Chosen For His Desert Throne - Caitlin Crews Page 0,63

children and their nannies, had taken care of a pressing matter with her own doctor, and had come outside to wait for him.

She tilted her head, listening to the cadence of Tarek’s voice and ready to be what he needed when he came to her. Sometimes he raged. Sometimes he grieved. Now and again he was lost.

He came to her as he was, however he was, and she held him. She challenged him. She was strong for her King and when he could be a man again, he was always hers.

Always and ever hers.

Tonight he sounded good. And then he ended the call and she heard him walk toward her.

And wasn’t at all surprised when he simply lifted her up, turning her so he could hold her in his arms.

“Happy anniversary, my love,” he said in a low voice, there against her mouth.

“Only a decade,” Anya replied. “It seems like a week. And forever.”

Tarek kissed her as he always did. As if it was the first time, desperate and needy.

And when she was panting against his mouth, he smiled. “Well?”

She laughed. “Why do you ask when you already know? You always know before I do.”

Tarek moved back, then went to his knees before her. This big, strong man. This powerful King.

He slid his hands over her belly and kissed her there. Then grinned up at her.

“Every centimeter of you is precious, and mine,” he said with all the dark arrogance she adored. “I know when something changes.”

“Yes, I’m pregnant again,” she said. “The doctor just confirmed it. But you knew that.”

“I did.” His grin faded, and something stark replaced it. Stark like the desert all around them, beautiful and vast. “You keep teaching me that no matter how much I love, there is always more. There is no end to it.”

“There is never any end,” she agreed, her eyes getting glassy. “Not as long as we’re together.”

Tarek stood them. He bent to scoop her into his arms and then he held her there, gazing down at her.

“Come, habibti,” he said, the way he always did. The way he always would. “Let us fall the rest of the way together.”

And then he carried her off into the night, falling sweetly into the rest of their beautiful lives.

Coming next month

THE GREEK’S CONVENIENT CINDERELLA

Lynne Graham

‘Mr Alexandris,’ Tansy pronounced rather stiffly.

‘Come and sit down,’ he invited lazily. ‘Tea or coffee?’

‘Coffee please,’ Tansy said, following him round a sectional room divider into a rather more intimate space furnished with sumptuous sofas and sinking down into the comfortable depths of one, her tense spine rigorously protesting that amount of relaxation.

She was fighting to get a grip on her composure again but nothing about Jude Alexandris in the flesh matched the formal online images she had viewed. He wasn’t wearing a sharply cut business suit, he was wearing faded, ripped and worn jeans that outlined long powerful thighs, narrow hips and accentuated the prowling natural grace of his every movement. An equally casual dark grey cotton top complemented the jeans. One sleeve was partially pushed up to reveal a strong brown forearm and a small tattoo that appeared to be printed letters of some sort. His garb reminded her that although he might be older than her he was still only in his late twenties and that unlike her, he had felt no need to dress to impress.

Her pride stung at the knowledge that she was little more than a commodity on Alexandris’s terms. Either he would choose her, or he wouldn’t. She had put herself on the market to be bought though, she thought with sudden self-loathing. How could she blame Jude Alexandris for her stepfather’s use of virtual blackmail to get her agreement? Everything she was doing was for Posy, she reminded herself squarely and the end would justify the means…wouldn’t it?

‘So…’ Tansy remarked in a stilted tone because she was determined not to sit there acting like the powerless person she knew herself to be in his presence. ‘You require a fake wife…’

Jude shifted a broad shoulder in a very slight shrug. ‘Only we would know it was fake. It would have to seem real to everyone else from the start to the very end,’ he advanced calmly. ‘Everything between us would have to remain confidential.’

‘I’m not a gossip, Mr Alexandris.’ In fact Tansy almost laughed at the idea of even having anyone close enough to confide in because she had left her friends behind at university and certainly none of them had seemed to understand her decision to make herself responsible for her baby sister rather than returning to the freedom of student life.

‘I trust no one,’ Jude countered without apology. ‘You would be legally required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I married you.’

‘Understood. My stepfather explained that to me,’ Tansy acknowledged, her attention reluctantly drawn to his careless sprawl on the sofa opposite, the long muscular line of a masculine thigh straining against well washed denim. Her head tipped back, her colour rising as she made herself look at his face instead, encountering glittering dark eyes that made the breath hitch in her throat.

‘I find you attractive too,’ Jude Alexandris murmured as though she had spoken.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Tansy protested, the faint pink in her cheeks heating exponentially as her tummy flipped while she wondered if she truly could be read that easily by a man.

‘For this to work, we would need that physical attraction. Nobody is likely to be fooled by two strangers pretending what they don’t feel, least of all my family, some of whom are shrewd judges of character.’

Tansy had paled. ‘Why would we need attraction? I assumed this was to be a marriage on paper, nothing more.’

‘Then you assumed wrong,’ Jude told her without skipping a beat.

THE GREEK’S CONVENIENT CINDERELLA

Lynne Graham

Available next month

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada