air and during it a servant delivered mint tea and a plate of the tiny decorative cakes that Raja loved to the table. Dry-mouthed, Ruby poured the tea into the cups, her heart beating very fast.
Raja studied her from semi-screened eyes. Without warning a surprising smile curved his beautiful mouth. ‘The idea of you reading those texts embarrasses me,’ he admitted.
‘Receiving that kind of thing should embarrass you,’ Ruby told him forthrightly, but the ease of his confession and that charismatic smile reduced the worst of her tension, for she could not credit that he could smile like that if there was anything serious going on between him and Chloe.
‘My affair with Chloe is over—it was over the moment you and I consummated our marriage,’ he added.
‘I’m willing to believe that but, if it’s over as you say, why was she still sending you texts like that?’ Ruby pressed uncomfortably.
‘Think about it,’ Raja urged wryly. ‘From my point of view, Chloe was a sexual outlet. From hers, my greatest advantage was that I spent a great deal of money on her and she is naturally reluctant to lose that benefit. As I didn’t wish to see her again I arranged to pay her a settlement through my lawyer last week. I can only assume that the texts are supposed to tempt me back to her bed. I didn’t reply. I thought to reply would only encourage her.’
‘She was your mistress,’ Ruby remarked uneasily, relieved that no deeper feelings had been involved, but troubled by the obvious truth that he could so efficiently separate sex from emotion. ‘That arrangement sounds so … so cold.’
‘It suited both of us. I didn’t want complications or hassle.’ Raja shrugged a broad shoulder, his face reflective. ‘But now I have you and as long as I have you I have no need of any other woman.’
There was something wonderfully soothing about that statement, voiced as it was with such rock-solid assurance in her ability to replace his sexually sophisticated mistress. The worst of the stress holding Ruby taut drained away.
‘I was really upset when I saw those texts,’ Ruby admitted reluctantly.
‘I regret that you saw them and had reason to doubt my integrity. In that field, you can trust me, Ruby,’ he murmured levelly, his sincerity patent. ‘I believe in trust and honesty. I would not deceive you with another woman.’
Her eyes stung like mad and she widened them in an effort to keep the tears from overflowing, but some of them escaped, trickling down her cheeks. ‘I believe you,’ she said in a wobbly voice. ‘And I don’t know why I’m crying.’
‘Hadeel said you might be very emotional over the next few months because of your hormones,’ Raja told her, startling her with that forecast and belatedly adding, ‘I told her that you were pregnant.’
Ruby was disconcerted by that admission. ‘You’ve told your family already?’
‘Only Hadeel, the sister I am closest to, and she will keep our news a secret until we are ready to share it with the rest of the family. It’s such exciting news—I could not keep quiet. I had to tell someone!’ Raja exclaimed, a mixture of apology, appeal and distinct pride in his delivery that touched her heart.
It was the first sign that she had seen that he was genuinely pleased about the baby and a stifled sob escaped her convulsed throat because inexplicably, even though he had set her worst fears to rest, she felt more like having a good cry than ever. ‘I don’t know what’s the m-matter with me.’
Murmuring soothing things, Raja scooped her up in his arms and carried her back indoors, shouldering open the bedroom door to settle her down onto the comfortable bed.
‘Do you want me to start sending you texts like that?’ Ruby asked him abruptly. ‘I mean, I haven’t done anything like that before but I’m sure I could learn the knack.’
Raja dealt her a startled look and then he laughed with rich appreciation of that proposal. ‘No, thanks for the offer but I can get by without that sort of thing. To be truthful it’s not really my style.’
‘Honestly?’ Ruby pressed anxiously.
‘Honestly. I would much rather do it than talk about it, aziz,’ he husked with considerable amusement gleaming in his lustrous eyes. ‘And of course I have to have you to do it with. That goes without saying.’
‘Am I really going to be enough for you?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Raja asserted. ‘More than enough.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘You’re special and you were from the start. My first introduction to you was a photo of you when you were fourteen. It was taken outside the cathedral in Simis. Wajid had it in his possession—’
‘My goodness, you saw that snap? Mum sent it after we came home from that holiday in Ashur when we were turned away from the palace gates,’ Ruby explained. ‘I think it was her way of saying that we were perfectly happy whether the royal family ignored us or otherwise.’
‘I was very impressed with the photo, and when I saw you for real I was stunned by your impact on me and by how much you challenged me,’ Raja confided. ‘I only had to look at you to want you. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.’
‘I couldn’t take my eyes off you either,’ Ruby said. ‘But you admitted earlier that you were very resentful of the need for us to marry …’
‘The instant I saw my beautiful bride my fate became instantly more bearable,’ Raja told her, laughing at the face she pulled. ‘Yes, I’m a very predictable guy—I desired you at first glance and I’m afraid that went a long way towards settling my objections to our arranged marriage.’
Ruby frowned, studying him in disbelief. ‘That is just so basic.’
Raja spread his hands as if to ask her to hold that opinion. ‘But then when I was least expecting it I fell in love with you …’
‘And then you … what?’ Ruby gasped, utterly bemused by that declaration.
‘At first it was just sexual desire that motivated me and then it was your smile, your strength and your sense of fun that had even more appeal. I fell in love without even realising what was happening to me,’ Raja declared, gazing at her with hot golden eyes in which possessiveness was laced with pride. ‘All of a sudden you became the most important element in my world.’
‘I don’t believe you. You said you slept with me in the desert because you wanted to make our marriage a real marriage.’
‘I slept with you purely because I wanted you. Any other aspirations which I cherished were secondary to that simple fact,’ Raja intoned levelly. ‘I’m not too proud to admit that I wanted you any way I could get you. I was very hurt when you said later that you didn’t care what I did.’
Ruby was beginning to believe but she wasn’t prepared to let him off the hook too easily. ‘But there was a seduction plan?’
Raja curled her fingers into his palm. ‘I couldn’t resist you.’
‘I was pretty horrible to you in the desert. I mean, it wasn’t your fault that we were there but I behaved as though it was.’
