‘The hospital project in the capital of Maraban?’
‘It’s potentially a very exciting discovery but it means that the site has to close until we can get an official inspection done tomorrow, and that throws the whole project and the work crews into limbo. I’m flying out there now to meet with the managers and look at contingency plans. It is possible that we won’t be able to build there at all,’ he concluded gravely. ‘And the hospital is very much needed in that area.’
Recalling that Nabila was the CEO of the construction firm involved, Zoe sat up, her pale hair falling round her flushed face, because she knew he was undoubtedly about to meet the other woman again for the first time in eight years and she very much wanted to be in the vicinity. ‘I could come with you!’ she said in sudden interruption.
‘No, not this time. What would be the point? I’m likely to be in meetings most of the night and certainly all of tomorrow, sorting this out,’ he told her dismissively as he strode into the bathroom.
‘I would still like to have gone,’ Zoe confided in a small voice to an empty room.
But did she really need to cling to him like glue? she reproved herself. There were few things more distasteful to a man than a clingy, needy and jealous woman and Raj would quickly get tired of her if she started acting paranoid and suspicious purely because he was mixing with his ex-girlfriend in a business environment. She had to grow up, she told herself urgently, not react to her stabbing insecurity with adolescent immaturity. After all, nothing was likely to change in the short term. She was pregnant and really married now.
And how did Raj truly feel about that development? It shocked Zoe to accept that she had not the smallest idea of how he felt, and the instant she registered that worrying truth, another little brick of security tumbled down from her inner wall of defences. Sadly, there was no ignoring the truth that the closest Raj had actually come to expressing his personal feelings was the assurance that he regarded her being pregnant with his child as...sexy. Although he had labelled her conception a brilliant accident, which did suggest he was pleased.
Zoe grimaced. Why couldn’t he simply have said so, openly? In reality, now that she was recalling that conversation, she realised that Raj had not expressed a single emotion, which for an emotionally intense man of his ilk was not reassuring, she reflected worriedly.
Were duty and a sense of responsibility for his child all that had driven Raj’s request that she stay married to him?
And if that was the case, what could she possibly do about it?
CHAPTER TEN
RAJ’S PHONE RANG constantly right up until he left the palace. He was feeling guilty because Zoe had been very quiet when he left. But there was no way he would have considered dragging her across country late at night, especially now that she was pregnant and he had no idea where he would be staying. Zoe looked frail for all her lack of complaint. She had lost her appetite, dropped in weight. Yet even though he had noticed he had said and done nothing because it had not even occurred to him that she could be pregnant. What kind of husband was he? Not a very good one, he decided grimly.
And now he was to become a father. A dazzling smile flashed across his lean dark features. That was a marvellous development, a near miracle in their circumstances.
His phone rang again as he awaited his limo in the forecourt of the palace and he dug it out, only to freeze in surprise as the caller identified himself for, although he had met the man, his royal status ensured that he wasn’t especially friendly with anyone in that profession, and the warning the journalist gave Raj astonished him. He immediately called Omar and passed it on to him and Omar announced that he would be travelling to the hospital site as well.
In the early hours of the following morning, having dealt with a torch-lit visit to the site and with wildly excited archaeologists, who were hopeful that the legendary lost city built by Alexander the Great had been discovered on Marabanian soil, Raj was more than ready for his bed. He walked into the comparatively small hotel closest to the site. He was relieved that he hadn’t succumbed to the temptation of bringing Zoe because he did not think the level of comfort on offer sufficient for a pregnant woman. As his father had remarked in wonderment when he had phoned him earlier to break their news, Zoe would have to be treated from now on like the Queen she would one day be.
Raj was smiling at the memory and sharing it with his cousin, Omar, who was beside him as he pushed open the door of his room. And then quite forcibly the warning he had received, and begun to discount because he had yet to even see Nabila, was revived because Nabila sat up in the bed that should’ve been his, the sheet tumbling to reveal her bare breasts. Filled with angry distaste at her brazen display, Raj averted his eyes, unimpressed by the expression of seemingly embarrassed innocence she had put on when she glimpsed Omar by his side.
‘For goodness’ sake, tell Omar to leave,’ Nabila urged Raj.
‘I’m staying,’ Omar delivered with satisfaction, never having liked the brunette even when Raj had been in love with her. ‘But it is gratifying to discover that you can sink even lower than I expected.’
Raj strode to the foot of the bed. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ he demanded.
Deciding to ignore Omar, Nabila focused her eyes on Raj with blatant hunger. ‘I want you and I really don’t care what I have to do to get you this time around. Isn’t that enough?’ She treated him to a look of languorous enticement. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not still curious about what it would be like between us.’
Raj’s mouth curled with disgust and he swung round to stalk back to the door and address his protection team in the corridor. ‘Get her out of here...and find me another room,’ he ordered impatiently.
‘I’m not asking for marriage this time around,’ Nabila crooned behind him. ‘I would be your mistress...your every secret fantasy.’
‘My wife is my every secret fantasy,’ Raj countered drily as he strode out.
* * *
At dawn, Raj was enjoying a working breakfast on the terrace at his hotel with Omar and the management team of Major Holdings, including the CEO, Nabila, who had contrived to take a seat opposite him. He ignored her to the best of his ability, barely even turning his head when she spoke.
‘Raj!’ she exclaimed, startling him while simultaneously reaching for his hand.
For a split second, he was so disconcerted by that unanticipated over-familiarity and the pleading expression she wore on her face that he did nothing and then he freed his fingers with a sudden jerk and leant back in his chair, cursing himself for not having reacted more immediately to the threat. For Nabila was a threat, he acknowledged in a sudden black fury, a threat to his marriage. At that moment, he had not the slightest doubt that a photographer was hiding somewhere in the vicinity, most probably one with a telephoto lens, and had captured that image of them holding hands and that that stolen photo was intended for publication with the presence of their companions eradicated.
A couple of hours later, because she was sleeping in, Zoe turned over in bed, drowsily wondering what had wakened her and failing to notice that her mobile phone was flashing on the cabinet to one side of her. She stole her hand across to the other side of the bed and then remembered that Raj was gone for the night. With a dissatisfied sigh, she dragged her fingers back from that emptiness and reminded herself that it was mortifyingly clingy to want him there every night. She could be perfectly happy without him, of course she could be! With no suspicion of just how soon that assumption was to be tested, Zoe went back to sleep.
Zoe wakened in astonishment to find her sisters beside her bed and blinked in disbelief. ‘What are you two doing here at this hour of the day?’ she demanded.
‘We were shopping in Dubai so we didn’t have far to come,’ Winnie explained stiffly. ‘We want you to come home with us. Grandad agrees.’
Zoe sat up. ‘Why on earth would you want me t
o come home with you?’
‘Because,’ Vivi said bluntly, ‘Raj is playing away behind your back and you’re in love with the rat!’
Zoe frowned. ‘No. Raj wouldn’t do that to me,’ she said with perfect assurance because, in that line, she trusted him absolutely.