“Agreed. It’s just…a baby will connect us forever. How are we supposed to get on with our lives while we’re so closely tied together?”
“Because you are still in love with him?”
“No. I’m not. I’m long over him.” She’d been over him before that last night together. She just hadn’t realized it yet. “But it creates tension and pressure. No matter who he marries, there will always be this child between them. She may be the first wife, but she won’t have the first child. That will be forever taken from her.”
“Does that matter?”
“I don’t know. I think, for a man, his first child is very important. There’s the whole pride thing. Telling the world he procreated. It’s different for women.”
“Having a child with someone else would still be significant for you?”
“Yes.”
“Perhaps it will be so for Jon, as well.”
“I hope so,” Maggie said. She just wished she didn’t have to deal with this at all. She got a knot in her stomach every time she thought about having to make that phone call.
“I wish he would just walk away,” she murmured.
“Will he?”
“I don’t think so.”
How ironic. A few weeks ago she would have done anything to get him back in her life. Now she had the perfect opportunity and she wasn’t interested.
“But you would like him to.”
She nodded.
He moved forward and put his arm around her. “If there is anything I can do, you must tell me.”
He was warm and strong. Talk about tempting, she thought, fighting the need to throw herself against him and beg him to handle everything. She knew he was more than capable. But this was her problem and she had to fix it herself.
“Thank you. You’ve already done so much.”
He smiled at her. “I have done very little.”
He released her. She forced herself to step away.
“There is a museum opening next week,” he said. “I would like you to come with me to the event.”
She took a second step back. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“We have a deal.”
“One you should be rethinking. Honestly, Qadir, you don’t want to go there.”
“The longer we are together, the more serious the relationship will appear.”
She pointed to her stomach. “Do we have to have the ‘baby on board’ discussion again?”
“Once you leave, people will believe the child is not mine. That will solve the problem.” He looked determined. “I want to see this through. You promised to give me at least a month. I will hold you to that, Maggie.”
She nodded slowly. Her reluctance came not only from the potential embarrassment to herself, but also from a tiny ache deep inside. She knew that Qadir was only using their relationship to fake out his father. Nothing more. Having him talk about that shouldn’t bother her.
But it did. It hurt and for the life of her, she couldn’t say why.
“And if I order you not to see her anymore?” the king demanded.
“I do not think that is a conversation you wish to have,” Qadir told his father.
“What is the point of this? Why her? Find someone else. Someone who isn’t carrying another man’s child. What will happen if things progress? Will you marry her? Am I to accept that child as a grandchild?”
“As’ad is adopting three daughters,” Qadir said. “You have no problem with them.”
“That is totally different.”
“Why?”
“It is. Everyone knew of the girls before. They are charming.”
“Perhaps Maggie’s baby will be charming, too.”
His father glared at him. “You are being deliberately difficult.”
“I am not, despite how it seems to you. Maggie is important to me. She is someone with whom I enjoy spending time. She is charming and amusing. She does not annoy me.”
“An important consideration,” the king said.
“Very. She is also not interested in the trappings of my position. My being a prince does not impress her.”
“Like Whitney.”
There were very few people who were allowed to speak that name. Unfortunately the king was one of them.
“Like Whitney,” Qadir agreed. “But with one important difference. I do not love her. I like her. I respect her. But she does not possess my heart.”
No one would again, he reminded himself. Once had been enough. He had loved Whitney beyond what he thought was possible and in the end, she had left him.
He’d been stunned by her decision and the emotional pain that had followed. He’d vowed then that no woman would ever bring him to his knees again.
“A sensible match between compatible parties makes the most sense,” his father said. “But this woman? What about the child? He or she can never be heir.”
“I am not the eldest son.”
“Perhaps not, but if Kateb walks away, you will be next in line.”
There was bitterness in his father’s voice, and perhaps sadness. “Kateb means no disrespect. He has taken a different path.”
“Into the desert. He belongs here.”
“I do not agree.” Qadir knew his brother could never be fully happy in the city. The desert sand ran in his veins. He was only truly alive when he was there.
“You seek to defy me at every turn it seems,” Mukhtar grumbled. “I am disappointed in you, my son.”