Kim Lawrence - Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin

‘He asked me to deliver a message.’

She gave an encouraging nod. Dragging a sentence out of this man was like dragging blood from the proverbial stone.

‘He is not coming.’

Molly’s face fell. ‘Right, well…thank you.’ She urged him to go—her system couldn’t take all this undiluted testosterone.

‘Beatrice is not well.’

Molly’s mask fell away. ‘Beatrice…’ She pressed one hand to her mouth and, all hint of self-preservation gone, she caught his arm with the other. ‘What happened?’ she asked, her mind turning over the events of two days earlier when she had come across Beatrice sitting with her head between her knees recovering from a slight dizzy spell.

Molly’s first inclination had been to get help, but Bea had begged her not to, saying that Tariq was already wildly overprotective and he would worry himself silly over a moment of light-headedness.

She shouldn’t have let Bea dissuade her, she thought. She should have told Tariq.

Tair felt the fingers curled over his forearm tighten.

‘Apparently she had a…troubled night.’

‘Troubled? What do you mean troubled?’

Anyone who hadn’t seen Tariq come out of her room the previous night might have believed that wide-eyed concern. The mouse was clearly a very good actress, although earlier she had not been good enough to hide her response to his touch. The shocked expression in her widely dilated eyes had been a total give-away.

‘The doctor came this morning.’

‘Doctor…oh, God!’

Tair watched the rest of the colour leave her face. Her fainting on him hadn’t been any part of his plan.

‘And he advised she be transferred to hospital.’ Presumably her reaction had more to do with guilt than genuine concern, or if it was it was a very selective form of that sentiment.

‘Is she…is the baby…? She hasn’t gone into labour yet?’ She quickly reminded herself that lots of babies were born perfectly healthily at thirty-five weeks.

‘As far as I know it is just a precaution…?’ He deliberately injected a questioning note into his voice.

Molly let go of his arm and lifted a hand to her head. Closing her eyes, she leaned back against a tier of elaborately carved cast-iron shelves spilling with lush greenery. ‘This is my fault.’

Tair saw no reason to let her off the hook. If she was beginning to realise that her selfish actions had consequences it was long overdue, he thought grimly.

‘What makes you say that?’

She inhaled deeply and opened her eyes. ‘A few days ago Bea sort of fainted—well, she said not, but I think she did. She asked me not to say anything to Tariq… I knew I should have told him…’ She shook her head and gave a self-recriminatory grimace as she slapped the heel of her hand hard against her forehead. ‘If she’s ill, if anything happens to the baby, it’s my fault.’

She was either a brilliant actress—and no one was that brilliant—or this woman had a seriously skewed take on morality. How could she care about the wife and cheat with the husband?

‘Do you know what’s wrong? Is there something you’re hiding? Is Bea in danger?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m not hiding anything. Tariq wasn’t that forthcoming.’

‘He must be frantic!’ If anything happened to Bea or the baby she knew he would be utterly devastated. Her half-brother’s obvious adoration of his wife had been one of the first things that had made her warm towards him.

‘I’m going out to the hospital so I could take you if you like? I’m sure you will be a great comfort to Tariq.’

Molly, deaf to the ironic inflection in his steely addition, turned to him with a beam of gratitude.

‘Really?’

‘I’m sure Beatrice would like to have such an old friend around.’

She smiled and reached out impulsively to touch his arm again as she said, ‘It really is kind of you.’ Then Molly saw he was looking at her hand and with a self-conscious grimace she let it fall away.

‘Not kind.’

The strange way he said it made her throw him a frowning look of enquiry, but his expression told her nothing.

‘Come.’

Molly responded to the command, falling into step beside him as he went through a door that linked the glasshouses with the main building. ‘I was thinking, perhaps I should ring the hospital? They must have left in a hurry. Maybe,’ she mused, quickening her pace to keep up with Tair’s longer stride, ‘there is something Bea would like me to bring for her…’

Molly knew if the positions were reversed she would like to have a few personal things around her to make her hospital room seem more homely.

‘There is no shortage of people to bring the princess what she needs.’

Molly gave a rueful grimace and felt foolish. ‘Of course there is. I just can’t get used to that.’

‘To what?’

‘The fact that there are people to tie her shoelaces if she wants.’ And Beatrice seemed so normal.

‘I forget that you knew Beatrice before she was married. Have you been friends long?’

Molly, never comfortable with the lie, shrugged and mumbled, ‘It feels like for ever.’ Which was true; her rapport with Beatrice had been instant. She doubted she could have felt closer if Bea had been one of her own sisters.

When they reached the courtyard a four-wheel drive was waiting there for them. Tair spoke to the man behind the wheel, who got out and, with a courteous nod in her direction, retreated.

‘I prefer to drive myself.’

Molly dragged her eyes from the vehicle to the man she was going to share it with and felt her stomach muscles tighten nervously. Suddenly this didn’t seem like such a brilliant idea.

‘Should I change?’ she asked, lifting a hand to her head. ‘I should probably tidy up and get something to cover my hair. Look, you don’t have to wait for me—you go. I’ll make my own way to the hospital.’

‘You look fine as you are.’

Tair slid into the driving seat but still Molly hung back. She recognised the reason for her reluctance and knew it was ridiculous, but the thought of being in an enclosed confine with this man and his sexual magnetism scared her witless.

Though wasn’t magnetism meant to work both ways? If so this must be something else because he wasn’t drawn in her direction, reluctantly or any other way!

He glanced across at her, with one dark brow elevated, looking more like a dark fallen angel than ever. ‘Are you coming?’

‘I was just…’ She stopped, her eyes sliding from his as she realised she could hardly tell him his aggressive masculinity made her feel raw and uncomfortably vulnerable.

A spasm of irritation crossed his dark features as she continued to hesitate. ‘Do you want this lift or not?’

Molly told herself to calm down. This was just a lift; she wasn’t signing away her life. All she had to do for Tariq and Bea was to survive for twenty minutes in this man’s company.

‘Well, if it’s no bother.’

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