Penny Jordan Tribute Collection. PENNY JORDAN

my… my inappropriate behaviour towards you,’ she heard him telling her curtly. ‘Now it seems that I am guilty of repeating that behaviour. It will not… must not happen again!’

      As he stood up and turned away from her, Mariella wondered if he was trying to reassure her—or warn her! Her face and then her whole body burned hot with mortified misery.

      Her throat was too choked with emotion for her to be able to say anything, but in any case Xavier was already leaving, walking across the garden to the small, almost hidden doorway that led through into his own quarters, and to which only he had the key.

      Was she too destined to be a secret garden to which only he held the key?

      Fiercely she resisted the dangerous and unwanted thought. It was simply sex that had driven her… a physical need… a perfectly normal response to her own sexuality. There was nothing emotional about what she had felt. Nothing.

      Pacing the floor of his own room, Xavier came to an abrupt decision. Since he couldn’t trust himself to be in the same place as Mariella and not want her, then he needed to put a safe distance between them, and the best way for him to do that would be for him to return to his desert oasis.

      CHAPTER TEN

      ‘IT IS almost a week since he left and still Xavier remains at the oasis.’

      Mariella forced herself to concentrate on her work instead of reacting to Madame Flavel’s comments.

      The prince had come to see how she was progressing earlier in the week and he had brought his wife and their young family with him. The sight of the four dark-haired and dark-eyed children clustering round their parents had filled her with such a physical ache of longing that she had felt as though her womb had actually physically contracted.

      She was desperate to have her own child, Mariella recognised. And not just because she was missing Fleur. Fleur’s birth might have detonated her biological clock, setting it ticking away with such frantic urgency, but the longing she felt now was beginning to consume her, eating into her dreams and her emotions.

      Now she felt she understood why she had wanted Xavier so much. Her body had recognised him as a perfect potential baby provider! Knowing that had in a way eased a lot of the anxiety she had been feeling; the fear she couldn’t bear to admit that she might actually have fallen in love with him. Now, though, she felt secure that her emotional defences had not been breached. Now it was easy for her to admit to herself just how much she had wanted him and how much she still wanted him. She wanted him because she wanted him to give her a child!

      It made so much sense! Didn’t she remember reading somewhere that a woman naturally and instinctively responded to the ancient way in which nature had programmed her and that was to seek the best genes she could for her child? Quite obviously her body had recognised that Xavier’s genes were superlative and her brain fully endorsed her body’s recognition.

      And this of course was why she was being bombarded by her body and her brain with messages, longings, desires, images that all pointed in the same direction. Xavier’s direction! Her maternal urges were quite definitely on red alert!

      ‘Xavier has telephoned to say that he will be remaining at the oasis for another week,’ Xavier’s great-aunt informed Mariella with a small sigh as they sat down for dinner. ‘It must be dull here for you, chérie with only your work to occupy you and me for company.’

      ‘Not at all,’ Mariella denied.

      ‘Non? But you do miss la petite bébé?’

      Now it was Mariella’s turn to sigh.

      ‘Yes, I do,’ she admitted.

      ‘Then perhaps you should consider having enfants of your own,’ Madame Flavel told her. ‘I certainly regret the fact that I was not blessed with children. I envied my sister very much in that respect. I have to confess I cannot understand why two people like Xavier and yourself, who anyone can see are born to be parents, should decide so determinedly against marriage.

      ‘You are working very hard on your frieze. It would do you good to have a few days off.’

      She had been working very hard—but if truth were told, the frieze was practically finished. But Mariella had been painstakingly refining it to make sure it was absolutely perfect. Could she take a few days off? To do what? Have even more time to miss Fleur and to ache for a child of her own? Even more time to wish passionately that Xavier had not brought an end to their intimacy before they had… If only she had pressed him a little harder, persuaded… seduced him to the point where he had not been able to stop, she considered daringly, then right now she could already be carrying within her the beginnings of her own child!

      Restlessly her thoughts started to circle inside her head. Once they had finished eating Madame Flavel retired to her own room, leaving Mariella to walk through their private garden on her own. If only Xavier were here in the villa now, she could go to him. And what? Demand that he take her to bed and impregnate her?

      Oh, yes, she could just see him agreeing to that!

      Why would she have to demand? She was a woman, wasn’t she? And Xavier was a man… He had already shown her that he could be aroused to desire for her…

      But he wasn’t here, was he? He was at the oasis.

      The oasis… Closing her eyes, Mariella allowed herself to picture him there. That night when he had thought that she was Tanya, he had come so close to possessing her. Her whole body was aching for him now, aching with all the ferocity of a child-hungry woman whose womb was empty!

      Irritably, Mariella threw down her sketch-pad, chewing on her bottom lip as she glowered at the images she had drawn: babies… all of them possessing Xavier’s unmistakable features. She had hardly slept all night, and when she had it had merely been to be tormented by such sensually erotic dreams of Xavier that they had made her cry out in longing for him. It was as though even her dreams, her own subconscious, were reinforcing her desire for Xavier’s child.

      In fact the only thing about her that was still trying to fight against that wanting was… was what? Fear… Timidity… Did she really want to look back in years to come and face the fact that she had simply not had the courage to reach out for what she wanted?

      After all, it wasn’t as though she would be doing anything illegal! She had no intention of ever making any kind of claim on Xavier—far from it! She actively wanted to be left to bring up her child completely on her own. All she wanted from him was a simple physical act. All she had to do…

      All she had to do was to make it impossible for him to resist her! And whilst he was at the oasis he would be completely at her sensual mercy! It was even the right time of the month—she was fertile.

      A wildly bold plan was beginning to take shape inside her head, and the first step towards it meant an immediate shopping trip, for certain… necessities! There was a specific shop she remembered from a previous trip to the busy souk in the centre of the city, which specialised in what she wanted!

      Slightly pink-cheeked, Mariella studied the fine silk kaftan she was being shown by the salesgirl, so fine that it was completely sheer. Surely the only thing that stopped it from floating away was the weight of the intricate and delicate silver beading and embroidery around the neck and hem and decorating the edges of the long sleeves.

      It was a soft shade of turquoise, and designed to be worn—the salesgirl had helpfully explained without so much as batting an elegantly kohled eyelid—over a matching pair of harem trousers. Their cuffs and waistband had been embroidered to match the kaftan itself. It was quite plainly an outfit designed only to be worn in private and for the delectation of one man. The sheerness of the fabric would leave one’s breasts totally revealed—and Mariella had not missed the strategically embroidered rosettes, which she doubted would do anything more than merely make a teasing pretence of covering the wearer’s nipples—and as for the fact that the harem pants incorporated an embroidered and beaded v-shaped section at the front, which she had an unnerving suspicion