he felt this strongly and was still concerned about what her decisions were about this child they hadn’t planned, then it was a good start?
‘I haven’t changed my mind, Rahim. I want this baby.’ The belief that she could make this work settled deep inside her.
He exhaled, the tension slowly draining out of him. Then he nodded. ‘Good,’ he gritted out.
Although she accepted rationally that she couldn’t hold it against him, a tiny part of her soul still withered at the matter-of-fact way he’d set the course for the rest of their lives.
Allegra had pushed any thoughts of settling down far out of her mind when she realised she wouldn’t be mother or wife material a long time ago. But there’d been times as a child when she’d dream of her fairy-tale prince.
Rahim Al-Hadi was as regal and princely as they came. But she knew this was as far from her childhood fairy tale as she could get. She’d taken all the wrong turns to get to this destination.
And while she was being offered a chance to make the best of a bad situation, what exactly did being the wife of a sheikh entail?
‘I won’t stop my work with the Di Sione Foundation.’ That was non-negotiable, notwithstanding her actions having placed her career and any future good she’d hoped to do in a precarious position. Her foundation work had been her saviour when every other aspect of her existence had been a grey wasteland. She had her child to think of now, but her work was equally as important.
He nodded. ‘Of course. I’ve appointed a few more women ministers in the past month. I hope you’ll work with them to see to it that Dar-Amanian women achieve the same rights as their male counterparts?’
Allegra felt her eyes widen. ‘You’ve done that already?’
He shrugged. ‘The process had already begun when you visited my kingdom. Had you not had your own agenda, perhaps you would’ve found out for yourself.’
Shame drenched her. Before she could find words to appease him, he continued. ‘I need a yes, Allegra.’ His gaze caught and locked on hers, a ruthless compulsion in the hazel depths. ‘A yes that you’ll mean come tomorrow morning.’
The reminder that she’d fled in the night after promising to stay made her flush. She wanted to look away, but that would show weakness. And she couldn’t be weak. Not when it came to such an important decision.
Taking a deep breath, she passed a soothing hand over a stomach swarming with butterflies. ‘Yes, Rahim. I’ll marry you.’
He stared at her for several seconds, then he took an equally deep breath before exhaling. ‘There must be no delay. There’ll be enough questions as it is when you deliver in seven months.’
‘Really, people still question legitimacy based on a nine-month conception within marriage?’ she asked cynically.
Rahim summoned a ghost of a smile. ‘In many ways I’m as western as you are, but unfortunately, I can’t speak for all of my kingdom. Best we don’t set too many tongues wagging. Dar-Aman can’t afford another scandal right now.’
Allegra was reminded then the many times Rahim had spoken of his people when she’d been in Dar-Aman. She’d been too clouded with her own judgements to hear the affection and devotion in his voice when he spoke of his subjects. But now she knew better.
And everything she did from here on would also reflect on his people.
Swallowing the nerves, she rose from the chair. His keen eyes watched warily. ‘I’m fine,’ she said hastily when he took a step towards her. She didn’t want him close. So far she’d been able to retain enough rationality to make the vital decisions. Allegra didn’t think she’d be able to progress as effectively if he stood close enough to touch, to smell. She had a hard enough time not devouring him with her eyes.
She’d thought he looked beyond exceptional in a traditional abaya. Seeing him in clothes that accentuated his honed body so sensationally was a weakness on her system she couldn’t allow. Not when that look of hungry lust they’d shared before he left in the middle of the afternoon still tugged relentlessly at her.
‘So what happens now?’ she asked, desperately wresting back the practical side of her nature that seemed to have deserted her.
‘I inform my council of my intention, and they will take it from there. I expect the date will be within the week.’
‘A week?’ She didn’t realise she’d swayed again, until he caught her arms. His touch was as electrifying as it’d been this afternoon. But this time self-preservation made her resist.
He tightened his grip. ‘Dammit! Stop fighting me. And don’t tell me you’re only pregnant, not sick. Ahmed tells me you didn’t eat anything on the tray the butler brought you. You’re so weak you can barely stand on your own two feet. I’m calling a doctor.’ Taking a step forward, he placed her back on the sofa.
‘Rahim...’
He silenced her with a hard kiss, gone almost before it’d arrived, but no less stimulating. ‘No. You’re a modern woman who can work hard and play harder with the best of them. I get it. But you’re carrying my child, Allegra. And if you think I’m going to stay quiet or stand down when it’s obvious you’re unwell, you can think again. You’ll receive the best care from a team of doctors while you’re carrying this baby. That is completely non-negotiable.’ There was a raw and unshakeable resolve in his voice that dried any protests she may have had. But it was the almost too carefully disguised note of fear in his voice that caught and held her attention.
It urged her not to stand in his way. After all, the baby’s health and safety was just as important to her. ‘Okay,’ she conceded.
Nodding, he reached for his phone. After a five-minute conversation conducted in rapid-fire French, he ended the call. ‘The doctors are on their way.’
She also found out just how invested Rahim was in his child when a team of four doctors and two medical technicians walked into the suite an hour later. Allegra’s eyes widened when the sonogram was wheeled in.
Once she’d been quizzed thoroughly on her medical history, Rahim dismissed all but one doctor and technician, then took her hand and led her to the master bedroom.
A medical robe had been left on the bed, and he picked it up, a look of anxiety crossing his face again. ‘I leave for Dar-Aman tonight. Before I do, I’d like to hear my child’s heartbeat. If you don’t mind?’ The guttural request lanced her heart, sparking warmth that radiated outward until it engulfed her whole body. For one blinding second, Allegra hoped for the impossible—that this child had been conceived via the fairy-tale love she’d once dreamed about. Recognising the wish for the foolish act it was, she pushed it away, and embraced the real gift being handed her.
‘I’d really love that, Rahim.’
His smile was blinding, heart-stopping. Nodding, he handed her the robe, left the suite and returned a few minutes later with the doctor and technician.
Allegra had thought Rahim would remain standing, but he got into bed with her, and slid in close. His warmth and scent engulfed her, pushing that wish once again to the fore. When he caught and held her hand as the gel was spread on her stomach, she carefully avoided looking into his face. She was too afraid her own would give too much away. So she held her breath and trained her gaze on the monitor as the probe glided over her belly.
After several minutes of silence, a strong heartbeat filled the room, followed a moment later by a grainy picture on the monitor. Allegra gasped, pure joy racing through her bloodstream.
Rahim made a rough sound, and her head swung to him, the vow not to look at him so much dust in the face of the transcendental moment they were caught in.
‘Is everything all right?’ he jerked out, the hand holding hers almost punishing in his grip.
The doctor nodded. ‘Yes, it’s a little too early to tell the sex, but everything is as it should be, Your Highness.’
Exhaling a breath she hadn’t realised she held, Allegra glanced back at Rahim. A fierce light burned in his eyes as he looked from her face back to the machine. As he stared at the image, a transformation seemed to come over him. The apprehension she’d glimpsed on and off since announcing her pregnancy flashed over his face one last time. Then his features settled into stony determination. Allegra felt his withdrawal seconds before he dropped her hand, slid off the bed and accepted his copy of the ultrasound picture.
‘Rahim?’
He didn’t answer, just continued to stare at the picture as slowly, inexorably, a new and even more terrifying tension enveloped him.
‘Rahim, are you okay?’ She raised her voice, alarm catching hold of her.
His gaze jerked to hers, and his mouth compressed. ‘All will be well. Insh’allah,’ he said, his voice deep and powerfully final. Sliding the Polaroid into his pocket, he walked out of the room.
The vow was still echoing in her head when she’d dressed and left the bedroom ten minutes later. Something urged her to seek an explanation for Rahim’s unsettling reaction. For the fleeting glimpses of fear she’d seen on his face.
Entering the living room, she opened her mouth to ask, then turned in surprise as loud voices, punctuated with several belligerent hammers, sounded on the door.
Rahim exchanged puzzled glances with her before issuing an order in Arabic. A bodyguard entered, followed immediately by a severely irritated Bianca.
Before she could get a word in, her sister emerged from behind the burly minder and spotted her.
‘Oh, thank God, Allegra. I’ve been searching for you everywhere! Zara said you cancelled your afternoon appointments and left with some guy. That was almost eight hours ago. I was worried when you didn’t answer your phone.’
Before Allegra could reassure her, Rahim spoke. ‘Your sister has been otherwise engaged. And as you can see for yourself, she’s completely unharmed.’
The firm authority in Rahim’s tone made Bianca blink. She studied him properly for the first time, her eyes widening as she took in the powerful man before her. ‘Who are you, and why are you holding my sister here?’ she demanded, although her voice was less confrontational.
‘I am Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi of Dar-Aman. Your future brother-in-law,’ he replied, his voice a steely vibration that coated the words in unmistakeable power.
Bianca’s folded arms dropped, along with her jaw. Swallowing, she shook her head. ‘No way,’ she whispered.
His lips compressed. ‘Perhaps you’d care to seek verification from your sister, and offer her your support once you have done so.’
Bianca turned, wide-eyed, to her. Allegra nodded. ‘It’s true. Rahim and I are getting married.’
For several seconds, silence reigned. Allegra could almost see the questions tearing across Bianca’s mind like the adverts that lit up Times Square. But her sister hadn’t attained stellar success as a PR guru without mastering the art of discretion.
With one final look between Rahim and her, Bianca, still dazed, murmured, ‘Then you have my support. And I guess I’m also going shopping for a new dress?’
