Modern Romance May 2015 Books 1-8. Кейт Хьюит

twins.

      Chrissie was disconcerted. ‘You want to see Tarif and Soraya?’

      Jaul elevated a fine ebony brow. ‘And that surprises you?’

      Chrissie reddened in sudden severe mortification. She had told him he was a father and obviously he was curious. To have assumed that he would simply accept that news and walk away again had been sheer folly, she conceded ruefully. ‘I could bring them on a visit tomorrow morning,’ she suggested, prepared to show willing in the civilised stakes. ‘Before the lawyers kick in—’

      ‘The lawyers?’ Jaul repeated as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.

      ‘The divorce meeting,’ Chrissie leant forward and whispered, endeavouring to be tactful in the presence of the bodyguards who, it seemed, had not taken their eyes off either her or Jaul since the moment she’d sat down.

      Jaul recognised the restrictions of the meeting place he had chosen and cursed his inability to speak freely. He expelled his breath on a slow hiss. At least she was speaking to him again, at least she wasn’t shouting, he reasoned grimly.

      ‘Cesare’s legal team will soon get it all sorted out,’ Chrissie told him on an upbeat note intended to offer comfort. ‘He says they’ve dealt with much more complex stuff than this.’

      Jaul’s veiled dark gaze glittered and dropped down to the bareness of her left hand. ‘What did you do with the rings I gave you?’ he asked softly.

      ‘They’re in Cesare’s safe. I was keeping them for Soraya,’ Chrissie responded, wanting to let him know that she had not retained them for any sentimental reason.

      ‘They have Arabic names—’

      ‘A nod to their heritage,’ Chrissie cut in carelessly.

      ‘My grandfather was called Tarif—’

      ‘It’s pure coincidence,’ Chrissie declared deflatingly, lying through her teeth because she had named her son after his grandfather, reasoning that her baby had the right to use a name from the royal family tree. ‘I never would have dreamt of naming them after anyone in your family.’

      In receipt of that snub, Jaul wanted to punch the wall and shout, but he mastered the surge of anger with a silent, strong self-discipline honed by long months in a hospital bed and even longer months of painfully slow rehabilitation. She hated him; his wife hated him. He could sense the animosity still bubbling away below her newly calm surface, could see the sharp evasiveness in her beautiful eyes.

      He had brought this hellish situation down on himself, he decided harshly. Two years ago he had still been immature and impatient and reckless. He had taken what he’d wanted without hesitation and without thought of the risk he could be running...

       CHAPTER FIVE

      ‘THEY LOOK CUTE as buttons,’ Lizzie said fondly, studying the twins garbed in their smartest outfits. ‘Jaul will fall in love with them at first sight.’

      Chrissie wrinkled her nose. ‘I hope not because he’s not likely to see much of them when we live in different countries. I also hope he’s not always going to be asking me to put them on planes to go and see him.’

      Her sister breathed in deep. ‘Chrissie...I know it will be difficult but you should want him to be interested in his son and daughter, no matter how awkward it is for you. A father in their lives would be a plus, not a minus.’

      Duly admonished for her honesty, Chrissie flushed and climbed into the limousine that Jaul had insisted on sending to collect them. She was thoroughly disconcerted to see that he had actually sent his bodyguards as well. She knew Lizzie had spoken sensible words but the prospect of sharing the twins with Jaul daunted her. He was the man she had once loved beyond bearing and the idea of her children being looked after by his next wife in Marwan chilled her. But that was the way the world was now with families and step-families and ideally everyone being relaxed about once bitter relationships that were in the past, she reminded herself irritably. Other people coped and she would have to learn to cope as well. Even so, she couldn’t help thinking that it would have been easier altogether if Jaul had never come to London and had never had to be told that he was a father.

      The front doors stood wide open on the massive house for their arrival. As she clutched first Tarif below one arm and then struggled to hoist Soraya, a woman in a nanny uniform came running out and offered to help.

      ‘I’m Jane,’ she announced. ‘Your husband sent me out to assist.’

      Chrissie was unimpressed that Jaul was too proud and exalted to come and help her with his own hands but she allowed the woman to lift Soraya. They walked into the hall and on into the ugly drawing room where the nanny deposited Soraya on a new fluffy rug covered with brand-new toys and asked if there was anything Chrissie needed for the twins.

      ‘No, thanks. I have everything I need with me.’ Chrissie settled her sizeable baby bag down on one of the wooden sofas and wondered where the heck Jaul was.

      But when she looked up from settling Tarif down on the rug Jaul was in the doorway, garbed in black designer jeans and a dark red T-shirt and looking very much like some elite male supermodel from his stunning cheekbones all the way down to his sleek, beautifully built body. The thought shook her and her cheeks went pink, heat trickling through private places, reminding her of intimacies that were no longer part of her life.

      ‘I’m sorry. I was taking a call.’ Jaul moved to the edge of the rug and just halted there to stare at the twins with blatant curiosity. ‘I don’t know anything about babies, which is why I brought the nanny in to prepare for their visit.’

      ‘You must’ve met some babies?’

      ‘No. There are none in the family...well, there is no family, only me,’ he reminded her, for he had no siblings and neither had his father and so there were no other family branches to join with his.

      ‘Tarif and Soraya are your family now,’ Chrissie heard herself point out and then wondered why she had said that, but there was something strangely touching about his confession of complete ignorance. ‘Just get down on your knees and they’ll come to you.’

      ‘They can walk?’ Jaul was entranced when Tarif made a beeline for him and crawled up onto his lap with a fearless expectation of being welcomed there.

      ‘No, they’re only crawling.’ Soraya saw her brother receiving attention and headed in the same direction. ‘They’re starting to occasionally pull themselves upright...Tarif more than Soraya.’

      Jaul smoothed Tarif’s black hair back from his brow. His hand wasn’t quite steady. His children! He still could not credit the evidence of his eyes. ‘For that night they were conceived...I thank you,’ he breathed huskily.

      Chrissie glanced across at him and her face flamed as though he had lit a fire inside her. They had run out of condoms and Jaul had wanted to send one of his staff out to buy more and she had been furiously embarrassed by the idea, angry that he would not go on such an errand for himself. So, they had taken the risk and the twins were the result. His expression of gratitude now, however, shook her by its very unexpectedness.

      Slowly, Jaul began to relax. The twins responded to his demonstrations of various toys with smiles and laughter and gurgles and they put everything in their mouths. ‘They’re wonderful,’ he told her quietly.

      ‘Yes...I think so too,’ Chrissie said with a grin. ‘Most parents think their kids are wonderful.’

      It felt like a time out of time for Chrissie, for the presence of the children muted her hostility to Jaul and her tension had ebbed. ‘They need a nap now,’ she announced, scrambling upright intending to leave, a slender figure in jeans and a purple tee.

      Jaul hit a button on the wall. ‘There are cots upstairs ready for them. Jane will come.’