Lise couldn’t catch her breath. For years, she’d been working at Lafayette College in whatever space they could find for her. Everything had been an “antique.” This—this was something else entirely.
Jake pulled free of her hand and sprinted down the hall, giggling. “He needs some room to run,” she heard herself say.
“I know the perfect place.”
Raed took them back outside to the palace gardens, which were huge, blooming, beautiful. Jake took off, the two of them staying close, and Lise tried to wrap her mind around the scenario. Moving into the palace no longer seemed like an abstract idea. She’d seen the house, she’d seen the business wing—it was all more than she could have dreamed of. Ever.
Lise’s phone rang in her purse and she dug for it without thinking. Raed gave her an approving nod, and she shook her head—she didn’t need his approval to answer her phone, even if he was a prince. But he didn’t see the determined look she put on her face because he was too busy speeding up to stay with Jake, who crouched low over some flowers. Lise stepped up next to a planter. The caller ID read Alan Mainwaring, her boss at Lafayette.
“Hi, Alan,” she chirped into the phone, prepared now to give him a brief rundown of everything that had happened, even if it sounded absurd, which it did. The prince of Qasha invited me to live with him at his palace and pilot the project with his own staff, so that seems like an interesting opportunity, which—
“What you’ll need to do is take copious notes,” Alan said in his refined British accent. “A small pilot project with this group of people will be perfect for our purposes, but we will need a way to translate it into a larger version of the project when it’s time to expand.”
“Oh,” she said breathlessly. “So the prince’s staff have already been in touch with you?”
“More than one.” Alan sounded jovial, if a little intense. No wonder. The opportunity couldn’t be better for him. “I’m sure you don’t have any objection—this is far beyond our wildest hopes for this pitch.”
What was she supposed to say? Oh, by the way, the prince is the father of my child, and I only found out yesterday, so that might make things slightly awkward. “No objections,” she echoed. “It’ll be wonderful.”
“Keep me updated. The usual,” said Alan. “And if you need anything—”
“I’ll let you know.” Lise ended the call before she could blurt out the truth about Raed. Raed, who had knelt down next to Jake and was guiding his hand over a marmalade cat, petting the animal again and again. A matching cat circled at their feet, and then, from around the corner, a woman appeared.
With her regal bearing, silver hair, and red gown that somehow managed to look both sumptuous and homey, she absolutely belonged in the garden. Raed looked up at her and spoke to her quickly in Arabic, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. The woman’s dark eyes flashed to Lise, and a chill went down her spine. Oh, no. Oh, she was angry; she couldn’t be happy. The pieces fell into place like dominos. She looked like she belonged here because she did, because she was the queen mother Nenet.
Nenet came toward her, and Lise braced for an onslaught of disappointment.
Instead, Nenet reached out and embraced her, pulling her in close. She smelled faintly of a floral perfume, something expensive and beautiful, and when she pulled back, her eyes were brimming with warmth.
“I’m so happy to meet you, Annalise,” she said. “You and your son. Jake. A strong name for a strong little boy.” Relief swept over Lise. Yes—Tali had said her mother-in-law was wonderful. Lise hadn’t realized just how wonderful. It was almost surreal. “We’ll talk more soon,” said Nenet. “Very soon.” She dropped her hands to Lise’s, squeezed, and went on her way, the cats following her.
Raed approached a moment later, Jake at his side. “My mother, Nenet.”
“I gathered.” Lise could hardly get a full breath. “Raed, this is—this is all too much. The job, the house—”
“You don’t think you’ll be able to do the job?” Even his furrowed brow was gorgeous. Lise tore her eyes away from his handsome face. “If it’s childcare you’re worried about, you don’t need to. You’ll have an assistant and a nanny.”
“Oh—I’m not sure about that.” A nanny. A nanny. That was a far cry from the campus daycare she’d taken Jake to since he was born and the cousin who’d babysat. Another thought occurred to her—a darker one. “Is this—are you trying to bribe me? To keep me out of sight here?” The student in the cafeteria had made him tense. Yes—yes. A member of the royal family wasn’t just going to let her wander around the city by herself. Lise drew herself up to her full height. “Listen, Raed, I don’t feel like I have a choice in the matter. My boss wants me to be here. You want me to be here. But I’ll choose who spends time around my son.”
It hadn’t been an issue before. The consul had offered to give her a list of babysitters, and Lise had thought she’d spend most of her time reading up on facts and figures and writing out plans for the project.
“Our son,” Raed said softly. It stabbed her through the heart, how gentle he was, and Lise didn’t hear reproach in his voice, or a pushy dominance. Jake was their son. And that meant he was part of the royal family, too. “And we already have a trained, experienced nanny on staff. Tali’s nanny is a younger local woman named Jana. She’s been trained in the royal family’s ways and didn’t want to travel with Hamid due to some family commitments, so she’s here and on call whenever you need her. Jana would be delighted to care for Jake.”
What could she say to that? If Jana was good enough for Tali, then she must have had background checks. She must have gone through an even more stringent approval process to be able to work in the palace at all. And there was a difference between maintaining boundaries with Raed and being difficult just because. Lise felt pulled in a hundred different directions. Focus on the choice at hand. Palace or no palace? Nanny or no nanny? The palace decision had essentially been made for her.
“Just while I’m working,” she said. “I’ll let her be with Jake while I’m working.”
Raed’s eyes searched hers, and that old electric heat spread out across her chest. “You don’t want any free time after work?”
Lise’s breath caught. “No,” she blurted out. “No, I don’t.” Steady, steady. “I’m a mother now. Jake comes first in everything I do, and part of that is working hard to secure our future. I don’t have any time for a dalliance and no intention of making time for it.”
Raed looked around as if there could possibly be anyone else in the garden with them. “A dalliance with me?”
“It’s not happening,” she said flatly, her heart pounding.
“What makes you think I don’t have a girlfriend already?” His smile was a tease, a taunt, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Jake toddled between them, reaching up for Lise, and she picked him up. No, something in her cried. No, I don’t want you to have a girlfriend. By the time he was in her arms, Raed was gone, disappearing around a corner in the garden.
“Ma’am?” The security guard had appeared from nowhere. “Your bags have arrived.”
4
“The foundation is going to be my top priority for the coming years,” Raed said into the phone. He had it on speaker so his assistant Stephen could hear the conversation as well. It had been two days since Lise moved into the palace, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. The defiant lift of her chin. The fall of her blonde hair from her ponytail. More than anything, he wanted to walk out to that guest house and stay all day. But his professional life beckoned. “Any donation you’d like to make is going to go directly toward furthering my goals for the Bahir Foundation.”
Paddy O’Connor was the creator of the Harlequin hedge fund and a very rich man. He was in a position to donate a lot of money to the Bahir Foundation. It also helped that he’d gone to school at Georgetown University, Raed’s own alma mater. “And those goals are?”
“We want to promote the study of the nat
ural and social sciences,” Raed said. Stephen hovered at the edge of the desk, moving papers into place so Raed could use them for notes. “We’re looking for ways to bolster our public health systems. There’s room for improvement in science education, society and culture, international relations—”
“Scholarships,” said Paddy. “I like the idea of scholarships.”
“So do I.” Stephen scribbled scholarships on one of the pages. “I’m very interested in education on every level. If we can improve education, the rest of the world will rise along with it.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, Raed slipping in details about the foundation wherever he could, and as soon as he hung up the call there was a knock at the door. Stephen bowed low at the sight of Nenet in the doorway and excused himself.
“Hello, Mother,” Raed said as Nenet swept into the room. She took a seat across from Raed and stared at him as if the act of looking would uncover new information. “Is there something you wanted?”
Nenet gave him a smile that sent a shiver of awe through him. “Just a talk with my son,” she said, folding her hands neatly in her lap. “About recent events.”
He’d buried himself in work since Lise arrived at the palace, not wanting to have this particular conversation. His playboy lifestyle hadn’t seemed like such a big deal when he was younger—after all, it was Hamid who would run the country and bear the brunt of the moral scrutiny. Now, with his mother watching him like that and the weight of his biggest project on his shoulders, he realized it had always been a big deal, and was just going to get bigger. Raed got up from his desk and closed the office door, then sat back down again.
“Recent events are in motion because of a dalliance I had when I was abroad. I have had the odd dalliance over the years, Mother.” Guilt tightened his throat. “I didn’t always use my real name when doing so.”
Nenet closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Deception, Raed?”
“For everyone’s good,” he countered.
“For your good.” He could hear the anger around the edges of her voice. “You hid those women from the world, as if they were something to be ashamed of. You hid them from me. You’ve had public relationships before. Katharine Seaton comes to mind.” Nenet reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded paper. “In a magazine this week—see? It speculates that you and Katharine might be codirecting the foundation, since the two of you have a high-powered relationship.”
“It’s been a few dates. That’s all. And yes, I thought of asking her to co-lead the foundation.”
“Because of her family connections?”
“Of course,” he said. “And her professional accomplishments. Why else? It’s not about love. It’s never been about love.” The pressure that he’d put on himself seemed especially heavy now. What right did his mother have to talk about feelings like this, to bring up advantageous marriages? Her own marriage had been arranged and advantageous. “I didn’t know that Lise was pregnant. Obviously. Otherwise I’d have brought her here long ago. I met her in London, and I—I didn’t know.”
Nenet faced him, jaw set. “She went through pregnancy and raising that little boy by herself.” Guilt struck him like a bolt of lightning. “I’ll spoil her now. She has us now.” Nenet gathered the skirt of her dress and swept from the room.
The breath went out of him, and it took a long minute to get it back. His mother had been thrilled at the addition of a new grandson, but her anger was palpable—and Raed deserved it. But there was not much use in dwelling on the past. He couldn’t go back now and tell Lise who he really was. He could only go forward. And at this moment in time, the workday was over.
He made his way out of the office, sending the rest of his staff home, and found himself wandering through the garden to Lise’s house. She had informed him two days ago that she’d stop work at five every day and take over from Jana. By the time he got to her yard, it was ten after, and that was exactly what Lise was doing. Jana and Lise were both there with Jake. Five balloons were scattered across the green lawn, and Jake toddled between them.
“Red!” called Lise, and Jake bent down and tapped the red balloon. “Good job, buddy. Blue!” She watched as Jake made his way to the blue balloon and tapped it with a tiny hand. Lise turned to Jana. “Thanks for helping me blow these up. See you tomorrow?”
“I can’t wait.” Jana gave Jake a little wave and went out of the yard through the back.
It gave Raed a minute to look at her—to really look at Lise. At the warmth radiating from her face. She had changed out of her business clothes and into a sundress, comfortable and beautiful at the same time. It touched him, how widely she smiled at Jake, how enthusiastically she clapped for him.
“They’re very different from the balloon we were in,” he said. Lise jumped, startled, and caution came to her expression.
“That was then.” Lise put a hand to her chest. “Green, Jake! Green.”
“I think the castle in Scotland was first.” The sun today reminded him of that day—the day they’d helicoptered in to a landing pad near the castle and walked hand-in-hand to the ancient building. It had been lovingly restored but was still crumbling at the boundary, and he’d been smitten with it—smitten with the castle, smitten with Lise. The guidebook in the front hall said the castle was haunted by ghosts. Lise had laughed so hard at that, but that night she’d slept close, as if she might actually believe it. “Then there was the flight to Paris, and then—well, I think you liked the hot air balloon best.”
Lise gave a short laugh. “Amazing that we did it all. I don’t think I’d have the energy for two weeks like that now. This takes all my energy. Yellow, buddy. Which one is yellow?” She bent down and kissed Jake’s cheek, then stayed there as he vacillated between orange and yellow and finally landed on the right one.
“Do you want some help?”
Her green eyes flicked toward his, surprise coloring her cheeks. Lise nodded.
“Red,” Raed called, stepping closer to the balloons and the two of them.
Jake grinned, reaching for the red balloon. Raed wanted to scoop him up in his arms and toss him in the air, wanted to chase him around the lawn, and he thought about it. After a long day at the office it would be the perfect thing. But approaching voices interrupted the moment.
Raed straightened up. It was a group of people—a couple of palace servants leading the way, along with two men Raed didn’t recognize. Delivery people? The gate guard must have screened them. The two of them carried a huge box between them.
“Furniture delivery, Prince Raed,” one of the servants said.
“Things for Jake,” Lise said quickly. “The house wasn’t completely child friendly when we moved in.”
“And this will solve the problem?” Raed couldn’t take his eyes off the men, or the box. They’d both looked up when Lise said child friendly. Child. He saw the calculations in their eyes, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
All Raed’s life, he had been conscious of the way rumors worked in the city. The royal family was under constant scrutiny. It was why he used his nickname so often—if people didn’t know he was a prince, then he’d fade quickly from their memory. There wouldn’t be any scandal if he wanted to take a woman on a date or to a haunted castle in Scotland. But this was how it started. It started with people who didn’t have much to lose starting rumors about what they’d seen in the palace.
“What is it?” Lise said under her breath. “Is something wrong?”
The men went past, working the box up the front steps and into the cottage. They wouldn’t have any idea about Jake. Would they? And how would Jake feel if he knew that Raed had hidden him from the city and the world?
The two men emerged again, and Raed watched them make their way back across the yard. “A few more boxes,” one of them said with a little bow.
As soon as they were out of sight, Lise stepped closer. “Is something going on with those men?”
“It’s really import
ant to be careful about who visits the palace,” he said lightly as she watched after them.
“It’s just furniture,” Lise said quietly.
It wasn’t just furniture, and he knew it, and she had to know it, too. Raed hadn’t expected to feel like he was walking a high wire on the royal family’s own property, and yet—here he was. Everything about the situation was tenuous. Fragile. It was like a gathering storm about to unleash itself across the city. Could you be more dramatic, Bahir? The silent question almost made him laugh. A scandal involving a secret son would be a storm in the city, but it would be worse for his foundation.
“That’s right,” Raed said. “Let’s go into the palace while they assemble it. I’ll send Jana and a guard to supervise.”
A beat passed.
“All right,” agreed Lise. “Hey, Jake, which one is your favorite balloon?”
Jake toddled over to the red balloon and picked it up in his arms, as careful as anything. “Red,” he said, giving them both a toothy smile. “Red.” Then he took off running across the yard, Lise hurrying after him, Raed hurrying after Lise.
How could they be a scandal? His heart demanded to know the answer, and he didn’t have a good one—not one that would make this any less tense. Raed would never act like his son was a scandal, but other people might. And he would just have to deal with that when the time came.
Lise turned her head, shaking her hair over one shoulder, and it was so beautiful in the afternoon light, so golden, that he wanted to run his fingers over it. “Where are we going?” she called.
“Just away from prying eyes,” he answered. “Jake.” He hurried to catch up with his son, coming alongside him in a matter of a few long strides. “Want to race?”
Jake giggled, the sound warming Raed’s heart, and took off running, his gait funny and his enthusiasm total. One of Jake’s feet caught a ridge in the grass, and he screeched, reaching for Raed’s hand. What wouldn’t he do to protect this child?
The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three Page 3
