As the aircraft soared high above the cloud line, she was sad for the things he’d miss. She wanted to share the first precious flutters of life with him, so he could feel the joy she felt at that moment. Maybe he’d had enough of her, and was glad to see her go. He hadn’t exactly helped her to pack, but once they’d returned to the fort he’d done everything possible to smooth her journey home. On the one hand, she’d been relieved, because there’d been no ugly scenes between them, but right up to the last minute she’d hoped he’d ask her to stay, so they could somehow work this out.
That was a fantasy too far, Lucy accepted with a sigh as she stared unseeing out of the small window at her side. Tadj’s position as the Emir of Qalala would always stop him following his heart. ‘I’ll get back to you,’ he’d said at the airport, where they’d both held in their feelings, parting with a dispassionate kiss on both cheeks.
‘About the job?’ she’d pressed.
‘About everything,’ he’d said, and then he’d turned and strode away with a phalanx of royal guards surrounding him, keeping everyone, including Lucy, at bay. That was Tadj’s life, his lonely life.
They’d have contact through their joint involvement in the Qalalan sapphire project, if nothing else, Lucy tried to reassure herself, and meanwhile she must concentrate on completing her studies and holding down her jobs. If Tadj delegated his side of the arrangements for their child to a member of staff, it would really hurt, but she’d have to get over that too. In this mood of absolute determination, she pulled out her sketch pad and started work on her initial design for the inaugural exhibition of the world-famous Qalalan sapphires.
* * *
Ruling Qalala ran through his veins alongside a rich vein of duty. Those two things had always been enough for him in the past, because he was devoted to his country and its people, but without Lucy in his life Tadj couldn’t rest, he couldn’t think straight, he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t function.
After the longest span of loneliness in his life, action was called for. It was long overdue. If such a thing as a eureka moment existed, this was it, Tadj concluded as he slammed down the lid on the latest stack of royal papers. The most important document of all wasn’t there. Hardly surprising, when it didn’t exist yet. Now he knew what he’d lost, and what he stood to lose, he was ready to fight, not just for Qalala, but for Lucy and their unborn child.
Having called an extraordinary meeting of the royal council, he read out the marriage act, and when his twenty-first-century advisors heard the pronouncements of a bygone age, they had to agree with him that changes must be made.
‘Do I take it that love is in the air?’ Abdullah, his childhood friend who sat on the council, and who had first shown Lucy around Wolf Fort, asked him with barely concealed excitement when the meeting had concluded.
‘It means I will marry a woman of my choice,’ he told Abdullah. ‘If she’ll have me,’ he added dryly, with a hint of humility that was wholly unaccustomed.
‘Lucy! I knew it!’ Abdullah exclaimed, practically dancing on the spot with excitement. ‘She’s a challenging one,’ he added as if that were the greatest praise, ‘and just what you need.’
Tadj hummed as he strode away to put the change in the law into operation.
* * *
He grunted with impatience as he disembarked his jet. Lucy would be seven months pregnant by now. That was how long it had taken to ‘speed along’ the change to the law in Qalala. What had she done to him? Was this love? The thought hit him like a thunderbolt.
Thankfully, being the Emir of Qalala, as well as one of the richest men in the world, came with advantages, one of which was access to the royal fleet of aircraft as well as a royal yacht, added to which were the lack of formalities confronting him when he landed in a foreign country. His yacht was berthed at King’s Dock, and he was soon on his way to join it.
He should never have let Lucy go, and he willed the limousine to travel even faster. Seven months pregnant. Only two months to go. Valuable time in a pregnancy. It wasn’t too late for him to share the birth of their child, but they still had to discuss the details of what would happen next, and Lucy had steered every conversation they’d had towards talk of the exhibition she was planning with his team. A child mattered more, to both of them, he was sure. She was still suffering from the damage her stepfather had inflicted, and it was up to him to make a difference, so she could face the future with the happiness she deserved.
He had half expected to find Lucy still working at the laundry. He wasn’t disappointed. Ruffled and sleep-deprived, with his collar pulled up against the awful weather, as he peered through the steamed-up window his spirits rose. Serving behind the counter, Lucy was as cheerful as ever as she chatted to customers in her usual friendly way.
Pulling back, he felt the loss of her keenly, as if he were a child with his nose pressed against the window, viewing a treat he couldn’t have, a gift he had forfeited for the sake of Mother Duty. He had to take a moment. Seeing Lucy again wrenched at his heart. There was no one like her, and there never would be. He’d never felt like this before. Laying his heart on the line was new to him. Raw sex and power, together with huge wealth and the mystique of royalty, had always been enough to open any door, but these things didn’t mean anything to Lucy. She trod her own path, couldn’t be wooed with promises of wealth or position. He would have to dig much deeper than that, or he’d lose her for ever.
The doorbell chimed with irritating optimism as he walked into the shop.
‘Tadj!’ Paling, Lucy gripped the counter.
Horror-struck that the sight of him might harm Lucy or the baby, he was holding her in a second. He should have warned her to expect him. Having plunged over the counter to grab her by the arms in case she fell, he held her in front of him to check she was okay. He could breathe again when the colour returned to her face. ‘We have to stop meeting like this,’ he murmured, drinking her in with all the fervour of a parched man in the desert.
With a hum, she broke free. The customer had left by now, so they were alone. Lucy had snapped back into work mode, pinning tickets on garments, before handing them through the hatch opening onto the steamy heart of the laundry. She was so graceful, so vulnerable, and desirable. Images collided in his mind of her cool hands on his body, and her soft lips on his mouth. ‘Can you take a break any time soon?’
‘I break for lunch in half an hour,’ she said, glancing at the clock.
His spirits lifted, though he was careful to keep his tone casual. ‘May I take you for coffee?’
‘In the café where we first met?’ she said, staring at him as if seeing him for the first time.
‘I’ll meet you there,’ he confirmed.
‘It will be busy at lunchtime,’ she called after him as he left the shop. ‘Bag a table if you get there first.’
Not the best offer he’d ever received from a woman, but, where Project Wooing was concerned, he thought it a reasonable start.
* * *
Lucy was late. Where the hell was she? Was she coming at all? He stared at the door, wondering if he’d been stood up, or if she’d run from him again, to some place where he’d never find her. The thought that he’d been stood up amused him, but if she’d gone—he couldn’t even contemplate that, so, ordering another coffee, he told himself to use the time to plan and think. Impatience made that impossible. What use was planning, when Lucy was unpredictable? He had to find a way to pin her down, but he needed her here first... He stared with unblinking attention at the door, as if that could make her appear. She was more precious than he’d realised, which was why he hadn’t come here with a better offer, but with the ultimate offer, and one he was confident she couldn’t refuse.
If she turned up, that was.
* * *
Tadj’s