Page 53 of Royally Promoted

‘Sorry?’ She blinked and wondered whether she’d misheard or else maybe hallucinated something she wanted to hear as opposed to what she actually heard.

‘I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?’

‘Will I marry you? How can you ask that when you’re already involved in the process of marrying someone else?’

‘Let’s sit. This conversation...isn’t one to be had standing up, staring at one another with a desk at the side. Makes me think I should be dictating something for you to transcribe.’ He smiled tentatively, crookedly, but he didn’t move, waiting to see what she would do.

Since her legs were beginning to feel like jelly, Lucy shuffled to the sofa by the wall and fell into it. Her heart was pounding and her thoughts were all over the place. She’d left the little box with the twinkling diamond right where it was on the desk and now she longed to cast another eye over it to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

He sat next to her, not too close but not too far. Close enough to touch, but only if he reached out—no place for any accidental brushing of hands.

They stared at one another.

‘You’re shocked.’

‘Are you surprised?’

‘No.’

‘The last time I saw you, you were telling me in no uncertain terms just how you felt about me.’ Her voice was laced with bitterness and, however much the diamond ring was calling, she wasn’t going to pay heed to the temptation to listen to that siren call. No, sir.

‘Lucy,’ he said heavily, and this time he did lean forward. ‘I always knew the path I was going to follow. Especially after my youthful...what shall I call it?...misjudgement, well, I accepted that love and romance, and all the complications that came with that, were never going to feature in my life.’ He sighed. ‘I knew what my parents had and I knew that it was a formula that worked—an arranged marriage with no room for misunderstandings. When we...started what we started...’

Lucy stiffened but didn’t pull away when he hesitantly reached across to link his fingers through hers.

‘Go on,’ she said tersely. ‘I’m listening. Just about.’

Malik smiled. ‘Everything about you is so wonderfully unique, Lucy. The fact that I’ve always thought that should have been a clue as to how I really felt about you.’

‘And which is how, exactly?’

Lucy wanted to sound sharp, but instead sounded hopeful, so she glowered to make up for the weakness, which made him smile just a little bit more.

‘Dependent,’ he said simply.

‘Dependent...?’

‘I’m in love with you, my darling, and if I didn’t have the courage or the wit to see that before then I am happy to spend the rest of my life apologising for the oversight.’ He looked at her with utter seriousness.

‘But what about all those plans you made? The ball? What about that brunette you spent the entire evening with? I half-expected an announcement to be made by the end of the evening!’

‘That was never going to happen,’ Malik said wryly. ‘It wasn’t a fairy tale story to be wrapped up in a few chapters with a wedding at the end. The only woman I had eyes for at that ball was you. The only woman’s voice I wanted to hear was yours. The only woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with... I realised...was you. So, did you mean what you said about loving me? I’ve been a fool, but will you have me now? Will you forgive me my blindness?’

Lucy smiled.

She clasped his hands with hers and leant towards him to brush his cheek with her fingers. That dear, dear face that she knew so well. How could she ever have imagined that what they’d shared could be left behind? He might have been blind to what he’d felt, but she’d been blind as well in assuming that what she felt could be contained. Somewhere along the line, attraction had cemented into something solid and wonderful, and she’d chosen to overlook that because she hadn’t wanted to admit to it.

So would she marry him—this big, complex, strong, vulnerable guy she’d fallen head over heels in love with?

‘Forgive your blindness? I think I can do that... I’ve been a fool as well for ever thinking that I could get you out of my system. Once you entered it, you were always going to be there for ever. And as for marrying you...?’ She dimpled in the way he had fallen for from day one. ‘I think there might just be a space in my diary...’

EPILOGUE

‘MY MOTHER,’ MALIK SAID, turning on his side to look at his adored wife, who was busy reading an interior design magazine, ‘wants to know whether a palace is too extravagant a gift for our son.’

Lucy dumped the magazine on the table at the side of the enormous four-poster bed, which had been their top priority for the house they had bought four months previously ‘Our son...has yet to be born...’

She grinned and watched with a burst of love as Malik curved his hand over the swell of her belly.

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