For a long while afterwards she didn’t speak. She didn’t want to shatter the magic of the moment. But then dark realisation intruded and, insistently, she shook his shoulder. ‘Kadir. Don’t go to sleep.’
He opened his eyes. ‘What is it?’
‘You didn’t use any protection.’
‘No,’ he said, frowning. ‘There wasn’t time and I wasn’t thinking straight. Neither were you, or you would have reminded me.’
She sat up, raking her fingers through her tousled hair. ‘And that’s all it was—a momentary lapse caused by passion?’
Kadir considered her words. She had insisted that lies were a waste of time, and surely one of the perks of a situation like theirs was that you could afford to be honest. They weren’t pretending to be in love. They weren’t striving for the impossible goals which people chased and then felt short-changed when they didn’t materialise.
‘No, maybe that’s not all,’ he admitted slowly. ‘You are going to be my wife and I want the wedding to happen as soon as possible. Would it really make a big difference if you fell pregnant in the meantime?’
‘If I fell pregnant in the meantime?’ she echoed. Furiously, she reached for her discarded underwear. ‘We haven’t even discussed having another baby!’
‘But the main purpose of marriage is for procreation, surely. You want to give Cameron brothers and sisters, don’t you, Caitlin?’
‘That’s not the point!’ she hissed.
‘Why not?’
‘Why not?’ She jumped to her feet, slithering back into her panties. ‘You bang on about me being an independent woman—but you’re only paying lip service to it, aren’t you, Kadir? You say I can “do some work” for the Xulhabian tourist board, yet at the first opportunity you forget to use a condom!’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘Admittedly, I got carried away myself, and therefore I’m as much to blame as you for what just happened, but even so—you can’t just make out like it doesn’t matter.’
‘Caitlin—’ he said, rising to his feet.
‘Don’t you “Caitlin” me! Either you can see that what we just did was a big mistake, or already we’re in trouble.’
He drew in a deep breath, wishing he could brush the subject aside, but he recognised that she had a point. And it might be sensible to acknowledge that.
‘I was wrong,’ he admitted bluntly. ‘My actions were not premeditated and I wasn’t thinking straight. But in future I will make no such assumptions and we will add to our family only after mutual agreement, if at all. Does that satisfy you?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘So why don’t we turn our attention to something which is guaranteed to make you smile again?’
‘What is it?’ she questioned, not bothering to keep the sulk from her voice.
He picked up a previously unnoticed small leather box which was lying on his desk, flipping it open to reveal a huge diamond ring resting against a bed of dark velvet. The stone’s many facets sent out astonishing rays of rainbow light and it was undoubtedly the brightest thing in an already bright room. ‘Go on,’ he said, handing it to her. ‘Try it on.’
Caitlin lifted the ring from the box. She could tell he was making an effort and he was looking at her with an expression of quiet satisfaction, as though no woman could fail to love such an enormous rock. But all she could feel was the heavy weight of the cold stone. It was too big for her finger. Too big for any finger, really. It occurred to her that she might have liked it better if he’d slipped it on her hand himself. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said dutifully.
‘It’s thirty-two carats,’ he murmured.
To Caitlin this piece of information meant precisely nothing. The only carrot she was familiar with was the kind she secretly blitzed into a tomato sauce as she endeavoured to get Cameron to eat more vegetables.
And suddenly she felt an unbearable wave of nostalgia for those simple days she suddenly realised would never come again.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SHE HAD A crown containing the biggest emerald in the world.
She wore glittering diamonds in her hair.
And a fitted golden wedding dress embroidered with thousands of tiny seed pearls, which gleamed milky and soft beneath the fretwork of lights in the palace ballroom. In fact, Caitlin was wearing so much precious finery she could barely move, and each time she did something jangled, leaving her feeling a bit like Tinkerbell. Thank goodness the bride’s walk towards the groom was traditionally slow, because she certainly couldn’t have managed it any faster. Yet, despite the circumstances which had brought her to this place, her stately passage towards her future husband had felt bright and magical and full of possibilities. Since the royal announcement of their wedding had ricocheted around the globe, Caitlin had clung to those feelings of hope and joy, holding them close to her like a talisman.
‘You look beautiful, Mama.’
The voice of her son butted into her thoughts and Caitlin looked down at a barely recognisable Cameron, clad in matching cloth of gold for his role as attendant to the bride. Some time during the last couple of weeks he had started substituting ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ with ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’, and she wondered if he’d learnt to do that during one of the royalty etiquette classes he had shared with his father.