The Call of the Desert

A moment of silence, and then she felt his presence. A hand on hers. The relief was overwhelming. “I’m right here.”

And at his touch and his voice it all came back. She wasn’t nineteen any more. She was thirty-two, and pregnant with his babies. And he didn’t want her—or them. Instantly she was cold and wide awake. Her eyes opened to see Kaden towering over her where she lay in a hospital bed, austere and remote in his robes and with that beard. She pulled her hand away, knowing that he must be hating her so much right now.

She looked to the man who had to be the doctor. “What happened?”

“You’re severely dehydrated and fatigued. You’ll need to be supervised on a drip for at least twenty-four hours. But apart from that everything is fine, and your babies are fine too. You just need rest and sustenance.”

Julia immediately put a hand to the swell of her stomach and felt Kaden take a step back from the bed. She couldn’t bear to look at him and see the censure in his eyes. The disgust he must feel that she was here, with this unwelcome news. The last woman in the world he would have picked to be the mother of his children.

She wondered again if she should have come, and her own doctor’s words came back to her. “Julia, twins are a monumental task for anyone to take on board. You should not do this by yourself. You must include the father.”

Kaden’s doctor patted her hand and said, “I’ll leave you alone now to rest.”

He left the room and the silence was oppressive. Kaden walked around so that he was in Julia’s line of vision. She felt acutely vulnerable, lying on the bed in a hospital robe.

“Where are my things?” she asked, as if that would postpone the painful conversation that was due.

“Your bag is still with my secretary and your clothes are here.”

Julia bit her lip. “I can’t believe I collapsed like that. I had no idea—”

He exploded. “How could you not have known you were so weak and dehydrated? For God’s sake, you’re pregnant. Are you not taking care of yourself?”

Julia could actually feel any colour she’d regained drain from her face. She’d known Kaden must be angry, but to see it like this … ?.

He cursed and ran a hand through his unkempt hair.

Somehow it only had the effect of making him look even more gorgeous. His black eyes came back to her, and to Julia’s utter shock he looked contrite.

“I’m sorry. I had no right to speak to you like that. This has all been a bit of a shock … to say the least.”

Julia’s heart thumped. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t warn you first. It just seemed too huge to send via text …” She blushed. “I don’t even have your mobile number … and I didn’t think it appropriate to leave a message with your aides.”

His eyes narrowed on her face. “You said if it hadn’t been twins you might not have told me?”

Julia avoided his eye guiltily, fingers plucking at the bedspread. “I don’t know what I would have done, to be honest. It was pretty clear at our last meeting that neither one of us wanted to see each other again.”

His mouth tightened. “Yes … but once a baby is involved … he or she … they are my heirs. Part of the royal Burquati dynasty. If you had kept my child from me I would never have forgiven you.”

Julia looked at him, curling inwards at his censure. “I’m sure I would have told you about the baby, even though I know a lasting reminder of our … our meeting again was the last thing you wanted or expected.”

Kaden’s eyes flashed. For a long moment he didn’t speak, and then he said, “That’s beside the point now. We’ll just have to make this work.”

Julia’s eyes narrowed on Kaden as a shiver of foreboding went down her spin. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean, Julia, is that we will be getting married. As soon as possible.”

Kaden hadn’t even realised he was thinking of such a thing until the words came out of his mouth, but to his utter surprise he felt a wave of equanimity wash over him for the first time in months.

Julia just looked at Kaden where he stood at the foot of the bed. Dominating. Powerful. Implacable. Inevitability and a sense of fatalism made her feel even weaker even as she protested shakily, “Don’t be ridiculous, Kaden. We don’t have to get married just because I’m having your baby.”

He folded his arms, and corrected her. “Babies. And, yes, we do.”

“But …” Julia’s mind was feeling foggy again. She was glad she was lying down. “The people won’t accept me as your wife …”

His mouth tightened. “They’re conservative. It might take a while for them to accept you, but they will have no choice. You will be my sheikha—the mother of my children.”

Julia wondered how it could be possible for her to feel dizzy when she was lying down, but the room was spinning and those black edges were creeping back. She heard Kaden swear again, and he moved towards her, but by the time he’d reached her she’d slipped back down into the comforting numbness of the black place.