tried very hard to despise you,’ he corrected with a grim smile. ‘From the moment I saw you in that flirtatious orange dress, I wanted you, but even then I felt more for you than the transient lust of a man for a sexy woman.’
‘How do you know?’
He gave her another arrogant look, one mingled with frustration, then, in a gesture as brutal as it was unexpected, hammered a fist into one cupped hand. ‘I felt—doubt, confusion, anger. All those—and something else. For the first time in my life, I did not know what it was I was feeling, and the loss of control made me angry.
‘So, yes, I suspected that you were far more experienced than you were, but the woman I kidnapped did not live up to my expectations. You were warm and thoughtful; after the car crash, you insisted on finding out how the driver of the car was, and you sent her a card and flowers. She is one of my best agents, by the way. You showed no signs of interest in anything but Moraze and the horses, the people—almost everything around you but me!’
Lexie couldn’t stop her incredulous laugh. ‘You must have known—you’re an experienced man, and every time you touched me or kissed me, I lost it.’
His anger faded. He smiled, but with irony. ‘Ah, but you regained that infuriating composure very quickly. I would like to be able to tell you when love happened, how it happened, but it came so swiftly, stealing my heart before I knew it was in danger. Even after we made love the first time, I thought I was safe. Until in the sugar mill, when it seemed that Gastano held all the cards in his hands, and I knew that if I couldn’t rescue you I would die a lonely man.’
That simple statement and the tone it was delivered in—as stark and uncompromising as the stripped anguish in his eyes—almost satisfied Lexie’s desperate need to be convinced.
Yet still she couldn’t quite dare to believe him. Instead she turned and unlocked the door, saying over her shoulder, ‘You’d better come inside. It’s summer here, but it must be cold for you after Moraze.’
What would he think of her cottage? He followed her in, closing the door behind him. She stood silently, devouring him with her eyes, as he inspected the small living room with its doors opening out onto a brick terrace.
‘It looks like you,’ he said at last, then turned and smiled at her. ‘Warm and practical, yet with charm and spirit. When did you know you loved me?’
‘I knew for sure when I thought Gastano was going to kill you. That’s why I kicked out at him; I realised that life without you wouldn’t be worth living.’
Rafiq held out his hand. She took it, and his fingers closed around hers, warm, confident, strong and protective. But he didn’t take her into his arms.
Instead he said in a low, implacable voice, ‘I loathed Gastano for what he did to my sister—he stripped her of her innocence, degraded her until she believed that she was worth nothing. But I didn’t feel that I had done that to you after we made love. I felt—transported, as though this was new and happening for the first time, as though I suddenly knew why I had been born.’
She said quietly, ‘So did I.’
Although his fingers tightened around hers, he still didn’t kiss her. ‘I knew I couldn’t touch Gastano legally. I probably could have arranged his assassination, but that would have made me as bad as he was.’
‘No,’ she said jerkily.
He shrugged. ‘I felt so. Also, it would have left his organisation ripe for being taken over by someone as evil as he was. But I wanted him to pay for what he did—and I wanted to make sure no more innocents would suffer degradation at his hands. To do that, I had to get him to Moraze. I didn’t realise you were coming too, or that he intended to marry you.’
Lexie nodded, and scanned his beloved face. ‘So you lured him there.’
‘But then I decided to keep you out of circulation, hoping that would infuriate him enough to make him show his hand.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘Well, that was what I told myself. The real reason was because I couldn’t bear the thought of him talking to you, kissing you, making love to you. So I organised that accident.’
She lifted her brows, trying to hide the warmth of joy his words caused. ‘You’re a devious man.’
Rafiq’s voice hardened. ‘But even though I knew he would turn feral when he realised things were going down, I didn’t expect him to steal the helicopter and force the pilot at gunpoint to fly to the castle.’
‘I see,’ she said, nodding, then frowned. ‘What happened to the pilot?’
‘He was shot.’
Lexie flinched, and he finished with lethal determination, ‘That was why I told my men to shoot to kill.’
‘Yes,’ she said sombrely. ‘When you said that his death was too quick and clean, I agreed, but I understand even better why you felt that way.’
‘I’m glad,’ he said quietly. ‘Now, as I have told you everything, will you please marry me and make me happy?’
Horrified, Lexie felt tears glaze her eyes. ‘I wish I could, but I have something to tell you. It’s about my father—you don’t know who he was.’
‘Of course I do,’ he said coolly, his frown easing.
She met his eyes, green and steady and direct, then gave a pale imitation of a smile. ‘Yes, of course you do. But have you thought things through? If we marry everyone on Moraze will discover that my father was a monster. You didn’t want Hani’s reputation sullied.’
‘Let them say what they want to say. It will not affect us,’ he said with the magnificent self-assurance that came from centuries of autocratic rule. In a voice that quietened all her fears, he said, ‘I don’t care about anyone who will judge you for what your father did—I care only about you. If you will marry me, Lexie, I will love and cherish you all our life together until I die. Neither of us can change our past, but together we can forge a future that will put the memories where they belong—behind us.’
Heart swelling with joy, she smiled at him. ‘Then let’s do that.’
It took all of Rafiq’s iron discipline to control himself. ‘I want you to learn to love Moraze as I do,’ he said. ‘All you have known of it has been a kind of imprisonment—but at home now the flame trees are flowering, and the air is languid and heavy with promise, and there are glories you have never seen waiting for you.’
‘I’ll love anywhere you are,’ she said, the words a vow.
His expression softened. ‘And you will be happy,’ he said in a deep, harsh voice she’d never heard before. ‘I swear it.’
She lifted a misty gaze to him. ‘So will you,’ she said, not holding back the tears as at last he took her into his arms.
‘All right,’ Princess Jacoba Considine said, frowning. ‘Twirl.’
Obediently Lexie twirled, the silk of her creamy-gold dress swirling around her in a gentle sussuration.
Jacoba inspected her with the unsparing scrutiny of a woman famed the world over for her fashion sense. ‘You look utterly, astoundingly gorgeous. Rafiq
