Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin

by Kim Lawrence

‘I know who he is.’ His eyes still on Molly, Tair bared his teeth in a dismissive smile. ‘If you were trying to make me jealous, Molly, you could have done better than this.’

  The colour flew to her cheeks. ‘I was not trying to make you jealous! My God, you’re so arrogant, Tair!’

  But would she want him any other way?

  Turning a deaf ear to the intrusive question, Molly smiled warmly at Jean Paul and laid a hand on his arm. ‘You think everything is about you, Tair. You owe poor Jean Paul an apology.’

  She lifted her chin and allowed her narrowed-eyed, defiant glare to rest on Tair’s lean dark face.

  Jean Paul stammered, ‘No…no, not at all, I did not know…know that you were both…’

  To Molly’s utter horror, instead of refuting the assumption or laughing it off Tair lifted his shoulders in an expressive shrug and observed, ‘And now you do know.’

  Molly rounded on him, her cheeks hot with mortified colour. ‘There isn’t anything to know.’

  ‘There is no point being shy about this, ma belle. It is obvious.’

  ‘The only thing that is obvious to me is that you are totally insane.’ She lifted a finger to her own forehead and tapped it sharply. ‘Not to mention thoughtless and…’ Molly bit her lip, her eyes sliding briefly in the direction of the stunning brunette.

  He elevated a dark brow. ‘You were saying…?’

  Molly averted her eyes and smiled at Jean Paul, who was visibly struggling to cling to the shreds of his diplomatic cool, and ignored Tair. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded when she was aware of him down to the cellular level, but she hoped the rigid back she presented him gave him the right message.

  While her own feelings towards Tair’s prospective bride were not exactly warm and mushy, she did think the woman deserved a little respect and consideration and Tair was not trying to be even slightly discreet. She was conscious that several conversations nearby had stilled while ears were strained to catch what he was saying.

  ‘Prince Tair and I met briefly at a—’

  ‘He doesn’t believe a word you’re saying, Molly.’

  Molly swung back, her eyes blazing liquid gold. ‘Will you shut up, Tair?’

  She didn’t shout at the top of her lungs, but her outburst did coincide with a general lull in the conversation and consequently her furious command—aided by great acoustics—was heard by the nearest hundred people or so.

  Molly closed her eyes and groaned. God, Jean Paul was going to dine out on this story for the next ten years! She was not conscious of having voiced her thoughts out loud until Tair said with total confidence, ‘Jean Paul is not going to be saying anything to anyone, are you?’

  ‘What would I say? Nothing to say!’ He held up his hands in a pacific gesture.

  ‘I’m going to take Miss James off your hands.’

  As if she were a piece of excess baggage!

  The Frenchman made no attempt to stop Tair when he placed a firm hand in the small of Molly’s back and steered her away, but then, Molly reflected bitterly, no one ever tried to stop him doing anything. If they had maybe he wouldn’t be the arrogant, overbearing tyrant he was now!

  She looked over her shoulder to where Jean Paul was standing staring after them.

  ‘What possessed you?’ she hissed at Tair, who carried on walking, ignoring several people who acknowledged him as they passed. ‘I hope you realise that Jean Paul is putting the worst possible interpretation on that performance. The man is a gossip.’ Presumably in his current situation Tair needed to take care what people said about him. Although he didn’t seem to be going quite the right way about it.

  ‘Tair, people are staring. Will you—?’ She stopped, her loose hair tangling in the heavy fabric as Tair dragged her through a heavily brocaded velvet curtain and a pair of carved oak doors behind it.

  He closed the heavy doors behind them, cutting off the noise from the party like a switch.

  Molly, breathless, blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of this small antechamber. She backed up until she felt her shoulder blades touch the carved screen behind her and tried to smooth down her hair with her hands.

  ‘Tair…’ She jumped as she heard him turn the lock with a decisive click.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  MOLLY had wanted a private conversation, but not quite this private.

  She pressed a hand to her throat where her fluttering pulse throbbed under the pale blue-veined skin.

  Tair took a slow measured step towards her. Her oval face looked porcelain-pale and, in the light cast by the blue lantern overhead, slightly other-worldly. She looked perfect and there was nothing other-worldly about the white-hot hunger that roared like a furnace through his veins.

  During the last couple of months duty and service had taken precedence, but it had been her face that had kept him going when things had been difficult, along with the knowledge that once he had sorted the mess that had been dumped in his lap he would be free to express the feelings in his heart. Feelings that Tair had not imagined he was capable of experiencing.

  When Beatrice had invited him to the party his first inclination had been to refuse, until she had mentioned that they were hoping that Molly would be able to attend.

  Suddenly his calendar had become conveniently accommodating.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m making sure we are not interrupted.’

  ‘Open that door immediately.’

  All she could think was how he smelt so good. The lonely weeks of telling herself that she was fine alone, that things would get better, had already been relegated to the level of childish fantasy.

  ‘Why were you so rude to that poor man?’

  ‘Was I rude? I’ll apologise to the man some time if that will make you happy,’ Tair offered generously. ‘I missed you, Molly.’

  The husky confession wiped all thought of his appalling manners from Molly’s head.

  ‘Did you miss me? Yes, you did, of course you did, and don’t try and tell me otherwise,’ he warned.

  ‘I wasn’t going to,’ she admitted.

  ‘I seduced you.’

  Molly felt a surge of exasperation. ‘You did not seduce me…well, you did, but only because I wanted to be seduced, and it was lovely.’

  ‘Lovely…’ He rolled the word on his tongue and nodded. ‘Yes, it was, and you are…very lovely. But I wasn’t going to apologise, Molly.’

  ‘You weren’t?’

  He shook his dark head. ‘I was going to say that I’m glad I seduced you.’

  ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she begged in a small voice.

  He shrugged and took another step towards her. ‘I like looking at you.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Jean Paul is harmless but his hands were all over you.’ His eyes slid down her body and his shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath. There was a self-mocking gleam in his eyes as he admitted, ‘I did not like it.’

  And would he like it when she told him?

  Molly’s own reaction had been total shock when, on that morning four weeks earlier, the blue line had appeared on the test paper.

  Would Tair be equally stunned? Would he be angry, sad or as ecstatic as she had been after the initial numbness had worn off?

  Tair was breathing hard.

  ‘You look beautiful. I would not trust any man with you, even the Jean Paul Duponts of the world.’

  The excitement swirling in her veins and the heat in his eyes conspired to make her reckless.

  ‘Does any man include you?’ she whispered, barely able to get the words out.

  ‘Especially me, but you already know that.’

  Molly tried to focus, but it was incredibly hard when he was looking at her that way. ‘I don’t know anything. I wasn’t sure you’d be here tonight.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to be until Beatrice told me you would be.’

  Molly’s eyes widened as they searched his face. ‘You wanted to see me?’ It seemed a strange thing to say for some
one who was about to marry another woman. Had Jean Paul got his facts right?

  Don’t go assuming anything…wait to get your facts straight, she cautioned herself.

  Facts straight! As if she were capable of cool, objective thought this close to Tair.

  ‘I wanted…’ He stopped, his eyes falling from hers as he said something that sounded angry in his mother tongue. ‘We parted…’He gave an impatient wave of his hand. ‘There were things I should have said that I wanted to say…It must seem to you that you walked out of my life and I forgot you. This is not the case, Molly. Things happened that required my—’

  ‘I know. Bea told me about your father. I’m sorry.’ She took a deep breath. ‘And I know as well what you did for my dad.’

  She saw the caution slide into his eyes. ‘Your father?’

  His air of exaggerated innocence didn’t fool her for a second. ‘Just let me say thank you. It was a kind thing to do.’

  ‘I have told you before, and my actions must have confirmed it to you, I do not do kind. The hospital care—it was nothing.’ He dismissed the gesture with a shrug of his expressive shoulders.

  ‘A pretty expensive nothing.’

  Irritation at her persistence moved at the back of his eyes. ‘It was something I could do, very little compared to what I wanted to do…’

  The flash of searing emotion she saw when their glances locked made her heart stop dead in her chest.

  Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to. He was marrying someone else…but then why was he looking at her that way?

  Her lashes flickered downwards. ‘You didn’t want to marry me, Tair. You thought you should because of some outdated notion of honour.’

  ‘Honour is not outdated.’

  ‘Some people think that marriage is,’ she countered.

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘I’ve not given it a lot of thought,’ she lied. ‘I’m very grateful, Tair, for what you did for Dad.’

  ‘I do not want your gratitude!’ He saw her flinch and thought how he wanted her soul and her body. He wanted her love, not her gratitude.

  ‘There is no need to yell.’ It was not his raised voice that disturbed Molly, but the waves of emotion she could feel rolling off him.

  But then if he was under the sort of pressure that Bea had suggested she supposed he would be pretty close to the edge.

  He gave a snarling sound of frustration and looked at her with what seemed to Molly like utter loathing.

  ‘I think there is every need to yell.’

  ‘Well, don’t blame the people at the clinic. They didn’t tell me…when Bea said it wasn’t Tariq I knew it must be you.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I’ll pay you back, of course…’

  ‘You will pay me back?’ he echoed, looking at her mouth.

  ‘It might take a while, of course…’

  He pressed a finger to the groove between his dark brows and swore. ‘I really can’t decide if you try and insult me or if it just comes naturally to you?’

  ‘The trouble with you is…’ You don’t love me.

  ‘Why hold back now, Molly? You have never shied away from tearing my character to pieces before.’

  ‘I was sorry to hear about your father.’

  Tair shrugged and responded with a painful politeness. ‘We have never been close,’ he admitted. ‘The doctors had warned him this could happen if he didn’t reform his lifestyle.’

  ‘But like you he doesn’t take orders.’

  A spasm of distaste contorted his features. ‘I am nothing like my father.’

  ‘Sorry…I didn’t mean…I know you’re nothing like your father,’ she said with a rush. ‘It must have been a difficult time for you, but you look well.’ He had actually dropped a number of pounds and the weight loss on his already lean, muscle-packed frame had the effect of highlighting the chiselled angles of his proud face.

  ‘You look…’A visible sigh shuddered through his frame. ‘As always…I like looking at you.’

  His blazing blue eyes had the same effect on her nervous system as being directly connected with the mains supply.

  She lifted a self-conscious hand to the exposed upper slopes of her bosom. ‘I hope you don’t mind me being here.’

  ‘This is your family. I am the guest here.’

  ‘Tair…’

  ‘I like the way you say my name…say it again.’

  Molly stared transfixed and whispered softly, ‘Tair.’ Then she blinked and added brightly, ‘I hear you might be getting married.’

  He froze and studied her face.

  ‘It is not out of the question,’ he agreed.

  Everything inside Molly just shut down, including her defences. She struggled to smile but only half got there before disintegrating inside.

  ‘But it is not official yet.’

  ‘It might never be if she saw you drag me out here like that. All I can say is it’s not the way I would expect the man I was going to marry to act.’

  He angled a dark brow and looked at her miserable face, suddenly appearing more relaxed than he had done since they’d walked into the room. ‘And how would you expect the man you were going to marry to act, Molly?’

  ‘I’m not going to marry anyone.’

  ‘You might find someone when you least expect it. That does happen, so I believe…’

  ‘Is that what happened to you? No…don’t tell me,’ she begged, covering her mouth with her trembling hand. ‘I don’t really want to know. But I’m very happy for you,’ she lied. Being noble and selfless hurt like hell, and Molly could feel her more ignoble jealous self fighting to slip the leash. ‘I saw her…Jean Paul pointed her out. She is very beautiful.’ The sort who would run to fat in later years.

  His lips thinned in distaste. ‘Zara is not really to my taste—she is a little too obvious.’ And she is not you.

  ‘Then why are you marrying her?’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘But, Jean Paul said—’

  ‘So of course it must be right,’ he cut in sardonically.

  She took a deep breath. ‘Of course not…right, well, excellent.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right, well, excellent.’

  ‘You said that.’

  Molly felt something snap inside her. ‘Well, I’ve been out of my mind with worry since Beatrice told me.’

  ‘Since Beatrice told you what?’

  ‘That you were perhaps in danger.’

  He blinked. ‘Really? I thought it was just my sanity I stood in danger of losing.’

  ‘This isn’t a joke, Tair!’ she yelled, frustrated by his careless attitude. ‘You’ve never taken security seriously and now…have you considered wearing body armour?’

  Tair looked into her pale, earnest face for a long moment before asking, ‘Just what has Beatrice been saying to you, Molly? Come sit down here.’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to sit down.’

  ‘Why do you think I need…body armour?’

  ‘Well, Beatrice didn’t come right out and say that you were in physical danger, but it follows that these people are dangerous and they’re playing for big stakes and they want you out of the picture any way they can.’

  ‘You are talking about my critics in Zabrania?’

  She nodded. ‘Beatrice said they want to put a cousin of yours on the throne. That he has an heir and a spare and…I suppose that’s why you’re thinking of marriage…?’

  ‘Heirs are the last thing on my mind at this precise moment, Molly,’ he told her honestly.

  ‘That’s a pity, because the thing is, Tair…’

  ‘The thing is?’ he prompted.

  She sucked in a deep breath and lifted her chin. This was never going to be easy. ‘The thing is you’ve got one, or you will have in about seven months. I know this is shocking! Are you all right?’ She angled a worried look at him.

  He looked at her blankly. ‘You’re pregnant?’ His hand fell away. ‘Baby…?’ His eyes fell to her stomach, the
n slowly rose to her face.

  Molly was shocked by the grey tinge to his skin.

  Tair was a man who rolled with the blows and came back for more. His resilience was an integral part of him. But the man standing there staring at her had the look of a man who had just received a mortal wound.

  ‘Dieu!’ he breathed, dragging a hand across his jaw. ‘You are pregnant with our child?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  Tair blinked to banish the image of her holding a child in her arms from his head.

  ‘Sorry…sorry?’ His voice rose to an incredulous boom as he regarded her unhappy face with stark incredulity. ‘You’re sorry? I am the one that put you in this position and left you alone…’ His voice trailed off.

  Molly had gone through the stunned stage herself and had some understanding of how he was feeling. ‘It does take a while to sink in.’

  His searching eyes moved over her before he asked thickly, ‘You are well?’

  ‘Fine,’ she said, thinking that he didn’t look it. ‘I want this baby, Tair.’

  ‘Our baby…’ he said, still sounding as if the news had not quite fully registered.

  ‘I know it might be difficult for you to think about it logically right now, but although you might not be happy about it—’

  ‘Did I say I’m not happy?’

  ‘You didn’t have to.’

  ‘I suppose I don’t have to say anything either because you will put words in my mouth. I am going to be a father…’ He passed a hand across his eyes and shook his head.

  ‘A baby needs a father.’

  His fierce eyes flew to her face. ‘Do you think I do not know this?’

  ‘Let me finish, please, Tair,’ she begged. ‘A baby needs a father and your position might be more secure if you were married.’

  Something moved behind his eyes. ‘Molly, are you proposing to me?’

  The colour rushed to her face, but she held his gaze. ‘No…yes…I suppose I am,’ she admitted. ‘The things you said about arranged marriages, you know, actually make sense when you stop to think about it.’

  She sounded as if she were selling double glazing!

  ‘No, it doesn’t.’

  She felt the mortified colour rush to her face and wanted to die. ‘Oh, well, it was just an idea.’