Date with a Surgeon Prince(38)

And before her body reacted?

She must be distracted!

‘No, I didn’t know that,’ she said, trying for lightness, although she felt strangely intimidated by the white-robed Ghazi.

‘Is it your grandfather?’ he asked, pulling over a chair and sitting beside her, taking her free hand in his so the three of them were linked.

Marni nodded.

‘He’s in Theatre now.’

Had he felt a tremor in her hand that his fingers tightened on hers?

‘I could organise a hook-up to the hospital so you know exactly what’s going on,’ he offered, rubbing his thumb back and forth across the palm of her hand—distracting her in spite of her concern.

‘Nelson has promised to contact me when it’s over and he’s spoken to the surgeon,’ she said, turning to look at him, reading his sympathy in his dark eyes, feeling weakness all through her that this man should care enough to be here for her.

Not that she could let him see her reaction. He was being practical—sensible—and she could do both!

‘I know the routine of the op, and that makes it both easier and harder,’ she said. ‘They’ll open his chest and bypass the two stents in his coronary arteries before opening his heart to replace the valve.’

‘You’ve seen the operation before?’

‘I worked in the cardiac theatre for a while when I was training. It’s a long, hard operation, but generally there aren’t too many risks.’

Ghazi took both her hands now and smiled gently at her.

‘Or so you keep telling yourself,’ he said. ‘Now come, you need to eat. We’ll go to the restaurant at the top of the building again. You can turn your phone back on up there and be ready when your Mr Nelson calls.’

Marni stared at him, feeling a frown forming between her eyebrows.

‘But you’ve no time for this,’ she protested. ‘You said yourself you’ve got a schedule from hell and I’ve already taken up too much of your time. I’ll just sit here for a while then go on back to Tasnim’s—even phone her to send a driver if that will make you happy.’

His smile was broader this time, and it started up all the reactions her preoccupation had held at bay.

‘If the country’s boss can’t take time out to be with his betrothed when she needs him, who can? Besides, the dinner I was meant to be attending promised to be boring in the extreme—a meeting of some world soccer association organised by Nimr—and the men attending won’t know one sheikh from another. To them we’re all just men in long white dresses—so one less will hardly matter.’

Still holding her hands, he eased her gently to her feet, but before he left the room, he, too, looked at Safi’s chart and examined the little boy who lay sleeping quietly in the big bed.

‘He seems to be doing well,’ Marni said, as they walked towards the lifts.

But Ghazi’s, ‘Yes,’ was distracted.

‘You’re worried about him?’ she asked as they waited in the foyer.

‘Worried about his family situation,’ Ghazi admitted. ‘I really don’t want to send him home while he recovers enough for another operation, but he’s already been away from home for a month and that’s a long time for a child. Also, he can’t stay at the hospital. I can keep him at the palace, of course. The women would look after him and there are children he can play with, but his family—’

The lift doors opened in front of them and they stepped in, the three occupants inside nodding their heads towards Ghazi, while Marni considered the conversation they’d just had.

This man was the ruler of his nation, battling to come to terms with his ‘job’ and to meet the demands made of him, yet he had time to worry over one small boy, or made time to worry about him.

He was special—not the boy but the man! The realisation wasn’t a total shock—Ghazi had shown his empathy with people before, his being here with her tonight being one example—but…

The warmth unfolding in her chest as she pondered these things was different—not lust at all!

Oh, surely not the other ‘l’ word,’ she thought as they left the lift and a warm hand on her back, guiding her towards the restaurant, sparked her more recognisable reactions. To fall in love with this man would be madness! They were from different worlds, so different she doubted any marriage could survive, especially if the love was one-sided.

He’d spoken the truth when he’d said he wouldn’t be missed at the sports dinner, Ghazi mused as he asked the waiter for a table overlooking the desert, but there’d been many other things he could have been doing.