she promised herself as she gazed up into his breathtakingly handsome face, was going to be fine. She just had to give them both a little time and space.
But time, she soon learned, was at premium.
‘This evening I’m flying to New York for two weeks,’ Jasim imparted with a casualness that made her vulnerable heart sink like a stone. ‘That’s why I had you brought here. I own this apartment and you’ll be comfortable here while I’m abroad.’
‘I can afford my own accommodation, although I may not need it for long. Most nanny jobs are live-in and if you can sort out a reference for me, I’ll have another job by the time you get back—’
Jasim studied her in wonderment. Unable to believe that she could possibly be serious in her desire to be self-sufficient, he released a slightly harsh laugh. ‘There’s no need for you to look for another position. Nannies must work hellish hours—how would I ever see you? Don’t you understand what I’m offering you?’
Elinor stood there very still and straight-backed and increasingly pale. ‘No, I must be incredibly thick because I haven’t quite worked out yet what you’re offering me …’
His charismatic smile slashed his lean dark visage and he took a measured step forward. ‘Naturally, I want to take care of you …’
‘No, thanks.’ Elinor forced a smile that felt rigid on her tense mouth and mentally willed him not to demean her with some sordid proposition. ‘The only man who will ever take care of me with my agreement will be my husband. I’m willing to wait for you to come back but I’m not willing to be kept by you. I’m a very independent woman and what I give, I give freely.’
Jasim frowned. ‘You make it all sound so serious.’
‘What happened between us last night drove a coach and horses through my life and left pure chaos in its wake,’ she reminded him gently, a slender hand resting on the lapel of his pinstripe suit jacket. ‘Right now, I don’t know whether I’m on my head or my heels. I’ll stay for a while because I have nowhere else to go in the short term, but I need to fall back to Planet Earth again so maybe it’s good that you’ll be away for a while.’
Jasim pulled out his wallet to extract a card. ‘My private number,’ he told her, presenting her with it as though it was a precious gift—which indeed it was. Many women would have done just about anything to gain access to that direct hotline to him, but his staff guarded his privacy with scrupulous care.
Before he could close the wallet, his thumb brushed over the condom packet slotted into it and his blood ran cold in his veins in a deeply disturbing wake-up call. He realised that in his excitement the evening before he had neglected to use contraception with Elinor. Consternation rolled through him. How could he have made such a serious oversight? Although he was usually very careful, they had shared numerous encounters of unprotected sex during the night. What if he had got her pregnant? He reminded himself that, according to Murad, a woman didn’t fall pregnant that easily. Certainly, Yaminah had been most unfortunate in that regard. He thought of all that he had read about ‘morning-after pills’, but he had too much respect for the gift of new life to persuade a woman into taking that option as a preventative measure. He decided that he could more easily live with hoping for the best. Yet, he knew that an unplanned pregnancy would engulf his life like an avalanche, crush his freedom and suffocate him. He barely stilled a shudder at the threat of such an outcome and thought how ironic it was that what his older brother had longed and prayed for to secure the line to the throne should strike Jasim as an absolute disaster.
Within twenty-four hours of Jasim’s departure, Elinor quietly signed up with an agency as a relief nanny and found herself plunged straight back into regular, reasonably well-paid employment. Going from one family to the next and staying only a few days in each household was surprisingly enjoyable and kept her too busy to brood. She knew she wouldn’t like dealing with a merry-go-round of change for ever but, just then, the freedom from having to forge new meaningful relationships felt like what she most needed. Every night she returned to the luxurious but anonymous comfort of the apartment and fell asleep within minutes of getting into bed.
Jasim phoned her almost every day. The conversations were curiously impersonal and unsatisfying and only made her feel more insecure. The only information he gave about himself was superficial. He never mentioned the future, or that he was missing her. Her period was due at the end of that first week and when it didn’t arrive as expected she tried not to worry. She started to feel that she had been very foolish once she acknowledged that she had no memory of Jasim taking precautions that night at Woodrow Court. Had he falsely assumed that she was taking contraceptive pills as so many women did? How could she have been so dense? When her nerves could stand the waiting game no longer, she bought a pregnancy test. The test was guaranteed to give an accurate result within days of a malfunctioning menstrual cycle, so she made immediate use of it.
The positive result stunned Elinor. Somehow she hadn’t really believed that she could have conceived; somehow such a development hadn’t really seemed possible to her. Now she learned that she was very much mistaken. She was expecting a baby, a real, live little baby. In the space of one wildly reckless night Jasim had contrived to get her pregnant.
That same evening she received an unexpected visitor. The doorbell buzzed and when she addressed the caller through the intercom, it was Prince Murad’s voice that answered her. Elinor was appalled by his arrival and would have done just about anything to avoid the humiliation of answering the door and actually having to deal with her former employer. Unfortunately there was no decent way of avoiding the issue.
‘May I come in and speak with you?’ the older man asked politely.
‘Of course.’ In the elegant living room, Elinor linked her hands tightly together. ‘You must be wondering why I left Woodrow so suddenly—’
‘Elinor … let me be frank. I know that this apartment block belongs to my brother,’ the prince admitted, his expression grave and concerned. ‘I am sorry that you have left my employment and I would rather that it had been for any other reason than this. I had a great affection for your mother and I feel responsible for you as her daughter. You have chosen to take a most ill-advised step.’
Her strained face flamed with colour. ‘I know you mean well, but I’m an adult and I’m here of my own free will, Your Highness.’
‘Jasim has had many women in his life, Elinor. He cherishes none of them, and he will not marry any woman who has already lived with him.’
Elinor’s hands twisted. Confronted by such cruel candour, she felt as if her heart were being ripped out at the seams. ‘I’m not looking for marriage—’
‘But you deserve better than this tawdry arrangement,’ Murad pronounced with an angry wave of dismissal that encompassed their surroundings. A small and portly but still dignified figure, he sighed. ‘I loved and respected your mother. I would never have asked her to be my mistress. You must value yourself more. Surely this cannot be the future that you wanted?’
Although it was still only early evening, when Murad left Elinor went to bed and cried. Seeing how she had sunk in the older man’s estimation had upset her. But, at the same time, she knew that there was no way that she was prepared to become Jasim’s mistress! Apart from anything else, her pregnancy would alter everything, she reasoned wretchedly. When he had carted her off to bed in an excess of lusty passion, conceiving a child with her would have been the very last thing on his mind. How was he likely to react to such a shattering development?
Jasim had returned from New York a day early. Warned by his security team
