by Lynne Graham
‘So, you are accustomed to buying clothes for the other women in your life,’ Ruby gathered, not a bit averse to making him uncomfortable if she could.
‘No comment. I’m glad you like the dress.’
Her brown eyes flamed amber. ‘Your hide is as tough as steel, isn’t it?’
‘I never said I was a virgin,’ Raja shot back at her with sardonic cool, his strong features taut.
‘Oh, I had already worked that out for myself,’ Ruby retorted, thinking of how smoothly he had seduced and bedded her.
In retrospect the level of his experience with her sex was obvious to her and to her annoyance that awareness loosed a whole flock of curious questions inside her head. How had she compared to his other lovers? Did he go for blondes, brunettes or redheads or any of the above? Would he even have found her attractive had she not been a long-lost and almost forgotten Ashuri princess? Every question of that ilk that crossed Ruby’s mind infuriated her. Why was she letting him make her feel insecure and vulnerable? Now that she knew the truth behind their consummated marriage, she would be better able to protect herself.
‘There will not be another woman in my bed while you remain my wife,’ Raja volunteered abruptly, his brilliant, dark eyes welded to her expressive face.
‘My goodness, do you think I care?’ Ruby forced a laugh and then plastered an amused and scornful smile to her lips. ‘I couldn’t care less what you do. I have to take account of the reality that we’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future so there’s no sense in fighting every step of the way.’
‘You make a good point,’ Raja responded although outrage had shot flames of gold into his gaze when she declared that she didn’t care what he did.
‘And I’m not asking you to sleep on the sofa tonight and I’m not sleeping on it either. We’re adults. I’m asking you to respect that agreement you think is so foolish and forget that we ever had sex.’
Wonderment consumed Raja as she spoke. Forget about the sex? She stood there looking like every fantasy he had ever had in her little black dress with her beautiful eyes, sultry pink mouth and glorious legs tempting him and she thought he could easily return to treating her like a sexless stranger? He had deceived her by cloaking his true intentions, he reminded himself fiercely. This was the punishment, the payoff. He had to give her time to adjust to her new role.
‘I will do my best,’ Raja replied flatly.
He emanated angry vibrations and she wondered why that was. The need to get inside Raja’s head and understand what made him tick was, Ruby was discovering, a constant craving. Did he only want to make love to her because he thought that should be his right as a husband? Or would he have wanted her anyway just for herself? And why, when she had never planned to become intimate with him, should that distinction matter to her?
Later he did up the zip on the blue dress and it fit her like a tailor-made glove, the rich colour flattering her fair colouring. As she sat at the dressing table straightening her hair Raja came to her side and handed her a jewellery box. ‘It is a small gift.’
Ruby lifted the lid and stared down dumbstruck at the flawless glittering teardrop diamond on a pendant. Small wasn’t the right word. It was a big diamond and, although she knew next to nothing about the value of jewellery because she had never owned any beyond a wristwatch, she guessed that a diamond that large had to be worth a small fortune.
‘Thanks,’ she mumbled in shock.
‘Allow me.’ While she lifted her hair out of the way, Raja clasped the pendant at the nape of her neck. She shivered as his fingertips brushed her sensitive skin and that little knot of sexual hunger in the pit of her stomach tightened up a notch. ‘I would’ve given you earrings but your ears aren’t pierced.’
‘No, I’m a total unbelievable coward. I once went with a friend and she fainted when they did her ears. She bled all over the place too—it put me right off!’ Ruby confided, suddenly desperate to fill the awkward silence.
His shrewd, dark eyes screened in his reflection in the mirror, Raja rested a hand on her taut shoulder. ‘Ruby…’
‘My mother said my father chose my name, you know,’ she volunteered abruptly. ‘He said that a virtuous wife was worth more than rubies. It’s kind of insulting that the only future he could see for me was as someone’s wife.’
‘But I am grateful to have you as my wife.’
‘Only because I was part of the peace treaty,’ Ruby fielded, flatly unimpressed by that declaration. ‘Spoils of war and all that.’
Two weeks later, the night before Ruby’s first visit to Najar, Raja was enjoying a pleasant daydream. A century or so earlier had he acquired Ruby as the spoils of war, she would have belonged to him…utterly. It was a heady masculine fantasy to toy with while he was being driven to the orphanage that his wife had contrived to visit alone almost every evening since her initial official visit there. He had Wajid to thank for that information, for Ruby had kept very quiet about where she took off to during their rare moments of leisure.
Ruby took care not to share that time with him. It was yet another vote of no confidence from his wife, who was not his wife in any way that mattered, Raja conceded grimly. They might still share the same bed but she had placed a bolster pillow down the middle of it. That had made him laugh the first night, but within a week the comedy aspect had worn very thin.
His cell phone pinged with a message and he checked, frowning as the snap Chloe had put in of herself shone up at him, all blonde hair and a wide, perfect smile. Ruby did not possess that perfection of feature. Her nose turned up at the tip and she had the cutest little gap between her front teeth. Yet whenever he saw Ruby there was no one else in the room capable of commanding his attention. His handsome mouth curled as he read the suggestive text from his mistress. He had no desire to exchange sexy texts. That didn’t excite him. Chloe was becoming a liability. On the other hand if Ruby had felt the urge to send him a suggestive text he would have responded with imagination and enthusiasm, he acknowledged with self-derision. Unfortunately there was as much chance of a sext coming from Ruby as of Ashur sending a rocket to the moon.
Raja, however, remained conscious that he had no real grounds for complaint. His bride was already performing her duties as a future queen with considerable grace and good humour. Her naturally warm personality had great appeal. The Ashuri people liked her easy manner and chatty approach, not to mention her frankness in referring to the days when she had led the life of a young working woman.
Forewarned by a call of his impending unofficial visit, the orphanage director greeted him in the hall and took him straight to Ruby. Ruby was in the nursery with a little girl on her lap, painstakingly reading out a few brief words from a picture book in the basic Ashuri language, which she was working so hard to learn. A cluster of children sat on the floor round her feet.
‘The princess is a natural with children. It’s unfortunate that the child she is holding—Leyla—is becoming a little too attached to your wife,’ the older woman told him in a guarded undertone.
Raja got the message intended. He watched the little girl raise a hand to pat Ruby’s cheek and then beam adoringly up at her, her other hand clutching possessively at Ruby’s top. He watched Ruby look down at the child and realised that he had a problem that cut both ways, for his wife’s lovely face softened into a deeply affectionate smile. Raja would have been elated to receive such a smile but he never had. When Ruby saw him in the doorway, she leapt almost guiltily upright, arms locking protectively round the child in her arms. A staff member approached to take the little girl and Ruby handed her over, visibly troubled when the child began to sob in protest.
‘Raja…’ Ruby framed in a jerky, almost soundless whisper, for she was so astonished to see him standing there that her voice just deserted her.
Clad in the long off-white tunic called a thaub that he wore most days, Raja looked fantastically handsome, the smooth golden planes of his classic masculine features demarcated by the
exotic set of his lustrous dark eyes and high cheekbones. Her tummy flipped like a teenager’s and she froze, feeling foolish and very much aware that she was hopelessly infatuated with her husband, which was one reason why she avoided his company as much as was humanly possible. He was like an ever-growing fever she was trying to starve into subjection in her bloodstream.
‘I had some news I wished to share with you,’ Raja imparted lightly. ‘Until Wajid mentioned it, I had no idea that this was where you were coming most evenings.’
‘I enjoy being with the children. There’s no formality here—it’s relaxing,’ she told him.
‘Mrs Baldwin said you’re fond of one particular child—’
‘Leyla…there’s just something about her that grabs my heart every time I see her,’ Ruby admitted, opting for honesty. ‘I really love spending time with her. She’s so sweet and smart.’
Installed in the limo he had arrived in, Ruby said, ‘What news wouldn’t wait until I got back to the palace?’
‘There have been arrests here and in Najar. The members of the royal households who shared our itinerary with the kidnappers have been identified and arrested, as have their supporters.’
Taken by surprise by that information, Ruby frowned and asked, ‘Who were they?’
‘An aide on my father’s staff and a private secretary from Wajid’s team here in the palace. Wajid is very ashamed of that link. Be tactful with him if he raises the subject. He is very much aware that the kidnapping could have ended tragically.’
‘But we were unhurt,’ Ruby hastened to remind him.
Her husband looked grave, his sensual mouth compressing. ‘Ruby…tempers run high with memories of the war still so fresh. Fighting could have broken out again. Our lives and those of others were put at risk. The mercenaries whom the perpetrators hired to act for them have fled the country and are unlikely to be apprehended but a prison sentence is inevitable for the citizens involved.’
‘I understand.’ The justice system was rigid and retribution fell swift and hard on those who broke the laws in their countries. Ruby was already learning to temper her opinions in the light of the society in which she now lived, but it still occasionally annoyed her to depend so much on Raja’s interpretation of events and personalities.
Just weeks earlier she had claimed that she intended to be as much involved as Raja in ruling Ashur and could only marvel at her innocence, for the longer she lived in the palace, the more she appreciated how much she still had to learn about the constantly squabbling local factions and the council of elderly men who stalled and argued more than they made decisions. Raja spent a good deal of his time soothing difficult people and in meetings with the Najari investors financing the rebuilding of Ashur. His duties seemed endless and he was working very long hours because he was also dealing with his duties as Regent of Najar from a distance. Unable to offer much in the way of support, Ruby felt guilty.
Indeed the longer she stayed in Ashur, the more confused and unsure of her own wishes Ruby was becoming. She was fully conscious that Raja had married her with the best of intentions and acted as he saw fit in an effort to turn their platonic marriage into a lasting relationship. He had played the hand he had been given without intending to hurt or humiliate her. He wanted her to stay married to him but to date he had put no pressure on her to do so and she respected him for that. Yet while he was bearing the blame for the dissension between them she knew that she had played a sizeable part in her own downfall by being so violently attracted to him. Her decision to surrender to that attraction had badly muddied the water and her thinking processes and encouraged her to want more from him than he was ever likely to give her. When she had specified and demanded a marriage of convenience, how could she blame him for her change of heart?
At the same time avoiding Raja and keeping to the other side of the bolster in the bed was beginning to feel a little childish. She was also living on her nerves because her period was currently overdue. She had told herself that her menstrual cycle could just be acting up. But in her heart of hearts she was terrified that her misfiring cycle combined with the new tenderness of her breasts meant that she had fallen pregnant. She had abandoned all restraint in the desert with Raja and it looked as though she might well be about to pay a price for that recklessness.
‘The little girl you were with,’ Raja commented quietly.
Instantly, Ruby tensed. ‘Leyla? What about her?’
‘Have you gone to the orphanage every evening?’
‘Have you a problem with that?’ Ruby countered defensively.
‘The child seems very attached to you. Is that wise?’ he prompted gently. ‘She will be hurt when you disappear from her life again.’
Annoyance hurtled up through Ruby and she closed her hands together very tightly to control her feelings. ‘I have no plans to disappear.’
Sensing her distress at what he had suggested, Raja stretched out a hand to rest it on top of her tensely knotted fingers. ‘We’re leaving Ashur tomorrow for a couple of weeks. You have many claims on your time now.’
‘I…I was thinking of adopting Leyla!’ Ruby flung at him, finally putting into words the idea that had been growing at the back of her mind for two weeks and working on her until it began to seem a possibility rather than a wild idea. ‘I know you’ll probably think I’m crazy but I’ve become very fond of Leyla. Whatever it takes, I’d very much like to give her a home.’
Astonished by that outspoken admission, Raja studied her. ‘But you’re planning to divorce me…’
Ruby frowned. ‘Well, eventually, yes, but—’
‘Then I suspect that you have not thought this idea through,’ Raja intoned. ‘The Ashuri Court of Family Law would not countenance foreign adoption and would wish the child to be raised here where she was born with her own language and people. I doubt that you are willing to offer her that option.’
‘I would love her,’ Ruby breathed in stark disagreement as the limo drew up outside the side entrance to the palace. ‘Leyla needs love more than she needs anything else!’
‘Love is not always enough,’ Raja drawled softly.
In receipt of that hoary old chestnut, Ruby shot him a furious look of disagreement and took the stairs to their suite two at a time. Her heart was hammering like mad behind her breastbone because she was genuinely upset. Having finally got up the courage to voice her hopes with regard to Leyla, she had been shot down in flames. The hard facts Raja had voiced rankled and hurt. Evidently there was no question of her trying to adopt Leyla if she was planning to ultimately divorce Raja. But was she planning to divorce him?
Exactly when would she be able to walk away from Raja without that decision impacting on the stability of Ashur? She could not imagine a date even on the horizon when she might leave her marriage without there being a risk of it leading to political upheaval in her late father’s country. Her decision to marry Raja had been rash in the extreme, she conceded ruefully. She had not looked into the future. She had failed to recognise that a short-term fix might be almost worse for her country of birth than her refusing outright to marry Raja. A divorce would unleash more political and economic turmoil. Raja was right about that, for she had listened to people talking and seen for herself how much weight rested on their marriage as a symbol of unity and reconciliation. An image of Leyla’s tear-stained little face swam before her now and her heart turned over inside her chest.
‘What do you know about love?’ Ruby demanded, challenging Raja as she poured the mint tea waiting for them on a tray. ‘Have you ever been in love?’
‘Once was enough,’ he admitted sardonically.
Ironically Ruby felt affronted by that admission. He didn’t love her but he had fallen for someone else? ‘Who was she?’
His lean strong face took on a wry expression. ‘Her name was Isabel. We met as students at Oxford. I was besotted with her.’ He grimaced, openly inviting her amusement. ‘We read poetry and went everywhere together holding hands.�
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‘People apparently do stuff like that when they’re in love,’ Ruby remarked stiltedly, well aware that he had never shown any desire to read her a poem or to hold her hand and, as a result, feeling distinctly short-changed rather than amused.
‘The romance turned into a nightmare,’ Raja confided tight-mouthed, his beautiful dark eyes bleak with recollection. ‘She was very jealous and possessive. Everything was a drama with her. If I even spoke to another woman she threw a scene. I was nineteen years old and totally inexperienced with your sex.’
Sipping the mint tea, which she had learned to find refreshing, Ruby was touched by his honesty, for baring his soul did not come naturally to a man accustomed to keeping his own counsel and concealing his feelings. ‘At that age you must have found a volatile woman hard to cope with.’
‘She threatened to kill herself when I tried to break it off. I stood up to her but she carried through her threat—she did take an overdose,’ he admitted gravely, acknowledging her wince of sympathy with compressed lips. ‘When I said it was a nightmare I wasn’t exaggerating. Eventually Isabel’s parents put her into a clinic to be treated for depression. It took me a long time to extract myself from my entanglement with her.’
‘And of course it put you off what she saw as love,’ Ruby conceded thoughtfully, understanding that perfectly, her brown eyes soft as she tried to picture him as a naive teenager spouting poetry and holding hands. ‘But Isabel sounds as if she had a very twisted idea of love. It was just your bad luck to meet a woman like that and get burned.’
Raja shrugged a broad shoulder in a fatalistic gesture.
‘My mum, though—she got burned twice over,’ Ruby volunteered, startling him. ‘She lacked good judgement. She just fell in love and believed the man would be perfect. My father married his second wife behind her back and then told Mum he had no choice because he needed a son and she had had to have a hysterectomy after giving birth to me.’
‘And the second burning?’ Raja queried curiously, for he was already familiar with the first, although he had been given a rather different version.
