“I might not be here,” she said stubbornly. “I have a life. Work.” A brief flash of guilt assailed her. She had not worked in days. The spectre of losing Layth had made it impossible to leave him before she was ready. But now? She invoked the spectre of work as a way to keep her own control of the situation.
“Like hell you will be. Do you not understand that this changes everything?”
She bit down on her lip. “What does it change, Layth?”
“If there is a baby, then plans will have to be made.”
Her heart dropped. “I can’t really think about that. In fact, it’s better if we don’t think about it until we know for sure, one way or another.”
Layth scanned her face, and tried to organise his emotions neatly. He tried to think about what Cassandra might be feeling and wanting. He tried to process what would be the right thing to say.
“You do not want a baby?”
She stood up jerkily and rubbed her hands together. “There is not necessarily a baby. In fact, more than likely, there isn’t.”
He pushed her objection aside. “But if you are pregnant, what would you want?”
Cassie stared at him, utterly lost. “What would you want?”
Layth spoke cautiously. He was not willing to impose his thoughts on her. Cassie had experienced far too much of that. What did she want? How did she feel? It was impossible to know from the blank expression she wore.
“You told me from the beginning that you don’t want marriage. You don’t want a baby. You were emphatic. Nothing has altered. Has it?”
Cassie felt a strange splintering in her chest. Not for him, perhaps, but for her? Everything had altered. The world no longer made sense as it had done weeks earlier, before meeting Layth Sati. “This is a moot point; a conversation not worth having until we know what we’re dealing with. We just have to wait.”
Layth nodded slowly, his mind throbbing with everything that remained unsaid between them.
“Fine. And so we wait.”
11
She’d hardly slept. Cassie hadn’t tossed and turned though. She didn’t want Layth to realise that her mind was racing faster than a brumby in a storm.
Instead, she’d stared across at the pale wall of his bedroom, without seeing a thing, and had pretended to be settled. To be calm, when she was anything but.
The revelations of the day before were sponging through her brain; her mind was saturated with possibilities she didn’t want to contemplate.
She’d thought of her stepfather, her mother, her father, her aunt, and finally, she’d thought of her womb. She’d retraced the last few weeks in her mind, trying to recall if she’d been as diligent with her birth control as she should have been. It had all been such a whirlwind though, that Cassie was ashamed to admit she couldn’t possibly say with any degree of certainty that she’d taken the pill every day.
Finally, when the sky was fading to a purplish grey, Cassie eased her feet over the side of the bed. She cast a look at Layth, sleeping comfortably, one strong arm tossed casually over his head. Her heart turned over in her chest.
Today, one way or another, they would find out.
And if she were pregnant?
Her stomach rolled at the very notion.
Out of excitement? Or fear?
What would they do if she carried the heir to Takisabad in her body? She knew how important Layth’s descendant would be, not just to him, but to his family and his people.
It would not be a simple matter to negotiate.
Layth would never allow her to raise their child in the United Kingdom. Nor Australia. Layth would want the baby to be born in Takisabad.
And she would go with it.
She, the woman he had no intention of marrying, whom he had proclaimed to be manifestly unsuitable to be either a royal bride or the mother to a royal child. Had he changed his mind?
Cassie moaned softly, and pushed up from the bed.
These answers would not come to her easily. She needed time and space. And she needed to know, for certain.
With a heavy heart, Cassie dressed quickly. The doctor would see them today. Soon, she would know for certain.
If she wasn’t pregnant?
Far worse than contemplating the complications of a child that Layth might resent was the possibility that there was no such baby. That life, and Layth’s plans, would go on as he’d intended. If there were no baby, he would marry one of the three women deemed suitable for him.
He would leave her.
Cassie would be left behind, alone, lonely and miserable without him.
She stuffed a hand against her mouth, struggling to comprehend just how she’d got here. For a woman who prided herself on keeping footloose and fancy free, she’d become utterly hooked on one very unavailable man.
The apartment was dimly lit. Cassie made her way through it, scooping her bag up on the way.
Waiting was an agony.
Coffee would help.
It occurred to her, as she rode the lift down to the elegant foyer of the prestigious hotel, that she should possibly not drink coffee.
She lifted her phone out of her pocket and google searched coffee and pregnancy. She read the first article that came up, barely noticing when a slightly tired looking Agent Two fell into step beside her.
“Where do you come from, just like that?” She murmured, slipping her phone into her bag to fix him with a curious stare.
“Good morning, madam.”
Forever formal, Agent Two’s manner was strangely reassuring. Cassie forced a smile to her lips. She was exhausted. “I’m just popping out for coffee. You don’t need to come with me.”
The look he sent her was difficult to interpret, but she was sure she sensed disparagement in it. Oh, God. Did he know? Had the kind-seeming Doctor Anassi informed security staff of her possible new status as royal baby-maker?
Cassie squirmed inwardly, and focussed her gaze straight ahead.
The Pret a Manger on the corner was bustling, even at this early hour. Crowds of workers, setting about their journey, were jostling to be served inside. Cassie joined the back of the queue and shuffled forward slowly, all the while aware of Agent Two hovering nearby. She ordered a coffee when she reached the front and distractedly handed over some money.
Though they were fast at Pret, she lifted her phone out of her bag once more to skim the morning’s news while she waited.
It was just a small link, at the bottom of the headline page she’d surfed to, but she’d know Layth’s face if it was printed as the size of a pin. Her finger trembled as she clicked on the image, and her foot tapped impatiently as she waited for the page to load.
Finally, it did.
It’s official! Takisabad Royal Names Bride After Months of Speculation.
Cassie’s heart was hardly beating. She skimmed the first paragraph, her face flushing as she saw Arja’s beautiful eyes staring back at her. The report confirmed that Layth and Arja had finalised details for their wedding the previous day and that they were intending to formally marry within a fortnight.
Cassie’s chest was burning. Her eyes were stinging. Coffee forgotten, she stumbled backwards from the crowd. Agent Two was instantly alert.
“Madam, what is it?”
“Leave me alone. Please,” she whispered, her brain firing rapidly with all the implications of this discovery.
Layth was to marry Arja.
He had made arrangements before it had occurred to him that Cassie might be pregnant.
Cassie lifted a hand to her stomach with a sense of terror and panic.
It changed everything.
“Madam,” Agent Two was whispering. “It is time to return to the hotel.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t touch me. And do not tell me what to do.”
She looked out onto the early morning street. Traffic was barely moving, but it would be soon.
She sent Agent Two a desperate look and began to walk quickly towards the do
or. When he followed, she made a noise of impatience and turned to face him.
Her brain was hurting. Her body was cold. She wrenched the enormous ring Layth had given her from her finger and threw it at Agent Two. “Give this to Layth. Tell him I never want to see him again.” Agent Two bent to pick the diamond up from the middle of the footpath, and while he was distracted, Cassie hailed a cab.
Agent Two was quick but not quick enough.
Cassie slipped into the back of the taxi and leaned forward. “Please hurry. I need to get away from that man.”
Apparently her driver had long-harboured secret fantasies of being part of a spy drama, because he took to the theme with great alacrity. The black cab screeched away from the footpath and onto the road. Cassie looked behind her, and saw Agent Two speaking into a small communication device he always carried.
She collapsed down in the seat, her mind spinning.
Engaged!
She thought back to the day before, when she’d returned from her jog. He’d been pleased to see her. Relieved. He’d started to speak to her, but then she’d seen the lipstick and become ill.
And that had sparked a whole new vein of thought.
He had become engaged to Arja.
And now he was worried that Cassie might have a baby within her belly. His baby.
“Where to, love?” The cabbie asked over his shoulder.
“Oh.” She blinked. That was a great question. “Don’t suppose you feel like driving me up to Ostwery?”
“Where’s that, eh?”
“On the Welsh border.” She pressed her lips together. “I’ll pay.”
He let out a low whistle and was about to object, but something in the pretty blonde’s face forestalled him. What was the harm in a little country amble?
“All right then. If that’s what you want.” He tapped the address into his sat nav then settled in for the long drive ahead.
Cassie stared out of the window, and tried not to think about Layth, and the fact she’d just run away from her very powerful, very beautiful lover.
The driver made good time on the road out of London and before long the scenery began to merge into something recognisable. Though Cassie hadn’t been to Jude’s in years, it was almost exactly the same. Magical hedges of green lined the long drive, and vines scrambled drunkenly over the stone walls.
“Not a bad place to hang yer hat,” the driver commented in his thick Essex accent.
Cassie leaned forward, scanning the impressive façade. Jude had her flag waving; she was home. Cassie pulled almost a thousand pounds from her bag and handed them to the driver. At his insistence that she was being overly generous, she demurred, “It’s for the return journey. And for getting me away. Thank you.”
“I hope it all works out for you, love.”
Cassie nodded. So did she.
It was impossible to imagine, in that moment, how in the world it ever could.
Cassie searched under the mat until her fingers pressed against the reassuring shape of the hide-a-key. She slipped it into the lock and crept inside.
“Who’s that?” Jude called, moving with her usual speed into the hallway. “Oh, Cass!” She laughed gaily. “What a treat. I was just thinking of you yesterday.” She engulfed Cassie in a warm embrace and the smell of exotic bath products. Her lips were bright red despite the fact it was still relatively early in the morning, and her hair was now a shade of blonde and mauve. It suited her.
Cassie opened her mouth to say as much, but one look at Jude’s face and she burst into tears.
“Oh, Silver.” Jude wrapped her up tight, reverting to the name she’d given Cassie the first moment she’d seen her blonde hair and pale skin. “You’re in a pickle. Come and tell me all about it.”
Jude kept an arm around her niece’s waist as she set the kettle boiling and brewed a pot of peppermint tea. “What’s happened?”
It took twenty minutes to lay the whole story out for a silent and contemplative Jude. Cassie didn’t omit any details; there was no need with Jude.
“Do you love this man?”
Cassie bit down on her lip. “I can’t love him. It’s forbidden. By who he is, and what’s expected of him, and what he wants from life.”
“What’s that?”
“He wants to do the right thing by his people. He’s been raised to see his royal duty as the ultimate. Nothing would convince him to forsake that.”
“Not even you, and the possibility that you might be pregnant?”
Cassie was numb. “If I am, I have no idea what he’ll want to do.” She shivered.
“What he wants is not what I care about. What do you want to do, Silver?”
Cassie stared at her aunt, completely at a loss. “I don’t know,” she said finally.
“Until you know for sure, this could all just be a storm in a teacup.”
“Sage advice, Jude, but he’s getting married. That’s not a storm in a teacup. That’s reality.”
“Mmm,” Jude pouted her bright lips together and reached for Cassie’s hand. Jude wore a ring on every finger except one. Cassie stared at the bright jewels, and thought of the ring Layth had given her. “But you knew he would get engaged. You were aware of that from almost the first time you met him.”
Cassie’s throat hurt. “But I didn’t know then how that would make me feel. I was actually afraid when he first mentioned it, that he might have been suggesting I marry him.”
Jude watched as Cassie laughed awkwardly. “And now? Is that what you want?”
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” She groaned angrily. “But when I think of him marrying someone else …”
“Like Arja,” Jude prompted, fascinated by the spread of antipathy that flickered in Cassie’s features.
“Yes. Like Arja.”
“You are jealous.”
Cassie nodded. “I have no right. He didn’t make me any promises.”
“Didn’t he?” Jude wondered, rubbing a finger over Cassie’s hand.
“No. I swear, he didn’t. I knew the score, Jude.”
“He might not have said as much in words, but he promised you the world with his actions.”
Cassie squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s a mess.” Her hand dropped to her flat stomach. “I’m sure he’s wrong. I’m not pregnant. I couldn’t be.”
Jude squeezed her hand. “Only one way to find out.”
“I’m not calling Layth,” Cassie muttered, the very idea sending her into shockwaves of panic.
“God, no, I don’t mean that. Let’s get our own Doctor to check you out.”
Cassie brightened instantly. It hadn’t occurred to her. “Jude, you’re a genius.”
“Yes, Yes. Well, someone has to be.” She was already reaching for her phone, to make the appointment.
“But first,” Jude said, disconnecting the call. “Rest. You look like you’re about to pass out.”
Cassie shook her head on instinct. “I couldn’t possibly sleep.”
“Nonsense.” Jude put a hand out and Cassie folded hers into it. “You haven’t seen the new conservatory yet. Come, look.”
Cassie walked with Jude into a glass room that had been added to the side of the house. It was exquisite, though Cassie expected little less of Jude. “Lie down.” Jude nodded to the iron daybed in the centre of the room. Cassie did so, if only to be able to appreciate the greenery better.
Jude pressed a button by the wall, and the muted strains of jazz filtered into the space. “I’ll wake you in time for your appointment. Rest, Silver. Nothing good can come from your exhaustion, no matter what the doctor says.”
Cassie was adamant she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but less than a minute after Jude had left the room, her blue eyes flickered closed and her mind was finally at peace.
Her sleep was deep and unbroken, but her dreams were alive with children. Chubby little babies with their father’s skin and hair and her bright blue eyes. Cassie smiled in her sleep as she cuddled
them close, comforted by their ample flesh and dimpled smiles.
Layth was touching her. His hands on her body were warm and strong. Cassie’s smile deepened and she stretched, the familiar ache spreading through her body. She blinked her eyes open and smiled up at him.
His face was dappled by early afternoon sun, and his eyes were dark on her sleep-creased face.
Cassie sat up, her heart pounding, as memories began to clarify in her mind.
“Layth?” She blinked. Was she still dreaming? Her eyes drank him in, then moved beyond him. Jude was in the doorframe, her body wound tighter than a spring. She was a Lioness protecting her cub; everything about her body language radiated the fiercest love.
Cassie hooked her finger over her necklace, her anxiety obvious. “What are you doing here?” She groaned, shaking her head. “And how did you find me?”
His expression was laced with mockery. “Next time you wish to run away, do not use a taxi cab that is easily traceable.”
“Oh.” She bit down on her lip, anger at Agent Two bubbling to the surface. “I came here because I wanted to get away from you, don’t you understand that?”
He shot Aunt Jude a look of impatience. “We must discuss this privately.”
Cassie again shook her head. “Jude is family. She can hear whatever you’ve got to say.”
Layth sent Cassie a sardonic look, then stood. “Judith, leave us.”
“This is her house,” Cassie snapped, standing up and moving to her Aunt’s side. “How dare you speak to her like that?”
Layth didn’t so much as acknowledge Cassie’s objection. “Your niece cannot run from this.”
Jude pressed her lips together. “He’s right you know. Whatever you decide, I am here for you one hundred percent. But running away isn’t going to solve a damn thing.” She stared at Layth over Cassie’s blonde head. “I will be next door if you need me.”
Layth nodded. The impatience he might have felt at being challenged was tempered by the fact that the other woman was obviously trying to act in Cassie’s best interests. That someone cared enough to do so improved his spirits somewhat.
Clare Connelly Pairs: Warming the Sheikh’s Bed & Love in the Fast Lane Page 14