Date with a Surgeon Prince(54)

And she’d summoned him, so presumably she was the one who was supposed to be in control.

‘To us getting married,’ he said in such a kindly manner she wanted to slap him—or perhaps kiss away the little quirk of a smile on the corners of his lips. ‘After all, we are betrothed, and as I said earlier it needn’t mean anything, but it would give me the right to protect you, Marni, and I think I owe that to your grandfather.’

‘Pop! Oh, heavens, I’d forgotten all about Pop. I need to phone Nelson, I need to find out—’

Ghazi touched her gently on her knee.

‘Your grandfather is doing well—far better than his surgeon expected. I have spoken to both the surgeon and to Nelson every day. It will be a long convalescence, as you already knew, but he’s progressing extremely well.’

Marni wasn’t sure if it was the assurance or the hand on her knee that brought a rush of relief to her body, and with the relief came a release of the tension she’d been feeling for days.

And a burst of gratitude to this man who thought of everything.

Except she didn’t want to be feeling grateful to him—she didn’t want to be feeling anything!

Not that she’d have a hope of stopping the physical stuff!

But right now she had to get past that and get her brain working again, so she could explain why she wasn’t going to marry him.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just give in and marry the man? Then she could sleep.

Except…

‘You say we’re getting married so you can protect me but if I go back to being plain Marni Graham, a theatre sister, and live in a flat at the hospital, go to and from work there, then there’d be no need for protection. Now I know you better I know you can handle your sisters, so we can dispense with the betrothal business and everything can go back to normal.’

Her heart grew heavier and heavier as she spoke, yet she knew it was the right thing to do.

‘Can it?’ he asked, while the strength of the attraction between them was such that she could feel his body against hers, his mouth capturing her lips, although a full metre of palace air separated them.

‘Of course it can,’ Marni said, but the words didn’t come out as strongly as she’d hoped they would. In fact, they sounded feeble in the extreme.

She took a deep breath and tried again.

‘It’s not only the protection thing that’s pushing you,’ she told him. ‘I know you well enough to understand you feel you have to marry me because it’s the honourable thing to do, and that’s just nonsense. What happened happened, and I wanted it as much as you did.’

‘What happened was that I hurt you,’ Ghazi said, his voice full of regret. ‘Hurt you with my foolish words, but it wasn’t that you’d disappointed me in any way, but that, had I known—’

‘You’d have pulled back,’ Marni said. ‘Don’t bother denying it, it’s happened to me before.’

The pain in her voice was too much! He stood up, lifted her out of the chair and sat down again with her on his knee. He brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her gently on the lips.

‘Maybe,’ he said, running his hand over her hair, enjoying just holding her, ‘but only until I could make it special for you, make it easier and more enjoyable—slower and more careful, so it was more pleasure than pain for you. But how was I to know?’

He looked into her eyes, filmed with tears, although a brave smile was hovering around her lips.

‘That I might still be a virgin at my age?’ she asked. ‘Not many people would think it. It wasn’t that I was keeping myself for someone special, or that I thought my virginity precious, or anything that definite at all—it just happened.’

She was studying his face as she spoke, as if hoping to read understanding there.

‘You see,’ she continued, ‘I was brought up by two elderly men, who loved me as dearly as I loved them, so early on, at school and university when all my friends were experimenting with sex, I couldn’t quite get into it, afraid Pop and Nelson would be disappointed in me, that they’d think less of me. I knew if someone did come along that they’d like and approve of, then probably it would happen, but no one did, and then I was older and suddenly it was embarrassing to be a virgin and that made it harder and harder and—’

He cupped his hands around her face and kissed her gently on her lips.

‘And when you did tell someone you thought might be the right man, he mocked you, hurt you with cruel words and snide remarks?’

She nodded and rested her forehead on his chest while he wound his fingers through her hair and held her close.