Romancing the Crown Series

by Romancing the Crown Series (13-in-1 bundle) (v1. 0) (lit)

  "Then there is a man involved," Samira concluded. She replaced the necklace in its case, replaced it on the dresser and sat down beside Nadia. "You have to tell me the rest now."

  "You're as bad as Nargis when it comes to gossip."

  "This isn't gossip. It's my sister's happiness."

  Nadia passed a hand over her eyes. "If you really care about my happiness, you won't ask me anymore."

  Samira took her hand. "This sounds really serious. What are you going to do?"

  Nadia was afraid her expression revealed the truth to Samira, who knew her better than most. "It is serious, and I haven't decided what I'm going to do. Until I do, I'd rather you didn't say anything about this to anyone."

  "Of course I won't," her sister said. Her eyes narrowed. "This doesn't have anything to do with why you were nearly killed on the cliff road, does it?"

  Nadia clasped her hands together. "It might."

  Samira looked shocked. "You don't think Butrus..."

  "I don't think anything. Please, we mustn't discuss this anymore." She looked around as if the walls themselves might have ears.

  Samira saw the look. "You don't think someone's listening to our private conversations, do you?"

  "I don't know anymore. All I know is I can't marry Butrus. I simply don't love him."

  "You've never loved him, but you were committed to marrying him. What has happened to change your mind?"

  Nadia got up and paced to the windows opening onto a screened balcony from where she could observe the comings and goings in the palace gardens. She knew there was only one figure she hoped to glimpse among the fountains and flower beds, because she had been watching for him since returning from Zabara.

  But Gage was nowhere in sight.

  She wondered what Samira would say if she knew that Nadia was half in love with the English diplomat. He made her feel things she had never experienced before, made her yearn for a life beyond the palace walls, beyond even Tamir's borders. Like the eagle in her paintings, she had always wanted to stretch her wings and fly. Gage was the first person to make her feel that was possible.

  She knew that making love wasn't the same as being in love and hoped she wasn't confusing the two. What he had made her feel was so wonderful it would be easy enough. Since returning to the palace, she had felt different, as if the doors of a new world had been opened for her and there was no going back.

  Her conscience should have troubled her, but instead, she yearned for more of Gage's touch. He was in her thoughts as she lay in her solitary bed at night and when her attendants woke her to a new day. In between, he haunted her dreams.

  She couldn't sketch, couldn't paint, could barely manage to eat properly. Already her mother had expressed the hope that her daughter wasn't coming down with something. How long before her father noticed and demanded to know the reason?

  Soon she would have to tell him that she couldn't marry Butrus. The sheik's wrath would come down on her head as never before. He might even carry out his threat to exile her to a harem miles from anywhere. After what she had experienced in Gage's arms, she knew she could live with that more readily than with a man she didn't love.

  "Why is life so difficult?" she asked Samira. "Leila dreamed of going to America and seeing Hollywood and Rodeo Drive and Texas. It happened for her. You dream of someone so secret you won't even share his name with me. What's wrong with wanting what we don't have?"

  At the mention of the mystery man occupying her thoughts, Samira shook her head, her dark hair cascading around her face in a satin curtain, hiding her expression. "There's nothing wrong with dreaming. It's wanting the dreams to turn into reality that causes problems."

  "And for that reason, we shouldn't dream?"

  Her sister put a hand on her arm. "Nadia, what's the matter? You've always had big dreams, bigger than either Leila or me. But you were always a realist when it came to your life. What happened at Zabara to change you?"

  Gage happened. Since she couldn't very well tell Samira so, Nadia gave an enigmatic smile. "Coming close to death has a way of revealing what is important in life." It was the simple truth, perhaps not the whole truth, but enough to satisfy her sister.

  Samira nodded thoughtfully. "I think I understand. And I hope you achieve whatever this important thing is. When will you tell father you can't marry Butrus?"

  Nadia gave a slight shudder. "I should tell him soon. Mother already suspects that all is not well between Butrus and me, so I may tell her first. She has a way of charming father into seeing things her way, without actually contradicting him."

  "The perfect wife. Do you think we'll ever be that perfect?"

  Nadia knew she hadn't a hope. She was far too outspoken and independent to let a man think he ran things, while getting her own way through guile. She didn't really think her mother did that. Alima was quite capable of speaking her mind when she thought it was warranted. But she knew her place, something Nadia doubted she ever would. "You might, but not me," she told Samira with a rueful smile.

  Nargis chose that moment to bustle in, reminding them that it was time to prepare for dinner. Nadia knew the private moment with her sister was at an end. She didn't dare express her thoughts so openly in front of Nargis. They would be all over the palace in a day. She didn't blame the attendant for taking pleasure in gossip. Nargis had few other joys in life. But Nadia had no wish to be the focus of that gossip. Not when her desires were so new and tender—and so unlikely to be fulfilled.

  * * *

  The ringing of the phone on his desk pulled Gage away from the embassy window. Night was falling and lights were springing on all over the city, turning the royal palace into a fairy castle. Which window was Nadia behind? he wondered. What was she doing now? Probably being fussed over by that dragon lady of a maid. Nargis. And the beautiful twin servants who hardly ever said a word.

  He reached for the phone, having to fumble with it before getting a hold of it, so distracted were his thoughts. He made an effort to concentrate. "Weston."

  "You sound as if you're a million miles away," came the laughing response.

  He felt something inside himself loosen. "Dani, me darlin' girl, how are you?"

  "Don't change the subject. What were you thinking about when you picked up the phone?"

  "You're much too young to understand."

  "Nineteen is hardly young these days, oh, ancient one," she teased. "But I get the message. Butt out of your love life."

  "Exactly," he said, cursing inwardly as he realized he'd been neatly trapped into confirming her suspicion. He was glad the embassy phones were secure, the lines being swept regularly for bugs and protected by state-of-the-art encryption systems. It meant he could talk openly to Dani for once. "How's your own love life?"

  He imagined her shrug. "You know me, wedded to my music."

  And gun-shy when it came to relationships, he knew. Hardly surprising, considering her experience of family life to this point. He wasn't setting much of an example himself, come to that. "No one on the horizon for you yet?" he probed gently. "Not even that drummer with the eye patch?"

  To anyone who didn't know Dani as well as Gage did, the hesitation would have been imperceptible. "Nothing I want to talk about yet."

  The yet gave him hope. "When you're ready to talk, I'm here," he reminded her.

  "Same goes for me," she said. "By your reckoning, I may be just out of the cradle, but I know a thing or two about life."

  More than he wanted her to know. "I'm a long way from the cradle and I'm still learning, but thanks for the offer, darlin'. Now tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

  He heard papers being shuffled. "I've found out some interesting stuff about that orphanage you told me about, the one where the doctor and the princess hang out together."

  "They don't hang out together, at least not in the way you make it sound."

  "Gotcha." Dani sounded triumphant. "I knew from the way you spoke about her that the princess was more than
a lead in this case to you."

  First his godfather, now Dani. Was everybody in the world pairing him with Nadia? He must be losing his touch. "You're imagining things."

  "Whatever you say, boss. But she must be affecting your thinking processes. You still haven't asked what I've discovered."

  He was losing his touch. "What have you discovered?"

  "You won't like it."

  "Dani..."

  She heeded the warning in his voice. "I took the list you e-mailed me of people working at the orphanage and ran it through your computer. One of the women, Sitra Wahabi, rang alarm bells. Her maiden name is Salim."

  Gage's mind leaped ahead. "Any relation to Jalil Salim, aka Kevin Weber, confirmed Brothers of Darkness agent?"

  "None other than his sweet little sister," Dani supplied.

  Gage frowned at the phone. "I didn't know Salim had a sister."

  "He kept his family in the background. After he was caught, she must have decided to go into the family business."

  Kevin Weber's real name and connection to the Brothers had been established when he was captured in America by Max Ryker Sebastiani, a nephew of King Marcus's, and his bounty-hunter partner, Cara Rivers. Gage remembered the details from reading the files on the case before he came to Tamir.

  Disappointment stabbed through him. "So the orphanage does have a connection to the Brothers." He hadn't known how much he wanted the opposite to be true until he felt the bile rise in his throat. Did Nadia know about the connection?

  "Unless Sitra is a sweet innocent and you're completely misjudging her."

  In Gage's experience, it was unlikely, given the octopus-like spread of the Brothers' influence. The more hotheaded younger members even used the octopus as their secret symbol, which Gage felt was extraordinarily appropriate. "We can't be sure of anything until I can find more evidence," he said.

  "Your princess friend may not know about the connection," Dani said, reading his mind. "It doesn't mean she's involved."

  Gage's grip on the phone intensified. "It doesn't mean she's innocent, either."

  "Until proved guilty at least."

  "Yes." Gage let his breath out in a gust. He had to grant Nadia that much. She might not know that the orphanage was a possible safe haven for the Brothers of Darkness.

  And she might be in it up to her beautiful neck, along with her fiance.

  "What will you do now?" Dani asked as his silence continued.

  He had always been careful to keep his protege out of the active side of his work. Tracing information for him was one thing. She was damned good with a computer, better than Gage himself. And thanks to the traveling she did with her band, her network of contacts stretched all over the world. But he wasn't about to let her risk her life out in the field. "You know better than to ask. The less you know about my plans, the safer you'll be."

  "Hey, take care, man. You're all I've got."

  He forced a smile into his voice. "What about Patch, the drummer?"

  "Okay, maybe you can be replaced in time. But not easily."

  Did Nadia feel the same way? Had Gage already been replaced by an earlier allegiance, one that had motivated her to let him make love to her? Lord, he hated that thought. It meant that all the time she lay in his arms, she had been serving a cause he hated with everything in him.

  All the sweetness and sublime passion would have been a lie.

  She had shared her doubts about Dabir with him. Did she genuinely suspect her fiance, or was that a clever ruse to throw Gage off the scent?

  "You still there?" Dani asked anxiously.

  For all her worldly wisdom, Dani was still only nineteen and had precious few people she could rely on. "I'm always here for you, me darlin' girl," he said blithely. He had no intention of sharing his personal heartache with her, although he suspected she might be way ahead of him this time.

  "Anything else you want me to do?" Dani asked.

  "You've already done wonders. Now get back to that band of yours and knock 'em dead in Heidelberg."

  "Frankfurt," she corrected good-humoredly. "Our next gig is in Frankfurt, but I'll be available daytimes if you need me."

  "I'll try not to let my concerns interfere with show business. The show must go on."

  The phrase haunted him as they said their goodbyes and hung up. No matter how he felt about Nadia Kamal, and he was starting to suspect he felt a lot more than he admitted to himself, he had a job to do.

  He refused to accept that Sitra Wahabi's presence at the orphanage was coincidence. He had to find out what she was up to, and what role the orphanage itself played in the Brothers' schemes. If Nadia was implicated, not even his feelings for her would be allowed to stand in the way of seeing justice done. Later would be time enough to deal with the consequences to himself.

  First he was going to pay another call on the orphanage.

  Chapter 15

  Getting in unseen and planting a listening device in the orphanage's infirmary was the easy part, Gage discovered. He'd done the deed the next morning while everyone was still sleeping. He hadn't counted on how hard it would be to listen to Nadia working with the children and not be able to see or touch her.

  Maybe Dani was right and he was getting too old for this work, he thought as he sat in his car a short distance from the building, concealed behind a thick screen of bushes. Not surprisingly, the rental company was less than keen to entrust another car to him after what had happened to the last one. His godfather had come to his aid, assuring Gage that the ambassadorial limousine took care of his driving needs, so he was welcome to take their compact sedan.

  Gage wished his own needs were as easily met. Listening to Nadia persuading little Sammy to let the doctor check him over, Gage found himself dreaming of her in his arms and had to direct his thoughts elsewhere fast in order to keep his mind clear.

  He had to admire her skill with the child. By making a game of the checkup, she soon had Sammy chuckling and cooperating.

  The examination apparently over, Gage heard a door slam, signaling the child's return to the play area. "You're good at this, Nadia," Gage heard the doctor say. "I've never had a more able—or lovelier— assistant."

  Clenching his fists, Gage focused on Nadia's response. It was playful and sweet, not exactly encouraging, he heard with some satisfaction. Evidently she didn't return the doctor's obvious interest. Just as well, or Gage might have had to storm into the orphanage and tell Warren where to get off.

  Now where had that thought come from?

  He wasn't in love with Nadia, Gage told himself. He couldn't afford to be until he knew more about her role in Dabir's affairs. The assurance didn't stop him from remembering how wonderful she had felt in his arms. The scent of jasmine would forever remind him of how he had taken her to the heights of ecstasy.

  No matter how he tried to keep some mental distance from her, he couldn't bring himself to regret the hours they had spent together beside the swan lake. Knowing he had been her first real lover was enough to make his heart pick up speed. The thought that she would always compare other men to him was little consolation. He didn't want to imagine her with anyone else. Didn't want her to be with anyone but him.

  But he wasn't in love with her.

  He sat through an hour of listening to more children coming and going, being reassured by Nadia as she cajoled them into letting Warren look after them. The doctor's easy familiarity with her had Gage gritting his teeth, especially when he heard Nadia respond in kind. Not that Gage was jealous. He was merely protective of the princess. Warren obviously needed a lesson in how to treat royalty.

  In a pig's eye, he admitted to himself. He was jealous. The very sound of her voice, like a musical instrument played by a virtuoso, was enough to turn his insides to mush. On a sudden impulse he grabbed his cell phone and dialed, hearing the orphanage phone ring a couple of seconds later.

  To avoid a feedback loop, he turned the monitor speaker off before Nadia answered. Satisfaction coursed thr
ough him as he heard her pleased response to his suggestion that he visit the orphanage later that day. She sounded as if she couldn't wait to see him.

  That could have been because he had said he might know of a suitable adoptive family for Sammy, but Gage liked to think he was at least part of the reason. And he did know someone interested in adopting Sammy. Himself.

  The more he thought about it, the more attracted he was to the idea of giving the little boy a home. Back in Penwyck Gage could provide a child with everything he would need, including a loving father. He was already thinking about staying at home more, concentrating on his investments while someone else took over saving the world. Which should give him ample time to raise a child as his son and heir.

  A wife would have been nice, too, but seemed impossible. The one woman he would like to carry home to Penwyck was strictly off-limits. Gage could imagine Sheik Ahmed's response if Gage were to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Gage told himself he was only interested in what great parents they would make for Sammy, but couldn't hide from the truth—he wanted Nadia for himself.

  He was still smiling as he closed the phone and turned the speaker on again.

  What he would do if she turned out to be on the side of the devil, he didn't know. He could only pray it wouldn't come to that.

  He shifted restively in the car seat, which was too small for his six-foot frame. He had adjusted the seat as far back as it would go, but he still felt cramped. Getting up and walking around wasn't an option. Too much chance of someone from the orphanage spotting him. He began a series of yoga breathing exercises designed to convince his body that he was comfortable and relaxed.

  They were about as successful as telling himself that he wasn't in love with Nadia. Time he faced facts. He had fallen for her hard the day she stopped to help him when she thought he'd crashed his car on the Marhaba road. His feelings had only intensified since then. Making love to her had been an expression of his feelings, not the cause of them. Thinking of her and marriage in the same breath felt as natural as breathing.