Читать книгу Medical Romance August 2016 Books 1-6 - Sue MacKay, Amalie Berlin - Страница 24
ОглавлениеADELE STOOD IN the summer rain at the bus stop and waited.
Not for the bus.
She let two go past.
It was like standing in a warm shower and she was drenched right down to her underwear.
But finally she saw his silver car indicate and turn and Zahir drove towards her. She hung off the bus stop and swung her bag.
She saw the whiteness of his smile and then he slowed down and stopped. The window slid down and she walked over and stood there.
‘Get in.’ he said, as he had wanted to for so long.
She lowered her head and peered into his lovely plush car and then at the lovely, sultry man.
‘You might not be able to afford me,’ Adele said.
‘Get in,’ he said again.
She did.
And the world, and all that was going on in it, could wait for now.
This was about them.
About two stars who belonged, who connected, and together they shone brighter.
She was soaking wet and her clothes clung to her and he undid his seat belt and kissed her hard against the soft leather.
She dripped water all over him and the windows steamed up.
His hands roamed over her breasts and went up her wet skirt and between her legs. Then he peeled her wet body from his and started the car.
‘That’s what would have happened had I stopped that night.’
‘Pity you didn’t,’ she retorted.
They drove through wet streets and the air was thick and potent. She asked no questions so he could tell her no lies.
Adele didn’t want to know about the palace just yet and she didn’t want to speak of her mum, or find out about Esther.
Tonight had been waiting so long.
And he asked no questions either.
Zahir had only one thing on his mind.
She discovered his home was a very plush apartment and she sat in the passenger seat as he got out. She wondered how he might have explained her arrival that wet, stormy night.
Zahir, she soon found out, explained himself to no one.
He greeted the doorman and told him that the keys were in the ignition and would he please park his car. He walked a very bedraggled Adele through the foyer.
There was another couple in the lift, and he wished them goodnight as they got out at the fifth floor. He pressed the button again for the eighth floor, the only sign of his impatience for he had pressed it once already.
He opened the door to his apartment but as they stepped in he asked but one question.
‘Would you still be here now had I stopped the car that night?’
He deserved an honest response.
‘I’d have been on my knees by now.’
For being so crude she was hauled over his shoulder and marched through his apartment and thrown onto his vast bed.
He removed her knickers and skirt and kissed her up her thigh with a rough unshaven jaw. Adele dealt with her top half herself. He kissed her very deeply, and there were a couple of fingers there too as he explored her intimately and so thoroughly that her feet pressed into his shoulders.
And she thought of that night and that he had not stopped and she shouted it this time.
‘Pity you didn’t,’ she sobbed.
He kissed her again and when she came to his mouth he made her his again, and not gently.
Jacket on, tie on, he just unbuckled and unzipped and took her hard. He was fully dressed, she was naked and it was utterly divine.
There was not a thought in her head except how she loved this man and how the world could disappear when it was just them.
Zahir got up on his elbows and thrust faster and she moaned and held his face in her hands, just because she had to. His hips thrust harder and he moved into that delicious point of no return and she watched his grimace and felt the rush of his release. She was rigid to the very soles of her feet as she came.
He did not collapse onto her afterwards, he just stared deep into her eyes. Sometimes she felt as if he was looking deep into her soul.
He was.
There was pain there still, but there was the shine of fresh happiness and a little ray of hope.
And he would make it grow.
‘You haven’t paid me,’ she teased as he stood and zipped up.
‘Here.’ He went in his pocket and tossed her a diamond. If it had come from anyone other than Zahir she would have known it was false.
She slipped between the covers and sat there examining it, too stunned for words. He went out for a few moments and returned with two very welcome mugs of coffee.
‘I really am getting the royal treatment,’ she said, as he put a mug down by what was now her side of the bed and he undressed and joined her in it.
‘We’re getting married,’ Zahir said.
‘Has your father given his permission?’
He shook his head.
‘We can’t, then...’
‘We can. I’m going to be here with you in England. I’ve signed a new contract.’
‘No...’ It was Adele who now shook her head. ‘You belong there.’
‘And one day I shall be, but for now I will do what I must do and that is to marry you. I can’t live in a jewelled palace and live a charmed life when I cannot help my people. I shall return when I am able to do so and I hope that when I return it will be with you as my Queen.’
It had become, to Zahir, as simple as that.
He would do what he felt was essential and trust that patience would serve him well and that the answers would unfold in time.
‘Dakan can fill in for me until then. I am prepared to wait it out. I was speaking to him at the hospital today just as the alert came. He’s not best pleased.’
And the rest of the world trickled in.
‘How’s Esther?’
‘She’s doing well. It would seem it was her first epileptic seizure. Thankfully there was no one seriously injured...’
He watched as she closed her eyes in relief and knew that today would have brought up a lot for her.
‘How is your mother?’ he asked, and he expected to hear that there had been no change.
‘She’s dying,’ Adele told him. ‘And please don’t say sorry because I don’t deserve it. To be honest, I feel a bit relieved.’
It was the most terrible admission and she felt his hand take hers.
‘Who do you feel relieved for?’
‘Myself,’ and then she thought harder. ‘I feel relieved for her too. She’s had no life since the accident.’
He took her in his arms and his hand explored her flat stomach. It was wonderful to think there was a life starting in there.
‘Did you tell your mother she was going to be a grandmother?’
‘How do you know?’ She turned in his arms. ‘I think I forgot to take my Pill when I got hit—’
‘Adele,’ he interrupted, ‘I took you to the fertile waters by the royal tent...’ He smiled. ‘No Pill was going to save you.’
‘Were you trying to get me pregnant?’
‘Truth?’ He looked at her. ‘That night there was nothing on my mind but you.’ He kissed her long and slow. ‘But, yes, in taking you to the desert I knew one way or other that it would bring things to a head.’
‘You’re okay with it.’
‘I am thrilled,’ he said, and he kissed her again.
‘Did I tell you how much I love you?’ he asked. ‘And how much I always will?’
He didn’t have to.
She already knew.
Zahir took the stone and held it in his palm. ‘In my country, when the choice is made, the Prince holds the chosen diamond in his palm. The King is supposed to place his palm over the stone.’ He held out his hand. ‘I don’t need his acceptance, Adele, just yours.’
It was overwhelming.
Centuries of tradition she could wipe away with a sweep of her hand. But then she looked from the stone into his silver-grey eyes.
Zahir was better than that. Even now, loving her, he was preparing to one day return to his people, but with her by his side.
‘I thought the desert hated me when I arrived,’ Adele admitted. ‘I felt, if it found out about us...’
‘We made love in the desert, Adele, and it has given us the greatest gift.’
She looked up and smiled.
‘I’m not just talking about the baby, Adele. We returned and we were caught, yet our night together confirmed our love. There’s no need to be scared for the future.’
She wasn’t now.
There was hope and there was excitement and there was a love that had proved to be undeniable so she lifted her hand and placed her palm over Zahir’s.
They were together now.
‘You don’t belong on the palace wall.’ He told her what he had been thinking that day as they had walked on the beach. ‘You belong on the inside, as my Queen.’
And one day you will be, Zahir hoped.
