by Leslie North
Nora opened her mouth to ask Aliyah the question, but at that moment, Aliyah grimaced, her face contorting in pain. Nora’s midwife radar went off, pinging loud and clear.
“Are you feeling all right?” she said neutrally, calm settling over her as it always did in situations where she might need to offer medical assistance.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Aliyah waved her off. “I’ve had a backache all day. Probably cramps. I’ve been trying to ignore it. Braxton-Hicks, I think. There’s no way I can be in labor.” She gave a nervous laugh. “It’s way too early to be in labor.”
Sweat had broken out on Aliyah’s forehead.
“How about I just examine you to make sure?”
“My doctor’s on a tour,” Aliyah blurted out. “He’s on a tour to the nearest tribal enclave. I still have four weeks left. The baby isn’t supposed to come until he’s back.”
“Better to have peace of mind, don’t you think?” Nora ran down her credentials with Aliyah, starting with the fact that she was a certified nurse midwife.
Aliyah let out a low groan. “I—all right. I think you’d better.”
By the time they’d walked her into a nearby sitting room, Aliyah’s face was red, her eyes bright with pain. “Oh, it’s—it’s bad,” Aliyah said through gritted teeth. “It’s bad.”
It was the quickest examination Nora had ever needed to do, because the baby was crowning.
She sprang into action, sending Jazmin for towels and to tell one of the staff to call emergency services. “Towels, towels.” Aliyah’s cries grew louder, but still she tried to stifle them through her teeth.
“I can wait,” shouted Aliyah. “I can wait. My doctor—” Another contraction overtook her.
“The baby is coming,” Nora said calmly to her sister-in-law, positioning herself on the sofa next to Aliyah. “On the next contraction, push. Push—”
Jazmin arrived with an armful of towels just in time, and Nora threw one down on the sofa as Aliyah curled around the contraction. Jazmin stood behind her friend, bracing her as she howled through one push, then a second, and then—
Nora caught the baby in her hands, slick from birth and not making a sound.
The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
She unwrapped it, turned the baby, and thumped him on the back. Once, twice—no cries.
“It still hurts,” Aliyah cried. “What—”
“The afterbirth,” Nora said, and with one more push, Aliyah had finished her work.
Nora hadn’t finished hers.
She took the baby to the other sofa and started chest compressions. The door to the sitting room flew open, and Rashid rushed in—she could tell just by his scent in the air—but she had no time to look at him. Who had called him? It didn’t matter at all. Nora dismissed the thought entirely.
Nora was going to have to start mouth-to-mouth soon. A few more chest compressions—
The EMTs came through the door hot on Rashid’s heels, dividing into two teams. One of them, a woman, rushed to Nora’s side, and she handed over the infant, watching carefully as the medic administered oxygen and got the baby stabilized. Then she turned back to where the second set of EMTs was helping Aliyah transfer onto a gurney for the ride to the hospital. Nora went to Aliyah’s side.
“You did an amazing job,” she told her with a smile, her heart in her throat. “And your son is doing just fine.”
Aliyah’s face shone with joy and relief. “Thank you.” She took Nora’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Thank you.” Then the EMTs took her away, Jazmin staying close by the gurney.
The chaos of the room was gone in an instant, other than the towels and debris from the EMTs, and Nora took a deep breath.
She needed another shower.
The staff would be in soon to clean, and she…she just needed another shower.
She made her way back to her room, Rashid following.
“Are you all right?”
She was in the process of shutting the door to her bedroom so she could get out of her clothes. “What?”
“That was—that was sudden,” Rashid said. “Are you all right? You might want to get some rest. I could draw a bath, if you need—”
“I don’t need any help.” The anger and bitterness crept up beneath the calm. “I don’t need anything. I’m fine. I’m trained to assist women in delivering babies. It’s my job. And I don’t need help from anyone.”
Then, with infinite care, Nora shut the door in Rashid’s face.
15
Days.
It had been days since Rashid had seen her.
Nora had tried to talk to him, but he hadn’t been ready. He’d been so angry that they couldn’t see eye to eye, and then…
Then she’d shut herself away.
He’d seen her for little more than a moment through the excitement of Aliyah’s labor, which had honestly been…relatively calm. He hadn’t entered a room full of panicked chaos when he’d gotten the news. He had entered a room with Jazmin holding Aliyah’s hand on the sofa. His sister had been draped in towels. Nora had the baby in her arms, an expression of absolute focus on her face.
Rashid had opened his mouth to demand that someone call the paramedics when they hurried in behind him.
That shouldn’t have surprised him at all. One of the things he’d always liked about Nora when they were in school together was that she was a doer. It made perfect sense, along with her warm, bright personality, that she would make an excellent midwife.
His heart squeezed. Nora had only been in the palace having tea with Aliyah and Jazmin because she had agreed to be his wife.
The text from Jazmin had arrived the following morning.
About how Nora was thinking of leaving.
Being his wife was not going well, and now it looked like he would lose her.
And maybe it was for the best. Maybe she should leave.
With Aliyah and the baby in the hospital still recovering from the early birth, there was enough worry to go around. It all felt like it was clouding his mind.
“Rashid.” Samir stood in the doorway of his office. “I have good news. Aliyah and the baby are both doing well. She’s named him Matek.” Samir forced an exaggerated smile onto his face.
Rashid couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s wonderful.”
“She’ll be in the hospital for a few more days, and Matek will come home in a couple of weeks.” The smile faded.
“What is it?” Rashid asked.
“It was a near thing,” Samir said, sticking his hands into his pockets. “The doctors say that Matek could have died without Nora’s intervention.”
Now Rashid’s heart did stop. He could have lost his new nephew if not for the aid of his new wife. His family was among the luckiest families on the planet in this moment, and here he’d been, trying to keep her from her passion.
It wasn’t enough, Rashid realized. It wasn’t enough to offer her a watered-down version of happiness. Nora had already been through too much misery for him to do that, and beyond that…
He loved her.
It wasn’t just a crush from his school days. It wasn’t just admiration for how calm she was under pressure and how much she wanted to help other women.
He loved her.
And it wasn’t a mistake. All along, he’d been thinking that to fall in love meant giving less of himself to his country. In a way, it did—of course it did. But he’d learned that the more he loved, the more love he had to give. Loving someone so completely, with his entire soul, could only make him care more about being a good ruler. In fact, he had loved Nora for so long that the two things were inextricably combined. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t been able to admit it to her in school. Everything he’d done since then, even if he hadn’t known, was done with the intention of…being worthy of her.
He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t let her go back to London and disappear from his life.
Why had it taken him so long to realize it?
He had never forgotten the way Nora had looked at him when she thought he wouldn’t see. He had always wanted to be the sort of man who deserved her admiration and affection. And when he tried to slot her into a position at the palace and control her with it…
If he did that, if that was the way he approached his marriage, then he would be no better than Barron. She might be happier, but it would still be wrong. And, in the end, Rashid didn’t think she would be happier unless he made it right.
“You look deep in thought,” said Samir.
“I am deep in thought.” He met his brother’s eyes. “I think I’ve made a mistake.”
“With what?” Samir’s eyebrows knitted together. “If it’s something to do with the tribes, tell me now, because—”
“It’s nothing to do with that.” Rashid drummed his fingers on his desk. “Nora and I…argued a few days ago. She wanted to be left to her own devices when it came to her work as a midwife, and I wanted to…limit that.”
“Some limitations are reasonable,” Samir said.
“But?”
“But they might only seem that way to one person.”
“Very helpful, Samir.”
“I wasn’t there,” Samir said, holding his hands up. “I can’t judge. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide what to do.”
“Right.” That was what he did—he decided what to do.
Rashid sat at his desk, firing off a series of emails, creating the framework that Nora deserved. That Omirabad deserved. Then, when he could no longer stand it, he made his way back to his suite. She had shut herself into her own smaller suite for days, only emerging when he was gone.
Nora sat alone in their shared private dining room. A glass of water perched on the table in front of her. She startled at his entrance and made to get up without making eye contact.
“Stop. Please,” he said gently, and Nora sank back down into her chair.
“What do you want?”
He sat down next to her, and she flicked her eyes to him, then looked away again.
“I was wrong,” he said.
That got her attention.
Nora turned her body fully toward him, eyes wide. “What was that?”
“I was wrong to deny you the chance to practice,” he said and felt a weight lifting from his shoulders. It was Rashid’s job to be right, to protect his country and his family, but it wasn’t his job to stifle them. “I’ll arrange for you to practice wherever you’d like, if that’s what you want. And thank you for saving Matek.”
“You’re welcome,” she said softly. “And it is what I want.” She shrugged. “It’s what I love. But…”
“But?”
“It’s not what you love.” A rueful smile flickered across her face. “And you’ll probably change your mind.” A little frown pursed her lips.
“I won’t,” he swore. “I’m a man of my word, and I won’t go back on it. There’s also a bigger matter at hand.”
“What’s that?” Nora raised one eyebrow.
“The rest of Omirabad. I was…foolish to discount your desires as so…personal. It was unbelievably shortsighted of me not to step back as a ruler and see the problem, which was not that you wanted to work at a clinic without the latest security measures. It’s that there are clinics struggling in Omirabad at all.”
Nora’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’ve just now started contacting the people I’ll need to turn this around. We will make sure every clinic has enough funding. So that all the women in Omirabad who need care can get it, but especially those who are pregnant.” His throat tightened. “I should have been thinking of these things all along. You showed me that I need to be better in all ways. I hope you’ll stay by my side while I do it.”
“That’s—” A tear slipped down Nora’s cheek. “That means more than you know. I do this work because…because all women deserve the best care. I’ll do whatever it takes to help you give that to everyone in Omirabad.” Another tear followed.
“I had no idea you felt this strongly.” Rashid couldn’t believe he’d overlooked it. He couldn’t believe he missed it. He reached out and brushed a lock of hair away from Nora’s face.
“That’s the thing. It’s more personal now, in a way it wasn’t before.” Nora looked down at her hands, then back up into his eyes. “I’m…pregnant.”
His body reacted before his brain caught up with the words—a rush of emotion, a rush of action. Rashid leapt out of his seat and took her in his arms, holding her tight. So tight. Pregnant. His Nora was pregnant with his child, and that explained so much—her pale face, the way she hadn’t really wanted to eat—yet it hadn’t stopped her from doing anything. Nothing would stop her from doing the work of her heart.
“Rashid,” she squeaked. “Can’t breathe.”
He let her go, and she stepped back, taking his hands in hers, her eyes on his.
“So this is why you haven’t been feeling well?”
Nora nodded. “And I would have told you sooner, but I was…”
“Angry at me. Rightfully.”
“I was angry,” she admitted. “And I didn’t know how you’d feel about it, given…given the fact that…”
He drew her back down to her seat. “Tell me,” he said, his mind racing ahead at a hundred miles an hour. “What would you recommend to one of your patients at this stage?”
Nora laughed, her shoulders relaxing. “Ginger for the morning sickness. Crackers on the bedside table to try and stave it off in the morning. Prenatal vitamins. Gentle exercise…” She ran through the list as if she’d done it a hundred times before, which of course she had.
Rashid nodded along, feeling each item settle into his mind. He would make sure she had all of it. He gave her hands a squeeze. “What would you say about working?”
Her smile grew broader. “I’d say that as long as the patient didn’t have any complications, she should be fine to work through most of her pregnancy, but to listen to her body and cut back on heavy lifting as she progressed.”
“And what about you and the women’s clinic?”
Nora considered it. “Working at a women’s clinic with doctors nearby would be ideal.” A moment passed. “It would be ideal,” she repeated, her expression turning more serious.
“I’ll support you with whatever you choose,” Rashid said. “I’ll support you with whatever you need.”
Nora gave him a long, steady look. “Why have you changed your mind?”
“Because, Nora, I love you.”
She blinked once, then twice, her eyes shining with tears. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” insisted Rashid. “And I should have said it before. I should have said it many times before. What kind of man doesn’t confess his love to his wife on their wedding night? You should have left me standing at the altar.”
She laughed. “The kind of man who’s not sure what kind of marriage he’s going to have.”
“I have a beautiful marriage,” said Rashid. “To a gorgeous, brilliant woman. My own insecurities held me back.”
“You have insecurities?” Nora pretended to gape at him. “Honestly, Rashid, I don’t think you do.”
“It’s been a process, coming to understand that loving you doesn’t make me less of a committed crown prince. Being madly in love doesn’t make our marriage any less of an asset to Omirabad. And being madly in love with you…it only makes me a better man.”
She leaned forward and kissed him. Rashid didn’t hesitate to pull her into his lap. God, she was sweet. The taste of her lips, the feel of her body under his hands—it felt exactly right. It felt like destiny.
Nora’s hands moved to the buttons of his shirt, but then she stopped and looked deep into his eyes. “Rashid.”
“Yes?”
“I love you, too. I want to be happy with you. I want us both to be happy. Part of me thought that I could love you enough to stop wanting to work as a midwife, but that’s just as much a part of me as my love for you.”
“Oh, no,” Nora insisted. “It’s both of us or nothing. I want you to be just as happy.”
“Both of us, then. As long as you’re safe and satisfied, I’ll be over the moon.”
She laughed, throwing her arms around his neck, and planted kisses all down the line of his jaw.
“Is it true?” he asked.
“Is what true?” Nora’s eyes were alight, her expression open and glad, and he saw more love in her eyes than he’d ever seen in another person’s.
“Is it true that pregnant women want more sex?”
She opened her mouth to answer, then pressed her lips closed and tilted her head, eyes darkening with desire. “Now that you mention it…” Nora leaned in and nipped his bottom lip with her teeth. “Are you sure you’re up for the task?”
“Oh, is that what you need? Proof?” Rashid was on his feet in a moment, Nora in his arms, and by the next heartbeat he had her on her back on the dining room table, eyes wide.
He inched her skirt up her legs, then tugged down her panties while she squirmed against the table. One kiss on the inside of her thigh, then the other, and he spread her wide, right there in the dining room.
“Rashid,” she gasped. “Someone could walk in on us.”
“If someone walks in on us in our own apartments, it’ll be their embarrassment, not mine.”
He couldn’t help tasting her then, a long lick between her legs, gathering her sweetness on his tongue. It was different, somehow, and his heart beat faster knowing that it was because she was pregnant. He didn’t even have to ask.
But Nora groaned, reaching for him, and he pulled her up to sitting so that she was perched on the edge of the table. A zip and tug of his pants and he was ready for her, thrusting inside. She was ready.
“Oh,” Nora said, holding on tightly to his shoulders. “Oh, I honestly didn’t—I didn’t know I could want it this much.”
“I always knew I could want you this much.” He lifted her hair away from her neck and kissed her in time with the rhythm of their hips. “I love you.”