yet it still held a dangerous thread of steel.
‘Yes, thought. I realise now that what I believed was love was no more than a girlish infatuation. A crush, pure and simple.’
‘A crush,’ Khaled repeated neutrally, and Lucy found herself compelled to explain.
‘I was dazzled by you. You were England’s rugby star, adored by the press, surrounded by fans—many of them women. I never thought you’d even look once at me.’
‘I see,’ Khaled replied after a moment, and Lucy thought she heard a bleakness in his voice that she didn’t understand. ‘I see,’ he repeated, almost to himself, ‘what kind of man you loved.’
‘Thought I loved,’ Lucy corrected.
Khaled’s answering smile was hard and cold. ‘Right.’
For a moment Lucy felt like apologising, feeling almost as if she’d hurt him somehow. Yet she couldn’t have hurt him, because he’d never cared. Not like she had. Perhaps his ego was dented, she thought cynically. Perhaps he didn’t like the fact that she was no longer the woman she’d once been…even if he was still the same man.
For he was the same man, she realised. His hair was shorter, his face harder, and he’d clearly had some tough experiences in the last four years—but underneath? Lucy shook her head. Still the same arrogant charmer who thought he had the world and all of its women at his feet.
‘Well.’ Khaled stretched, running his fingers through his hair, and gave a little shrug and a smile. ‘Well, it’s all past history now, isn’t it?’ he said in a tone that relegated their relationship to some kind of trivial anecdote.
Lucy forced herself to smile back. ‘Yes. Past history.’ Although it hadn’t felt all that ‘past’ a few moments ago when she’d been lying under him.
A momentary lapse. A blip. Something they had to get out of their systems. That was all it had been, all it could be.
‘You mentioned you have to work tomorrow,’ Khaled said, his voice turning brisk and businesslike. ‘What were you planning to do with Sam?’
‘He has nursery in the morning, and my mother can pick him up—’
‘I’ll do that. Sam and I can spend the afternoon together.’
Lucy hesitated. She wanted to resist, yet she also knew Sam would love spending the afternoon with Khaled. And wouldn’t it be better for him to get used to Khaled sooner rather than later?
‘Trying to think of an excuse to say no?’ Khaled mocked gently. ‘Get used to it, Lucy. I’m staying in Sam’s life.’
‘Are you?’ The question slipped out involuntarily and Khaled’s face darkened. ‘Why?’ she pressed. ‘I mean, why do you want him so much? I never thought you’d—’
‘Care?’ Khaled finished for her. ‘Yes, I know. I’m amazed that you spent as long as you did with me, considering your low opinion. But the fact is I take my responsibilities seriously.’
‘Sam doesn’t have to be your responsibility,’ Lucy interjected and Khaled gazed at her coolly.
‘But he is.’
‘If you’re going to be in his life, I want him to be more than a responsibility,’ Lucy said in a low voice. Khaled made a grunt of disgust.
‘Do you think I’m here out of some sense of duty? If that was all it was, Lucy, I could have written a cheque. I want to be in Sam’s life because he’s my son, and I’m his father, and families are meant to be together. To love each other.’
‘Like yours?’ Lucy snapped, and then bit her lip as she saw Khaled’s expression close once more.
‘No, not like mine,’ he replied after a moment. ‘My own experience is all the more reason to give Sam a proper family. And I’d have thought you’d want the same for him, considering the absence of your own father—’
‘I was fine without my father!’ Lucy flashed.
‘Were you?’ Khaled queried softly. ‘I wasn’t.’ He stood up, effectively finishing the conversation. ‘Why should I not spend time with Sam?’
Lucy nibbled her lip, disarmed by the simple question. ‘Fine,’ she said at last. ‘I’ll call the nursery so they can expect you at noon.’
‘Good.’ Khaled paused, and Lucy braced herself for what was coming. Somehow she knew it wouldn’t be good. ‘I can spend a week in England,’ he said. ‘And then I want to bring Sam back to Biryal.’
Lucy jerked back. ‘A week? That’s no time at all!’
Khaled shrugged, every inch the regal prince who barked orders and didn’t wait for them to be obeyed, who just knew that they would. ‘It will have to be enough.’
‘He doesn’t even have a passport,’ Lucy argued, grabbing onto perhaps the most irrelevant detail. ‘Or proper clothes.’ No, that was even more irrelevant.
Khaled shrugged again. ‘We can have the passport expedited, perhaps through the Biryali embassy. As my son, he is a Biryal national.’
‘Is he?’ Her lips felt cold and numb, and her arms came around herself as a matter of instinctive protection. She dropped them. ‘Khaled, I don’t like this. It’s too soon. Sam doesn’t even know you’re his father.’
‘We’ll tell him when the time is right. Meanwhile, I’m sure he will be excited to learn of a holiday to a new and exciting destination.’ Khaled smiled faintly. ‘One with spiders.’
She didn’t need a reminder of those. ‘I want to come with him.’
Khaled was silent long enough for Lucy to glance at him and see his eyebrow arch speculatively. He looked almost smug, and with a jolt she wondered, Is this what he’d wanted?
‘Fine,’ he finally replied with a shrug. ‘But what about your job?’
Lucy gritted her teeth. ‘I suppose I’ll have to take a temporary leave of absence.’
‘At such a critical time?’ Khaled pressed, and Lucy knew it was hopeless.
Hadn’t she known everything would change once they started down this path? Sam’s life, her life, her job. She forced herself to shrug. ‘Let me worry about my job, Khaled. It’s not your concern.’
‘Very well. But we are leaving in a week…regardless.’ He stood up, and for a second his leg buckled underneath him.
Lucy sprang up, one hand reaching to steady his elbow, but Khaled jerked away.
‘Khaled—’
‘I’m fine.’ His voice was terse, his face momentarily clenched with pain. ‘I’m fine,’ he repeated, and stiffly he walked to the door. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Lucy,’ he said, and then he was gone.
I was dazzled by you. You were England’s rugby star…I thought
