‘But an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust does not encourage honesty.’ Rauf studied her with marked strain in his gleaming gaze, lean, strong face clenched taut. ‘All I want to ask you now is if some day you feel you could love me again?’
Lily screened her gaze, not wanting to let him off the hook too fast. ‘Anything’s possible.’
‘I love you enough for both of us, güzelim.’
‘I’m really beginning to believe that you do.’ Lily crossed the room to where he stood so straight and tall and, meeting the loving intensity of his tawny eyes, she just couldn’t keep him in suspense any more. ‘But luckily for both of us, I wasn’t any better at getting over you than you were at getting over me…I’m still very much in love with you.’
For several seconds, Rauf stared back at her in surprise and then, all of a sudden, he strode forward and just snatched her into his arms with an extreme lack of cool. He curved unsteady hands to frame her cheekbones. ‘You’re not just saying that to save face for me?’ he probed tautly.
‘No, I’m not that kind,’ Lily declared with eyes brimming with amusement at that very Turkish suggestion. ‘I just love you lots and lots and never met anyone who could make me feel as you could.’
‘Must be a lot of real losers out there because I wasn’t that impressive,’ Rauf muttered, and then he claimed her mouth with all the passion of his volatile temperament.
Matters moved fast from that point. Curtains were hastily yanked shut, clothes fell away without ceremony and the bride and groom fell between the sheets of the marital bed to make up for ten nights of being kept apart.
‘I’ve been up walking the floor every night this week…I just missed you so much!’ Rauf confided raggedly.
In between frantic kisses, Lily hugged that sense of security to herself, revelled in his hungry tenderness, the sheer happiness that she saw in his eyes. There was a new dimension to their loving, a wonderful closeness and contentment in the aftermath.
Rauf told her about Talip Hajjar’s visit to Sonngul and how complete his faith had been in her that evening when he had explained to the army police officer what she was doing in Turkey. Then he made her laugh out loud as he admitted that the sight of her name on that bank account with Brett’s had, within minutes of his angry condemnation of her, put him in a literal panic on her behalf.
‘I immediately lost all desire to press charges against Brett because I was afraid the police would not be able to prove your innocence,’ Rauf stated in some embarrassment. ‘About then, I realised that I would lie for you, break the law, do absolutely anything required to protect you and that shattered my view of myself as an honourable man.’
Lily looked up into the dark golden eyes resting on her with adoring intensity and kept quiet rather than tell him that, next to those words of love that she had convinced herself that she would never hear, that was the most touching admission she had ever heard. ‘I was a bit disconcerted when you suddenly mentioned getting me out of the country as if I was a master criminal!’ she confided with a helpless giggle.
‘I hadn’t yet even laid charges against Brett for those missing funds, so how could you have been at any risk? I was functioning on that single brain cell again,’ Rauf groaned incredulously. ‘I think I know why I never fell in love before…ESP must’ve warned me it was likely to be the most humbling and embarrassing experience of my life.’
As he smoothed down her tumbled hair and welded her to his lean, relaxed length Lily smiled with sunny contentment. ‘But I’m your reward…and, let’s face it, humility never used to be one of your more marked traits,’ she teased with new confidence. ‘I love you all the more for just being you.’
‘Flaws and all?’
Lily nodded forgivingly.
His shimmering smile curved his handsome mouth and warmed her all the way down to her toes. ‘You’re the best thing that ever happened to me…I love you more than anything else in this world.’
Twenty months later, Lily settled her infant son, Themsi, into his canopied cot at Sonngul. Themsi was four months old. She hummed his favourite lullaby half under her breath until his big eyes slowly slid shut and the extravagant dark lashes he had inherited from his father d
rifted down onto his rounded little cheeks.
From the window of the nursery, she watched the sun go down in spring splendour over the beautiful gardens before she drew the curtains and walked back to check that her baby was as comfortable as he could be. Themsi was only just beginning to sleep in more than fits and snatches and she smiled at the memory of finding Rauf beating her to his first cry those initial broken nights, for nobody had fallen harder for Themsi at first glance than his father. Her son was a very much indulged baby. Nelispah Kasabian had wept over him in joy and her own daughter and granddaughter were equally enchanted with the new addition to the family.
‘Four children?’ Nelispah had whispered conspiratorially to Lily, her wise old eyes fixed with satisfaction to Rauf as he’d cradled his son with tender pride for a family photograph. ‘He’s good for at least six! He’s all heart underneath the tough front.’
Yes, Lily had discovered that learning the Turkish language had paid definite dividends. Nelispah Kasabian knew Rauf back to front and inside out but would never have dreamt of revealing that fact to him.
Lily could barely believe that she had already been married for a year and eight months. The time had flown because she had never been happier. However, when Rauf and Lily had returned from their wonderful honeymoon they had been stunned to learn that Brett Gilman was dead. Soon after Brett had contrived to get himself back to England, he had been killed in a car accident. Apparently, he had been drunk, but mercifully no other car had been involved in the fatal crash. The files on Brett’s criminal activities had been closed.
Hilary had been stunned when her ex-husband had been killed and the children had been very upset. At the same time, Lily’s nieces had seen so little of their irresponsible father since the divorce that they had not been as badly affected as they might have been. Rauf had tried to persuade her sister to allow him to buy her a larger home, but her sister had said no. Hilary had been working hard to build up Harris Travel again and Serhan Mirosh, the quiet but very attractive forty-year-old investment consultant whom Rauf employed, had made increasingly frequent visits to offer his advice and guidance.
Rauf had given Lily a wicked grin of satisfaction one evening when he’d come home. ‘Serhan has fallen in love with Hilary. He sees her as a damsel in distress and longs to take all her business burdens onto his own shoulders—’
‘I don’t believe you!’ Lily laughed for Serhan had always struck her as a real sobersides for all his good looks.
Rauf’s grin merely grew wider. ‘He confessed this afternoon when he asked if I would have any objection to him taking your sister out to dinner. It might take him another month to work up the courage. He’s very shy with women…why do you think he’s still single?’
‘I know Hilary likes working with him,’ Lily conceded with a reflective frown. ‘But she doesn’t seem to have the slightest interest in meeting another man.’
‘Serhan may be shy but he’s also very determined when he sets his sights on something. If he’s got anything to do with it, they’ll be married within the year,’ Rauf forecast with brazen confidence.