Читать книгу Modern Romance September 2016 Books 5-8 - Natalie Anderson, Carol Marinelli - Страница 19
ОглавлениеFELICIA HAD NEVER known someone so able to separate the bedroom from work.
Kedah did it with ease.
And it helped.
At restaurants, her computer and her phone on the table served as a little wall between them. To remind her, as often as was necessary, that they were not lovers having lunch.
She was working.
Oh, but the nights!
In the evenings they ate at the best restaurants, without a computer between them, holding hands between courses and doing rude things under the table with their feet before returning home to his bed.
The bedroom was an entirely different thing. Her cases had long since been unpacked by his maids.
Her family and friends were very used to Felicia disappearing for weeks on end as she focused on her clients, so her absence was easily explained—even when she caught up with her mother for lunch.
‘At least tell me who you’re working for,’ Susannah said.
‘I can’t just yet.’ Felicia smiled and then looked at the time. ‘I have to get back.’
Felicia did have to get back. Kedah had a two p.m. meeting with Hussain. But, knowing she needed supplies, after lunch Felicia decided to use lover’s licence and dash back to her own flat.
Poor neglected flat, she thought as she grabbed some make-up wipes and tweezers from her bathroom cupboard. Two things that were sadly lacking at Kedah’s.
Perhaps they should spend some time here...
And then she checked herself. It was easier that their time was spent at his apartment. She did not need constant reminders of him here when they were through.
And soon they would be.
Vadia’s requests for a bridal selection date were almost daily now. The article that had been taken down from the internet was back up again, and there had been several more too.
Things were coming to a head, whether she wanted it or not.
Felicia opened up the cabinet and grabbed a fresh packet of contraceptive pills—the real reason she was there, for she was down to her last.
She went to grab some tampons too, but then remembered she’d already taken some to Kedah’s last week.
She stilled as she realised she was down to her last pill and had nothing to show for it. Her tampons sat languishing in the glitzy mirrored cupboard in his bathroom.
Felicia stood for a very long moment and told herself it was the travel, it was exhaustion, it was being in love with a sexy sheikh who could never consider loving her back that had made her late.
And she was late.
Late with her period, late back from lunch.
And, because they kept things very separate, Kedah did not hold back from pointing this out.
‘You’re late.’ He scowled.
‘Indeed I am,’ she responded.
‘You haven’t sent the file to Hussain...’
‘No.’ She sighed. She’d been too engrossed in that other file he’d mistakenly sent her to remember a small detail like that. ‘I forgot.’
‘Well, don’t forget again,’ he said, but then he halted.
He knew he was working her hard—both at work and in the bedroom.
Workwise... Well, he knew that time was running out, so he was trying to fit everything in.
And as for the other...
The same.
Still Felicia fascinated him. Still he wanted her over and over.
Usually his interest waned by the time the sun rose on a new day, but this fidelity trial was going exceptionally well.
* * *
Felicia did not wait for him to terminate the conversation. Every night she spent with him she felt as if she were handing over more and more of her heart, and she could not take it much longer.
She walked out and sat at her desk. She smiled at Anu, who brought some tea into her office and then left Felicia to work, but a few moments later Anu was back.
‘Felicia...’ She sounded concerned. ‘That was Reception. Kedah’s brother is here to see him, but he’s in a meeting with Hussain and he told me that I am not to disturb him.’
‘Well, he said nothing of the sort to me.’ Felicia smiled sweetly as she reached for the phone, which made Anu laugh.
Kedah was not impressed. ‘I said that I wasn’t to be disturbed.’
‘Well, you might change your mind for this. Apparently Mohammed is down in Reception.’
Kedah looked over to Hussain. His first instinct was to tell Felicia to let Mohammed know he was in a meeting and that he would see him when he was ready.
But there was no point.
This was no idle visit, and Kedah had to show he had no reason to delay or hide.
‘He can come up.’
He spoke to Hussain. ‘I am going to have to cut our meeting short. It would seem Mohammed has flown in to speak with me. I hope you understand.’
‘Of course.’
The men shook hands and suddenly, for Kedah, the design for a hotel in Dubai held little importance.
Hussain saw himself out of the office. He looked more serious than Felicia had ever seen him. Usually Hussain stopped and spoke, but today he just nodded to Anu, who also looked troubled.
Mohammed walked in, and when Anu did not move Felicia greeted the Prince and showed him through. ‘Can I get you any refreshments?’ she offered.
‘No, thank you,’ Kedah said. ‘That shall be all.’
It was all supremely polite, but the air was so thick it was like closing the door on a tornado.
‘Trouble is here,’ Anu said once the door had closed.
‘Not necessarily,’ Felicia offered.
‘I grew up knowing that this day would come.’
So had Kedah.
‘This is a surprise.’ Kedah’s voice told his brother that it wasn’t a particularly pleasant one.
‘I only decided to come this morning,’ Mohammed said as he took a seat. ‘I sat in on a meeting about brides considered to be suitable as future Queen. It struck me as odd, given that I already have a wonderful bride, who would make an excellent queen, as well as two sons.’
‘I am first in line,’ Kedah answered smoothly. ‘Why would you consider it odd?’
‘Because I am the one sitting there discussing the future of our country and you are miles away, focusing on your own wealth.’
‘As I have long said to our father, and to our grandfather before him, I am more than happy to devote my attention to Zazinia, and I shall do so when I am not thwarted at every turn. If I have to wait to be King to see my country flourish and thrive, then I shall do so—’
‘I have been approached by Fatiq,’ Mohammed broke in. Fatiq was a senior elder. ‘I felt it only fair to warn you that there is a majority agreement amongst the elders that I would make a more suitable Crown Prince and King.’
‘I could have told you that a decade ago.’ Kedah shrugged. ‘That is old news.’
‘They feel that your interests are clearly removed from Zazinia...’
‘Never.’
‘And they suggest that it is time for you to step aside and make way for the most suitable heir.’
‘Never,’ Kedah said again.
‘Some also say that I am the rightful heir.’
‘Name them,’ Kedah responded with a challenge.
Mohammed shook his head. ‘I cannot do that. However, should an Accession Council meeting be called...’
‘Why would that happen? Our father has stated that once I choose my bride I will have his full support.’
‘Kedah, we don’t want it go to the Accession Council. You know as well as I do that there are things that should be left unsaid. You have the power to halt the elders.’
And Kedah saw his brother’s game plan then. Mohammed wanted the threat of his mother’s exposure to force Kedah aside.
He had chosen the wrong man, though, for Kedah would never be bullied.
‘You really think I would step aside to appease the elders?’
‘No, but I feel you would for the sake of our mother’s integrity...’
Mohammed had intended to prompt his brother finally to back down. Instead Kedah picked up his phone and called the palace. He was through to the King in a matter of moments.
‘I am calling a meeting of the Accession Council,’ he said to his father, and he stared his brother in the eyes as he did so. ‘This shall be dealt with once and for all. Do I have your support or do I not?’
‘Kedah...’ The King had known his youngest son had flown out and had been waiting for this call. ‘There is no need to call for a meeting. I have told you—return to Zazinia and choose your bride, appease the elders...’
Kedah had heard enough.
‘The meeting will be held at sunset on Friday. You shall stand in support of your eldest son or not. If Mohammed is chosen it will not be left there. I shall take the decision to the people.’
He threw down the phone and looked to his brother. ‘I mean it,’ Kedah warned him.
‘The elders say that if pushed they will demand a DNA test...’
He waited for Kedah to crumble, for the Crown Prince to pale, but his brother gave a black laugh.
‘They embrace technology when it suits them.’ He dismissed the threat with a flick of his wrist, though privately he fought to keep that hand steady. ‘I am returning to Zazinia...’
‘Even though you know what it might do to our mother?’
‘Don’t turn this onto me,’ Kedah warned, and now he stood. ‘Don’t pretend for a minute that you are not behind this too. If and when I choose a bride—’
‘You cannot!’ Mohammed frowned, but backed off slightly as his brother approached. ‘Why would you do that to her?’
‘To whom?’ Kedah frowned too.
‘To your wife.’ Mohammed had stopped even pretending he wasn’t the one leading this coup. ‘I was just saying yesterday to Kumu—she married a prince who might one day be King. Whereas your bride will marry the Crown Prince who might one day be a commoner. You are in no position to choose a wife.’
Kedah just gave another black laugh as he took his brother by the throat. He, too, had stopped pretending.
‘If my mother’s name is ever discredited I shall have you thrown in prison.’
‘You don’t seem to understand, Kedah. The power won’t be yours.’
And Kedah’s response...?
It had been banter when he had said it to Felicia, but there was no hint of that now, and he watched Mohammed pale as he delivered his threat. ‘Then I shall deal with you outside of the law.’
