‘Of course, you must, if you feel you have to,’ he agreed.
But the floodgates had been opened and she didn’t want to shut them.
She was going to marry this man and there was no way she could expect the marriage to remain a celibate one. Not only would that have not been feasible, neither of them would have wanted it.
There was a real and tangible pull between them, and deep inside her she felt that was something,hopedthat it was something that had stuck with him as it had stuck with her.
Excitement flared.
Marriage!So the circumstances didn’t quite live up to her girlish fantasies of the perfect situation but, as she had discovered from experience, nothing in life was perfect and as solutions went this was a good one.
‘But I think you’ll find Tilly is fine,’ he murmured. ‘Fatima has me on speed dial. If there is a problem, then I will know within seconds. I also have a camera installed so that we can check on her at any time if we feel the need. Fatima knows it’s there, indeed was the one to suggest it, so...’
‘Your father...what time...?’
‘I will perhaps take Tilly over slightly ahead of you, which will give him time to get to know her. I plan on leaving here in...’ he glanced at his Rolex ‘...a couple of hours and my driver will be on standby to deliver you to his palace at six-thirty this evening. It’s going to be an informal affair.’ He smiled faintly. ‘So we have a couple of hours to play with,’ he said wickedly. ‘Would you like to play with me, Georgie?’
Georgie blushed furiously. She had made love to this man so many times and had had a child with him and yet, as he looked at her now, she felt like a virgin on her wedding night to the man of her dreams, shy and tentative and yet fizzing with excitement.
‘Dare to walk away from old resentments,’ he challenged. ‘I know you want me. I want you too. And we are to be married...’ He smiled and she felt faint and in thrall as he took her hand and they headed upstairs, headed to his bedroom suite, which adjoined hers.
She made a point of peeping in to check on Tilly as they went past the playroom. She wasn’t going to rush into bed with him just because he snapped his fingers! Her heart was beating with nervous anticipation but she wanted him so badly. The genie had been let out of the bottle and was running amok and there was no way she could think of shoving him back in.
She felt his presence looming behind her as he lounged indolently against the doorframe while she coddled Tilly and hugged her before the siren call of the playroom beckoned the little girl back, then she turned and looked at Abe, drowning in his dark, inviting gaze.
There was acquiescence as she twined her fingers into his and he squeezed her hand in response.
The atmosphere was thick with anticipation and she half expected him to hurry her to his bedroom, intent on following through but, in fact, he took his time as they headed up the imposing staircase and when he opened the door to his suite, he seemed in no rush to do anything.
He stood back as she walked into a space that must have been twice the size of hers and certainly bigger than her entire flat in London—far bigger.
‘By royal command,’ she said, catching his eye, and he grinned.
‘Command is not a word I associate with you.’
‘I’m here, aren’t I?’
‘Royal consent, shall we say...?’ He strolled towards her and then reached for her hands, holding them lightly as he looked down at her. ‘That is what this marriage will be about, Georgie,’ he said seriously. ‘Never command, always consent. I know you feel that you may have been coerced into this position, primed to wear my ring on your finger when you hadn’t envisaged that being the outcome when you first decided to tell me about Tilly, but we’re both on new territory and we have to consider that our actions from now on will have our daughter as the centrepiece of whatever we decide to do. Agreed?’
Georgie nodded, but couldn’t help her heart twisting a little. She would always want to put Tilly first, but wondered if there would ever be a place for her, Georgie, in his reckoning. It would be best not to hope for that, she decided. It would hurt too much when inevitably it didn’t happen. So she would focus on making Tilly happy instead.
‘And I think you’ll agree,’ Abe continued huskily, tugging her gently towards him, ‘that happy parents are parents who physically enjoy one another...’
Georgie looked at him with wry amusement. ‘Really, Abe? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that definition before...’
‘You should have.’ He looped his hands behind her and then lowered his head and kissed her, long and slow, leaving her trembling for more. ‘Don’t they say that people who play together, stay together?’ he muttered against her lips.
‘I think they may have meant racquetball and golf.’ She was laughing now, relaxed as she hadn’t been since he had walked back into her life.
‘Then that is a serious omission on their part.’ He led her through the outer sitting room, which she belatedly appreciated was more personal than the other areas of the palace she had seen. Perhaps he had had a hand in choosing what sort of décor he wanted and had decided to lose the acres of clinical pale marble in favour of the warmer tones of wood, or maybe it was the fact that the silk rugs breaking up the space were more colourful.
Likewise, the paintings on the wall were less austere. There was a clutch of lined drawings that looked very Picasso-like and a couple of abstracts that brimmed with vigour and colour.
And beyond, lay his bedroom.
Her nerves fluttered but she was fired with anticipation. She’d dreamt of him for so many long months and even when the dreams had stopped, he’d always been right there, on the edges of her mind, a constant thought in her head.
She was led into a bedroom dominated by a super-king-sized bed with a velvet headboard that matched the drapes that pooled on the ground. The sun poured through the windows and he moved to shut the curtains, plunging the bedroom into cool darkness.
