The Sheikh's Love-Child. Кейт Хьюит

Lucy turned towards the stairs. Fine; if Khaled was going to act this way again, then he didn’t deserve to know about his son. Message forgotten.

      Angry, annoyed and hurt, Lucy stormed down the hallway towards the maze of rooms in the back of the palace. Over the thudding of her heart and the silky swish of her gown, she heard another, surprising sound.

      A moan. Of pain.

      She stopped, waited. Listened. And she heard it again, a low, animal sound.

      After a moment’s hesitation, her medical training coming to the fore, she knocked once and then pushed open the door from behind which had come those terrible sounds.

      Another moan, coming from the hunched figure on the edge of the bed.

      ‘Can I help…?’ she began, only to have the speech and breath both robbed from her as the figure looked up at her with pain-dazed eyes.

      It was Khaled.