Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ on. Her panic was broken by a smile as a well-manicured hand appeared from the bathroom, holding her robe.

      ‘You need to relax,’ he warned her.

      It was far easier said than done, because even as she tied the knot on her robe there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, there stood Kuma holding the smiling twins, who were clearly delighted to see Amy.

      ‘They had a wonderful night,’ Kuma explained, putting them down. The twins crawled happily in. ‘Clemira is really taken with the new Prince, but I think they both want someone more familiar this morning. How was your night?’ Kuma beamed. ‘I hear you were asked to join in the celebrations.’

      ‘I was.’ Amy nodded, nervous and trying not to show it, attempting to carry on the conversation as if she didn’t have the King of Alzan hiding in her room.

      But thankfully Kuma did not prolong things. She wanted to get back to her young charge, so she wished Amy good morning and reminded her that the twins were expected to join the royals for breakfast in hour. ‘I hope that your time in Alzirz has been pleasant,’ Kuma said and then she was gone.

      As was their time.

      Like two homing devices, or observant kittens, the twins had made a beeline for the bathroom door, their dear little hands banging, calling out to the rather big secret behind it.

      ‘She’s gone.’ Amy’s face was burning as the door opened and out stepped Emir. She had expected him to be wearing his uniform, but instead he was dressed in a more standard thick white towelling robe.

      ‘I will say that I’m looking for the twins if someone sees me in the corridor.’ He had already worked out how to discard all evidence. ‘If you can pack my uniform …?’

      ‘Of course.’ Amy nodded, telling herself that this was what it would be like were they to continue.

      The twins let out a squeal of delight as they realised the two people they loved most in the world were together in the same room. And the man who had asked her to believe that he had his daughters’ best interests at heart, even if he did not always show it, the man who so often did not reveal his feelings, confused her again as he picked up the girls and greeted them tenderly.

      He went to hand them to Amy, but changed his mind.

      ‘I hear you take them swimming at the palace?’

      ‘Every day,’ Amy said. ‘They love it.’

      Go, her eyes begged him.

      ‘Show me,’ he said.

      And so she dressed them in their little costumes, put on yesterday’s red bikini, and now he wasn’t a distant sheikh king who watched from the poolside. Instead he made do with his surprisingly modern black hipsters and took to the water with his daughters.

      Amy was suddenly shy.

      It felt wrong at first to be in the water with him—wrong to join them, wrong when he splashed her, when he caught her unguarded, when he pulled her into the trio. But after a moment she joined in.

      Amy knew what was wrong—it was because it felt right. For a little while they were a family—a family on vacation, perhaps—and they left their troubles behind.

      Emir was a father to his daughters this morning, and the twins delighted at the love and affection surrounding them. Emir splashed around with Nakia, hoisted Clemira on his shoulders as she giggled in delight. And in the water with them was Amy, and he did not leave her out. They stopped for a kiss.

      The pool was shaded by the palms, but the sun did not let them be. It dotted through the criss-cross of leaves and glimmered on the water. It chased and it caught up and there was nothing they could do.

      ‘Let me get a photo,’ Amy said. ‘For the nursery.’ She wanted the girls to have a picture with their father—a picture of the three of them together and happy.

      This was how it could be, Amy realised as she looked at the image on her phone, looked at the people she felt were her family.

      An almost family.

      It wasn’t enough.

      ‘Get the girls ready,’ Emir said as they walked back inside. ‘And then bring them down to breakfast.’

      She blinked at the change in him, and then she understood—in a few moments they would face each other at the breakfast table, would be expected to carry on as if nothing was between them.

      Emir was back to being King.

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      AND so the feast continued.

      The birth of the new Prince demanded an extensive celebration, and Amy could see the tiredness in Natasha’s eyes as she greeted the never ending stream of guests.

      It was a semi-formal breakfast. There was a long, low table groaning with all the food Amy had come to love in her time there, but she was not here to socialise or to eat, but to make sure that the twins behaved. It was assumed she would have eaten before the Princesses rose.

      Of course, she was starving.

      Starving, her eyes told him. He watched them linger on the sfiha he reached for. He was at Rakhal’s table, and it would be rude not to indulge, but it tasted of guilt on his tongue.

      He was weak for her. Emir knew that.

      And weak kings did not make good decisions.

      ‘Have something!’ Natasha insisted, sitting next to Amy as she fed the girls. ‘For goodness’ sake.’

      ‘I already ate,’ Amy responded. ‘But thank you.’

      ‘I insist,’ Natasha said. She saw her husband’s eyes shoot her a warning but she smiled sweetly back, for there was something that Rakhal did not know—something she had not had time to tell him.

      When he had gone riding that morning she had taken tea on the balcony—had heard the sound of a family together, had felt the love in the air. She knew only too well the strain of being considered an unsuitable bride, yet things were changing here in Alzirz and they could change too in Alzan.

      Amy did her best to forget she was hungry as she fed the twins. Did her best not to give in to the lure of his voice, nor turn her head when he spoke. She tried to treat him with the distant, quiet reverence that any servant would.

      The twins were a little too loud, but very funny, smiling at their audience as they entertained, basking in the attention. As the breakfast started to conclude she wiped their faces, ready to take them back to their room and to pack for the journey home.

      Not home, she reminded herself. She was returning to the palace.

      With the evidence of last night in her case.

      Just for a brief moment she lost focus, daydreamed for a second too long, considering the impossible as she recalled last night. СКАЧАТЬ