The Doctor's Marriage for a Month

by Annie O'Neil

  She took a deep breath, and aimed for being cool.

  ‘You have business with me?’

  Cool and polite.

  ‘I think you know I do.’

  His deep, treacly voice rasped against her skin and sent shivers down her spine, but Lily had been taken in by a treacly voice and silk suits—by money, and jewellery, and private planes that swept her from one holiday playground to the next.

  Beautiful, vibrant, fun-loving Lily...

  And look how that had ended.

  ‘Oh?’ Lauren managed, dragging herself out of the past, and ignoring the catch in her own breathing as he moved closer.

  ‘The boy! You have the boy!’

  It wasn’t a question, but how much did he actually know?

  Not where she lived or he’d have come to the house—possibly even kidnapped Nim—though that would have happened over Joe’s dead body.

  ‘What boy?’ she asked, stalling.

  He waved away her pretence, eyes like obsidian boring into hers.

  ‘He needs to be taken home.’ His voice was glacial now. ‘He needs to know the country he will one day rule.’

  ‘And just who are you to be making these demands?’

  The man drew himself up to an impressive height and seemed to summon a sense of power from the ether.

  ‘I am Abdul-Malik Madani, I am called Malik, and my name means Protector of the King.’

  Refusing to be intimidated, Lauren straightened, and although five feet five wasn’t a very impressive height, she made the most of it with a tilt of her chin and a glare in her eyes.

  ‘Well, if Nim’s father was the former heir, then you didn’t do too good a job of it!’

  She heard his reaction—a quick snatch of breath—and saw it in the stricken look on his face, the sudden bowing of his head to hide his emotion.

  She watched his chest expand as he breathed deeply, and knew the depth of his pain when he spoke again, voice strained with grief.

  ‘You are right,’ he said. ‘I could not save my brother, but it is his son that I must protect now—protect at all costs, even with my life.’

  That was a bit melodramatic, but hadn’t all her admittedly brief contact with the Madanis been overly melodramatic?

  She closed her eyes, remembering, shuddering, aware of this man’s presence in every cell of her being, trying to focus on what he was saying.

  He was either a consummate actor or genuine, but did she really want to find out which?

  She moved towards the door, intending to keep walking until she was well away from this man. Somewhere quiet where she could think quietly and halt the panic.

  But in two strides he had overtaken her so he now stood directly in front of her—less than a foot away—towering over her with some kind of inner presence that made her feel more queasy than afraid.

  Strange, unsettled butterflies rioted in her stomach, zapping their disquiet along her nerves. Up close, the man’s face was beautiful—not in a pretty-boy way but with hard carved features: a thin straight nose separating those deep-set eyes; high ridges of cheekbones; and lips full enough for his mouth to scream sensual but not too full—not fleshy, just there, unsmiling...

  ‘The child’s name is Nimr!’

  The words were like a slap.

  So much for her thinking she’d scored a point on him earlier.

  ‘We call him Nim,’ she retorted. ‘Easier than trying to roll that unfamiliar “r” at the end. But, yes, it’s spelled Nimr on official documents.’

  ‘And yet you asked what boy?’

  Sarcasm iced the words and Lauren felt them cut into her skin—saying Nim’s name had brought back the fear. Just because this man said he’d give his life for Nim, what proof was that?

  For all Lauren knew, he could have been behind his brother’s death.

  As soon as she thought it, she knew she shouldn’t have gone there—memories threatened to swamp her again and right now she needed to be strong.

  As for his assumption that Nim would want to be King of the godforsaken country this man was talking about—well, that was for the future, and for Nim himself to decide!

  ‘Nim was left in my care and that’s where he stays,’ Lauren said, not adding Lily’s almost hysterical warning of deadly danger. Of people—Tariq’s family members even—trying to track her down to kill her and her son. And Lauren, for her sins, had dismissed it all, sure Lily had been exaggerating—blaming her state on a hormone-fuelled fantasy.

  That was until the accident, and then when Nim had been taken...

  Don’t go there, she told her frantic thoughts.

  ‘And now I need to leave,’ she said, taking a side step, hoping to get behind him to the door—

  Which proved hopeless.

  She tried a glare, one that usually sent overexcited adolescents straight back to their beds, but felt it bounce off him.

  ‘Perhaps we should begin again, discuss this in more congenial surroundings. As Mr Marshall said, I had some business with the hospital, and thought you might feel more at ease meeting me here with other people’s knowledge of the meeting. But there are other places...’

  He touched her, oh, so lightly on the shoulder as he spoke, and fire spread through her body, confirming the danger she’d felt in this man from the beginning.

  Was this how Lily had felt when she’d first met Tariq?

  ‘There’s nothing to discuss,’ she told him, forcing her voice to stay firm. ‘Nim is my child, properly adopted. He stays here!’

  ‘With security lights all around your house, and alarms hard-wired back to the police station, and a guard to follow him wherever he goes?’

  Panic swelled in Lauren.

  He did know where she lived! And how they lived! The only thing he didn’t know was her constant fear...

  But there was no way this man was going to get her child!

  ‘He’s not a guard, he’s a nanny,’ she snapped. ‘Most working mothers have them!’

  ‘Six-two male? SAS-trained? Do most Australian working mothers have such a nanny?’

  She stepped back, aware of giving ground, but she couldn’t yell at him successfully when she was so close. Something about the man flustered her and she was pretty sure it wasn’t fear...

  She took another deep breath.

  ‘I lost my entire family in that accident—everyone but Nim—and no one can tell me how or why it happened, or, worse, who the target was. I don’t know whether it was my sister and our parents, or your brother.’

  ‘There was a doubt about the intended victim?’ he demanded, his voice sharp with tension as he broke into her explanation.

  Closing her eyes briefly to regain a little composure, Lauren explained.

  ‘My father had many business interests in the west, from mining to pastoral holdings and beyond. The police thought...’

  She couldn’t go on, remembering the horror of those days when grief had been overwhelming her and policemen had been constantly asking questions—

  ‘Tell me.’

  His voice was gentle now, not a plea exactly but with enough emotion in it that she understood he needed to know.

  ‘It was only when Nim was snatched they turned their attention to your brother.’

  ‘Someone took the child?’

  His eyes blazed with anger now, but the memories were pressing down on her and she had to get the story told before she broke down from the remembered terror.

  ‘A police family liaison officer was staying with me. The detectives were there one morning with so many questions, their voices unsettled Nim. He was only tiny. So I took him out for a walk in his pram, and someone hit me on the head and ran off with him.’

  She tried to quell the memories of her pain and fear. She had thought that not only had she lost her parents and Lily
but the baby as well—the baby she’d promised Lily she’d protect.

  Had he read it in her eyes that he steered her back into a chair.

  ‘Sit, take deep breaths! They found the child?’

  He asked the question in the same calm voice he’d used to make her sit.

  She nodded.

  ‘At the airport, dressed all in pink, travelling on a passport as Lucy someone, two parents travelling with her. It was luck, nothing more, that they found Nim—another twenty minutes and they’d have boarded, the plane doors would have shut.’

  ‘And the couple?

  Lauren looked up at the man hovering impatiently in front of her.

  ‘They admitted to being paid to kidnap the child and take him to the United States, where he could be sold to adoptive parents in some quasi-criminal deal. But they denied all knowledge of the accident. Further police investigations couldn’t prove they’d been involved.’

  She read confusion in his eyes and understood it, for those few months of her life still seemed unreal to her.

  But this man needed answers, so she picked up where she’d left off earlier.

  ‘So, yes, I have security to protect my child, but none of it intrudes on his having a normal childhood. That is one thing I work very hard to ensure.’

  Lauren paused, needing to catch her breath, needing to see his face—his expression—as she finalised this business.

  ‘So, really, there’s nothing else to discuss. I’m guessing you spent a considerable amount of money to track me down, but Nim is mine now—a little Australian boy with a future here, not in his father’s country. So I’ll be getting home to my son.’

  ‘Son? You have adopted him?’

  She’d been expecting more objections to her leaving, not this shocked disbelief.

  ‘Lily left him with me that night, telling me to take great care of him—telling me again of threats. To do that when she was...’ Lauren made a huge effort to pull herself together ‘...gone, he had to be legally mine, so of course I’ve adopted him.’

  She looked directly into his eyes this time—into darkness that held no light or shadows, and about as much humanity and understanding as a statue’s blank gaze.

  * * *

  Malik was only too aware he’d made a mess of this. First the fawning executive, setting up the meeting with this woman as if he was conferring a great honour on her.

  And then underestimating the stubborn female who’d had the guts to adopt his nephew. There might not be much of her, and most of what he could see was tired and grubby, but despite the dark shadows beneath her large grey eyes, and the fear, which had been an almost palpable thing in the room, she’d stood up to him.

  Though with what she’d been through he could understand that fear...

  Coming here, he’d thought she’d be willing to hand the boy over to him—perhaps with due recompense—but every word he’d heard held the cadences of her love for Nimr.

  Had he been judging her by her sister, that he’d thought this way? One look at her had dispelled any physical resemblance, and he doubted Lily would have stood up to him the way Lauren had, or taken the extreme measures he now knew of, to keep his nephew safe.

  No, Lily had been beautiful, captivating, and could charm birds from a tree, but how much more attractive was the courage and quiet determination of this sister?

  Something he hadn’t felt for a long time stirred inside him, something he’d have to think about later, because his business was far from finished.

  As far as she was concerned, Nimr was her child and she’d probably have killed him if he’d mentioned recompense.

  He looked down at her, close now as she tried once more to get out the door, and he was almost sure he detected a tremble in her body, and definitely saw fear behind the defiance in her eyes.

  He touched her gently on the shoulder—felt the tremors running through her and the coldness of her skin and knew he hadn’t imagined the fear, knew he’d caused it, and that wounded him.

  ‘I’m sorry. This has come as a surprise for you, but I have had top private investigators looking for Nimr for two years now and to suddenly have him so close—well, I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought meeting you publicly through the hospital might be easier for you, but all I’ve done is barge into your life and upset you.’

  She’d stepped away from his hand.

  ‘I have to go,’ she said, slipping behind him as he moved forward, escaping this time, though not for long.

  He caught up with her by the time they’d reached the elevator.

  ‘We need to talk!’ he said, probably too loudly from the stares he got as they entered the already packed space.

  She was pressed against him so he couldn’t see her face, but the shake of her head, dark curls moving beneath his chin—brushing his skin—gave him his answer.

  Soft dark curls from what he could see, giving off a hint of something he recognised but couldn’t name.

  Rosewater?

  Back home, it was used in many local dishes—but in hair?

  He breathed in the scent again as the elevator reached the ground floor—whatever it was that had stirred inside him earlier stirring again—and they led the exodus out into the corridor.

  Expecting her to make a dash for some bolthole he’d never find in the big hospital, he caught her arm.

  She spun towards him.

  ‘I’ll call Security,’ she warned, but his mind was still on rosewater.

  ‘Is it rosewater I can smell?’

  The words were out before he considered how inappropriate they were.

  ‘Rosewater?’ she demanded, outrage warming her cheeks to a rosy pink. Grey eyes spitting fire, all fear gone. She probably had some kind of emergency call button somewhere on her person—

  ‘I could smell rosewater,’ he said, aware of how lame it sounded. ‘The women use it in cooking at home.’

  ‘The women, huh?’ she said, but a lot of her tension was gone, and he kind of thought her soft pink lips might be trying hard not to smile.

  Pleased they’d seemed to reach some kind of armistice, he raised both hands in surrender.

  ‘I will not get into an argument with you about women’s rights! I’m a believer in them myself. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I’m so anxious to take Nimr home. My country needs to be dragged into the twenty-first century, and as his regent I could at least begin the task.’

  She studied him for a moment, not bothering to hide the suspicion that had flared in her wide eyes.

  ‘And you can’t do that without him there—a boy of four? Surely, if you’re related and next in line after him, you can get started without his presence.’

  Malik sighed. He’d had a long journey, spent far too long convincing the finance man to arrange his meeting with this woman, thinking it was better to do it with an authority figure to introduce them—as it would have been at home. And now she was demanding answers to questions that could take hours to explain.

  ‘I’ve got to get home,’ she said, halting any further conversation. ‘Joe goes to swimming training and I have to be there for Nim.’

  ‘Nimr,’ Malik corrected automatically, giving the ‘r’ on the end of his nephew’s name the slight roll it required.

  ‘Whatever!’ his companion snapped. ‘But we’ll never get through any conversation if you’re going to correct his name every time I say it! And you know nothing about Australian kids if you imagine he could get through childhood with a rolled “r” on the end of his name without incessant teasing, so here he’s Nim!’

  And she stalked away, her anger back, and clearly seen in the straight shoulders and swift strides that somehow drew his attention to strong, shapely legs and a trim figure.

  Kept his attention for an instant too long...

  He sighed again.

  H
e had more important matters at hand than a woman with grey eyes and a trim figure. Although Tariq had always been the practised negotiator—when he’d bothered—he, Malik, had stepped in often enough to be a competent one. But he’d blown it this time. He could understand her fighting him if she’d grown fond of the boy—that would be understandable—but part of her resistance had definitely been fear.

  At least he knew where she lived.

  In fear?

  * * *

  Rattled by the encounter, Lauren made her way out of the hospital by the nearest exit, finding herself in the wrong car park, so by the time she’d found her small vehicle she was shaking with the tension the stranger’s appearance had generated.

  Tension and fear—and something else, something she really didn’t want to acknowledge.

  She unlocked the door and slumped gratefully into the driving seat, opening windows and starting the air-conditioning as the vehicle, after standing in the summer sun all day, was like an inferno. Even the steering wheel was too hot to touch, so the idea of resting her forearms on it and having a wee cry had to be denied.

  Not that she’d let that man make her cry! She’d shed enough tears four years ago—enough to last a lifetime. Although admittedly there’d been more, when Nim had been a baby and, teething or not well, impossible to settle, she’d felt totally alone.

  Then Aunt Jane had sold her parents’ house for her, found the duplex for them on the other side of the country, set up the security, and made it safe enough for her to finally give Nim a home.

  It was time to get home to her son. She couldn’t let Joe down. Without Joe she’d be lost, she and Nim.

  And no matter what that man said, Nim was hers and hers he was going to stay. He could grow up as an ordinary Australian boy and need never know much at all about that strange place thousands of miles away where his birth mother had lost her bearings.

  Oh, Lily.

  With a huff of impatience at the sudden sense of loss inside her, she drove out of the parking area and headed for home, her mind back on practical matters.

  Did she have to stop at the shops for fruit for Nim’s lunchbox tomorrow or had Joe called in on his way back from kindy?