‘Suitable?’
‘Chosen by my father,’ Khalid said. ‘Where I come from there are many rules that you would not understand. Some are beautiful, some I am trying to change, and there are some that are non-negotiable. I have resisted marrying...’
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t like decisions to be made for me. But the fact is I cannot choose my bride.’
He was trying so carefully to tell her that they could never, ever be. Of course she was far from suitable, Aubrey already knew that, and so she said the hardest thing. ‘I’m sure your father will do his best by you.’
And Khalid closed his eyes, for he had not expected her to defend his ways. But she was also wrong, for the King would not take Khalid’s heart or mind into consideration. It would be decided on precious stones, armies and oil. ‘Last night was a lapse.’
‘Aren’t you allowed sex out of wedlock?’
‘Of course I am. I can have a harem but I disbanded it...’
‘Why?’
Khalid didn’t answer.
‘Why?’ she asked again.
‘You are persistent.’
‘When I choose to be.’ Aubrey smiled and then she blinked, for she chose to be persistent only with Khalid. Even with her mom and those closest to her, Aubrey kept a shield between herself and them.
She wanted to know as much about Khalid as she could.
While she still could.
‘Tell me,’ Aubrey said, ‘why did you disband your harem when surely it’s every man’s fantasy?’
‘My father kept a harem—he still does—but that he did so while married hurt my mother in many ways. A harem is not just for sex, but for conversation and recreation too. My mother was in a very lonely, unhappy marriage. Her children, she said, were her only joy.’
‘She had four?’ Aubrey checked, thinking back to their conversation last night.
‘Yes, but she died just after giving birth to the twins. My mother said to me that being the wife of a king was the biggest mistake of her life. She had been a princess in her own country and her father allowed her to come here to America as they waited to see the bride my father would choose. Within an hour of his decision she was on a plane and married the next day, and from then on she lived a lonely life.’
‘Well, I hope you treat your wife better.’
‘I shall, though a king cannot get emotionally involved with anyone.’
‘You mean anyone other than your wife?’
‘No, I mean with anyone,’ Khalid reiterated.
‘Why?’
Khalid didn’t answer. He had neither the time nor inclination for a history lesson and certainly he did not want to pull rank. ‘Now, I must sort out your flight for you. What time suits? I can have Laisha, my secretary, arrange a flight immediately or for later in the day. I am heading there late this afternoon.’
‘Late afternoon works fine for me.’
It was all very efficient and soon her flight had been arranged and, with the time difference, she would be home by nine.
‘I can still work tonight.’ Aubrey smiled and then added, ‘I do some trapeze—well, I do a lot of things, but I have a long shift tonight.’
‘Aubrey, I want you to take the money,’ Khalid said, ‘not for last night, but for the nights to come. I know you are struggling.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because you were going to sleep on the airport floor, because...’ he did not want to mention that he knew where she lived, or that the clothes she wore... ‘Aubrey, please take it.’
‘I won’t.’ Aubrey was adamant. She would let nothing taint last night, but she offered a concession. ‘Though you can buy me breakfast.’
Khalid did, although not back at the hotel.
Instead they had churros bought from a cart, and more coffee, of course, and walked and talked.
‘Can you tell me why you were there yesterday?’ he asked, not because of his allegiance to the Devereuxes. He really was too royal to gossip or reveal information, but he wanted to know. ‘What did Jobe mean to you?’
‘He used to have a thing with my mom.’ There, she had said it. ‘Do with that what you will.’
‘I’m not going to say anything to Ethan.’
‘I hope not,’ Aubrey fretted, already feeling guilty for telling him, but the truth, or a small part of it, was surely better than Khalid thinking she had been some sort of paid date for Jobe. ‘My mom will freak if she finds out I’ve said anything.’
‘Aubrey.’ Khalid could see she was worried. ‘This shall go no further. You don’t have to say any more.’
Yet she wanted to. ‘I don’t know how Mom and Jobe started but it became more than just an occasional thing.’
‘How long were they together?’ Khalid asked.
‘Years.’ Aubrey thought back. ‘From when I was about ten. He treated her like gold when he was with her, and me.’ She told him about the violin and music lessons and the holidays they had taken too, but it was the violin that interested him most.
‘You play the violin?’ Khalid asked, and they stopped walking and he turned and faced her.
She nodded and he watched the colour spread on her cheeks.
‘I used to be really good.’
‘Used to be?’ he checked. ‘Aubrey, you’re twenty-two, nearly twenty-three, so used to be can’t be that long ago.’
‘How do you know my age?’
Khalid didn’t answer. Realising what he had said, his world was silently rocked for he was never indiscreet. Ever. But talking like this with Aubrey did not feel like an indiscretion. It was one, of course, by the standards he set himself, yet to reassure Aubrey, he moved the bar.
‘It’s not what you think,’ she blurted out.
‘I don’t know what to think, Aubrey.’
‘Jobe gave me money to study music, and instead...’ She was starting to panic and was too scared of the truth to finish.
‘Aubrey, tell me...’
‘So that you can tell them?’
‘No, so that you can feel better.’
‘How is telling you going to help?’
Except it did.
‘I spent it on my mom. She’d broken up with Jobe because of Chantelle, but Mom said they would get back together, that he’d marry her, but then came the fire. She was at a party, and her costume caught alight. Well, when I say a party, she was with clients...’ He really was the kindest man, because he must have heard her shame and instead of recoiling or judging he took her hand as they walked. ‘She suffered burns to her face, neck and chest.’
‘Did Jobe know about the fire?’
‘No, and Mom didn’t want him to,’ Aubrey said. ‘She wanted him to remember her as she was.’
‘So he sent you money each month.’
‘To study music. When he broke things off with Mom, before he left he spoke to me and said that I should try and make something of myself. And I wanted to...’
‘But then the fire happened?’
Aubrey nodded. ‘I’ve been taking money by deception...’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘The Internet,’ she admitted.
Khalid smiled and he gave her hand a squeeze. ‘Aubrey, Jobe sent you money, I would expect it was to assuage his guilt for his treatment of you and your mom.’
‘Guilt?’ Aubrey frowned. ‘He was wonderful, though.’
‘He was also fallible. I am sure he enjoyed the times spent in Vegas but he was never going to marry your mom and, even if he did, it would be on impulse and something he would make go away.’
‘No,’ she still insisted, but though he broke her heart as he held her hand, when she went to pull hers away, he just held it tighter. ‘Things got better when Jobe came into Mom’s life.’
‘Better?’ Kha
lid checked. ‘How?’
‘Well, there weren’t...’ Aubrey swallowed, not sure how to voice that once Jobe came on the scene there hadn’t been an endless parade of men, as Jobe had insisted that her mom only see him. ‘Are you saying he used her?’
‘I am saying that Jobe was complex, and he had many sides. He was never going to give himself to one woman, even if he promised that one day he might.’
No, Aubrey wanted to say.
Except she didn’t.
‘My mom always wanted to go to a ball,’ Aubrey said, and she felt Khalid look over as they walked. ‘It was her dream. Well, apart from a big white wedding. You’d think, if he was never going to marry her, he could at least have given her that.’
Khalid chose to stay silent.
‘She was just part of his harem, wasn’t she?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘No, I did. She was good for fun, and a laugh, and sex, but not good enough to be seen on his arm. Even on our holidays he wore a cap and shades...’
‘Aubrey...’
‘It’s true,’ Aubrey said, she could see it so clearly now. ‘He didn’t want her to change and to grow, he wanted to keep her exactly as she was.’
‘Aubrey, we have so little time, can we stop speaking about your mom and Jobe?’
‘But I’m not talking about them,’ Aubrey said.
Khalid frowned, for perhaps he had misunderstood. ‘What I’m trying to say—’
‘Is that in a few months’ time you’ll be back in the States for a visit.’ Aubrey finished his sentence for him. ‘And perhaps we could get together then? That’s what you’re trying to say.’
‘No,’ Khalid said, and he turned her so that they faced each other; he took her cheeks in his hands. ‘I am calling on every ounce of willpower I possess not to say that.’
She believed him, so much so that salty tears slid down her cheeks and met his warm fingers and she could actually see the battle in his eyes.
‘The best I could offer you is to be my ikbal, and you don’t want that.’
‘I don’t even know what it is.’
‘The favoured one,’ Khalid said, ‘the chosen one.’
‘But not the wife.’ Aubrey said, understanding better now. ‘It’s one helluva offer, Khalid, but no.’
Even during the most difficult conversation she made him smile, but then Khalid was serious.
‘I thought as much, and I am proud of you, for you deserve more and so does my future wife. Aubrey, I shall not call, and I shall not see you after today. I love my country and my people, but to make the changes that I want to...’
‘You have to toe the line?’
‘No,’ Khalid said rather mysteriously. ‘I have to appear to.’
He kissed her then, right there in the park, soft and strong, salty and sweet. Her mouth knew his now and she closed her eyes to savour the bliss, and almost wished he had not run after her.
Almost wished she didn’t know that they could never, ever be.
And then, because he had to, Khalid let her go.
‘I need to get back to the hotel and get changed,’ Khalid said, still holding her close. ‘I am due to meet with my brothers and sisters, but if you wait in my suite we can talk some more afterwards.’
‘Won’t they come up to your suite?’
‘No, we are meeting for high tea, but it will just be for an hour.’
‘Ah, yes, you keep things formal.’
‘You said you liked that,’ Khalid pointed out.
‘Yes, but...’ She looked beyond him and then up—the sun was creeping across the sky, Central Park smelled of spring and she wanted this day to last for ever, but more than that she wanted this formal man to know, even for a short while, how much fun life could be. ‘Why do you have to get changed? Why don’t you just have a picnic with them out here?’ Aubrey said. ‘I’ll wait in your suite, but have the hotel bring a picnic out here.’
‘No,’ He dismissed her suggestion with a flick of his hand. ‘I need to discuss their school reports and such things.’
‘And you can’t do that outside?’
‘It is already awkward enough,’ Khalid said. ‘My sister has discovered make-up!’
Aubrey laughed.
Khalid did not.
‘There will be no picnic,’ Khalid said. ‘We have important things to discuss.’
‘So did we,’ Aubrey said, refusing to give in. ‘And wasn’t that difficult conversation made so much easier by being out in the open?’
‘Perhaps,’ Khalid conceded. ‘But we are not a family who picnics.’
‘Why?’
He was about to remind her to stop questioning him, except he liked the challenge of it.
‘Khalid, spend some time with your family in the sun.’
He saw again the pleading in her blue eyes and it was even more insistent than last night. The halva ice cream had been a game, but the look she gave now was an imperative plea.
And one he heeded.
‘On one condition,’ Khalid said. ‘Would you care to join us?’
Aubrey would know this day too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
KHALID’S SIBLINGS WERE GORGEOUS.
And mightily surprised when their older brother met them in the foyer looking slightly the worse for wear and introduced them to his blonde, denim-skirted friend.
Khalid arranged the picnic with the concierge and soon they were back in the park.
Hussain, at sixteen, was awkward and shy; he had a delicate soul and a dreamy nature and from all Aubrey could glean Khalid was fiercely protective of him.
Abbad, at fourteen, was aloof and rather more like Khalid. Nadia was exuberant and pretty and so excited to be out in the sun as the waiters spread the rug on the grass.
It was a picnic, though not like any Aubrey was used to for the food had been prepared by a chef and the plates were china.
‘It was Aubrey’s idea to eat outside,’ Khalid explained once they were seated.
‘Where are you from?’ Abbad asked.
‘Vegas,’ Aubrey said, and ate a tiny sandwich. ‘I’m headed back there tonight.’
Yes, it was a little strained and awkward, but what Aubrey did not know was that it was by far less strained and awkward than it usually was.
Khalid asked about their school work and it was clear to Aubrey that, despite austere appearances, he cared deeply for them—he had agreed to eat out here after all.
‘I want to do drama,’ Hussain said, ‘but I don’t think that would go down well with the King.’
‘If you keep doing English,’ Khalid responded, ‘I will tell him that drama is a compulsory unit. Don’t worry, he leaves most of that to me.’ He turned to his sister. ‘What about you, Nadia?’
‘I’m a straight A student.’ Nadia shrugged, concentrating on selecting a strawberry rather than meeting her eldest brother’s eyes. ‘My report will be excellent, just you wait and see.’
‘I’m sure your grades will be, but I received a phone call to say you have been sent out of class twice now for wearing too much make-up.’
Aubrey watched as Nadia nervously swallowed and still did not look up. Khalid did not seem cross, but he was serious and soon she understood why.
‘I have asked that they do not put it in your report,’ Khalid said. ‘But, Nadia, why would you risk it? The King would see you wearing make-up as a further reason to bring you home.’
‘I was trying to look natural,’ Nadia said. ‘I’m just terrible at it. I watched some tutorials online but when I tried to copy them I ended up with stripes...’
Aubrey looked over and saw Khalid’s non-comprehending frown. Clearly, he had no idea about make-up, or contouring, or just how badly you could get it all wrong at fourteen.
‘I was the same,’ Aubrey a
dmitted. ‘I only know how to apply stage make-up. I went and had a make-over yesterday.’ She told Nadia about Vanda, and how kind she had been. ‘She knew I wasn’t going to buy anything but she gave me loads of tips...’
‘Why wouldn’t you buy the make-up?’ Nadia asked.
‘Nadia.’ Khalid stepped in and saved Aubrey from explaining something that Nadia, with a very generous monthly allowance, could never understand. ‘Go and see Vanda, rather than looking things up online, and tell her that Aubrey sent you.’
‘Oh, I doubt she’d remember me.’ Aubrey flushed.
‘Of course she will remember you,’ Khalid said.
And so too would he.
He looked at his siblings, more relaxed than he had ever known them, as was he. Instead of sitting in a formal restaurant, he lay on his side on the grass, propped up on his elbow and chatting more easily. And for Aubrey, who had made this possible, he had one small surprise. ‘Aubrey was upset last night,’ Khalid said to his siblings.
‘No, I wasn’t.’ Aubrey frowned.
‘She was upset because she has never had halva ice cream before and I didn’t allow her to try any of mine.’
‘That’s mean.’ Nadia smiled.
‘Then it’s time to rectify it,’ Khalid said.
Sure enough, they were being served the coveted ice cream in bowls and Aubrey laughed so much as she took her first taste.
‘What do you think?’ Khalid asked.
‘It’s delicious,’ Aubrey said and then met his eyes for a private smile. ‘I would still have preferred to try it last night.’ For surely it would have tasted even better if it came from his spoon?
He saw that private smile and were it possible he would whisk her upstairs for a private tasting right this minute, but it was rare family time now. And that time was to prove more important than Khalid could have envisaged.
‘I sneak halva when I am at home,’ Nadia said. ‘And when I am cross...’ She stopped herself from continuing and Khalid frowned, for he did not understand.
Claimed For The Sheikh's Shock Son (Secret Heirs 0f Billionaires) Page 8
