‘I am Nabila Sulaman,’ she revealed in a very quiet voice. ‘I was Raj’s first girlfriend and, as I’m sure you’re aware, it ended badly between us.’
Thoroughly disconcerted by that introduction, Zoe merely gave an uncertain nod while her mind raced to understand why the wretched woman would want to approach her.
‘I run one of your grandfather’s construction firms and he brought me here with his party of business people. I would definitely not have received an invite on my own behalf,’ Nabila admitted, startling Zoe even more with that freely offered information. ‘I’m very much a career woman and I don’t want past mistakes to taint my future now that I’ve returned to Maraban to work. My parents suffered a great deal over my short-lived relationship with Raj. My father is a diplomat but he has been continually passed over for promotion since I blotted my copybook with the royal family. I am speaking to you now because a lot of time has passed since then and I was hoping that you could persuade Raj to bury the hatchet.’
Zoe winced at that bold suggestion. ‘I’m sorry but I don’t think I’m the right person to intercede for you. I don’t interfere with Raj’s life and he doesn’t interfere with mine.’
‘How very modern he must have become,’ Nabila remarked with a dismissive toss of her beautiful head and an amused smile. ‘Well, I think you should know that I’m in charge of the Josias project as CEO of Major Holdings, and that Raj and I will be working together in the near future. Please make him aware of that. I’m leaving now.’
‘But Raj is here. You could speak to him yourself,’ Zoe pointed out.
‘No. I don’t want to put him in an awkward position and surprise him in front of an audience,’ Nabila declared with assurance. ‘We haven’t seen each other since we broke up.’
‘Oh...’ Bemused, Zoe watched the poised brunette walk away again and she entered the cloakroom with a lot on her mind. Nabila was gorgeous, clever and successful and had once been the woman Raj loved and wanted to marry, Zoe reflected ruefully. Loved and wanted to marry a long time ago. Eight years back, she reminded herself, practically pre-history in date. But even though that was her mindset she still headed straight for her grandfather to check out his opinion of the brunette.
‘Nabila Sulaman? She’s one tough cookie, a real go-getter,’ Stam opined. ‘Had to be to get so far in the construction field. She’s Raj’s ex?’ Her grandfather grimaced. ‘I wouldn’t have included her in my party if I’d been aware of that.’
‘Oh, it doesn’t bother me,’ Zoe hastened to proclaim just as her sisters joined them and then, of course, the entirety of her short conversation with Nabila had to be recounted.
‘She’s got some brass neck!’ Vivi declared. ‘I wish I’d been with you. Didn’t you learn anything from us growing up?’
Zoe blinked and studied her sibling’s exasperated expression. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You don’t tangle with an ex. You certainly don’t give her any information... I mean, what you were thinking of, telling her that you and Raj don’t interfere in each other’s lives?’ Vivi demanded ruefully. ‘How normal does that sound? You want the ex to think you’re the love match of the century.’
‘Put a sock in it, Vivi,’ Winnie cut in. ‘Zoe doesn’t have to pretend if she doesn’t want to. It’s a marriage of convenience and both of them know and accept that. It’s not personal for them the way it was for you and me.’
Zoe had lost colour. No, it was not personal, she repeated staunchly to herself, because, unlike her sisters and their husbands, Zoe had had no prior relationship with Raj before their marriage. Yet even in acknowledging that truth she was taken aback by the revelation that she would have liked to have scratched Nabila’s beautiful eyes out because Nabila had hurt Raj. A long time ago, she reminded herself afresh, and he was perfectly capable of looking out for himself.
When the festivities were almost at an end, Zoe went to change into more comfortable clothing for their journey. They were to be out of the public eye for two weeks and she couldn’t wait to reclaim some privacy. Apparently, the royal family owned a very comfortable villa by the Gulf on the Banian side of Maraban, and Raj had already promised to show her the beauties of her grandmother’s birthplace, which was greener and less arid in landscape. She pulled on a light skirt and T-shirt, teaming them with a pair of glitzy high sandals, one of the many, many pairs she harboured in her wardrobe but had never previously worn. She had a serious shoe fetish and knew it.
‘We’re fortunate to be making so early an escape,’ Raj remarked, sliding into the limo beside her, a lean, lithe figure in jeans and a shirt, his black curls tousled as though he had changed out of his wedding finery in as much of a hurry as her. ‘If my father wasn’t so eager to pack us off on a honeymoon, the celebrations would have lasted all week.’
‘Farida mentioned that weddings usually last for days here, but then it was our second time round the block,’ she pointed out before pressing on, doing what her conscience told her she had to do, which was to warn Raj that he would be working with his ex on some project that she didn’t recall the name of. ‘I met your ex-girlfriend, Nabila, at the reception.’
Raj’s arrogant head turned, a frown building, his lean, darkly handsome face forbidding. ‘That is not possible. She would not have been invited. Nabila is a common name in Maraban.’
‘Apparently she came in my grandfather’s party of guests,’ Zoe persisted. ‘She’s the CEO of some company called Major Holdings and she asked me to warn you that you would be working with her on some project.’
‘The Josias hospital project.’ Raj’s intense dark eyes shimmered almost silver in the fading light. ‘But I need no warning. I am not so sensitive,’ he breathed with roughened emphasis.
And then he didn’t say another word for what remained of the fairly lengthy journey that took them to the airport and a flight and, finally, a bumpy trip in a SUV. And, unfortunately that brooding silence told Zoe everything she didn’t want to know or surmise about the exact level of Raj’s sensitivity. He was like a pot of oil simmering on a fire but all emotion and reaction was rigidly suppressed by very strong self-control that acted like a lid. But knowing that, accepting that she hadn’t a clue what he was thinking, didn’t make Zoe feel any happier. For the first time with Raj, she felt very alone and isolated...
WITH DIFFICULTY, RAJ emerged from circuitous thoughts laced with outrage at the prospect of being exposed to Nabila’s deceitful charm again and stepped out of the SUV. He expected to see the sprawling nineteen-twenties villa that his family had used as a holiday home since his childhood. He blinked in disbelief at the very much smaller new property that now stood in its place and signalled the army major in charge of their security to seek clarification of the mystery. A couple of minutes later he returned to Zoe’s side.
‘Apparently, my father had the old villa demolished several years ago because it was falling into disrepair and he thought it was too large to renovate,’ Raj explained. ‘It was built by your great-grandparents at a time when the Banian royal family had half a dozen daughters. My family used it rarely after your mother’s father died. My father likes the sea but the Queen does not.’
Relieved that Raj was talking again, Zoe murmured, ‘Did you come here much as a boy?’
‘Often when I was very young with my parents. My mother loved it here.’ His lean strong face tightened, his perfect bone structure pulling taut beneath his bronzed skin. ‘I remember her skipping through the surf and laughing. No worries about etiquette or protocol or who might be watching and criticising her behaviour. She could be an ordinary woman here again and she loved it.’
‘An ordinary woman?’ Zoe