CHAPTER FIVE
Five weeks later, it still felt like a dream.
Life had taken on a whole new dimension, and at the same time, it had never felt more real and more wonderful. Charlotte couldn't explain it to herself, not really. All she knew was how good it felt and how much fun she was having.
She was still quite busy, and as she got to know Aladdin's life a little better, she realized that he was quite busy, as well. Her job kept her hopping from place to place, and his duties as an ex-patriate prince were varied. Sometimes, days would go by where they were simply too busy to see each other at all. During those times, they would text back and forth, and to her surprise, they were not nearly all as heated as she thought they would be.
The sensual texts were delightful, but she was slowly coming to realize how much she loved the sweet ones. One dull day, when she was waiting on a client and he was overseeing a property in Boston, they simply texted each other back and forth about food that they had eaten and places that they wanted to go.
She realized abruptly that her life was being pulled into a steady orbit with Aladdin's. It wasn't as if he were the sun and she revolved around him. Instead, it was a lovely thing where they had a grasp on each other, and they swung around in a kind of delightful harmony.
Their time apart was amusing, but their time together was amazing. There was something about Aladdin that took her breath away. They were always touching and kissing, and she slowly realized that it was her that brought this out in him.
"Sometimes, I wish we could do this forever," she said softly, staring up at the ceiling one night.
Aladdin laughed, a note of impressed exhaustion in his voice.
"Really? I am shortly going to expire from fatigue."
"No, silly," she said, bopping him with a pillow. "I mean…I mean this. This life. This thing we have."
Aladdin was silent a long time. For a moment, she thought that he had gone to sleep. Then she felt his hand brushing against her jaw, pushing a strand of hair away from her face.
"We can have this," he said. "For as long as you like."
They didn’t say anything else. It seemed as if a new rule had come into play over their relationship. Before, they hadn't talked about the past or who they were. Now, they weren't talking about their future and what it could mean.
The joy he gave her every day was wonderful. It sent her flying high, and she had never flown with someone like this before. She resolved to treasure it while it lasted, because now she was becoming certain that it wouldn't.
* * *
Looking over New York from one of the offices that the UAE kept there, Aladdin was just stepping out to lunch when his phone let him know that he had a text.
He grinned with delight, thinking it was Charlotte, but then he frowned when he realized that it was Mikal. He quickly called his brother.
"Hello, Mikal. How's it going?"
"Brother of mine, you need to come home."
Aladdin stiffened. There was something in Mikal's tone that made every hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. He was already walking toward the elevator as he talked.
"Why? What's going on?"
"It's Father," Mikal said shortly. "He's had some kind of episode. We're keeping it out of the papers, and the doctors don't sound too worried, but it's best if you come home."
"I understand. I’ll be at the airport within two hours, and after that, I should be home in less than twenty-four."
He hung up on his brother. The elevator began its long plunge to the ground level, and he had to think.
His mind was a mire of confusion and worry for his father, who was no longer a young man, but he also thought of Charlotte.
He didn't want to leave her in New York, and if he were perfectly honest, some part of him wanted her with him on the long flight. He could imagine her sweet voice soothing his distress, calming his worry. His fingers were on the phone to call her and to ask her to come, but then he pocketed it decisively.
She had made her need for their relationship to stay just the way it was very clear. He knew that if he pushed her, if he tried to put her in a place she didn't want to be, she would simply leave. Right now, that was not something that he could bear.
Aladdin knew that he should be focused on his family, but his thoughts kept straying to Charlotte. She was like a beam of sunlight dancing through his life, and he didn't know what would happen when it turned out that she had tired of him.
He kept his hands away from his phone until he was safely on the plane just two hours later. Finally, he pulled it out of his pocket to see that she had left him a few texts.
Hey you, I hope your day is going well!
Are we going to get Japanese food tonight? A client recommended an awesome place...
I was just thinking of you...
He took a deep breath and started typing. He had to erase what he had written a few times, change a few things, and the result said less than what he wanted to say. In the end, however, it would have to do.
I'm sorry, but I've been unexpectedly called out of the country. There are family issues that I have to attend to. I am so sorry that I am going to miss you tonight. I will try to return when I can, but at this point, I know very little about what might happen. I am so sorry, and I miss you.
He sent the message, and he put away his phone. There were things ahead that he had to deal with, but no matter what he had to do, he was becoming aware of the fact that his heart was staying in America.
* * *
Charlotte told herself that she was going to be patient. There was nothing at all that said that Aladdin wouldn't return. They had been having such a good time, and they were growing closer by the day. She kept a faithful vigil. She texted him from time to time. He responded, but they were hurried.
She noticed that he was being secretive about whatever was keeping him in Abu Dhabi. At first she didn't mind, but then she realized with a chill why he had been staying away from his home country for so long. Perhaps his mother had changed his mind.
Perhaps he was getting married.
The idea of Aladdin getting married was so strange and foreign to her that she felt ill. Then she realized with a shock that she was actually going to throw up.
After she had finished, she sat on the cool tile floor of her bathroom for a long while. Her mind was utterly blank. She couldn't fasten on to a thought at all, and when she could, her brain shied away from it. Instead, all she could think about was how much she missed Aladdin, and what she would say when he came back.
She tried to force herself to be ruthless about it. She tried to make herself think that he wasn't coming back, but her heart was having none of it. Some foolish, ridiculous part of her thought that he was coming back.
Charlotte was tough. She had to be to get along in New York and do what she did for a living. Finally, she managed to heave herself to her feet, already feeling a little bit more delicate.
Can it be? It could be anything. It doesn't have to be...that...
She told herself that there were any number of reasons why she might be feeling sick to her stomach. She might simply have been that nervous about Aladdin, or perhaps some of that sushi she had eaten the other day wasn't as good as she thought it was.
However, there were possibilities that she had to consider. She forced herself to walk down to the drugstore on the corner. She could have sworn that the clerk gave her a disdainful glance when she purchased the test, but she told herself that that wasn't true. This was Manhattan, and people did stranger things every single moment.
Charlotte made herself calm as she went back to her apartment. The instructions were simple, and she followed them closely. Momentarily, she thought she should have another person present, someone else who could be joyful or nervous or frightened alongside her. Instead she was alone, and it felt as if all of her emotions were on pause as she stared at the little plastic device.
When the results came up, she froze. Her brain tried to push away the result while her heart lunged forward to embrace it with everything she had. Without thinking about it, Charlotte covered her belly with her hand.
“Oh my god, I'm having a baby,” she whispered.
She fumbled for her phone, fingers flying as she composed a text to Aladdin. Then her fingers slowed, and after a moment, she deleted the text. She sat in silence on the closed toilet for several minutes. Then she dialed a number she knew by memory.
“Hey, Charlotte, it's good to hear—”
“Viviana, I need to tell you something, and I need you to not comment until after I am done.”
There was a brief pause on the line, and she heard Viviana closing a door behind her.
“All right, sis, I'm all yours.”
Charlotte started to talk, and once she did, she couldn't stop. It all came out—who Aladdin was, all the times they had unintentionally seen one another, how their relationship had progressed, the way she felt when she was with him and away from him, and how he had disappeared back to Abu Dhabi. Then she described that morning. Finally, with a sore throat and red-rimmed eyes, she came to a stop, breathing slowly for what felt like the first time in ages.
“All right,” Viviana said with remarkable calm. “How do you feel right now?”
“Empty,” Charlotte admitted. “I feel like I'm a water balloon and that someone poked a hole in me.”
“Okay. Well, that's just the shock. I have a feeling that sooner or later, you are going to find yourself feeling a lot of things, and a lot of those things are going to be terrifying, all right? You're going to be mad at Aladdin, you're going to be mad at yourself, and you are going to be sad. You need to be ready for that.”
“I have a vague idea that that's coming, yes.” Charlotte bit her lip. “Viviana, what in the world do I do?”
Viviana was silent for so long that Charlotte was briefly afraid that the call had disconnected.
“You need to come up with a plan,” she said finally. “I know Aladdin, or at least I know of his family. Heck, I went to school with his nerdy little brother. He has all the money in the world, and a lot of power. You want to know exactly what you can do, and you need to figure out if he is on your side.”
Charlotte was subtly shocked.
“What do you mean? Of course he is.”
Viviana's laugh was a little unkind.
“That was when you guys were doing your enhanced one-night-stand thing, all right? Things are different now. That's a baby that you have in you. That's a baby that is half his. I don't know what he's going to think of that, or how he's going to look at you. You need to decide what you want to tell him.”
Charlotte did start crying then, though she managed to keep it silent.
“All right,” she said hollowly. “All right.”
* * *
She knew that Viviana was right, but she couldn't think straight. She took a few days off from work, and she simply sat in her apartment, reading articles on the Internet. She learned that it was still an early pregnancy, and that she might have gotten a false positive. Only a doctor could tell for sure. Even as she cautioned herself against thinking about what was going on in absolutes, something in her knew that there was a change.
Her entire body felt both delicate and powerful, as if it were imbued with a force that she could not understand. There was something amazing about being a vessel for another life.
Disturbingly, Aladdin hadn't texted her back for days. She knew it was irrational to expect anything else. Their affair had been passionate, and she would remember it for the rest of her life. Then she had to think about the fact that it was over. These things ended. She had to accept that.
However, there was always a part of her that persisted in thinking that he was coming back. That there would be an explanation for all of it. Daily, she spoke with Viviana, who was encouraging but cautious. Her sister still couldn't get away, but she promised her sister that she would as soon as she could.
“I don't want you to go through this alone, sis,” Viviana said. “Please, won't you think about coming out here? I have people who can look after you.”
Time after time, Charlotte fended her sister off. She couldn't tell her why. It made perfect sense for her to go out west, where she knew that her sister would pamper her and keep her happy and safe. However, she couldn't shake the idea that if she did, Aladdin would return and find her missing. There was something about that scenario that didn't work in her head, so she shied away from it.
“At least make an appointment with a doctor. You need to know what's going on. You can't stop what's happening from happening just by waiting!”
On that point, Charlotte knew that her sister was right. There was nothing she could do to stop the passage of time, and she knew that she needed to do what was best for her and the life that she knew was beginning inside her.
It had been almost four days since Aladdin had contacted her.
Finally, with a heavy heart, she made an appointment at her doctor's office, and she set up a cab to take her there. She was the picture of calm as she stepped out of her apartment and ran face-first into Aladdin.
“Charlotte, there you are.”
When Aladdin took her in his arms, she suddenly felt herself give in to her emotions, and she burst into tears.
Aladdin's look of joy turned to one of fear, and he wrapped her up tightly in his arms.
“What's the matter, darling? Are you all right?”
“I...didn't...I didn't know where you were...and...”
“Oh darling, I am so sorry. I was working nonstop in Abu Dhabi. I can tell you now, my father fell ill. He's fine now, but before I could come back, I needed to take over a few things for him. Then, when I loaded myself on the plane, I simply fell asleep the entire flight and didn't call. I'm so sorry, Charlotte. I swear, I didn't mean to disappear on you.”
His words allowed her to get a grip on her tears. At the very least, she could look up at him and meet his eyes as she spoke next.
“Aladdin, I think I'm pregnant.”
It was as if time had stopped. Aladdin went utterly still, and for a terrible moment, she couldn't read him. Then there was confusion, but after that, a kind of joy that seemed surprisingly restrained.
“You think you're pregnant? Darling, I...I…that is...do you not know?”
“That's what I'm going to figure out now,” she said softly. “The doctor can tell me for sure. After that...after that, I guess we should decide what to do.”
His face grew serious at her words, and he nodded. She wondered again if she saw some kind of pain there, but then it was gone.
“All right,” he said. “Am...may I come with you?”
“Yes!” she said, surprised. “Yes, of course. In fact, here comes the cab.”
He handed her into the cab with an astonishing delicacy before getting in and wrapping an arm around her. She couldn't gauge his reaction. There was something tense about him. She longed to ask him what he was thinking, but she knew that right now, she couldn't bear anything harsh or a possible rejection. Instead, she simply leaned against him, grateful for his strength and his warmth. She had done the pregnancy test alone, but this time, she would have him with her.
At the doctor's office, they sat in the quiet waiting area as she filled out the forms. Whenever she glanced at Aladdin, she saw him watching her intently. Something about it made her smile.
“You keep watching me as if you are afraid that I am going to disappear,” she said softly.
“You didn't tell me what was happening,” he said quietly. “I swear to you, Charlotte, if you had told me what was going on, I would not have waited for anything to come back. I would have been by your side.”
She saw the pain in his eyes. Somehow, she had only thought of herself during this time. It hadn't occurred to her to think about how he would feel when he found out. When he realized how he had been pushed aside...
Tears filling her eyes, she took his hand. He shook his head and planted a gentle kiss on her brow.
“Please, don't cry, love. Just...I would have been with you. I could have spared you some of the grief and fear I know you felt.”
She was just drying her eyes when the nurse came to get her. The nurse was a no-nonsense woman who bluntly asked her if she wanted Aladdin there.
“Of course I do,” she said firmly, and her decisiveness won a brief smile from her lover. The nurse gave her a paper gown to put on before leaving the room.
“This is absolutely not the sexiest thing in the world,” Charlotte muttered, looking down at the gown and her purple socks. Aladdin only laughed.
“It is a good thing it is being worn by such a lovely woman, then,” he said. “I hardly noticed.”
After that, the visit was a flurry of tests and talks, so much so that Charlotte was left overwhelmed. The doctor gave her another pregnancy test that came back positive, and then she had to have a thorough examination—something that startled her more than a little. Finally, the doctor sat back, pulling off his gloves and giving her a warm smile.
“And now, this is your choice, of course,” he said, “but do you want to do an ultrasound? It isn't necessary, but some parents find that this is an important step....”
Both she and Aladdin said yes at the same time, smiling at one another.
As the ultrasound technician set up the machinery and applied a liberal coating of Vaseline to her belly, she turned to Aladdin, holding his hand tight.
“This is real, isn't it?” she asked, and he nodded.
The little blue image on the screen didn't look like a baby at all, no matter what the doctor said. Then, as he pointed out where the little speck of life was hiding, how he knew it was really a fetus and not some lump of tissue, she felt her throat close up.
“Oh my god, it's real, it's really real,” she whispered, as the tears came. That was her son or daughter. That was Aladdin's son or daughter. She started to shake, burying her face in Aladdin's chest as she was cleaned up and the machines were pulled away.
“I'll leave you with this information,” the doctor was saying. “And of course, the sooner you make a decision on what you want, the better.”
“I am keeping the baby,” she said firmly. “I know that.”
Aladdin waited only a fraction of a second before nodding, as well.
“We are,” he agreed, and she wondered about his word choice.
As they left the clinic together, she knew that the world had changed again, but she didn't know what might happen next.
* * *
There was a long list of things that she should avoid if she were going to keep her baby healthy, so they ended up at a small natural bistro. She made a face at the salad in front of her before digging in.
“Nine months of dark leafy greens,” she said. “And longer if I want to breast feed.”
Aladdin hadn't gotten any food. Instead, he sat watching her across the table. He had been silent when they left the doctor’s office, and for a while, she had been afraid that he was angry. Now he looked thoughtful, perhaps even a little sad.
“Charlotte,” he said finally. “What do you want to do?”
She had to put her fork down. The thoughts that were flying through her mind were dark and dangerous things. She knew that he was an honorable man. She knew that he would do right by her and his child. However, above all, she didn't want to make him feel trapped.
“I am keeping this baby,” she said firmly. “That much I know for sure.”
He looked relieved.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“I'm not doing it for you, or at least, I'm not just doing it for you. This...this has been very strange. The moment I saw that test read positive, I knew that everything had changed. I knew that I was going to be a mother, and everything else paled.”
No, not everything. She had become more sharply aware of her feelings for Aladdin, how she needed him and craved him. That had to take a back seat to the business of raising her child, however, so she was very careful to keep her words considered and clear.
“I am not going to ask you to do anything more than what you want to do,” she said. “I want you to do as you please, as long as you don't try to take my child away from me.”
“Your child?” he said a little sharply. “That is my child, as well.”
The moment he saw the look on her face, he sighed, shaking his head.
“I would never take your child away from you,” he said. “I never could, not when I saw how thoroughly you fell in love as soon as the ultrasound tech turned that machine on. I couldn't do that to you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“But please, Charlotte...will you allow me to have a place in my child's life?”
“Of course,” she said, startled. “As much of one as you want. I know this is your child. You...you have given me something that I wasn't even sure that I wanted, and now that he or she is here...I know this is right.”
Aladdin nodded, but there was something guarded there, something tired and grieving. She reached across the table for his hand, and to her relief, he took it.
He took her to the brownstone instead of her place that night. In the weeks before he had left for Abu Dhabi, she had brought some of her own things there. It was simple to slide into a comfy pair of flannel pajamas, nestling on the couch at his side.
“I don't know what's going to happen,” she confessed.
He laughed a little.
“No one does, but darling, I will make you this promise. You will never want for anything, and neither will our child. It doesn't matter if we are far apart or if we are not speaking or anything like that. You...you are so precious to me.”
Though she kept her face buried in his chest, she could feel her heart breaking. It was, perhaps, the most generous breakup arrangement in the history of the world. She should have felt comforted, but instead, she only felt cold.
“Can we...can we have what we had before?” she asked softly. “Until the baby comes, at least? Can we have that?”
There was a moment of stillness where she wondered if he didn't even want that. She had heard that men changed when their lovers got pregnant. They ceased seeing them as women, or perhaps they could only see the baby that they were carrying.
Then she squeaked as he squeezed her tight.
“Of course we can,” he murmured into her blond hair. “Of course we can.”
He carried her to the bedroom and slowly removed her clothing. Charlotte had a moment to wonder at how changed her body would be during pregnancy. Soon her breasts would be heavy, her belly would push out in front of her like a dome, among other things. She shivered at the strange pleasure it gave her, and then she shivered again as Aladdin kissed her gently on the mouth.
They were naked and lying on the bed together, caressing each other's body almost shyly. There was a tentative quality to their touches, as if they were not entirely sure what was right or what the other wanted.
However, their bodies knew better than they did. Charlotte could feel herself quickening to Aladdin's touch, and she knew that he was responding to her, as well. There was a deep sensuality to it, a sweetness that she couldn't quite believe. She wondered if it would always be like this, no matter what lay between them.
He couldn't get enough of kissing her, touching her with a newness that was startling.
“I don't want to hurt you,” he whispered, stroking her lightly between the legs. “If it's better for you if I don't...”
She laughed a little, breathless.
“The doctor said that this early, it would be just fine,” she promised. “I will tell you if anything feels wrong, but oh, Aladdin, right now, this feels so right.”
She felt his fingers dip inside her, checking her wetness and readiness. She felt a surge of excitement at his touch, and she arched up to meet it. She was hungry for him, but then she realized that in some ways, she always would be.
He reached for the cabinet, and then he started laughing, shaking his head.
“What is it?” she asked in alarm, and then she realized. “You don't have to wear a condom....”
“No, and I swear to you, I'm safe,” he said. There was something almost shy about him in that moment.
“Then leave it in the dresser,” she said, and she saw his eyes light up like a bonfire.
It was exquisite, feeling the sleek silkiness of his skin as he pressed his cock against her entrance. She could feel the heat of him even more thoroughly, feel the way his body trembled on the verge of entering her.
When he finally slid inside her, his eyes were wide open, locked with hers. She gasped at the feeling of fullness there, and for a moment, they were both utterly still. She was awed by the perfect joining of their bodies, and he watched her for any sign of pain or distress.
“It's...it's good,” she said softly. “So good. Oh please, Aladdin, please...”
He didn't have to ask what she wanted. He started to move over her, smoothly and slowly in a way that made her gasp with pleasure. There was nothing hurried about his movements, even though she could feel the shiver that ran through his body. His control was exquisite, and he was using it all to give her what she wanted, what she needed.
She could feel the fire gathering in her belly, making her tense as she sought her pleasure. One hand was clenched in the sheets, but the other reached up to hold on to his shoulder. She could never get enough of this man, she realized, no matter what that meant for her.
Charlotte started to moan as he quickened his strokes, pressing into her deeply with every thrust. The fire was raging, roaring high, and she couldn't stop it now if she tried. So she didn't. She gave herself to the pleasure of being with him, of being consumed by him.
Her eyes flew open with the things she was feeling. Her body started to shake, and she wailed with her pleasure. It took her over mercilessly and without reserve. She was crying and moaning, and above her, she could feel Aladdin groaning as the last of his control cracked open.
“Please, oh god, please...”
He broke over her like a wave against a stone, continuing to groan as he spilled inside her. The rush of hot liquid aroused her even further, forcing her climax to last until she was certain that she would go insane with the pleasure of it all.
Finally, they both stilled, cradled against each other. Usually after they were intimate, they would talk, laugh, and tease. This time, they were silent, as if afraid that one wrong word would break apart the tender peace that they shared.
Questions crowded Charlotte's mind, making her wonder what in the world was going to happen to the two of them.
Would they continue in this way indefinitely, giving each other pleasure but nothing of their own lives? Would they drift apart until they were nothing more than friendly strangers, looking after a small child who didn't understand what their relationship truly was?
What would happen when he got married?
Charlotte refused to release the tears that threatened fall. She refused to be a woman who was so consumed by her love for a man that it took everything away from her. She knew that her future was bright, and that she would have a child to look out for. It had to be enough.
She curled up with her back to Aladdin's chest, breathing smoothly until somehow, she convinced herself to fall asleep. It would be enough. She and her child would be enough.
* * *
Charlotte didn't know that long after she fell asleep, Aladdin stayed up. He propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her face. The moonlight that came through the window made her achingly beautiful, he thought. He couldn't resist the urge to touch her cheek, to trace the soft wing of her eyebrow.
There was something about this woman that captured all of him. He knew that now. It would be foolish to fight it any longer. He belonged to her, even if she never belonged to him. He could hate himself for the hope that he had that she might want more with him. Every time he suggested it, she pushed it away, choosing instead to focus on other things.
Even in her sleep, she looked restless. She frowned. She murmured. Once, she sobbed. When she did, he held her more tightly until she relaxed again. Some hours later, she turned toward him, burying her face in his chest.
She said that they could have this, at least.
Aladdin couldn't sleep. Instead he lay in bed thinking, and as he did, he began to realize a few things.
He loved her. Some part of him had known that for weeks. He suspected that it had started when he first saw her, when she had been so wonderfully blunt and adorable. She was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and that was true even now, when she was heavy with his child and at a crossroads in her life.
What did you do to make sure that you could catch the woman who knew what she wanted?
Why, he had to be the man who knew what he wanted.
Lying next to the mother of his unborn child in the moonlight, what he wanted had never been clearer. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he started to plan.