Jewel in His Crown(26)

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 background 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.’