by Lynne Graham
‘Because you still love her...’ Zoe muttered ruefully.
‘Why would I still love a woman who slept with another man behind my back?’ Raj asked gently. ‘Do you honestly believe I am so stupid that I would still blindly love a woman who was unworthy of my love and respect?’
Zoe reddened and her eyes evaded his. ‘I’m not saying you’re stupid, just that sometimes people can’t control their feelings even when they know they should,’ she framed uncomfortably.
‘But that is not the case with Nabila. My love died the instant I realised how poorly I had judged her character. She was my first love,’ Raj admitted grittily. ‘At the age of twenty I also believed she would be my last love but I was very young and I was wrong. I couldn’t continue to love a woman who lied and cheated once I saw her for what she was. I couldn’t love a woman who only wanted me because I am wealthy and one day I will be King.’
‘Well, if that’s all true what were you doing holding hands with her?’ Zoe demanded baldly, influenced against her will by the obvious sincerity of his self-defence.
‘Before I left the palace yesterday, I received a phone call from a journalist and it was most illuminating...yes, I know you are impatient for an explanation but please bear with me to enable me to tell you the whole story,’ Raj urged when she made a frustrated gesture with one tiny expressive hand. ‘I learned from that call that Nabila had personally contacted him and given him the photos that proved the existence of our youthful romance.’
‘She was behind the release of those photos to the gossip magazine?’ Zoe exclaimed in surprise.
‘Yes. I assume she wanted that information publicised as a first move in her desire to come back into my life. Evidently she assumed there would still be a place for her in my heart.’ Raj’s wide sensual mouth compressed. ‘The journalist involved called to warn me yesterday that she was planning to wreck my marriage and had a photographer lined up in readiness.’
‘Journalists love scandal. Why would he have warned you?’ Zoe pressed suspiciously.
‘Zoe...’ Raj murmured softly. ‘The gossip magazine was quite happy to publish old photos of a romance few people knew about but the owner, the journalist I mentioned, is a loyal Marabanian and he refused to get involved in framing me with Nabila in a seedy scheme likely to damage my marriage. That was a step too far for him and, instead of playing along, he warned me of her ambition to cause trouble.’
‘Well, it doesn’t look like the warning did you much good,’ Zoe said drily.
‘It put me on my guard and I took Omar with me on the trip. When I went to my hotel room that night, she was waiting for me in the bed and I had her removed. We didn’t have a conversation either because I have nothing to say to Nabila,’ Raj told her doggedly.
‘Nothing?’ Again, Zoe looked unimpressed by his claim but she was already thinking of the stunning brunette waiting in his bed for him. ‘Was she undressed?’
Raj nodded.
‘And you weren’t even tempted?’ Zoe prompted helplessly.
‘No, but I think my protection team were,’ he remarked wryly. ‘Omar can confirm that nothing happened. He was also present at the table when she grabbed my hand.’
‘Grabbed?’ Zoe queried with a frown. ‘But how could Omar have been there when you were alone with her?’
‘I wasn’t alone with her. The photo is deceptive. Three of Nabila’s colleagues were also at that table with us.’ Raj dug out his phone and brought up the photo for her appraisal. ‘And if you look...there...you can just about see the sleeve of the man sitting beside me.’
Her heart thumping hard at getting that close to him again, Zoe stared down at the photo and squinted until she too registered that there was indeed a tiny glimpse of what could only have been another arm at the very edge of the picture.
‘Nabila arranged for her photographer to take that photo to suggest an intimacy that does not exist between us. When she grabbed my hand, I was so disconcerted I didn’t react fast enough to evade the photographer. I was too polite to say what I wanted to say in front of other people,’ he derided with sudden visible annoyance. ‘I believed I had dealt with her in the hotel room the night before and that she would leave me alone, resenting the fact that I had rejected her invitation... I was wrong, for which I am heartily sorry. But I have nothing else to apologise for.’
‘So you say...’ Zoe muttered, fixedly studying his lean, darkly beautiful face while her brain sped over everything that he had explained, seeking a crack or a hole in his account of events. ‘And how do you feel about her now?’
‘What would I feel but heartfelt relief that she showed me what she was before I made the mistake of marrying her?’ Raj countered wryly. ‘Omar is downstairs waiting to act as my witness.’
Zoe swallowed hard on that assurance before an involuntary giggle was wrenched from her. ‘Raj, if you killed someone, Omar would bury the body for you! You two are that close. Omar in the guise of a reliable witness is a joke!’
Raj dropped fluidly down on his knees beside the lounger and studied her with raw frustration. ‘Then I will produce the other people at that table for your examination,’ he swore with fierce determination.
Zoe adored him in that moment because she believed him, believed that he would go to any embarrassing length to prove his innocence. He had been warned about Nabila’s plans and had assumed that he had taken sufficient precautions to protect himself but the devious brunette had still contrived to catch him out. He simply wasn’t sly enough to deal with a woman that shameless, he was too honourable, too loyal, too honest, and that Nabila had attempted to use his very decency against him infuriated Zoe.
‘No, that won’t be necessary,’ Zoe told him tenderly. ‘You don’t need to embarrass yourself that way.’
‘It wouldn’t embarrass me if it gave you peace of mind,’ Raj argued. ‘That is all that matters here—’
‘No, what really matters,’ Zoe murmured with a new strength in her quiet voice, ‘is that I believe you.’
‘But you said Omar is no good as a witness,’ he reminded her in bewilderment.
‘I was sort of joking,’ Zoe muttered in rueful apology. ‘I do believe that you have told me the truth.’
‘Allah be praised,’ Raj breathed in his own language.
‘How long did it take you to get over Nabila?’ Zoe asked then with helpless curiosity.
‘Not very long once what I realised what an idiot I had been!’ Raj confessed in a driven undertone. ‘But the whole experience damaged me, and even before I met her I was already damaged by my mother’s suicide. That made it difficult for me to trust any woman.’
Zoe ran soothing fingertips down from a high masculine cheekbone to the hard angle of his taut jaw. ‘Of course, it did,’ she whispered sympathetically. ‘You were badly hurt when you were still a child and then hurt and humiliated by what happened with Nabila. I can understand that.’
‘But you will probably not understand that I never had another relationship with a woman until I met you,’ Raj admitted harshly. ‘All I allowed myself was a succession of grubby one-night stands.’
‘Grubby?’ She questioned his wording.
‘It was grubby when I compare those encounters to what I have found with you,’ Raj confessed.
‘And what have you found with me?’ she whispered, her gaze held fast by the silvered darkness of his, heart pounding with anticipation, because in those eloquent eyes of his she saw what she had long dreamt of seeing but barely credited could be real.
‘Love,’ he said simply. ‘Love like I never felt for anyone, certainly not for Nabila. That was a boy’s love, this is a man’s and you mean the whole world to me. I don’t know how else to describe how very important you are to me...’
‘You’re doing great,’ she mumbled encouragingly when he hesitated.
‘I hate being away from you. I
missed you when I went to bed last night and when I woke up this morning. Wherever you are feels like home. Whenever you smile, my heart lifts. At the beginning,’ he breathed hoarsely, ‘I believed it was only sexual attraction and I tried incredibly hard to resist you...but I couldn’t. What I’ve learned since is that you are the very best thing that has ever happened to me and you make me amazingly happy.’
Zoe breathed in slow and deep and it was a challenge when her lungs were struggling for oxygen. He had just made all her dreams come true. He had just blown her every insecurity out of the water but she still had some questions. ‘So why, when I told you that I was pregnant, didn’t you tell me then how you felt?’
‘Because I didn’t know how you felt about me,’ Raj responded as though that were an obvious explanation. ‘And I had messed everything up with you from the start. I was worrying about you wanting to leave me and going back to the UK to get the divorce I had stupidly promised you, and wondering how I could possibly prevent that from happening. I have never been more relieved than when our unexpected but very much welcome baby gave us the excuse to stay together.’
‘I didn’t need an excuse,’ she told him then. ‘I didn’t want to leave you...well, probably since the honeymoon, maybe even sooner, I’m ashamed to admit. I fell in love with you weeks and weeks ago and knew it but I wasn’t going to tell you that ever.’
Raj sprang gracefully upright and lifted her up into his arms to sit back down on the lounger holding her tight, as if he feared she might make a sudden leap for freedom. ‘I denied my feelings for a long time and tried to hold back but you give me so much joy it is hard to hide it from you,’ he confided huskily. ‘That you return my love is almost more than I could ever have hoped for because I love you so much it burns in me like a fire...’
A knock sounded on the patio doors. Raj rose with her in his arms as the door opened.
‘What the hell—?’ Vivi began in shock when she saw them.
‘Bad timing, Vivi,’ Zoe interrupted sharply. ‘My husband loves me and I’ll see you at breakfast.’
Behind her Winnie laughed and tugged Vivi back. ‘Yes, breakfast promises to be fun, Raj...with Grandad grouching and Vivi giving you suspicious looks, but if Zoe trusts you, you have my trust too.’
‘You turncoat!’ Vivi gasped but Winnie was inexorably dragging her out of the room.
‘So, where were we?’ Zoe prompted as Raj deposited her on the bed and went straight across the room to lock the bedroom door in a sensible move that delighted her. ‘Ah, yes, you were saying that your love is like a fire.’
‘More of an eternal flame,’ Raj assured her poetically. ‘You’ve got me for life.’
‘Thank goodness for that. You see, I’m not a changeable woman,’ she murmured softly, eyes gliding possessively over his lean, powerful length. ‘I expect and demand for ever and ever, like in all the best fairy tales.’
‘Perfect,’ Raj murmured hoarsely, framing her flushed face with reverent hands as he stared down at her with unashamed adoration before claiming her pink pouting lips with passionate hunger.
And it was perfect for both of them as they left behind their doubts and fears and rejoiced in their newly discovered closeness and trust. Passion united them as much as love, every sense heightened for them both by the fear that they could have lost each other.
‘I love you so much,’ he breathed in a hoarse groan in the aftermath.
‘I love you too,’ she whispered, both arms wrapped possessively round him, a glorious sense of peaceful happiness powering her with a new surge of confidence.
EPILOGUE
EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER Zoe laughed as she watched her year-old son lurch like a tiny drunk across the floor to greet his father, because he had only begun walking for the first time the day before. Raj had been really disappointed to miss those very first steps because he had been in Moscow on business and the video Zoe had sent had only partially consoled him. Now, he swept the toddler up into his arms with noisy sounds of admiration so that Karim’s little face literally shone with his sense of achievement and his delight in his father’s appreciation.
Raj was a great father, keen that his son would grow up with few of the royal restrictions and traditions that had held him back during his often lonely childhood. Karim was encouraged to play with other children and he was fortunate that his many cousins on both sides of the family were regular visitors. Even King Tahir unbent in Karim’s energetic and sunny presence, but then the whole of Maraban was still reacting to Karim’s birth as though he were an absolute miracle. That level of interest was a big weight for one little boy to carry on his shoulders and Zoe did everything she could to ensure that his upbringing was as normal and as un-starry as she could make it, even though they lived in a royal palace. Karim also had a pair of grandfathers, who sought to outdo each other with the very lavishness of their gifts.
Zoe was blissfully happy in her marriage. Raj made every day they were together worth celebrating. He loved her as she had never dreamt she would ever be loved and he gave her amazing support with everything she did. He had even made an effort to strengthen his relationships with her occasionally challenging family and was now her grandfather’s favourite grandson-in-law, while Vivi had apologised for her initial doubts about Raj’s suitability as a husband and fully accepted him, so that Zoe could relax and mix freely with her sisters and their husbands.
Zoe’s fingers slid down to press gently against the very slight swelling beneath her sundress that signified that in a few months Karim would have company in the royal nursery. She had had an easy pregnancy and an easy birth with her son and was keen to have her children close together and complete their family while she was still in her twenties. Raj had wanted her to wait a little longer but she had persuaded him because Zoe adored babies and she hadn’t wanted to wait when there was no good medical reason to do so.
‘You look like a splash of sunlight when you wear yellow,’ Raj murmured huskily as Karim was borne off by his nanny for his bath and he intercepted his wife before she could follow them. ‘Our little Prince will manage without his parents for one bathtime.’
‘But—’ Zoe began.
‘My son has to share you with me,’ Raj pointed out, appraising her beautiful smiling face with all-male hunger. ‘And this evening when your sisters arrive to celebrate your birthday with you, it’ll be giggles and girl talk and I won’t get a look-in.’
‘Well, if you would just wait until bedtime that wouldn’t be the case,’ Zoe teased.
‘I waited for bedtime the last time!’ Raj groaned as he bent her back over one strong arm to engage in kissing a trail across her delicate collarbone that sent a highly responsive quiver through her slight body and flushed her cheeks. ‘And you didn’t come to bed until three in the morning!’
Zoe grinned. ‘That’ll teach you patience!’
‘I’m no good at waiting for you,’ Raj confessed, bundling her up into his arms with ease and heading for their bedroom. ‘I’m not any better at not missing you when I’m away and I’m even worse at getting by without you in my bed.’
‘You’ve only been away two days, but I missed you too,’ Zoe confided with a helpless sigh of contentment as he brought her down on the bed. A little ripple of positively wanton anticipation gripped her as he began to remove his business suit, revealing that long bronzed, lithe and powerful physique she adored.
‘I wonder if it’s normal to have sex as often as we do,’ she muttered abstractedly.
‘It’s a great healthy workout,’ Raj assured her with unholy amusement. ‘And wonderfully rewarding if done right.’
‘No wonder I love you,’ Zoe teased him back with dancing eyes. ‘You always do it right!’
‘But only with you.’ Raj groaned with pleasure as she skimmed her hands over him, and kissed her with a raw, passionate love that made further discussion impossible.
&
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If you enjoyed The Sheikh Crowns His Virgin, you’re sure to enjoy the other two stories in Lynne Graham’s Billionaires at the Altar trilogy!
The Greek Claims His Shock Heir
The Italian Demands His Heirs
Available now!
And why not explore these other Lynne Graham stories?
The Greek’s Blackmailed Mistress
The Italian’s Inherited Mistress
Keep reading for an excerpt from Shock Heir for the King by Clare Connelly.
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