Desert King, Pregnant Mistress(22)

'Everything,  thank you,' Beth said, wishing they didn't have to be so  stiff with  each other. She patted the seat beside her and a after a  moment's  hesitation he joined her. 'You asked me in the limousine why I  didn't  take action when Hana was born. I didn't want anything from  you, Khal,  and that was why. I just didn't see the point.'

'You were entitled to my support,' he said, turning his proud face towards her.

She  was so relieved they were communicating again she didn't want to  break  the mood, and knew this wasn't the time to admit she had feared  rattling  the cage of Khal's formidable legal-team, and had buried her  head in  the sand to some extent. 'I wouldn't have kept on working at  Khalifa if  I'd been trying to hide from you.'

'Or maybe you had nowhere else to go,' Khal suggested, getting up to pour them both a soft drink.

'I've got my family … '

He  noticed how she flinched at the lie, and he flinched too, but  inwardly.  He didn't want this, but perhaps it was better if the truth  came out.  He knew more than Beth thought he did. His investigations  hadn't  concentrated solely on her pregnancy. 'Why didn't you go to your   family?' He turned to face her. 'Why didn't they come to you, Beth?'  He  knew this was cruel, but it had to be said. He couldn't live with   deception any more, he'd had enough of it in Q'Adar.

Seeing he  knew the truth, she looked away. 'Well?' he pressed. 'Isn't  it time you  told me about your family, Beth? From what you've said  about them I  imagine they must have been thrilled to hear about the  baby. No? Is that  the reason you haven't gone near them while you were  pregnant … or when  you had the baby?'

Her blue eyes filled with tears, but still she  raised them to meet his  gaze. 'You know about that too, don't you,  Khal? You know all my talk  on the beach was just that-talk. I don't have  a family. Or at least I  didn't have a family until Hana was born. I had  the store, I had  Khalifa; that was my family. And that's why my job  means so much to  me,' she admitted huskily.

He remained silent.  He'd known for some time that Beth's stories on the  beach had just been  her sad little daydreams, and now he had trampled  them it didn't make  him proud.

As always she rallied fast. 'I might not have a  family, and a fancy  support-structure like you, but I can still appoint a  lawyer to act for  me, and-'

'And I will fight you,' he assured  her, instinct driving him. Launching  a defence against every threat that  came his way was bred into him.

'I expected that,' she told him tensely. 'I expect you to stop at nothing to get your own way, Khal.'

'Don't  you think Hana deserves to know both her parents? I want her to  enjoy  her birthright both as my daughter and as a princess of Q'Adar.  Surely  as her mother you would want that for her?'

'I want Hana to be happy, and that's all I care about.'

'And I want that too.'

'No,  Khal, you want to take Hana from me and bring her up believing  that  money and power is everything, and love doesn't matter.' Was he  even  listening? Beth wondered.

'If you fight me,' he warned, 'I'll apply for full custody. Are you prepared to lose Hana?'

'Don't  threaten me.' But just the thought of losing Hana was so  terrible her  voice was shaking, and all the bravado and cheerfulness  that had always  lifted her had gone. And for the first time in her life  Beth felt  beaten.

'All I want is my legal entitlement as Hana's father, a father who can provide the type of life Hana deserves.'

'The life Hana deserves?' Beth repeated, shrinking inside.

'Try to understand that the difference in our circumstances dictates-'

'Dictates what, Khal? That with your fabulous wealth and immense power you can buy a lawyer, buy a judge, buy a child?'                       
       
           



       

'It isn't like that, Beth, and you know it. You're distraught.'

'You bet I am!'

'Your  choice is simple. You can stay in Liverpool and take your  chances, or  you can come to Q'Adar with me and Hana.' He glanced  towards the runway  where his private jet was waiting. 'Either way, Hana  goes with me.'

Put  so starkly, Beth could only think about Hana's safety. In the final   analysis it was the only thing that mattered to her. 'Are you sure you   can keep her safe?'

'Decision time, Beth … '

'I won't be your mistress.'

'I'll make the necessary arrangements for you to board the flight.' Khal cut across her without emotion.


And  that was it. She felt grief for what they'd lost, but this fast   decision-making and brevity of speech fit the dangerous times through   which Khal was living, and she knew she could expect nothing more. With   Hana always first in her mind, she thanked him and said they would be   ready to leave the moment they were called.

'Tell Hana's nanny  that she will also be made welcome in Q'Adar.' It  wasn't much, but he  wanted to give Beth something. It had never been  his intention to crush  her, or to have her return to Q'Adar under  duress. As he held her gaze,  something tugged at his heart, and  instinctively he made the Q'Adaran  gesture for a blessing that he had  made so many times before to so many  people, but never to the one  person who needed it most.

While  Beth went to see to Hana he sat heavily on a chair, staring  through the  panoramic windows, seeing nothing. He was still reeling  from the shock  of holding his baby daughter for the first time, and  seeing Beth again.  She challenged him every step of the way-but did he  want the mother of  his child to be a lioness or a milksop? He couldn't  guarantee their  safety in England, but Q'Adar would always be  turbulent; it was the  nature of the people. She would have to be  strong, and deep down he knew  she would cope, because Beth was an  exceptional woman. She challenged  everything he believed in-his views  on life, and even his role in it. No  one had ever done that before; no  one had ever dared.

He'd  always known she wasn't malleable mistress-material, but that  didn't  stop him wanting her in his life. If there was a solution to  this, he  couldn't see it. He couldn't marry Beth, and she would never  agree to be  his mistress. And so he must be content. Bringing Beth and  Hana back  with him to Q'Adar where he could keep them safe was the  result he had  aimed for when he'd come to England. He had succeeded in  that, and it  would have to be enough for him to know they were under  his protection  now.

He was content, Khal told himself … or as content as he ever could be.





CHAPTER ELEVEN




THE  ruler of Q'Adar's preferred mode of transport wasn't a small  private  jet, but a full-sized airliner with the royal crest of a hawk  emblazoned  on its tail, and the royal standard flying from the nose of  the plane.  Beth was standing with Hana in her arms on the tarmac, and  they were  being escorted to the plane by security staff. This was how  it would be  from now on, Beth realised. Khal was still making his way  down the line  of dignitaries, and looked magnificent in his flowing  Arabian robes.

'Where's Faith?' he asked the moment he could get away.

'She  received a phone call to say her father has been taken ill. I took  the  liberty of asking your driver to take her home. I hope you don't  mind?'

'You  did the right thing,' Khal told her, and then instead of sweeping  in  front of her he paused at the foot of the steps. 'Shall I take Hana  for  you?'

It didn't take a flock of royal attendants hurrying to her  side to tell  Beth how incongruous this offer was. She couldn't imagine  many sheikhs  took their baby, the baby no one had previously known  about, into  their arms in full view of everyone. 'I can manage, thank  you,' she  said, staring up to where the flight attendants were waiting  to greet  them, in what was to all intents and purposes Q'Adar.

Aware  of Khal close behind her, Beth mounted the steps with Hana in her  arms.  Behind Khal came a contingent of his office and security staff.  She had  to wonder what they made of their leader's ready-made family.  To his  credit Khal didn't seem in the least bit concerned.                       
       
           



       

'Would you  like to put Hana in a cot?' he suggested as they entered a  reception  area on board the plane. 'I've made sure there are several  cots on  board,' he told Beth, when he saw the surprise on her face.

She held Hana a little more closely, feeling overwhelmed now she was here.