by Lynne Graham
‘Are you feeling OK?’ Lily prompted grudgingly.
‘Why wouldn’t I be? By the way, I need your passport to fill out the forms I obtained this morning,’ Rauf responded, his thoughts clearly on more practical matters. ‘A copy of your birth certificate would be even more welcome.’
‘I brought a copy in case I lost my passport.’ Lily rifled her bag for both items.
‘Excellent. You will also need a brief medical examination before the ceremony can go ahead. I have organised that with a female doctor in the same town,’ Rauf explained. ‘I’ve already had my own check.’
Lily accompanied him into a charming sun-dappled room lined with bookshelves that nonetheless rejoiced in all the high-tech equipment of an office. ‘How soon do you expect to find out anything about that bank account in London?’
Rauf sent her a keen glance. ‘Why?’
‘Because once that’s sorted out, I assume I can then tell my sister what her ex-husband has been up to,’ Lily muttered ruefully, watching a frownline draw his winged ebony brows together. ‘Rauf…Hilary mightn’t have been expecting to hear from me immediately, but if I don’t get in touch soon she’ll start worrying. I could just send her a text message on my mobile…what about that?’
Rauf stilled. ‘You have a mobile phone with you?’
‘Yes…’
‘So great was my distrust that, had I known of its existence yesterday, I would have taken it from you,’ Rauf admitted. ‘I hope to get the information I requested within the next forty-eight hours. Text your sister and tell her that you’re fine. When I’ve got all the facts, we’ll fly over to England together and break the bad news and the good news face to face.’
‘It would be much better that way…’ Touched to the heart by that thoughtful suggestion, Lily gave him a luminous smile.
Like a male drawn by a spell of enchantment, Rauf leant down and let his sensual mouth come down with sweet, drugging intensity on hers. As she trembled and leant into him for support, her body thrumming with eagerness, Rauf loosed an earthy groan of frustration low in his throat and thrust her back from him again. Brilliant eyes ablaze with hunger, he snatched in a ragged breath.
‘Tonight I sleep down here…from here on in, we’re respecting the conventions—’
‘But if you’re planning to pretend that we were married anyway…’ Lily heard herself mutter and then she flushed crimson.
‘But we know we’re not…’ Lean, strong face set with stubborn determination, Rauf swept up her passport and birth certificate and began to fill out the forms he had mentioned.
He had turned her into a shameless hussy at breathtaking speed, Lily acknowledged when she later lay in solitary state in his bed, so happy and excited that she couldn’t sleep.
At three the following afternoon, Lily fingered the intricate new wedding band adorning her finger, breathed in the heady scent of the glorious bouquet of white lilies that Rauf had given her and joined him in thanking the government official who had presided over the ceremony.
‘What did he say?’ Lily pressed for a translation of the older man’s response as Rauf guided her back out to the sunny, deserted town square where a car waited to ferry them back to the helicopter.
‘That without a doubt you are the most beautiful bride ever to grace his humble office.’ Angling a look of unashamed admiration over her, Rauf swung into the car beside her. In her simple straw sun-hat and pale pink dress, she was a perfect vision and he closed his hand with possessive pride over hers.
Back at Sonngul, they dined in the arbour and lingered over the coffee. Finally Rauf went off to call his family and make his announcement about their marriage. ‘I’ll just tell my father. He can break the news to the rest of the family.’
After relaxing in the shade a little while longer, Lily heard a funny little tune play and sat for a few seconds wondering what it was before it dawned on her that it had to be her mobile phone.
Retrieving the phone in haste, she stabbed the answer button.
‘It’s Brett…’
At the sound of that eerily familiar voice, Lily sat bolt upright in her cushioned chair, goose-flesh prickling at the nape of her neck. ‘Brett? What do you want?’
In the act of walking back outdoors, having made his brief call, Rauf heard Lily speak Brett’s name and initial surprise stilled him in the hallway.
‘What are you doing over in Turkey?’ Brett demanded rawly.
Cold with the fear that Hilary’s ex-husband had always inspired in her, Lily drew in a steadying breath. As she thought of the thieving, lying and cheating Brett had utilised to rob her family blind, angry, bitter disgust overcame that fear. But on the very brink of lambasting Brett for his lack of conscience, Lily froze on the recollection that Rauf did not want Brett to be warned that his criminal activities had been exposed.
‘If you’re trying to make trouble for me again or sticking your nose in where it’s not welcome, you’re going to pay for it!’ Brett bit out nastily.
Lily felt sick: she couldn’t help it. ‘I have no idea why you should talk like that,’ she muttered unsteadily. ‘I’m just checking out the tourist trail over here for Hilary—’
‘Don’t lie to me…’
‘Rauf and I have just got married,’ Lily heard herself say and she winced at her own cowardice for even as she spoke she knew she was throwing up Rauf like a defensive barrier, hoping that Brett would be intimidated by that news.
‘Married?’ Brett questioned in audible disbelief.
‘Yes…married, so just leave me alone!’ Lily told him fiercely. ‘You can’t threaten me now and I want nothing more to do with you—’
‘Kasabian has married you…well, fancy that!’ Suddenly, Brett laughed as if she had cracked the best joke of the year. ‘Oh, what a wonderful world it is and oh, what grief there is going to be if the bridegroom goes digging!’
‘What are you talking about?’ Lily exclaimed in angry apprehension, wholly disconcerted by that facetious response.
‘When the balloon goes up, you had better protect me because if you don’t that marriage of yours might just end up in the dustbin too. See you soon, Lily!’ As Brett rang off Lily was left clutching the phone and staring into space.
See you soon? Her flesh crawled at that concluding threat. Surely Brett could not mean that he was actually in Turkey? She checked where his call had come from and was relieved to be able to verify from the number that he had phoned her from England. Brett had only been trying to scare her. Common sense suggested that the very last place Brett would want to visit would be the scene of his own crimes. But what balloon was he expecting to go up? The villas he had never built? Or the likely scam that Rauf suspected over that misnamed bank account? But why on earth would Brett think that she would protect him? For the sake of her own family? For the sake of appearances? Well, this time around, Brett had no hope, Lily thought angrily. Never again and no matter what the cost would she allow herself to go in fear of Brett’s threats.
Shattered by the revealing dialogue he had just overheard, Rauf hauled in a jagged, shuddering breath. Swinging away, caution making him resist the instinctive need to immediately confront Lily, he headed for the sweeping staircase instead. Just when he had finally mastered any urge to doubt Lily’s veracity, he had found out the truth and, ironically, from her own lips. It was in itself suspect that Brett should contact Lily. Why, after such a bitter divorce, would he phone his ex-wife’s little sister unless they had had a relationship that went beyond the usual boundaries? And why would he call at all when Lily herself loudly professed to hate him?
Leave me alone! You can’t threaten me now and I want nothing more to do with you! At some stage, Lily must’ve been in love with Brett Gilman. And why not? Gilman was a good five years younger than his ex-wife, blond and boyish, a lightweight charmer, but still the type a lot of women went for. Lily might not have slept with her sister’s husband, but evidently Gilman had been well aware of Lily’s feelings for hi
m, might even have encouraged them and had no doubt tried to use her to his own advantage. Perhaps guilt had brought Lily to her senses, perhaps she had even wanted to confess all to her sister. Had Gilman then threatened to tell his wife that Lily had been trying to tempt him into an affair?
As Rauf reached the top of the stairs Irmak brought him a phone and he answered it. It was his mother, Seren, and she was very, very excited, having only just heard from his father that her son had got married. Rauf said not a word while his mother implied that civil marriage ceremonies were only for heathens and announced that he had to bring Lily straight home to Istanbul so that they could enjoy a proper family wedding.
His grandmother came on the line next and pointed out that, since he had already made his poor family wait half their lives for him to find a bride, he really had to do the deed the traditional way and in style. Rauf again said nothing for it would have been a very great challenge to get a word in edgeways.
At that point, his great-grandmother, Nelispah, took her turn on the phone. First she told him how overjoyed she was before reminiscing at some length about how her own wedding celebrations had lasted forty days and forty nights. But she then let a little sob escape as she pointed out how shocked everybody would be when they learnt that her great-grandson had wed his bride without his own family present. Of course, the simple way out of that painfully embarrassing predicament, Nelispah added in a pathetic whisper, would be to stage another wedding and act as if the civil ceremony had never happened.
‘Whatever you want, anything…’ Rauf muttered, barely able to keep what he was hearing in his head for longer than five seconds but aware that even more guilt was hovering heavily on his horizon.
‘Are you well?’ Nelispah Kasabian trilled in a more lively tone.
‘I’m fine.’ Rauf breathed in deep and knew he was lying.
‘Bring Lily home to us tomorrow and we will see to everything,’ the old lady told him chirpily and the call ended much faster than he would have expected it to end, but as it was a relief at that instant he brushed aside his faint surprise.
Rauf’s next conscious move was in the direction of the drinks cabinet. The phone call was already forgotten. He poured himself a brandy. He couldn’t keep his hand steady and the rage of shock was now coursing through him like molten lava. But what was he planning to say to Lily? Indeed could he even reasonably say anything?
For, three years ago, he himself had come a poor second-best to Brett Gilman! He broke out in a cold sweat at that humiliating acknowledgement. But it was obvious. Everything in his past relationship with Lily that had once puzzled Rauf now fell into place: her former aversion to being touched by him, her surprising reluctance to visit her own family. When he had first met Lily in London, she could only have been trying to get over her love for her sister’s husband and dating Rauf had most likely been part of that effort.
In those days, Lily had neither wanted nor needed nor loved him. She might have recently said that she had loved him then, but he saw that as a case of wishful thinking, a case of wanting to forget an attachment that still made her feel guilty. How could she ever have loved him when it was so evident that it had been Brett she still cared about? However, Lily did want him now, Rauf reminded himself doggedly. But did she still languish after Gilman in some secret corner of her heart? The fact that she had broken off the relationship didn’t mean that she had stopped loving the guy, didn’t mean that she wouldn’t still try to save his useless hide if she got the chance! Since time immemorial supposedly sane women had been falling in love with hardened criminals they longed to redeem.
Furthermore, Lily would not be impressed if he killed Gilman with his bare hands because, right then, Rauf felt more than equal to doing that. Dead competition had a lot less pulling power. After all, how would Lily react when Gilman went to prison? Rauf expelled his pent-up breath in a shaken surge for he felt as if he were coming apart at the seams with not a shade of his rational intellect left intact. But Lily was his, wasn’t she? No other man, nothing was about to get in the way of that reality. He was not going to lose her. Lily was his wife. Possession would be ten tenths of the law in his household.
He embarked on a second brandy. He would say nothing…he could say nothing! Falling in love with the wrong person was not a crime. Indeed, it seemed clear that Lily had behaved exactly as she ought to have done in the circumstances: there had been no affair. She had left home, stayed away and resisted temptation. He ought to be proud of her for that, Rauf told himself fiercely. But that was a step too far for him at that moment. He was still too devastated by what he had learned.
Pale and taut, Lily went off in search of Rauf. He was in the basoda, his back turned to the room as he stared out the window. Even in the state she was in, she noted the rigidity of his stance, the bunched muscles evident in his wide shoulders as he flexed them in a sudden abrupt movement that lacked his usual fluid grace.
‘I suppose your family was sure to be upset about you marrying a woman they’ve never met…’ Lily sighed unhappily, assuming that that was why he had not returned to the arbour.
Rauf closed his eyes for a second and then swung round, dark eyes veiled. ‘No…nothing of that nature and you did meet my great-grandmother briefly,’ he reminded her.
‘They probably think you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life…just suddenly plunging into marriage with a stranger,’ Lily suggested next, determined to know the worst.
Conscious that she was staring at him, Rauf made a major effort to concentrate. ‘I told my father that we first met a few years ago. It was the fact that we opted for a civil ceremony and went ahead without their presence which caused some distress…I think—’
Her brow indented. ‘You…think?’
His beautifully shaped brows knit. ‘I believe I may have promised to take you to Istanbul tomorrow.’
‘Oh…’ Lily worried at her lower lip and then pressed ahead. ‘I’ve something I have to tell you. Brett just called me on my mobile phone.’
Impressed by that honesty, Rauf studied her with dark eyes beginning to flare gold.
‘I didn’t let him know you were on to him!’ Lily hurried to reassure him. ‘He takes my nieces out on Friday evenings—well, at least he’s supposed to, but most weeks he doesn’t turn up—only presumably he did show yesterday and I bet one of the girls mentioned that I was over here. I suspect that that must have put Brett in a panic…so I said I was just here doing the tourist trail for Hilary…I also mentioned us being married…’
At the very top of her voice, Rauf recalled, striding forward to gather her straight in his arms. In the midst of wondering why Rauf had made no comment whatsoever about Brett’s call, Lily was engulfed in an embrace so passionate that every powerful, angular line of his hard, muscular physique imprinted on her softer, more yielding curves. His tongue slid between her lips and plundered the tender interior of her mouth until she shivered against him, buried her hands in his thick black hair and surrendered to being lifted right off her feet.
‘It’s OK for you to make a habit of this…’ Lily mumbled through reddened lips as he carried her off towards their bedroom. ‘In fact, I rather like it.’
A vague recollection of Brett’s call slid back into her mind. ‘Aren’t you annoyed about Brett phoning me?’ she asked abstractedly.
‘Not at all…obvious move for him to make.’ Rauf contrived to answer with only the very faintest edge in his rich, dark drawl. ‘But let’s not talk about him on our wedding night, güzelim.’
‘Wedding evening,’ Lily whispered, feeling truly wicked and loving it and so grateful he wasn’t one whit bothered about Brett having called.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SETTING her down beside the bed, Rauf removed Lily’s sun-hat and embarked on the dozen hairgrips she had used to pile most of her glorious mane up out of sight.
Blue eyes bright as jewels, she looked up at him. ‘I’m really happy,’ she told him.
Who was sh
e keenest to convince? Herself? Rauf shut down on that thought as soon as it surfaced but it led right on in to another. Right now, was she trying not to think about Brett? Of course, she was! How could she not be thinking of the bastard after he had just phoned her? He had to get rid of that phone. What had happened once was not going to happen a second time.
Recognising the aggressive thrust of his jawline, troubled by his unusual silence, Lily whispered worriedly, ‘Do you have regrets about marrying me already?’
‘Are you crazy?’ Rauf launched at her with a force of instant rebuttal that struck her as a not quite convincing overreaction.
‘It’s all right to admit it…I’d sooner know…we did go into this a bit fast,’ Lily conceded tightly.
‘I can’t imagine my life without you,’ Rauf breathed tautly.
‘But I’ve only been back in your life four days…’
‘Four days is long enough with a lifetime ahead of us,’ Rauf swore, backing off a step to throw off his jacket and wrench at his silk tie. ‘My great-grandfather asked for Nelispah’s hand in marriage the first day he saw her…’
‘Love at first sight.’ Lily was impressed.
‘Or the fact that the men in her family said he was a dead man if he didn’t marry her,’ Rauf traded with sudden grudging amusement.
‘I don’t believe you…’
‘You should. He was on a walking tour of the mountain villages. Quite by accident he saw Nelispah bathing in a river in her underwear and she liked the look of him so she told her brothers about it. Her brothers liked the look of him too because a Turk prosperous enough to take a holiday seventy-five years ago was a rich man on their terms. So forty days later he came back down the mountain with a wife and said it was love at first sight—’
Lily was fascinated. ‘Why forty days later?’