His Queen by Desert Decree(55)

Cool as ice, Azrael frowned and sent her a questioning glance. ‘Molly, think about what you’re saying,’ he urged in a tone that suggested she was being unreasonable. ‘Think of the family relationship involved. I knew Nasira as a child because she was my stepfather’s niece. Why would I behave in such a way? Think the facts through. We were already legally married before our public wedding, so there was no possibility of any ditching.’

Mortification and anguish slivered through Molly because what he was saying wasn’t enough to disprove his former stepfather’s insinuations. She lifted her head high, faint tremors assailing her rigid figure. ‘But Firuz may have hoped that, having met her again, you might be prepared to consider taking a second wife.’

Azrael shot her an arrested appraisal, dark golden eyes bright as flames. ‘While I was still married to you?’ he demanded with incredulity.

Molly lifted her chin in challenge. ‘Well, it’s a possibility, isn’t it?’

‘No, it is not. I will not follow in Hashem’s footsteps and take more than one wife. That practice is frowned on in Djalia, although I admit that it is still common in rich families in Quarein. My mother agreed to marry Firuz only after he promised that she would be his sole wife,’ Azrael told her grimly.

Molly smoothed her dress down over her hips with damp trembling hands. ‘I’ve offended you, haven’t I?’

Azrael compressed his lips, battling back the kind of anger that would do him no favours in a delicate situation. But was that how he impressed her? As the kind of man who would take a wife and then seek another? It dawned on him that the waiting game he had chosen to play in his marriage had created all too many grey areas between them. He had said nothing, he had tried to show rather than tell, but it looked as if he hadn’t done too well in that department.

At that point, Molly told him word for word what Prince Firuz had said to her, from the insinuation about her having tempted Tahir to the allegation that Azrael still planned to wed Princess Nasira. ‘And then I find out she’s already texting you!’ she completed. ‘How is that supposed to make me feel?’

Unbowed, Azrael stood his ground. ‘Nasira is only a pawn in Prince Firuz’s ambition to gain greater influence in Djalia and now he’s trying to use her to cause trouble between us. He lied to you because he knows me well enough to know that I would not take an additional wife under any circumstances. For that reason it would suit him very well if our marriage broke down,’ he pointed out smoothly.

‘Under any circumstances?’ Molly pressed, her fingernails biting into her palms with tension.

‘Not under any circumstances,’ Azrael confirmed, black-lashed dark golden eyes welded to her pale, anxious face. ‘I am shocked that you could listen to Firuz and credit his lies for so much as a moment.’

A tad of the tension in her slight shoulders lifted and she snatched in a sudden ragged breath to refill her straining lungs. ‘OK,’ she conceded very quietly.

‘Why would you think such a thing of me? A second wife? Are you not wife enough for me?’ Azrael demanded.

Molly reddened and shifted her feet. ‘We don’t have a real marriage—’

‘It feels real enough to me. It has from the outset.’

Molly jerked a shoulder in an uneasy movement. ‘But we made an agreement that the marriage would only last for a few months.’

‘And then I said that I wanted to keep you and I meant every word of it. I am not the sort of man who says such words lightly. It was not a joke,’ Azrael breathed with simmering impatience, as if he could not understand her lack of faith in him. ‘Did you think I was joking? Shooting you a smart line? Teasing in some way?’

Feeling cornered, Molly bridled. ‘I knew you weren’t joking when you said it but you never said anything more—’

‘What more was there to say?’ Azrael raked back at her in driven frustration. ‘I spoke plainly. I made it clear that I did not wish our marriage to be temporary. I told you that I wanted you for ever—’

‘No, you did not!’ Molly flung back at him with vigour. ‘You didn’t say that. You said you wanted to keep me and that was that.’

‘That’s unfair. How was I to open my heart when you were giving me no encouragement to believe that you felt the same way?’ Azrael demanded rawly. ‘And then when you declared that you did not want to have my child it was obvious that you did not feel what I felt.’

‘And what do you feel?’ she dared to press, leaving aside his conviction that she didn’t want his child.