Flo did not want to get this wrong.
She did not want to get her hopes up only to be told they were Petra’s earrings that he had long kept in a drawer and had hastily wrapped at the last moment so that he could give her a gift on Christmas Day.
She giggled at the chaos of her own mind for she could not quite believe that this moment was hers.
‘Why are you laughing?’ Hazin said.
‘I have a very dark sense of humour.’
‘I know you do,’ he said. ‘Are you going to open it?’
‘I’m nervous.’
‘Don’t ever be nervous with me.’
Hazin wasn’t nervous.
Doubt and uncertainty belonged to days prior—delivering a speech while knowing a ring was being made by the royal jeweller, and trying to politely accept commiserations while your heart was soaring for the first time in a decade.
Hazin hadn’t just been looking up stocking filler ideas on the Internet, or Christmas decorations either.
He really wanted to get this right, and so when Flo didn’t open it he took the box and got down on one knee. ‘Florence, will you do me the honour—?’
‘Hazin!’ Flo screeched, embarrassed, laughing and happy, so happy, all at the very same time. ‘Get up!’
‘Not till you say that you’ll marry me.’ He smiled.
‘Yes!’
Oh, yes.
And, oh, what a ring.
A diamond that, now she had a Christmas tree, could possibly have been hung on string, or even placed at the top as a star for it was so huge and sparkly.
‘See the band...’
She couldn’t see, for her eyes were filled with tears, but when she wiped them there were tiny intricate flakes of frost and snow engraved on the white gold band.
She had her white Christmas after all.
It really was the little things.
‘I love you,’ he told her. ‘I have been planning this for a while, and I guess I felt guilty for all that Petra missed out on.’
Now she could see just how the guilt must have played on his mind.
‘How do you think her family will react?’
‘They were thrilled,’ Hazin said, and he smiled at her startled look. ‘When I went to dinner the first night, I apologised and they said they wanted me to be happy. That it was time to be.’
‘It is.’
‘I never intended to tell them about you, but I went over again yesterday. I didn’t want them to hear it in an announcement.’
He was, for all his wild ways, the very kindest of men.
‘And I had to inform Ilyas too.’
‘Am I the only one who didn’t know?’
‘Pretty much.’ He nodded.
‘Maggie didn’t know.’ Flo shook her head as she thought back, because she was certain something would have been said last night, but then she realised what must have happened—Ilyas would have come back from the meeting with Hazin to find Maggie in labour. ‘What did Ilyas say?’ she asked.
‘That he could not be happier for me, as long as you said yes. Flo, I know there is a lot to work out—my brother wants me here but I have told him that I love London too. It is also my home...’
‘We’ll work it out,’ Flo said, for she knew that they would.
‘I was going to tell him that for our residence here I wanted a new area, but now, since you have been there a few times, it is starting to feel like home too.’
There was so much to think about, and so many changes to come for them both, but with the constant of love they would sort it all out, Flo knew.
‘I’d better call my parents,’ she said, ‘given everyone else knows.’
‘Why not call them after lunch?’ Hazin suggested, as there was a soft knock at the door.
Kumu, with two maids, came in wheeling a huge trolley and they set up the meal at a table.
‘Your meal is ready,’ Kumu said, and it was clear to Flo that she expected them to come to the table and eat.
‘I was just...’ Flo started, and then halted, for she could hardly tell Kumu she intended to take her meal to bed.
As well as Hazin!
So she duly took a seat and so too did Hazin. Smiling, Kumu removed the silver cloche covering her plate and Flo stared in disbelief at her meal.
It was a true Christmas dinner.
There was succulent turkey and the trimmings, about which Flo was extremely particular, were perfect.
There were golden Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets with a side of bread sauce. Brussels sprouts had been roasted and crisped just as she liked them and there was a glistening cranberry sauce. There were parsnips loaded with butter and what looked like her favourite chestnut stuffing.
Hazin could not know all her trimmings.
‘Did you speak to Maggie?’ Flo asked shaking her head, because although Maggie had joined Flo and her family at Christmas a couple of times, surely she could not have so specifically remembered how things were done.
This was perfect, right down to the willow-pattern-print plate her mum used at Christmas.
Flo was bemused.
Confused.
She took up a fork and tasted the stuffing, and it melted on her tongue.
‘That’s just like my mum’s stuffing.’
‘Because it is your mum’s stuffing.’
‘Did you ask for the recipe?’ Flo said, and then looked at Kumu, imagining the palace chefs trying to get it right, but, no, no one ever could.
For this was perfect.
‘Enjoy,’ Kumu said, and she left with the maids.
Flo sat facing Hazin and he took her hand.
‘I spoke to your father,’ Hazin said, ‘to ask for his permission to marry you. And then I spoke with your mother and she said she would be delighted to cook dinner a little earlier...’
‘This is my mum’s dinner.’ Flo could not take it in, then she remembered her mother on the phone, all tense and too busy to speak—no wonder! ‘You had it flown all this way for me?’
‘I’ve been planning this for...’ He had been about to say days. About to say how, when the sun had streamed into the cave, he had known this was love.
It had been earlier than that, though.
Hazin thought back to the deserted beach in the Caribbean, knowing she was at the Palace and aching to return, yet wanting the anniversary out of the way first.
And then he thought of the night they had met and how his heart had beat faster.
‘I’ve been planning this for quite some time,’ Hazin admitted. ‘I got it into my head that I wanted the anniversary over and done with before you and I got together, but I couldn’t last. I had Kumu discreetly find out your parents’ phone number and on the morning of the anniversary I spoke with them.’
‘Kumu knew then?’
Hazin nodded.
She remembered then Kumu standing beside her and translating the speech. How, of late, Kumu had been looking after her that bit more.
‘Is that why she asked me to sleep in the west wing? So they could decorate my room?’
Hazin nodded. ‘Had you just said yes, we could have avoided—’
‘I don’t want to avoid anything with you, Hazin. We can face anything. And I loved last night.’ She smiled. ‘Well, most of it.’
‘Call your family...’
She needed to eat but she also needed to speak, so he fed her perfect roast potatoes as she called home.
‘Thank you!’ the conversation started. ‘Yes!’ it was all a bit garbled.
Hazin could hear the shouts and congratulations and then they somehow had dinner with her family and ate together across the miles.
And then one of Flo’s sisters-in-law asked a question. ‘I’m not sure
.’ She looked over at Hazin. ‘Will I be a princess?’
‘You’ll be a sheikha princess.’
‘Oh!’ She relayed the information back to her family. ‘Apparently I’ll be a sheikha princess.’
Hazin loved it that she hadn’t particularly cared or known.
For she loved him, he knew.
Then the call ended and they ate the last of their dinner. Flo needed bed, though not to lie down.
‘Come here, my bride-to-be,’ he said the second she put down her fork.
And suddenly Flo wasn’t tired and they tumbled to the bed and kissed. A deep, tender kiss as they peeled their clothes away. Just so utterly thrilled to have found each other. And when they made love, he said her name over and over and over.
‘I love you,’ Hazin said. It felt so good to say it and deeply mean it.
‘I love you back.’
And then, as they lay there in bliss, the oddest thing happened—a large cheer went up outside and they both laughed.
‘For a second there,’ Flo admitted, ‘I thought they were celebrating us.’
‘And me. They must have just announced the birth.’ And then he looked at Flo, the love of his life. ‘As of today, I’m third in line.’
‘You’ve been demoted!’
‘It doesn’t feel like it.’
Flo looked at her shiny new ring and then at him. ‘It’s the best Christmas ever.’
He had made it so.
EPILOGUE
STOOD UP!
Hazin had sat alone in Dion’s, where they were supposed to be meeting for their long-awaited date, but Flo had not shown.
Now he stood in the theatre foyer as the last call for patrons to take their seats sounded.
He glanced at his phone.
Ten minutes
Flo had sent that text twenty minutes ago!
* * *
To the chagrin of her fellow passengers, Flo did her lipstick and make-up on the tube and then ran up the escalators, changing into her heels when she got to the top. Once out on the street she ran a brush through her hair as she raced to get to the theatre.
It was supposed to be a hand-holding romantic night—their official first date!
And yet she was so late they’d missed dinner and would now have to be one of those wretched couples who were shown to their seats late with a torch as everyone pulled in their knees and silently tutted.
But then, there he was, and the world clicked into place with his easy, welcoming smile.
He was wearing a suit and just as stunning to her eyes as he had been on that first night.
‘I’m sorry I’m so late.’ Flo had been all primed to leave on time, but births worked to their own timeline and at the end of the day she had chosen to stay. ‘I couldn’t leave her...’
‘It’s fine. All I ask,’ Hazin added as he gave her a kiss, ‘is that you’re a little more punctual for our wedding.’
The wedding was next week.
It was to be a huge white wedding in London in spring, with all the trimmings and the complication of royal guests too.
Flo could not wait to see Maggie and little Bassam.
Tomorrow was her final day at work and then there was her leaving do to squeeze in.
It was bliss to take their seats and be entertained for a couple of hours.
Except Flo couldn’t switch her mind off.
She had just found something out.
It wouldn’t be that much of a shock. She had come off the Pill after all, for this very reason.
Flo wanted to work, even after she married Hazin. He had not liked what was happening under his father’s rule and had stepped back. Now that the leadership was transitioning toward Ilyas, Hazin wanted to step up.
With conditions, though.
They would have two homes. Flo loved London and her family and that wasn’t going to ever change.
But, as Hazin said, it didn’t have to. He had practically been raised there too and loved it as much as Flo.
They had found a stunning apartment that would be their London base, and the rest of the time would be spent in Zayrina.
Flo could still do the job she loved while in London, and just as he pushed for her to follow her path, she pushed for him to follow his.
Ilyas had raised an eyebrow when his younger brother had told him that he would be commencing studying part time.
‘We have a lot of ancient heritage,’ Hazin had told him. ‘I want to better understand it.’
They had decided that while juggling so many balls, yes, they both wanted a baby, so why not throw caution to the wind and see what happened?
She had just found out that it had.
Happened.
They sat in the dark and watched the performance unfold. The show was very good, so very good that the momentous news she had to share suddenly slipped backstage.
His hand was in hers and she loved his easy laugh.
When she had bought the tickets, Flo had thought she might sit through this performance alone.
She well recalled collecting the tickets for a performance that was months away, thinking that she might be the one standing in the foyer, waiting for him to show; that she might sit alone in the dark in the knowledge he did not want her love.
Yet Hazin did want it.
And over and over he showed her that.
It was there in all the little things he did.
The squeeze of his hand at a funny part.
The easy sharing of smiles and chocolate treats.
His love was there waiting, even when she was late.
And she was not nervous to tell him she was pregnant. Simply impatient, for she wanted the world gone, and then to be alone with him at home so she could share the news.
Yet it was only the interval.
‘I love intervals,’ Hazin suddenly said.
‘Why?’
‘I get restless.’ He smiled that sexy smile. ‘I start to smell your perfume. I start thinking of things that I shouldn’t.’
‘Like what?’ Flo asked, assuming he would start the seduction now.
‘You’re late.’
‘I told you, I had a mother who was stressed...’ And then she halted as she realised he wasn’t referring to her delayed arrival tonight.
In the dark, as her mind had been racing, his had been too.
‘How late are you?’ he asked.
‘Enough for me to take a test at work.’
‘And?’ he asked.
She nodded.
Just a little nod was all it took.
A little nod that conveyed a huge message and then she felt his arms wrap around her.
It was bliss to be there, wrapped in his arms and breathing in his familiar scent, and to share the happy news.
‘Do you know when it’s due?’ he asked.
It was early days yet, of course, but Flo had naturally worked it out. ‘Around Christmas.’
‘Well, then, we’d better make sure we have Christmas here,’ Hazin said, and all the little flutters of nerves about where the baby would be born were laid quickly to rest. ‘It’s the best news, Flo.’
‘It’s not too soon?’ she checked, albeit a little to late.
‘Not at all,’ Hazin said. ‘You’ve been keeping me up all night.’
‘You loved every minute,’ Flo said. ‘And we don’t stop just because I’m pregnant.’
‘That’s very good to know.’
Now there was a choice to be made. They could celebrate the news in the way they did best or answer the call of the bell that was sending them back to their seats.
‘Do you want to go back for the second half?’ Hazin asked.
S
he thought for a moment and Flo decided that she did.
‘It’s our first official date!’ she reminded him.
‘Do you generally sleep with men on first dates?’ Hazin asked, and as always he made her smile.
‘Certainly not!’ Flo said as they walked back to their seats. ‘I’m offended that you asked.’
‘Pity,’ Hazin said as the lights dimmed. ‘Because I’ve asked for the same table at Dion’s and I’ve booked my old suite in the hope that you’re easy.’
It was the very best of first dates.
For love was already sorted. They had the rest of their lives together now.
* * * * *
Look out for the previous story in Carol Marinelli’s RUTHLESS ROYAL SHEIKHS duet
CAPTIVE FOR THE SHEIKH’S PLEASURE
available from Mills & Boon Modern Romance
And, if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Carol Marinelli
THEIR ONE NIGHT BABY
THEIR SECRET ROYAL BABY
PLAYBOY ON HER CHRISTMAS LIST
SEDUCED BY THE SHEIKH SURGEON
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from HER KNIGHT UNDER THE MISTLETOE by Annie O’Neil.
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Christmas Bride for the Sheikh Page 15