The Di Sione Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Legacy 2)

‘Oh.’ And just like that, tears filled her eyes. She allowed herself a short cry this time, then rolled over and picked up the bedside phone.

Punching in the number she knew by heart despite having used it only twice, she gripped the handset and waited.

‘Hello?’ Rahim’s voice was harshly gruff, dripping with impatience.

‘Rahim...it’s me... Allegra.’

‘You think I wouldn’t recognise the voice of my queen?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t seem to know much these days.’

‘What do you want, Allegra?’

She laughed, the sound scraping her throat. ‘Are you sure you want an answer to that?’

His tense silence spoke volumes.

‘I guess I should get to the point. Will you be attending the fundraiser for the schools in the northern district tomorrow night as you promised last month, or am I expected to attend another event alone and make your excuses, again?’

‘Harun will let you know.’

Her throat threatened to close up. ‘You know what? Don’t bother. I’ll go on the premise that I’ll be attending alone. If you turn up, it’ll be a happy surprise for your adoring subjects, I’m sure.’

She slammed the phone down a second before the tears came. Clutching the pillow, she cried until her temples ached and her heart bled. After dragging herself to the shower, she slid into bed, thankful when she grew drowsy immediately. But of course, like clockwork, she dreamed of Rahim, and their night in the Bedouin tent, before the fleeting happiness she’d known had been snatched.

And when she woke with tears in her eyes, she determinedly brushed them away and prepared for the day ahead.

Making sure to take lengthy breaks and conducting her meetings from the office set up in the palace, she returned to her suite at five, conferring with her stylist over what to wear to the fundraiser before heading for the shower.

An hour later, dressed in a blood-red silk gown with criss-crossing shoulder straps, with a clutch and shoes to match, she slid into the back of the royal limo.

Her first hint that she wasn’t alone was the heart-wrenchingly familiar scent that hit her nostrils before she turned to find her husband lounging in the far corner.

‘Rahim!’ She couldn’t help but drink him in, her senses jumping to high alert as they absorbed the long-denied visual of her husband. His hair had grown at the back, almost covering his nape. His cheeks were shrunken and his body was a sleeker version of the man she’d married. But he was still impossibly handsome, so breathtakingly masculine, he aroused every cell in her body. ‘What... You came...’

‘As you said, I made a promise. Put your seat belt on, Allegra.’

She complied, fighting to breathe around the hot arrows shredding her heart. ‘And what makes this particular promise worth keeping and others not?’

In the semidarkness, his jaw clenched tight. ‘Perhaps this was a mistake.’

‘No! The mistake is you thinking that what you’re doing isn’t hurting this marriage. Or the people you claim to care about so much. Or do you think the work is done simply because you put a ring on my finger and a baby in my belly?’ Her voice rose, every miserable day she’d spent without him seeking redress.

‘Allegra, calm down...’

‘Don’t tell me to calm down! You asked me to bring my concerns to you. Well, you’re my concern. Your absence from our home, from our marriage bed, from our baby’s life, is my concern.’

His head went back, the streetlamps dotted along the highway throwing his features into intermittent light and dark. ‘I can’t be in your life, or the baby’s, while you’re pregnant. I can’t be around you. The risk to you both is too much.’

‘But that’s not all, is it? Please don’t insult my intelligence by denying that there isn’t more going on. You’ve shut me out completely, and you won’t tell me why. Did I do something?’ she pressed, willing to ditch her pride for a minute if that’s what it took.

Rahim shut his eyes in a pained grimace. ‘I can’t do this now, Allegra. But no, you didn’t do anything.’

‘And that’s all I’m going to get? The it’s not you, it’s me line?’

‘We’re here, so unless you want to take this outside, I suggest we shelve it.’

The Rolls glided to a perfect halt on the edge of the red carpet of the five-star hotel where the fundraiser was taking place. As patron and guest of honour, she and Rahim’s much desired presence was being televised.