The Sheikh Crowns His Virgin

by Lynne Graham

  ‘The hospital project in the capital of Maraban?’

  ‘It’s potentially a very exciting discovery but it means that the site has to close until we can get an official inspection done tomorrow, and that throws the whole project and the work crews into limbo. I’m flying out there now to meet with the managers and look at contingency plans. It is possible that we won’t be able to build there at all,’ he concluded gravely. ‘And the hospital is very much needed in that area.’

  Recalling that Nabila was the CEO of the construction firm involved, Zoe sat up, her pale hair falling round her flushed face, because she knew he was undoubtedly about to meet the other woman again for the first time in eight years and she very much wanted to be in the vicinity. ‘I could come with you!’ she said in sudden interruption.

  ‘No, not this time. What would be the point? I’m likely to be in meetings most of the night and certainly all of tomorrow, sorting this out,’ he told her dismissively as he strode into the bathroom.

  ‘I would still like to have gone,’ Zoe confided in a small voice to an empty room.

  But did she really need to cling to him like glue? she reproved herself. There were few things more distasteful to a man than a clingy, needy and jealous woman and Raj would quickly get tired of her if she started acting paranoid and suspicious purely because he was mixing with his ex-girlfriend in a business environment. She had to grow up, she told herself urgently, not react to her stabbing insecurity with adolescent immaturity. After all, nothing was likely to change in the short term. She was pregnant and really married now.

  And how did Raj truly feel about that development? It shocked Zoe to accept that she had not the smallest idea of how he felt, and the instant she registered that worrying truth, another little brick of security tumbled down from her inner wall of defences. Sadly, there was no ignoring the truth that the closest Raj had actually come to expressing his personal feelings was the assurance that he regarded her being pregnant with his child as...sexy. Although he had labelled her conception a brilliant accident, which did suggest he was pleased.

  Zoe grimaced. Why couldn’t he simply have said so, openly? In reality, now that she was recalling that conversation, she realised that Raj had not expressed a single emotion, which for an emotionally intense man of his ilk was not reassuring, she reflected worriedly.

  Were duty and a sense of responsibility for his child all that had driven Raj’s request that she stay married to him?

  And if that was the case, what could she possibly do about it?

  CHAPTER TEN

  RAJ’S PHONE RANG constantly right up until he left the palace. He was feeling guilty because Zoe had been very quiet when he left. But there was no way he would have considered dragging her across country late at night, especially now that she was pregnant and he had no idea where he would be staying. Zoe looked frail for all her lack of complaint. She had lost her appetite, dropped in weight. Yet even though he had noticed he had said and done nothing because it had not even occurred to him that she could be pregnant. What kind of husband was he? Not a very good one, he decided grimly.

  And now he was to become a father. A dazzling smile flashed across his lean dark features. That was a marvellous development, a near miracle in their circumstances.

  His phone rang again as he awaited his limo in the forecourt of the palace and he dug it out, only to freeze in surprise as the caller identified himself for, although he had met the man, his royal status ensured that he wasn’t especially friendly with anyone in that profession, and the warning the journalist gave Raj astonished him. He immediately called Omar and passed it on to him and Omar announced that he would be travelling to the hospital site as well.

  In the early hours of the following morning, having dealt with a torch-lit visit to the site and with wildly excited archaeologists, who were hopeful that the legendary lost city built by Alexander the Great had been discovered on Marabanian soil, Raj was more than ready for his bed. He walked into the comparatively small hotel closest to the site. He was relieved that he hadn’t succumbed to the temptation of bringing Zoe because he did not think the level of comfort on offer sufficient for a pregnant woman. As his father had remarked in wonderment when he had phoned him earlier to break their news, Zoe would have to be treated from now on like the Queen she would one day be.

  Raj was smiling at the memory and sharing it with his cousin, Omar, who was beside him as he pushed open the door of his room. And then quite forcibly the warning he had received, and begun to discount because he had yet to even see Nabila, was revived because Nabila sat up in the bed that should’ve been his, the sheet tumbling to reveal her bare breasts. Filled with angry distaste at her brazen display, Raj averted his eyes, unimpressed by the expression of seemingly embarrassed innocence she had put on when she glimpsed Omar by his side.

  ‘For goodness’ sake, tell Omar to leave,’ Nabila urged Raj.

  ‘I’m staying,’ Omar delivered with satisfaction, never having liked the brunette even when Raj had been in love with her. ‘But it is gratifying to discover that you can sink even lower than I expected.’

  Raj strode to the foot of the bed. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ he demanded.

  Deciding to ignore Omar, Nabila focused her eyes on Raj with blatant hunger. ‘I want you and I really don’t care what I have to do to get you this time around. Isn’t that enough?’ She treated him to a look of languorous enticement. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not still curious about what it would be like between us.’

  Raj’s mouth curled with disgust and he swung round to stalk back to the door and address his protection team in the corridor. ‘Get her out of here...and find me another room,’ he ordered impatiently.

  ‘I’m not asking for marriage this time around,’ Nabila crooned behind him. ‘I would be your mistress...your every secret fantasy.’

  ‘My wife is my every secret fantasy,’ Raj countered drily as he strode out.

  * * *

  At dawn, Raj was enjoying a working breakfast on the terrace at his hotel with Omar and the management team of Major Holdings, including the CEO, Nabila, who had contrived to take a seat opposite him. He ignored her to the best of his ability, barely even turning his head when she spoke.

  ‘Raj!’ she exclaimed, startling him while simultaneously reaching for his hand.

  For a split second, he was so disconcerted by that unanticipated over-familiarity and the pleading expression she wore on her face that he did nothing and then he freed his fingers with a sudden jerk and leant back in his chair, cursing himself for not having reacted more immediately to the threat. For Nabila was a threat, he acknowledged in a sudden black fury, a threat to his marriage. At that moment, he had not the slightest doubt that a photographer was hiding somewhere in the vicinity, most probably one with a telephoto lens, and had captured that image of them holding hands and that that stolen photo was intended for publication with the presence of their companions eradicated.

  A couple of hours later, because she was sleeping in, Zoe turned over in bed, drowsily wondering what had wakened her and failing to notice that her mobile phone was flashing on the cabinet to one side of her. She stole her hand across to the other side of the bed and then remembered that Raj was gone for the night. With a dissatisfied sigh, she dragged her fingers back from that emptiness and reminded herself that it was mortifyingly clingy to want him there every night. She could be perfectly happy without him, of course she could be! With no suspicion of just how soon that assumption was to be tested, Zoe went back to sleep.

  Zoe wakened in astonishment to find her sisters beside her bed and blinked in disbelief. ‘What are you two doing here at this hour of the day?’ she demanded.

  ‘We were shopping in Dubai so we didn’t have far to come,’ Winnie explained stiffly. ‘We want you to come home with us. Grandad agrees.’

  Zoe sat up. ‘Why on earth would you want me t

o come home with you?’

  ‘Because,’ Vivi said bluntly, ‘Raj is playing away behind your back and you’re in love with the rat!’

  Zoe frowned. ‘No. Raj wouldn’t do that to me,’ she said with perfect assurance because, in that line, she trusted him absolutely.

  Winnie shoved a mobile phone in front of her gaze. Her lashes fluttered in bewilderment and then she focused and saw Raj with the one woman in the world she wouldn’t trust him with. Raj in a photo holding hands with Nabila, his lean, darkly handsome features very serious, her face beseeching. Beseeching what from him? Zoe broke out in a sudden sweat and then just as quickly, as familiar queasiness assailed her, was forced to leap out of bed and push past her sisters to make it to the bathroom in time to be sick.

  ‘Where did you see that photo? Raj only left last night,’ she reasoned when she was able to respond, wondering exactly when that photo had been taken and then questioning whether the timing even mattered.

  ‘That photo was offered to Grandad for sale first thing this morning,’ Winnie told her in disgust. ‘I imagine it was taken by some greedy paparazzo, who worked out what that picture would be worth on the open market.’

  As Zoe drooped over the vanity unit brushing her teeth, still weak with nausea and dizziness, Vivi tugged her gently away and settled her down on the fainting couch. ‘Take a deep breath and keep your head down. What’s the matter with you? Are you ill?’

  ‘Pregnant,’ Zoe whispered, still in shock at that photo, fighting to withstand the great tide of pain threatening to engulf her. Raj had refused to take her with him the night before...no wonder! Had he known even then that he wanted the freedom to be with his ex-girlfriend?

  ‘Pregnant?’ Vivi gasped and her sisters engaged in a lively argument above her head, which Zoe was content to ignore because infinitely more important decisions loomed ahead of her, she grasped dully.

  How could she remain married to a man in love with another woman and already seeing her behind her back? Holding hands with her? Although that was the least that had probably gone on between them, she recognised sickly, for it was unlikely that Raj and Nabila would not finally have taken the opportunity to have sex. Particularly not when, in that photo, they were staring at each other like long-lost lovers reunited.

  ‘I’ll be frank,’ Vivi murmured with surprising quietness. ‘You’re in love with Raj and he’s hurting you and we love you enough that we can’t just stand back and allow that.’

  ‘I’m not in love with him,’ Zoe lied, her eyes watering in a last-ditch effort to save face with her sisters.

  But there it was: the truth she had suppressed and refused to face except in the secret depths of her heart. She had fallen madly in love with her fake husband and for all the wrong reasons. Reasons like his smile and the sound of his voice and the raw power of his body over hers in bed. Reasons like the English breakfast tea he had ordered on her behalf and the glorious shoes he’d bought her and had put in the dressing room without even mentioning the purchases. Reasons that encompassed a hundred and one different things and many that she would have found hard to put into words.

  Winnie’s eyes were also brimming with tears. ‘Come back with us to Athens...please!’

  And Zoe’s first reaction was to say no, until she considered the alternatives. She could confront Raj and he would probably admit the truth, which would not be a comfort to her. She could pretend she hadn’t seen the photograph and silently agonise over it and that prospect had even less appeal. Or she could take advantage of a breathing space in which to decide what she would do next, she reasoned bravely. It wouldn’t be running away, she ruminated, it would be giving herself the time to control her emotional reaction and behave like an adult and deal with the situation. If she stayed, she might cry and let him see that she had been hurt, and what was the point of that?

  But what if Raj had not actually cheated on her? Raj was not by nature a cheat, she reasoned, wondering if she was clutching at straws when she thought along such lines. Naturally she didn’t want to think he could’ve been unfaithful, but Nabila was different, Nabila was in a class of her own because once Raj had loved her. Could he have resisted the chance to finally be with the woman he had once loved? And wasn’t hoping he might have resisted only proof that Zoe was weakly willing to make excuses for him? Shame drenched her pale cheeks with hot pink and she decided to listen to her sisters, who had much more experience than she did with men. If Winnie and Vivi both believed that Raj had succumbed to Nabila’s wiles, they were probably right. She trusted their judgement more than she trusted her own because she was all too well aware that her feelings for Raj coloured her every conviction and that she wasn’t capable of standing back and making an independent call.

  Zoe had her maid pack only one suitcase, because there was no advantage in advertising the fact that she was leaving and would probably never return to the royal palace. She would send for the rest of her stuff later but when she thought about that, thought about the wardrobe Raj had bought her, thought about his favourite outfits, she as quickly decided that she wanted nothing that would only serve to keep unfortunate memories alive.

  Her protection team accompanied her to the airport and flatly refused to leave her there. Suppressing a sigh, she let them board her grandfather’s private jet with her, knowing that Raj would recall them later after he had read her note and had seen the photo she had sent to his phone. He wouldn’t require any other explanation for her departure because he was definitely not stupid.

  When that photo came up on his phone, forwarded by Zoe, Raj succumbed to a rage that almost burned him alive and it took Omar stepping in to prevent him from telling Nabila in front of an audience what he thought of her filthy tactics. Omar’s intervention ensured that he did what he had to do at the site, which was his duty, and went home as soon as he possibly could to talk to his wife. A single-line note informing him that she would never ‘share’ a man greeted his return.

  The discovery that she had been removed by her siblings and flown to her grandfather’s home in Greece came as a complete shock. It was closely followed by a terse phone call from Stamboulas Fotakis, who accused him of disrespecting his grandchild in a grossly offensive public disregard of his marital status. And as if those punishments were not sufficient, he was summoned by his father, who in his ineffable highly efficient way knew exactly what was happening in his son’s marriage and pointed out that his son only had himself to thank for allowing a harpy like Nabila within a hundred yards of him.

  ‘When you bring your wife home again, I will have Nabila thrown out of the country,’ the King pronounced with satisfaction.

  ‘Let us hope I can bring Zoe home,’ Raj breathed with difficulty, mastering his temper but only just in the face of that provocation, for throwing Nabila out of Maraban would only create a scandal that Nabila would relish.

  His arrival in Greece late that night was punctuated by further unwelcome attacks. Zoe was in bed and not to be disturbed, according to Stam Fotakis. ‘She’s fragile,’ he told Raj in condemnation. ‘She needs protection from those who would use her soft heart against her.’

  ‘I would not use...’

  Her sister, Vivi, walked into her grandfather’s office and proceeded to try and tear strips off Raj but Raj wasn’t taking that from anyone, least of all Zoe’s fiery sibling, and an almighty row broke out before Stam ran out of patience and demanded that both of them go to bed. ‘If you must, you may speak to Zoe in the morning,’ he informed Raj in a ringing tone of finality.

  But Raj wasn’t about to be steered in a direction he didn’t want to go. He let himself be shown to a guest room without any intention of waiting until he could see his wife. As soon as he was alone, he learned where her room was by the simple measure of contacting her protection team.

  Zoe was curled up on a lounger on the balcony beyond her room, watching the sea silver and darken in the moonlight. Misery felt like a shroud tightly wrapped round her, denying her the air she needed to breathe. She had still to accept the concept of a life empty of Raj. Every time she contemplated that terrifying prospect, she felt as though someone were flaying the skin from her bones, only the pain was internalised. How had one man become so important to her survival that her entire world had begun to revolve around him? It both shocked and incensed her that she could have been weak and foolish enough to fall in love with a man she had known from the outset would never be hers on any permanent basis.

  When the patio doors behind her slid open, she flinched, expecting it to be one of her sisters, come yet again to offer depressing advice. She didn’t want the assurance that she would get over Raj. She didn’t want to be told that there would eventually be another man worthier of her love in her future when just then, and against all reason and logic, all her body and her brain cried out for was Raj.

  ‘Zoe...?’

  In astonished recognition of that dark deep accented intonation, Zoe was startled and she leapt off the lounger and spun round. ‘Raj?’ she gasped incredulously.

  ‘Hush...’ Raj put a finger to his lips in warning. ‘I wouldn’t put it past your family to try and drag me out physically and I don’t want a fight breaking out between my protection team and your grandfather’s. But I will allow no man on earth to tell me when I can see my wife.’

  ‘But I’m not your wife—not really your wife,’ Zoe protested. ‘And I never was.’

  Raj studied the pale triangle of her face in the moonlight and guilt cut through him because it was his fault that she had been hurt and upset. ‘I have to explain what happened with Nabila.’

  ‘No, you don’t owe me any explanations!’ Zoe cut in hastily. ‘But you can’t expect me to live with you and turn a blind eye to an affair either!’

  ‘Why would I have an affair with Nabila? Have you asked yourself that?’ Raj demanded, moving forward to scoop her gently up into his arms and return her with care to the lounger before stepping back to lean back lithely against the balcony wall.

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