Jewel in His Crown (15 page)

Ruby was bewildered. ‘I—'

‘Naturally I feel guilty. I should have been more careful with you,' Raja breathed curtly. ‘You have enough to deal with right now without this added responsibility.'

‘You still haven't told me how you feel about the baby. Don't you want it?' Ruby queried anxiously.

Raja dealt her an astonished appraisal. ‘Of course I want my own child, but not at the cost of your health and emotional well-being.'

‘I'll be fine.' Ruby was disappointed that he had said nothing more personal. ‘But most of those fancy clothes you bought me aren't likely to fit in a few months.'

‘Not a problem. I like buying you things,' Raja volunteered, his thumb rubbing gently over the pulse in her narrow wrist. ‘I want you to spend the next couple of days just acclimatising and catching up on your rest.'

Ruby gave him an impish grin. ‘No more all-night sex sessions, then?'

Dark colour highlighted his superb bone structure and his eloquent mouth quirked in reluctant appreciation of that sally. ‘Oh, Ruby…' he breathed, his hands gathering her slight body up so that he could kiss her with all the devastating expertise that sent her defensive barriers crashing flat like a domino run.

Feeling daring, Ruby pushed the sheet back. ‘You could rest with me,' she muttered in an intuitive invitation.

‘I have only fifteen minutes to make a meeting on the far side of the city,' Raja groaned, pausing to extract a second driving kiss, his breathing fracturing as he stared down at her with unalloyed hunger before finally springing up again, adjusting the fit of his trousers to accommodate his response to her. ‘You're a constant temptation. I'll see you mid-afternoon and we'll go over the adoption papers we need to lodge to apply for Leyla.'

He found her very attractive, Ruby told herself con
solingly. It wasn't love, it was lust, but marriages had survived on less. He was taking the advent of an unplanned baby very much in his stride, but then Raja was the sort of guy who typically rose to every challenge. The very worst thing she could do was brood about what they didn't have as opposed to what they did. In time he might almost come to love her out of habit. What was wrong with that? Did she need the poetry and the hand-holding? It would have been much worse had she fallen in love with a man she couldn't have. A man, for example, who belonged to another woman. Here she was safely married to a very handsome, sexy and exciting man and she was still feeling sorry for herself. Why was that? Was she one of those perennially dissatisfied personalities who always wanted more than she could have?

Ruby was dozing when she heard a mobile phone going off somewhere very close to her ear. With a sound of exasperation she lifted her head and focused in surprise on the slim cell phone flashing lights and lying semi-concealed in a fold of the bedding. It was Raja's phone. It must have fallen out of his pocket while he was kissing her. She closed a hand round it and immediately noticed the photo of the gorgeous blonde.

And that was that. Ruby suffered not one moral pang rifling through Raja's phone and discovering that someone called Chloe had sent him a series of suggestive texts in English. Obviously a woman who was a lover, a woman who had shared a bed with him, enjoying all the intimacies and no doubt many more than Ruby had ever had with him. In shock Ruby read the texts again.
The skank, she thought furiously, appalled by the sexy little comments calculated to titillate the average male. Raja's healthy libido did not require stimulation yet he had been receiving those texts ever since they got married. She went through his phone. If he had sent any texts back to Chloe he had clearly had the wit to delete them.

So, who was Chloe and what was Ruby going to do about her? Was she his most recent girlfriend? Why hadn't he told Chloe to leave him alone? Why hadn't he told her that his relationship with her was over? He had promised Ruby that he would be faithful and that there would be no other woman in his life while he was with her. Suddenly the cocoon of shock that had kept Ruby unnaturally calm was cracking right down the middle…

D
ISTRESS
flooded Ruby and for a horrible timeless period she was too upset even to think straight. Men had cheated on Ruby before but invariably because she refused to sleep with them and it had never hurt so much that she wanted to scream and sob and rage all at the same time.

Yet she had instinctively trusted Raja—why was that? She peered down at the photo. Chloe was a very beautiful woman. Few men would feel obligated to ditch a woman with Chloe's looks and penchant for provocative texts just because they had made an arranged marriage. Why would Raja award Ruby that amount of loyalty when he didn't love her?

I felt incredibly trapped. I didn't want a wife I didn't choose for myself.
Today the revelation about the baby had proved such a shock that Raja had at last chosen to be honest with her, sharing what was on his mind and in his heart. All the time that she had subjected him to her bad temper and resentment over the head of their need to marry he had suffered in silence rather than admit that he felt
exactly
the same way. That truth had cut deep. Was Raja planning to keep Chloe in the back
ground of his life while he pretended to be a devoted husband? Was Chloe to be his secret comfort and escape from the exigencies of his royal life and arranged marriage?

The advent of two children was unlikely to lock Raja closer to home and hearth. In all probability children would make him feel more trapped than ever. The demands of a family and all the accompanying domesticity would never be able to compete with the freewheeling appeal of a Chloe, willing to send him sexy texts about what she longed to do to him between the sheets.

Ruby was devastated. She had understood what Raja meant when he had said that they should have had the time to get to know each other as a couple before they considered becoming parents. She also knew that she had literally shot herself in the foot. Tears trickling down her cheeks, Ruby thought about Leyla and yet she knew she could have done nothing different where that little girl was concerned. Her need to give Leyla the love she craved had been overwhelming. But hadn't she railroaded Raja into that commitment with her? She missed the little girl a great deal and could hardly wait for the magical day when she would have the right to take Leyla out of the orphanage and bring her home as her daughter. She had already pictured sharing that special day with Raja but Chloe's texts and the intimate pledges within them might well be much more of an attraction for him.

Having dressed in a denim skirt and tee and slid her bare feet into sandals, Ruby ate a chicken salad in the shaded arbour in the courtyard. Her stomach was
mercifully at peace again. It was a beautiful spot with trees, lush greenery and flowers softening the impact of the massive medieval walls that provided a boundary. In the centre water from a tranquil fountain streamed down into a mosaic tiled basin, cooling the temperature. Had she been in a happier mood she would have thought she was in paradise.

She wondered exactly what she was going to say to Raja about those texts. She would have to be blunt and he would have to be honest. How important was Chloe to him? He had to answer that question.

A burst of barking from Hermione warned Ruby that Raja had arrived. Steps sounded on the tiles and Raja appeared, tall and sleek and darkly attractive in a lightweight designer suit.

‘I left my phone here?' Lean brown fingers immediately descended on the cell phone lying on the table top and swept it up. ‘I've been looking for it. I use my phone for everything…'

Ruby's pensive face tensed. ‘I
know
,' she said feelingly. ‘I'm going to be totally frank with you—I've read Chloe's texts. Her photo flashed up and I'm afraid I just had to go digging and I'm glad that I did.'

For a split second, Raja was paralysed to the spot, black brows drawing together, lush lashes flying up on disconcerted dark eyes, his dismay unhidden. ‘Chloe,' he repeated flatly. ‘That's over, done with.'

‘If it's over, why was she still texting you as recently as last week?'

Raja was frowning at her. ‘Did you read my texts?'

Ruby lifted her chin but her colour was rising. ‘We're married. I felt I had the right.'

Faint colour defined his stunning cheekbones. His proud gaze challenged that assumption. ‘Even married I am entitled to a certain amount of privacy.'

‘Not if you're going to be married to me, you're not. All right—I snooped. But I stand by what I did,' Ruby told him resolutely and without an instant of hesitation. ‘It cuts both ways. Everything in my life is open to you.'

His face was impassive. A smouldering silence stretched between them in the hot, still air and during it a servant delivered mint tea and a plate of the tiny decorative cakes that Raja loved to the table. Dry-mouthed, Ruby poured the tea into the cups, her heart beating very fast.

Raja studied her from semi-screened eyes. Without warning a surprising smile curved his beautiful mouth. ‘The idea of you reading those texts embarrasses me,' he admitted.

‘Receiving that kind of thing
should
embarrass you,' Ruby told him forthrightly, but the ease of his confession and that charismatic smile reduced the worst of her tension, for she could not credit that he could smile like that if there was anything serious going on between him and Chloe.

‘My affair with Chloe is over—it was over the moment you and I consummated our marriage,' he added.

‘I'm willing to believe that but, if it's over as you say, why was she still sending you texts like that?' Ruby pressed uncomfortably.

‘Think about it,' Raja urged wryly. ‘From my point
of view, Chloe was a sexual outlet. From hers, my greatest advantage was that I spent a great deal of money on her and she is naturally reluctant to lose that benefit. As I didn't wish to see her again I arranged to pay her a settlement through my lawyer last week. I can only assume that the texts are supposed to tempt me back to her bed. I didn't reply. I thought to reply would only encourage her.'

‘She was your mistress,' Ruby remarked uneasily, relieved that no deeper feelings had been involved, but troubled by the obvious truth that he could so efficiently separate sex from emotion. ‘That arrangement sounds so…so
cold
.'

‘It suited both of us. I didn't want complications or hassle.' Raja shrugged a broad shoulder, his face reflective. ‘But now I have you and as long as I have you I have no need of any other woman.'

There was something wonderfully soothing about that statement, voiced as it was with such rock-solid assurance in her ability to replace his sexually sophisticated mistress. The worst of the stress holding Ruby taut drained away.

‘I was really upset when I saw those texts,' Ruby admitted reluctantly.

‘I regret that you saw them and had reason to doubt my integrity. In that field, you can trust me, Ruby,' he murmured levelly, his sincerity patent. ‘I believe in trust and honesty. I would not deceive you with another woman.'

Her eyes stung like mad and she widened them in an effort to keep the tears from overflowing, but some
of them escaped, trickling down her cheeks. ‘I believe you,' she said in a wobbly voice. ‘And I don't know why I'm crying.'

‘Hadeel said you might be very emotional over the next few months because of your hormones,' Raja told her, startling her with that forecast and belatedly adding, ‘I told her that you were pregnant.'

Ruby was disconcerted by that admission. ‘You've told your family already?'

‘Only Hadeel, the sister I am closest to, and she will keep our news a secret until we are ready to share it with the rest of the family. It's such exciting news—I could not keep quiet. I
had
to tell someone!' Raja exclaimed, a mixture of apology, appeal and distinct pride in his delivery that touched her heart.

It was the first sign that she had seen that he was genuinely pleased about the baby and a stifled sob escaped her convulsed throat because inexplicably, even though he had set her worst fears to rest, she felt more like having a good cry than ever. ‘I don't know what's the m-matter with me.'

Murmuring soothing things, Raja scooped her up in his arms and carried her back indoors, shouldering open the bedroom door to settle her down onto the comfortable bed.

‘Do you want me to start sending you texts like that?' Ruby asked him abruptly. ‘I mean, I haven't done anything like that before but I'm sure I could learn the knack.'

Raja dealt her a startled look and then he laughed with rich appreciation of that proposal. ‘No, thanks for
the offer but I can get by without that sort of thing. To be truthful it's not really my style.'

‘Honestly?' Ruby pressed anxiously.

‘Honestly. I would much rather do it than talk about it,
aziz
,' he husked with considerable amusement gleaming in his lustrous eyes. ‘And of course I have to have you to do it with. That goes without saying.'

‘Am I really going to be enough for you?'

‘Oh, yes,' Raja asserted. ‘More than enough.'

‘How can you be so sure?'

‘You're special and you were from the start. My first introduction to you was a photo of you when you were fourteen. It was taken outside the cathedral in Simis. Wajid had it in his possession—'

‘My goodness, you saw that snap? Mum sent it after we came home from that holiday in Ashur when we were turned away from the palace gates,' Ruby explained. ‘I think it was her way of saying that we were perfectly happy whether the royal family ignored us or otherwise.'

‘I was very impressed with the photo, and when I saw you for real I was stunned by your impact on me and by how much you challenged me,' Raja confided. ‘I only had to look at you to want you. I couldn't take my eyes off you.'

‘I couldn't take my eyes off you either,' Ruby said. ‘But you admitted earlier that you were very resentful of the need for us to marry…'

‘The instant I saw my beautiful bride my fate became instantly more bearable,' Raja told her, laughing at the face she pulled. ‘Yes, I'm a very predictable
guy—I desired you at first glance and I'm afraid that went a long way towards settling my objections to our arranged marriage.'

Ruby frowned, studying him in disbelief. ‘That is just so
basic
.'

Raja spread his hands as if to ask her to hold that opinion. ‘But then when I was least expecting it I fell in love with you…'

‘And then you…
what
?' Ruby gasped, utterly bemused by that declaration.

‘At first it was just sexual desire that motivated me and then it was your smile, your strength and your sense of fun that had even more appeal. I fell in love without even realising what was happening to me,' Raja declared, gazing at her with hot golden eyes in which possessiveness was laced with pride. ‘All of a sudden you became the most important element in my world.'

‘I don't believe you. You said you slept with me in the desert because you wanted to make our marriage a real marriage.'

‘I slept with you purely because I wanted you. Any other aspirations which I cherished were secondary to that simple fact,' Raja intoned levelly. ‘I'm not too proud to admit that I wanted you any way I could get you. I was very hurt when you said later that you didn't care what I did.'

Ruby was beginning to believe but she wasn't prepared to let him off the hook too easily. ‘But there was a seduction plan?'

Raja curled her fingers into his palm. ‘I couldn't resist you.'

‘I was pretty horrible to you in the desert. I mean, it wasn't your fault that we were there but I behaved as though it was.'

‘You were scared and trying not to show it. I understood that.' Raja bent his dark, arrogant head and brushed his sensual mouth very slowly and silkily across her soft pink lips. ‘And then you gave me your body and there was nothing I wouldn't have done for you, nothing I wouldn't have forgiven.'

‘I thought that night was amazing but it can't have been so special to you.'

‘It was,
aziz
.' Raja extracted a deep drugging kiss that made her tremble and look up at him with dazed eyes. ‘But I think I fell in love with you when you said over that hotel lunch you walked out on that I would have been equally willing to marry a dancing bear. No other woman would ever have said such a thing to me. Or maybe our defining moment came when you said very ungraciously that you would only drink
bottled
water from now on—'

‘Stop teasing me.' Her fingers speared into his thick black hair and she kissed him back with all her heart and soul, the longing he could awaken slivering through her in a piercing arrow of need.

‘That second night we spent together was extraordinary. It was our wedding night,' Raja pointed out, his brilliant eyes resting appreciatively on her beautiful face. ‘And wonderful.'

‘Yes, it was, wasn't it?' Ruby agreed, arching up to taste his mouth again for herself and hauling him back down to her again with greedy hands.

‘I thought I would never love a woman again and then I met you and it was a done deal right from the start. I was so resentful of the need to marry you until I actually met you. You got right under my skin. I tried to stay in control but it didn't work. And then after we were rescued you made it clear that you wanted nothing more to do with me. The flowers and the diamonds didn't make much of an impression and that's about all I had in my repertoire. You vanished every evening and only spoke to me when you had to. I'm not used to being ignored.'

‘It probably did you the world of good. I felt stupid.' Ruby wrinkled her nose. ‘I'd demanded a platonic marriage and then got intimate with you the first chance I got. I didn't know how to behave after that.'

‘I lay in that bed every night burning for you.' Raja groaned, his body shuddering against hers in recollection. ‘I have never felt so frustrated and yet so aware that I would be putting unfair pressure on you if I made another move.'