‘I know very well. I still desire you more than any other woman I have ever met, güzelim.’
Her eyes shone overbright and she screened them, her throat aching. ‘But that’s not enough, is it? Especially not for someone like you who’s always hated the very idea of getting married.’
That was the moment when Rauf appreciated that he had expected Lily to accept his proposal practically before he finished speaking. Was he really that arrogant? Faint colour darkened his superb cheekbones as he braced himself to find persuasive arguments when he had already given her the only reason he considered important and it was simple, straightforward and sensible: he wanted her within reach twenty-four hours a day.
‘People change.’
‘But you said you would never change,’ Lily reminded him helplessly.
Rauf spread lean, impatient hands wide. ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you’re told. That was three years ago. I can now see many ways in which a wife would be useful to me—’
‘Useful…’ Lily studied his lean, devastatingly handsome features with a sinking heart.
‘I own three homes here in Turkey, an apartment in New York and another in London. A wife could take charge of them and be my hostess when I entertain…and eventually I believe I would like a child.’ It was an ambition that had never before occurred to Rauf and when those words emerged from him of their own apparent volition he was as taken aback as she was.
‘Honestly?’ Lily gave him what could only be described as a misty-eyed look of mingled surprise and hope.
Recognising that, while she had seemed seriously underwhelmed by the amount of property he owned, that reference to his own previously unsuspected desire to multiply had struck a pure-gold chord with her, Rauf did not hesitate. ‘Honestly,’ he confirmed. ‘So, how will you answer me now?’
‘I’d like about four,’ Lily confided abstractedly, fighting to keep her head out of the clouds, thinking that she could settle for caring and affection and children without too much difficulty. All right, he wasn’t offering love. It wasn’t the whole fairy-tale fantasy she might once have cherished in her secret dreams, but if Rauf wanted to marry her she was not about to turn him down.
Rauf expelled his breath in a startled hiss. ‘Four?’
‘Two?’ Lily bargained, recognising that she had been too frank, too soon.
‘We’ll think that over. I should tell you that I’ve already made a preliminary booking for us to be married in a civil ceremony tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Lily gasped, while noting that he had had the assurance to go ahead and embark on those arrangements before he had even mentioned marriage to her. However, taking into a
ccount his prior aversion to connubial bliss, she was much inclined to believe that a demonstration of such enthusiasm was encouraging and ought to be rewarded rather than censured.
‘I intend to allow it to be assumed that we married before we even arrived at Sonngul. In that scenario, we then stole a couple of days alone here together before we could bring ourselves to share our good news with the outside world,’ Rauf imparted very drily. ‘My family will be so delighted that I’ve finally found a bride, I don’t envisage awkward questions on that score. You will be received by my relatives as if you are the Eighth Wonder of the World. Throw in the news that you want four children and a red carpet will be rolled out from here to Istanbul.’
Lily blushed and then just laughed. ‘Tomorrow…’ she repeated afresh, still not knowing whether she was on her head or her heels. ‘What will I wear?’
‘Nothing likely to attract too much attention to us,’ Rauf advised.
Obviously even a hint of bridal apparel would be way out of line. Her shoulders drooped a little. ‘Do we have to get married as if we’re the SAS on a covert operation?’
‘If we don’t want to publish the fact that we have been intimate without that legal tie in place…yes.’ Rauf dealt her troubled expression a grim look of acknowledgement. ‘It’s my fault that it has to be that way, but once tomorrow is over we can put this unfortunate beginning behind us.’
‘When I tell Hilary about this, she’ll think I’ve gone crazy.’ Lily sighed in a daze.
‘As your husband, I’ll be able to sort out the mess Gilman left in his wake without too much argument from your family,’ Rauf contended with satisfaction.
‘As sons-in-law go, I expect you qualify as quite a catch,’ Lily mused with a dizzy smile as she studied him. He was drop-dead gorgeous and he was going to be hers for ever. She wanted to dance round the room, do mad, silly, childish things. Wow, she was getting married. Wow, was this really happening to her? Ought she to be worrying about the reality that he was behaving out of character? She worried at her lower lip, conscience stirring. This was a once very cautious, very clever and very grounded guy suddenly acting in a very impetuous way.
‘Are you feeling OK?’ Lily prompted grudgingly.
‘Why wouldn’t I be? By the way, I need your passport to fill out the forms I obtained this morning,’ Rauf responded, his thoughts clearly on more practical matters. ‘A copy of your birth certificate would be even more welcome.’
‘I brought a copy in case I lost my passport.’ Lily rifled her bag for both items.
‘Excellent. You will also need a brief medical examination before the ceremony can go ahead. I have organised that with a female doctor in the same town,’ Rauf explained. ‘I’ve already had my own check.’
Lily accompanied him into a charming sun-dappled room lined with bookshelves that nonetheless rejoiced in all the high-tech equipment of an office. ‘How soon do you expect to find out anything about that bank account in London?’
Rauf sent her a keen glance. ‘Why?’