by Lynne Graham
It was nonsense and nasty nonsense at that, she told herself squarely. How could she even credit such a suggestion? Prince Firuz was furious that Azrael had married an ordinary Englishwoman instead of his multi-talented and regal niece. He also blamed Molly for her abduction by his son. And going by the way he had treated his stepson, he didn’t much like Azrael either.
‘Tahir is receiving treatment but he is in no state to travel even if he wanted to, which he does not,’ Azrael divulged when they finally left the reception and had the privacy to talk in their car. ‘I cannot turn my back on him. He has no one else but I also have a duty to you as my wife—’
‘Don’t fuss,’ Molly urged wryly. ‘I can cope if I must with a very large, disgruntled teenager, particularly if he’s unhappy. Whatever else he is, he’s your brother and he came to you for help. And no, don’t tell me that I’m being generous or forgiving because forgiveness doesn’t come into it at this stage. I’m being practical. We can’t throw him out and even Tahir deserves a second chance.’
‘Nasira urged me to throw him out to force him to return to Quarein,’ Azrael proffered, startling her.
Molly turned her head, green eyes sparkling with annoyance. ‘I wasn’t aware you were in contact with her.’
‘We spoke when you returned to London to prepare for our wedding and since then she has stayed in touch by text.’
‘How did you speak to her when I was in London?’ Molly questioned sickly.
‘I attended a charity dinner in Dubai while you were away. I was surprised when Firuz arrived with Nasira. I could see that she was uncomfortable socialising in mixed company without her veil. I felt sorry for her,’ Azrael startled her even more by confessing. ‘It was obvious to me that her uncle had put pressure on her to make that public appearance so that she could meet me again.’
Molly swallowed hard and the silence dragged. He had seen Nasira recently and he was texting the other woman. She felt sick and shaky again, as if the foundations of her world were crumbling beneath her. Texting! she thought again. She hadn’t expected to hear that. Relations with Nasira were clearly much more friendly than she could ever have guessed. Did Azrael win points for being honest about that fact? Bad deeds could hide in plain sight, she reminded herself unhappily.
‘You said you’d tell me what Firuz said to you—’
‘Not right now. I’ve got a bit of a headache,’ Molly framed jerkily.
Azrael was frowning. ‘He upset you—’
‘Now you’re imagining things,’ Molly complained, grateful as their transport pulled in at the castle entrance. She needed to compose herself before she confronted him, she reflected dizzily. Texting? Sexting? How could she possibly know? There was much more of a relationship between Nasira and Azrael than she had naïvely realised and that shook her because in the light of that information Firuz’s allegations no longer seemed quite so far-fetched.
On automatic pilot, Molly climbed out of the car and sped through the hall straight for the stairs. Azrael strode after her, anger beginning to stir in his dark eyes because Molly was usually open with him and he was exasperated by her sudden evasiveness.
‘I insist on knowing exactly what Firuz said to you before I arrived.’
Pale and rigid with self-control, Molly turned from the bedroom window. ‘You insist?’
‘I do.’ Azrael didn’t back down an inch from that arrogant demand. ‘You are clearly upset—’
Anger stirred in Molly. He had been texting Nasira. He had deliberately misled her about his relationship with the other woman, letting her assume it was of no account. ‘I’m upset because I can’t trust you,’ she told him starkly. ‘You’ve been texting another woman—’
Azrael rolled his eyes at her and her temper rocketed even higher. ‘Not in the sense that you mean. Nasira would be very shocked to think you suspected her of anything of that nature—’
‘Oh, would she, indeed?’ Molly spat, unimpressed. ‘Yet she’s been texting a married man! Firuz wanted you to marry Nasira before I came along, didn’t he?’
‘I will admit that he suggested her but at the time I wasn’t seriously considering marrying anyone. I’m still young and I’m currently very busy. If I had a plan, it was to put off marriage for a few years,’ he admitted with a wry slant of his expressive mouth. ‘A good marriage requires time and attention. Waiting to make that commitment made better sense.’
Appraising the cool set of his lean, darkly handsome features, Molly turned away to hide her emotions because every word he had said only reminded her that he had not wanted a wife in the first place and had only asked her to stay for a while for the sake of appearances. It was as though a cruel cold wind blew away all her warm, happy memories of the past two months.
Unhappily, staying on in Djalia, taking part in that wedding and all that had followed had blurred every boundary that she had originally assumed they would try to respect. But Azrael hadn’t tried to do that; he hadn’t recognised limits; he hadn’t behaved like a man who was ‘faking it’; he had behaved like a newly married man with a bride he desired and cherished. And now it all felt too good to be true, as if someone like her could not possibly deserve such a happy ending. All the insecurities that Molly had held at bay had been unleashed by Firuz’s intervention.
‘So, Nasira,’ she began afresh.
‘Nasira is blameless, guilty only of being firmly beneath her uncle’s thumb,’ Azrael incised impatiently.
Hurt by his immediate defence of the other woman, Molly stiffened until she felt as if she had a steel rod laced into her spine. ‘Blameless?’ she questioned thinly.
‘I assure you that there has been no flirtation, no sexting or whatever you call it!’ Azrael snapped back at her in exasperation. ‘She was merely advising me not to get involved in the trouble between Firuz and his son and in a normal situation it would be good advice, but this is not a normal situation. She is not aware that my brother is threatening to kill himself if I send him back to his father!’
Molly’s concern about Nasira and her texting had to take a back seat at that instant and she stared back at him in consternation. ‘He’s suicidal?’
‘The psychiatrist we called in believes that a few quiet weeks away from his home environment will give Tahir the chance to regain his stability.’
‘I’m sorry... I had no idea that he needed that kind of medical attention,’ Molly muttered uncomfortably, looping her hair off her warm brow because she felt deeply uncomfortable. ‘You should’ve explained that.’
‘I was planning to tell you but I myself only understood Tahir’s state of mind this evening after the psychiatrist spoke with me. Given time and peace he will improve.’ Azrael heaved a sigh. ‘In law, my brother is still a minor, however, and I hope Firuz will see the wisdom of leaving him here with me until he is, at least, on the road to recovery. Firuz could go through the courts and demand his return but I doubt that he would risk the adverse publicity that that would invite.’
‘I didn’t realise,’ Molly said again. ‘I should’ve guessed when you said he was behaving like a child.’
‘He’ll mend,’ Azrael declared in a curt tone of finality. ‘Now let us return to your obsession with Nasira and the occasional texts we have exchanged. There is nothing for you to be concerned about.’
‘I am not obsessed!’ Molly broke in heatedly. ‘But you should’ve been more frank about your relationship with her, particularly when Firuz went out of his way to ensure that you met her before our wedding. Perhaps he was hoping that you’d ditch me at the last minute!’
Cool as ice, Azrael frowned and sent her a questioning glance. ‘Molly, think about what you’re saying,’ he urged in a tone that suggested she was being unreasonable. ‘Think of the family relationship involved. I knew Nasira as a child because she was my stepfather’s niece. Why would I behave in such a way? Think the facts through. We were already legally married before our public wedding, so there was no possibility of any ditching.’
Azrael shot her an arrested appraisal, dark golden eyes bright as flames. ‘While I was still married to you?’ he demanded with incredulity.
Molly lifted her chin in challenge. ‘Well, it’s a possibility, isn’t it?’
‘No, it is not. I will not follow in Hashem’s footsteps and take more than one wife. That practice is frowned on in Djalia, although I admit that it is still common in rich families in Quarein. My mother agreed to marry Firuz only after he promised that she would be his sole wife,’ Azrael told her grimly.
Molly smoothed her dress down over her hips with damp trembling hands. ‘I’ve offended you, haven’t I?’
Azrael compressed his lips, battling back the kind of anger that would do him no favours in a delicate situation. But was that how he impressed her? As the kind of man who would take a wife and then seek another? It dawned on him that the waiting game he had chosen to play in his marriage had created all too many grey areas between them. He had said nothing, he had tried to show rather than tell, but it looked as if he hadn’t done too well in that department.
At that point, Molly told him word for word what Prince Firuz had said to her, from the insinuation about her having tempted Tahir to the allegation that Azrael still planned to wed Princess Nasira. ‘And then I find out she’s already texting you!’ she completed. ‘How is that supposed to make me feel?’
Unbowed, Azrael stood his ground. ‘Nasira is only a pawn in Prince Firuz’s ambition to gain greater influence in Djalia and now he’s trying to use her to cause trouble between us. He lied to you because he knows me well enough to know that I would not take an additional wife under any circumstances. For that reason it would suit him very well if our marriage broke down,’ he pointed out smoothly.
‘Under any circumstances?’ Molly pressed, her fingernails biting into her palms with tension.
‘Not under any circumstances,’ Azrael confirmed, black-lashed dark golden eyes welded to her pale, anxious face. ‘I am shocked that you could listen to Firuz and credit his lies for so much as a moment.’
A tad of the tension in her slight shoulders lifted and she snatched in a sudden ragged breath to refill her straining lungs. ‘OK,’ she conceded very quietly.
‘Why would you think such a thing of me? A second wife? Are you not wife enough for me?’ Azrael demanded.
Molly reddened and shifted her feet. ‘We don’t have a real marriage—’
‘It feels real enough to me. It has from the outset.’
Molly jerked a shoulder in an uneasy movement. ‘But we made an agreement that the marriage would only last for a few months.’
‘And then I said that I wanted to keep you and I meant every word of it. I am not the sort of man who says such words lightly. It was not a joke,’ Azrael breathed with simmering impatience, as if he could not understand her lack of faith in him. ‘Did you think I was joking? Shooting you a smart line? Teasing in some way?’
Feeling cornered, Molly bridled. ‘I knew you weren’t joking when you said it but you never said anything more—’
‘What more was there to say?’ Azrael raked back at her in driven frustration. ‘I spoke plainly. I made it clear that I did not wish our marriage to be temporary. I told you that I wanted you for ever—’
‘No, you did not!’ Molly flung back at him with vigour. ‘You didn’t say that. You said you wanted to keep me and that was that.’
‘That’s unfair. How was I to open my heart when you were giving me no encouragement to believe that you felt the same way?’ Azrael demanded rawly. ‘And then when you declared that you did not want to have my child it was obvious that you did not feel what I felt.’
‘And what do you feel?’ she dared to press, leaving aside his conviction that she didn’t want his child.
‘You should know what I feel for you,’ Azrael countered angrily. ‘I have been obvious in my feelings. I may not have used the words but I have tried to prove my love in every way I could...’
Molly felt a shade dizzy and she backed to the side of the bed, using her hands to stabilise herself against the side of the mattress. ‘Prove your love,’ she echoed weakly. ‘You’re saying that you love me?’
‘I think I fell in love with you in the cave but I didn’t recognise it as love until after the wedding. When I thought you’d lied to me about your grandfather I was devastated. That’s why I lost my temper,’ he explained tautly. ‘I have never felt such a connection with a woman. I have never been privileged to share such passion before. Of course, I wanted to keep you. Of course, I want you to be my wife for ever. I know I will never feel for any woman what I feel for you.’
‘You know, when you finally start talking, you are definitely worth listening to,’ Molly framed shakily, tears stinging the backs of her eyes because she was overwhelmed by what he was telling her. ‘But you don’t always listen carefully to what I say. I did not say I did not want your child. I only said it was something that should be planned, something that should only happen ideally in a secure relationship, and I didn’t know we had that.’
‘We are in a secure relationship if you want to stay married to me.’
Molly flung herself at him. ‘Of course I want to. I love you too.’
Hands linking round her waist to hold her close, Azrael smiled, brilliantly, blindingly, dark golden eyes stunning. ‘Well, you didn’t say the words either so how can you hold my silence against me?’
‘And why didn’t I guess that you loved me when you set up our wedding night in the cave?’ Molly mumbled guiltily, both arms tightly wrapped round him, little tremors of relief passing through her slender frame. ‘I was stupid. I was trying to keep my feelings under control, only that never worked around you.’
‘We are both very passionate people,’ Azrael pointed out with appreciation, gazing down into her upturned face with a warmth and adoration she marvelled that she had not recognised until that moment. ‘And with you I feel that I can be myself. I don’t have to put on a show. I don’t have to pretend. I can relax and you don’t expect me to be perfect—’
‘Right now you’re at your highest ever approval rating.’ Molly sidled back a step to haul her stretchy dress up and over her head and let it fall, revelling in the gleam of his admiring gaze over her matching silky underpinnings.
Engaged in shedding his clothing at speed, Azrael grinned at her, scooping her up in his powerful arms to settle her down on the bed. ‘I can work with that,’ he teased, a vision of lithe bronzed muscular perfection as he came down to her emanating predatory sexual power.
‘I’d like a few more months before we think of starting a family,’ Molly told him honestly. ‘I love the idea but I don’t think I’m quite ready to take the plunge yet.’
Azrael laughed. ‘I too would like to have you all to myself for a little longer...but your rejection stung that day. For me then, having a child was the obvious next step—’
‘Only not before you told me you loved me and wanted me to be your wife for ever,’ Molly qualified.
‘You should’ve realised that if I was willing for you to have my child I had no intention of ever letting you go,’ he traded softly. ‘We both want the security that neither of us enjoyed as children for our own family.’
‘Yes.’ Touched that he understood that, Molly stretched up and brushed her lips across his wide sensual mouth, knowing that he would understand that invitation even better. Happiness was bubbling through her in a wash of giddy energy. Azrael was hers, absolutely body and soul hers, and she couldn’t stop smiling at that revitalising knowledge, that wonderful promise for her future.
‘And every year on our anniversary we’ll make a trip back to the cave,’ Azrael d
eclared with romantic fervour. ‘That is where we began.’
‘You never did tell me what happened to the bra which went missing,’ Molly reminded him playfully.
Azrael winced. ‘I tore it when it caught on the towel. It was ruined, so I buried it—’
‘You buried it?’ Molly burst out laughing, tickled by his embarrassment.
‘That wasn’t an explanation I wanted to make at that point in our relationship.’ Azrael smiled down at her while he ran a seemingly lazy hand down a pale thigh and she shivered, all hot and needy in secret places.
And the silence fell, broken only by little whispers and moans and all the sounds of a happy couple fully engaged in sharing the love that blessed them. Molly told him how much she loved him. Azrael told her he loved her more. She argued, he pointed out how patiently he had tried to prove how much he cared for her without speaking the words. She told him he should have spoken up sooner. He told her she talked too much and he kissed her, and halfway through the kiss she surrendered and let him win an argument for a change.
* * *
Almost three years later, Molly strolled into the castle’s main ground-floor reception room, which had been reclaimed from office use once the new offices and conference rooms in the rear extension had opened. Since the birth of their son, Sharif, two years earlier, the royal family of Djalia had required more space. Her brother-in-law, Tahir, was hunkered down playing with toy cars and his nephew.
A regular visitor to his brother’s home, Tahir was on leave from his officer training course at Sandhurst in the UK. Prince Firuz had suffered a heart attack and his health was failing, and recently Tahir had had to take on more and more of his father’s official duties in Quarein. Working through his troubled teen years had changed the younger man a great deal. He had come back from his nervous breakdown stronger and more mature and had gone straight to military school for two years, weathering the tough regime with Azrael’s support.
‘Molly,’ he greeted her warmly. ‘Your son is very demanding. Every time I try to leave he cries and clutches at my legs.’
