‘Of course...’ Pulling out a pen from the pocket of his robe with a flourish, her gallant escort wrote Tadj’s number on the top of her agenda.
The door had barely closed behind him when Lucy pounced on the piece of paper. Reading the item immediately below the telephone number, she saw that she should be ready to leave by helicopter for the sapphire mines at dawn. She wanted to speak to Tadj before then. The tension of not knowing how he really felt about the baby was tearing her up inside. But his phone rang out. She tried three times and could only conclude that he’d decided not to take her calls. He was busy, she reminded herself firmly.
Pregnancy hormones had a lot to answer for, Lucy concluded when she paced up and down until she couldn’t resist calling him one last time. After another fail, she flung the phone onto the bed and decided to call for supper. After a bath she’d get some sleep. They had an early start in the morning and plenty of time to talk during the journey to the mine, she reassured herself, until it occurred to her that she might not be travelling there with Tadj.
FLYING IN A helicopter was more fun than she’d expected, though it took a moment before Lucy got used to seeing the ground dropping away beneath her feet through the clear bubble. She wasn’t frightened with Tadj in control. He was a font of calm—when he wasn’t driving her crazy in any number of imaginative ways. As the black aircraft, with its wolf, fangs bared, Tadj’s insignia, emblazoned on the side in gold, soared away from the ground at an acute angle, she wondered if she’d ever seen anyone so focused, so sexy and confident, or so utterly and completely in control.
It was just a pity she couldn’t read his mind. In the three months they’d been apart, they’d both changed. The man she’d thought such fun, and so dangerously easy to know, had turned out to be the hard-bitten ruler of a powerful country, while she was the woman expecting his child, a fact that had made her more stubbornly determined than ever to do the right thing for her baby, whatever that cost her in personal terms. She did miss the sexy, teasing guy in the coffee shop and couldn’t help wondering what life would have been like with him.
‘Okay?’ Tadj demanded, his voice metallic and impersonal in her headphones.
‘Fine,’ she fired back.
She reassured herself that his insignia might be a wolf with its fangs bared, but Tadj cared deeply for his country and its people, and even if she were a passing novelty for the Emir of Qalala, and one he might dispense with once their child was born, she believed there was nothing to fear from him. He wasn’t evil like her stepfather, a man whose wealth and power had been tainted by the misery he’d caused.
* * *
‘Are you warmer?’ he asked.
Did he care, or was he just being polite? ‘I’m very comfortable,’ she said honestly. She was looking forward to the adventure ahead.
They didn’t speak again until the golden carpet of the desert gave way to a rough dun scrubland. The foothills of the mountains where the mines were located, Lucy guessed. Tadj confirmed this when she asked him if they were getting close.
‘I have a project for you,’ he added to Lucy’s surprise.
‘A project?’ She followed his gaze through the floor to the rough terrain beneath them, and then flashed a questioning gaze across the flight deck.
‘Your final assessment at college just took on a new and exciting slant,’ he said, clearly loving the mystery he was causing.
‘Did it?’ Lucy frowned.
‘Combining business with pleasure should be a bonus for you.’
What did that statement mean?
‘Your stepfather’s activities have prompted me to take certain steps.’
‘Really?’ Ice shot through Lucy at Tadj’s mention of a man who could inspire terror inside her like no one else. Besides, what more could he do? He’d already arranged for her mother to stay in a safe house and there was no way her stepfather’s reach could extend to Qalala, was there?
Tadj’s profile was fierce. This was the Warrior King. She could accept that the Emir of Qalala must protect his country, but what was this project he’d mentioned?
‘Can I ask about the project?’
Her voice was tinny in his ear. Even so, he heard a quaver. ‘Not now.’ Preparations for landing took precedence.
Planning ahead was crucial. He was a forward-thinking man whose success drove the revival of Qalala. No one was allowed to disrupt his plans, not even the mother of his unborn child.
‘Who are all these people?’ Lucy asked with surprise, as the size of the crowd waiting to greet them became apparent.
‘My team at the mine and their families,’ he explained as he brought the aircraft down in a steady descent. ‘Any excuse for a party,’ he murmured dryly. His mood took an upturn as he spotted many familiar faces.
‘They’re very pleased to see you,’ Lucy commented as she stared down.
He had brought Lucy here to the sapphire mines in Qalala, not so she could gauge his popularity, but so she could see the scope of his work, and appreciate the heritage their child would one day enjoy. There was no question that his heir, boy or girl, would experience a childhood away from Qalala. He was excited at the prospect of sharing all his desert lore, and introducing his child to their people, and to the glories of his beautiful country. Of course, as his mistress Lucy could be part of that. He wanted to keep her close. On a professional front, she’d be a positive asset, and he was a respecter of talent, who nurtured it wherever he found it. With the best cutters and polishers and jewellery designers working for him, he was keen to encourage new ideas when it came to displaying the jeweller’s art. Lucy had recently won a prestigious prize at her college for work on the various exhibitions she’d arranged, making her an ideal candidate for him to draft into the team.
‘We’ll be staying here for the next few days,’ he informed her. ‘Roughing it,’ he explained, ‘so you’ll get a chance to know the business—and me,’ he added dryly. ‘That is what you want, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ she admitted, turning to stare at him.
Even allowing for the restrictions of the sound transmission on board, he detected tension in her voice, and by the time the aircraft had settled on its skids, silence was well established between them.
* * *
It was exciting to be here. There was a gritty reality about everything surrounding her, and, whatever project Tadj had in mind, she could only take things one step at a time. She had to make the most of this amazing opportunity to tour a sapphire mine with someone who could answer all her questions. That might not be Tadj, but, if nothing else, this trip would add gravitas to her CV. She had travelled to the source of the precious gems and was about to follow that journey through. With her baby’s future to think about, there was no better building block for her career.
And her heart? Would have to take a back seat for now.
Tadj had talked about roughing it, Lucy remembered, smiling ruefully as she looked around. If this was roughing it, she wasn’t the only one who needed to get real. Tadj could certainly do with a reality check. This particular shelter, situated on the fringe of a city of tents, was as well equipped as any hotel. There was even a screened-off area at the back, where she could swim in a rock-shielded part of the lagoon. The biggest natural bathroom in the world, Lucy concluded wryly as she pulled back the hanging dividing tent from lagoon to peer outside.
‘Do you like your new quarters?’
Her