No. At least, she hadn’t been for many years. A gawky teenager who was as flat as a board long after her friends had started to grow curves and shoot up, she’d been mistaken for a child when she was almost able to obtain her drivers’ license.
Chloe had nothing that her father had seen as meritorious – even the blood in her veins, that was half-his, had not been enough to redeem her.
And how she’d loved him anyway! How she’d adored reading about his business successes, seeing his name and image in the papers, knowing him to be someone of such incredible repute! How she’d longed for his approval, his affection.
She could still remember the day he’d called her – it was only the second time he’d done any such thing and the first had been to tell her that her mother was dead.
That had been a stilted, short conversation. Going through the motions – his offer for her to move to Greece, her demur, his obvious relief.
So when he called her for the second time in her life, she felt a heavy sense of worry – naturally her mind had gone to Apollo. But Apollo was fine. The old man had been calling with good news, he’d promised. “Malik has begged me to grant his son your hand in marriage.”
She’d been floored – and had asked a lot of bumbling questions about her potential groom. Though she’d visited Ras el Kida several times, as Malik’s guest, she’d never met his son. The idea was almost impossible to credit, except she remembered Apollo telling her, at some point, that Raffa was required to marry – and to marry well.
Chloe had been given a classical education, despite the fact she’d not excelled at it. She spoke several languages, and had been sent to finishing school in Switzerland at her father’s insistence. Had he known, even then, that she would marry a King?
When Chloe had agreed, she’d wanted only one thing from her father: his love. All of it. She’d wanted him to wrap her in a hug and tell her he was proud of her.
He’d died before he’d had the chance – and now, she had gained a fresh perspective.
Her father would not have been proud of her.
Her father would not have said he loved her.
Because he hadn’t.
On some level, she supposed she should have been grateful that he at least acknowledged her to be his child: something her own husband wasn’t willing to do for his lovechild.
Anger and anticipation were at war within her system! She didn’t know how to feel! Chloe was at sea, and it was rolling and shifting, splashing her with new sensations and doubts even when her decision had been made.
Her ladies’ maids didn’t share her sense of emotional ambiguity. When they entered her suite shortly after a light breakfast of fruit and sweet pastry had been served, they brought with them an air of unmistakable exuberance.
All traditions were strictly adhered to at the palace; far more so than had been the case in the city. There, she had been free to dress in casual clothes if she’d wanted to, so long as she wasn’t taking part in any official duties. Her maids dressed her in one of the gowns that was required – an emerald green with diamonds at the collar and cuff – and then excused themselves with low bows that almost hid their twitching smiles.
“Okay, Aysha,” she asked her chief lady in waiting, once they were alone. “What is it? What are you all smiling about?”
Aysha didn’t bother to obfuscate.
“They are happy to be home, your highness.”
Chloe was thunderstruck. “Home? This is their home?”
“Well, yes. Naturally.”
“Not, ‘naturally’!” Chloe disputed with a shake of her head. “You mean the palace is where they lived? And then I made everyone move to the city just because I didn’t want to be here?”
“Our job is to be where you are,” Aysha pointed out kindly. “If you choose to take part in the Mars program, I’m afraid we would have to take our positions on the rocket alongside you.”
Chloe laughed but it was a noise of brittle exhaustion. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know you were interested in Mars,” Aysha teased.
“You know what I mean.” Chloe toyed with her wedding ring – an enormous solitaire diamond – out of habit. She often spun it around her finger when she was thinking, pushing it to the knuckle joint and back to the webbing of her slim fingers. “If you all wanted to be at the palace, you should have said so.”
“We are your servants,” Aysha chided, softening the rebuke with a gentle smile. “Our job is to serve you. Why should our desires matter?”
“How can you speak like that! You know they matter to me. We’ve worked together closely since I arrived in Ras el Kida. Have I ever seemed like a despot to you?”
“No. But you are a princess, a Sheikha, and your husband is the ruler of this country. No one in Ras el Kida is stupid enough to risk displeasing him.”
A shiver of apprehension ran down Chloe’s spine. Aysha was right, but she couldn’t have said that a desire to risk displeasing her husband was the sole motivation for her agreement with his plan. Out of nowhere, she imagined their child, she pictured a chubby little baby with dimpled cheeks and sparkling eyes and a mess of curling, bouncing hair, and a kick of maternal need anchored her to the spot.
Despite the fact she knew so little of her husband, despite the fact there were many things about him she did know and didn’t like, she found the idea of bearing his child unimaginably seductive. And just a little bit crazy.
THE SHEIKH’S BABY BARGAIN IS AVAILABLE TO READ NOW!
Books By Clare Connelly
HARLEQUIN TITLES
Bought for the Billionaire’s Revenge
Innocent in the Billionaire’s Bed
Off Limits
Her Wedding Night Surrender
Burn Me Once
Bound by the Billionaire’s Vows
The Season to Sin
His Innocent Seduction
Bound by their Christmas Baby
Her Guilty Secret
Shock Heir for the King
Spaniard’s Baby of Revenge
SINGLE TITLES
Her Guardian’s Christmas Seduction
Stolen by the Desert King
In the Hands of the Sheikh
His Nine Month Seduction
The Sheikh’s Contract Bride
Seduced by the Vengeful Tycoon
The Sheikh’s Stolen Bride
The Sheikh’s Secret Baby
The Sheikh’s Million Dollar Bride
The Tycoon’s Virgin Mistress
The Sheikh’s Virgin Hostage
Bartered to the Sheikh
The Sheikh’s Arranged Marriage
Marrying for his Royal Heir
The Greek’s Marriage Revenge
The Velasco Love Child
The Sultan’s Virgin Bride
Bound to the Sheikh
The Medici Mistress
His Loving Deception
The Sheikh’s Convenient Mistress
The Princess’s Forbidden Lover
Marrying her Enemy
Rakanti’s Indecent Proposition
Seducing the Spaniard
The Italian’s Innocent Bride
The Greek Tycoon’s Forbidden Affair
The Terms of their Affair
A Second Chance at Love
The Sheikh’s Christmas Mistress
At the Sheikh’s Command
The Billionaire’s Christmas Revenge
Seduced by the Italian Tycoon
Raising the Soldier’s Son
Warming the Sheikh’s Bed
The Tycoon’s Christmas Captive
The Brazilian’s Forgotten Lover
Betrayed by the CEO
The Billionaire’s Ruthless Revenge
The Italian Billionaire’s Betrayal
The Sultan’s Reluctant Princess
Love in the Fast Lane
Bought by the Sheikh
The Tycoon’s Summer Seduction
All She Wants for Christ
mas
One Night with the Sheikh
A Bed of Broken Promises
Tempted by the Billionaire
The Sheikh’s Christmas Wish
To the Highest Bidder
The Tycoon’s Secret Baby
Bedding His Innocent Mistress
The Sheikh’s Baby Bargain
The Greek’s Virgin Captive
Claiming His Secret Baby
Blackmailed by the Spaniard
COMPENDIUMS
Casacelli Brides
Mediterranean Tycoons
Desert Rulers
Billionaire Bad Boys
Too Hot to Handle
Desert Kings
Happily Ever After
The Darling Buds of May Café
Royal Weddings
The Evermore Series
Claiming his Secret Baby & Blackmailed by The Spaniard Page 39