by Maggie Cox
‘Well?’ Zafir snapped, feeling sweat break out on his brow and his heart clamouring even as he unflinchingly infused his tone with authority.
‘The test proves that the DNA of the child matches yours, Your Highness. You are indeed the male parent of Master Sami Carrick.’
‘Allah Be Praised! The boy is mine!’
Instantly possessive, he had no reservations in displaying his joy and gratification at the news.
I have a son... I have a son...
His heart had never hammered so hard. But he was already making plans as to what he should do first. As well as being portentous, the knowledge that he was a parent was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to him. But there was also a less than desirable aspect to the news. It brought home to him the fact that in effect he had mercilessly abandoned the mother of his child when she’d undoubtedly needed him the most.
That thought alone was like a sharpened scimitar slicing through his gut, and the impact on him was beyond estimation...
‘Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?’ the clinician enquired.
Staring round at the lavish but tasteful furniture in the elegant room that befitted his status, Zafir couldn’t think very much beyond the incredible revelation he’d just heard.
Dazedly he shook his head. ‘No. There is nothing else.’
‘In that case I’ll put the information in an envelope and have it despatched to you by courier just as soon as I can.’
‘Tonight would be good.’
‘I will aim to do just that, Your Highness.’
* * *
The Sheikh’s sleek car drew up in front of her house and stopped. The property next door, along with several others in the sedate little cul-de-sac, didn’t suggest much activity—either inside or out. Many of the lights were already extinguished—probably due to it being Sunday and tomorrow the start of the working week.
Its leather-coated driver didn’t get out for a full five minutes. His Highness the Sheikh was thinking hard.
He was wondering about the best approach to achieve the result he needed without any argument. If he’d been back in Zachariah there was no question he would have achieved it without dissent. But his royal status hardly held much sway with Darcy, he knew. She was an independent woman, as well as a British citizen, and given that she had given birth in this country she would have certain inalienable rights that he couldn’t ignore.
Breathing out a frustrated curse, he pushed back his hair. Tonight he’d deliberately elected to leave Rashid back at the house and drive himself because he needed some privacy. His freedom hadn’t been gained without a few strong words from the bodyguard, though, and the assurance that if anything untoward happened he wouldn’t be blamed.
At last, deciding to go with his instincts rather than waste any more time devising a plan, Zafir left the vehicle, strode up the pathway and rang the doorbell.
He was very glad that it chimed softly. It was late. If Darcy had gone to bed, he hoped she was still resting on the couch rather than having made the attempt to go upstairs to the bedroom. At least then she wouldn’t have to struggle too far to get to the door.
Wearing lilac-coloured pyjamas and a matching robe, the woman who dominated his thoughts above all others opened the door. The blue eyes that were usually so brilliant were visibly drowsy, and her corn-coloured hair curled in mussed gold coils around her shoulders. She was leaning on a single crutch in order to balance and not put her weight down on her injured ankle.
Before he uttered a word, Zafir scooped her up into his arms and kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot. Still not speaking, he headed straight for the living room. By the dimmed glow of a single lamp he saw that the couch was covered with a rumpled duvet, and the coffee table held a half-eaten sandwich on a plate and what looked to be a congealed mug of tea.
His brow crumpled. ‘Was this all you had for your supper?’
‘Hello to you too, Your Highness... Didn’t you have anything better to do tonight other than to come here, examine my food and annoy me?’
‘You would try the patience of a saint, Darcy.’
His tone exasperated, he set her down as carefully as his temper would allow on the couch. Not only would the woman try the patience of a saint, but the feeling of her curvaceous body in his arms and the naturally seductive heat she exuded was apt to make him lose all desire for conversation instantly and want to communicate in a way that would leave her in no doubt as to his feelings.
Did a man ever forget the one woman who had made his breath quicken and his blood surge the moment he had laid eyes on her?
‘Presumably you’ve had the results from the clinic?’ she murmured.
‘Yes, I have.’ Crossing to a plain cream armchair, Zafir flicked open the single button on his jacket and settled back in the chair. ‘It’s just as you said all along... I am Sami’s father.’
Bringing her knees up to her chest, Darcy wrapped her arms round them and sighed softly. ‘Now you know for sure I wasn’t lying.’
The look she gave him was hardly accusing. But it was so nakedly direct that it was like an arrow aimed straight at his heart—an arrow that once it had hit its target broke and embedded its shards in his chest. That soulful, wounded glance would be with him for ever.
Once again, an excoriating sorrow filled him. He had abandoned her. And not just her, but the boy he now knew was his legitimate son and heir...
CHAPTER SIX
LEANING FORWARD IN his seat, Zafir rested his hands on his knees. ‘In light of this revelation, you do realise that your life and Sami’s will have to undergo some quite radical changes?’
‘What do you mean? Are you going to take me to court and sue for custody? Because if you do—if you dare even try—I’ll...’
‘You’ll what, Darcy?’
Already knowing he would have a fight on his hands if he made any kind of claim on the boy, Zafir also knew that when it came down to it he’d have the upper hand. Because of his wealth and status he’d have access to some of the best legal minds in the world to represent him in any dispute. Yet separating the child from his mother had never been a consideration. Seeing Darcy again, and discovering that in spite of the disturbing events that had parted them he was still powerfully attracted to her, had put him in the most agonising quandary. Even more so because during the years they’d been apart she had given birth to his son.
Like a deflated balloon, she sank back against the cushions. She carefully straightened her legs, and he saw her wince as though in pain.
‘Don’t make me descend into fighting you, Zafir. Don’t you think I’ve been through enough? I can understand that you’ll want to get to know Sami, and I’ll tell him that you’re his father, but what I won’t do is to let you dictate where he should live or how he’s raised. His happiness means everything to me, and despite what you and your family might think of me I know I’m a good mother.’
In the edgy silence that followed Zafir fought the strongest urge to go to her and take her in his arms. She seemed particularly fragile tonight, as if the momentous events of the past few days had finally sunk in and shaken her defences. But he decided not to risk worsening their already tense relationship by wading in and making demands straight away. Instead he would try and use tact and diplomacy, and slowly help her come to see that his intention was to help improve their lives, not make them harder.
‘I don’t doubt that you’re a good mother. And I can already see how much Sami means to you. You do not have to prove anything to me on that score. And as for my family—they will go along with whatever I decide. Given that I will be informing them I now have a son, there will be much cause for celebration. In fact the whole kingdom will be celebrating.’
‘What about your engagement? Do you think your fiancée will be joining in the celebrations?’
It was hard to keep the jealousy from her tone. How on earth was she going to have future dealings with him and pretend that she was wel
l and truly over him? Even though she didn’t want to admit it, her emotions around him were still raw, and liable to splinter and shatter if he expected her feelings to have deadened in the time they’d been apart. Had his?
But his next words truly astonished her.
‘I have already decided to bring the engagement to an end. In any case, like I told you, it was never a love match. Farrida will be generously compensated for any disappointment she may have, but she knows how important it is for me to have an heir. You need not give the matter a second thought.’
‘Do you really believe that, Zafir?’ Darcy’s blue eyes flashed. ‘As far as your people are concerned, I’m a woman who’s not to be trusted, remember? The woman you fired because you thought I was cheating on you with your brother. Do you think they’ll accept me and my son after such a story? It must have done the rounds by now. I don’t doubt they’ll think you’ve lost your mind to break off your engagement and let me back into your life.’
‘If anyone expresses any doubt whatsoever in my decisions about my personal life then I will make sure to put them right when I return. But in the meantime it won’t help our situation if you and I continue to bring up past disappointments and use them as weapons to cut each other down. Do you honestly think it will help Sami learn to accept me as his father if he sees me as some kind of bully who just tells his mother what to do and seems not to care about her feelings?’
‘I don’t want him to think that...of course I don’t. But the truth is I have no idea what you feel about me. Going on past experience, I would say that you cared more about everyone else’s feelings than mine.’
‘Then you would be wrong.’
‘You think? Then why didn’t you believe me when I told you I wasn’t involved with Xavier? That he had in fact been harassing me?’
Zafir owned to feeling more than just a little uneasy. His brother’s reputation hadn’t been the only thing called into question. He recalled that at the time leading up to the day when he’d found Darcy compromised there had been rumours of secret assignations between the pair flying round the office, and they had been substantiated by one of the senior secretaries.
Jane Maddox had been a thirty-something singleton who’d liked to take some of the younger secretaries under her wing. But now Zafir remembered that she’d had a soft spot for his brother, and a tendency to be jealous of any woman younger or prettier than her who might have a chance with him. Being quite a plain woman herself, she’d been particularly jealous of Darcy’s beauty. Had she sought to ingratiate herself with Xavier by supporting the lie that the blonde had come on to him?
Many times over the years Zafir had wondered painfully if he’d rashly jumped to the wrong conclusions. If he had, he now knew that it had cost him dear.
‘We’ve been over this. You know why,’ he answered passionately. ‘What was I supposed to think when I saw you wrapped in his arms that day? Have you any idea what that did to me? It made me go a little crazy. I was jealous, hurt, and mad as hell. There was no time to think rationally about anything.’
‘And the relationship we’d had wasn’t strong enough for you to trust me?’
‘I didn’t say that. It’s because I trusted you implicitly that I was devastated by what looked to be your betrayal.’
‘Maybe you should have looked into things a little deeper rather than just accepting what you saw on the surface as being the truth?’
Darcy hunched her shoulders and the pain in her eyes was a fresh wound that ate into his soul.
Breathing out again slowly, she went on, ‘I know it’s not easy for either of us to forget the past and put it behind us, to forgive and forget and move on. But I too was devastated when you wouldn’t listen to the truth. Back then I thought I knew who you were, and there were so many things about you that I admired—particularly your loyalty to family and friends and the way you always tried to help people in need. I thought you were pretty special—and not just because you came from royalty. I didn’t care about that. It was the person I was interested in, not the trappings. When I first met you I thought you were charming, kind and considerate—unlike any other man I’d met before. I allowed myself to be seduced by that man. In short, I grew to trust you, Zafir, and I thought you felt the same way about me. However, I’ve long since learned that I made the most colossal mistake.’
She was twisting her hands together, and her candid gaze was sorrowful.
The desolate words dried his mouth and made his heart beat too fast for him to think straight. Suddenly the impulse to try and change her mind about him, to make her remember the man she’d once fallen in love with, was overwhelming. It was like a forceful current that threatened to drown him if he didn’t act to save himself.
So he went to her, and with gentle but firm hands lifted her up onto her feet. For a long moment he stared into the incandescent blue eyes that usually sparkled like crystal. But tonight...tonight he saw they were bathed in tears...
Just before his lips touched hers, he murmured huskily, ‘You didn’t make a mistake, habibi...perhaps it just wasn’t the right time for us?’
Then his mouth slowly and deliberately took hers as his hands held her steady and his senses were suffused by the intoxicating delight that only she could bring. How had he lived so long without it? Zafir longed to touch her body again as he used to, to explore those incredible curves without restraint, and he was frustrated that he couldn’t because they weren’t alone in the house.
But as the pleasure built inexorably inside him Darcy moaned low in her throat and began to drive her fingers through his hair. There was a hint of wildness, almost of desperation in her touch, and he remembered how he’d loved that about her—the way she didn’t try to constrain her feelings when they were being intimate. It told him just what he needed to know...that she’d missed the fire and passion they’d once ignited in each other as much as he had, and couldn’t help but set a match to it again.
Now the sublime taste of her lips and her silken tongue were arousing Zafir almost to the point of pain. Because the sensations were so intense it was hard to resist her. Hard to not want more, much more than just this tempting embrace. But, regrettably, he knew he was going to have to bring their heated exchange to an end. Leave it any longer and it would be near impossible to turn back.
Garnering his resolve, he reluctantly tore his mouth away. Staring back at her, he knew he was breathing hard. Her face was as flushed and pretty as a Millais portrait and once again her blue eyes sparkled like sunlit pools.
‘Regrettably, this is not the time or the place for this,’ he said ‘Your mother and our son are sleeping upstairs and you need to rest that ankle. Sit down... I have something else to say to you before I go.’
Without protest, Darcy let him help her. But when he dropped down beside her on the crumpled duvet he sensed her wariness had returned.
‘One of the things I intend to do before I take you home to meet my family is to marry you.’ His emotions were taut as a high-wire as he said this, but he forced them back and continued, ‘It is a necessary formality so that Sami can take my name and legally have my protection. When we get back to Zachariah we will do things properly and have an official ceremony.’
A doubtful frown crinkled her silkily smooth brow. ‘Did I hear you right? Was that meant to be some kind of proposal?’
Zafir’s lips twisted wryly. ‘I admit it was hardly romantic. But sometimes necessity has to come first. Then later...with time and desire...a man can make up for the deficit and display his true affection.’
‘Is that one of your country’s philosophies?’
Making his hand into a light fist, he stroked down her delectably soft cheek with his knuckles. Her skin had the same exquisite texture as an infant’s.
Tipping up her chin he answered, ‘No. I am just expressing that I do not want you to feel short-changed in any way. That I am mindful of what a new bride might understandably expect from her husband.’
Drawing
back, Darcy shakily touched her palm to her hair. ‘How can I feel short-changed when a proposal is the last—the very last thing I want from you?’
‘Foolishly, I did not consider the possibility that I’d left you pregnant when we parted, and I confess to being ashamed about that. And know this: it will always haunt me that I did not, because you had to raise our son on your own. I want to make amends. When I learned about him, did you never consider that I might want to meet my responsibilities and marry you?’
‘There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to be your wife, Zafir. But I don’t want to marry you just because you feel you should assume your parental responsibilities. We’ve been apart for a long time, and many things have changed.’
‘That sounds suspiciously like you might want to marry someone else...’ After the stratospheric highs of just a moment ago, when he’d kissed her, he came crashing back down to earth—not unlike a brick or a stone that had been dropped from a great height.
‘Of course I don’t. I’m not even seeing anyone.’
‘Then why create obstacles that aren’t there?’ Zafir knew his eyes must be radiating his confusion and, to be frank, his growing impatience.
‘The fact that neither of us trusts each other is a pretty big obstacle, wouldn’t you say? It’s not something that’s easily going to be overcome by a hasty marriage.’
‘I have already told you that time and desire will help pave the way to true affection between us. But, more importantly, we need to show our joint commitment to our son. As far as I’m concerned, the sooner we marry the better. I’m not going to be relegated to becoming a part-time father, as seems to be the trend these days in the West, just to suit you. The boy is my son and heir and you should not forget that.’
Getting to his feet, he turned round to view her.
‘I’m going to leave you now, so you can get some sleep. But tomorrow we will meet for lunch and start the process of putting some plans into place. I’ll send a car for you at one o’clock.’
With a glance that he’d resolved would keep a guard on his innermost feelings, Zafir walked to the door and left her alone.