Chapter Nine
Despite her sleep on the jet, Annabel realized that she had slept most of the way out to their location as well when she woke with a jolt. The car was stopped, and the height of the sun in the sky told her that it was closer to sunset than it had been when she went to sleep.
"Where... what is..."
She felt a heavy hand close around hers, squeezing companionably. For some reason, even before she got any kind of decent explanation, Annabel felt a surge of comfort from the touch.
"It's fine. We are here."
"Here..."
Adil grinned.
"I'll show you."
'Here' turned out to be a Spanish-style hacienda set like a jewel in what seemed to be a lush oasis. When Annabel turned to look at the way they had come, she saw bare desert with the bright city of Sakhi in the distance. When she looked at the hacienda, she saw white-washed walls, elegant Moroccan arches, and a tiled roof of gorgeous baked clay.
"Oh, Adil, it's beautiful..."
He grinned at her, and in a strange moment, she realized that he wasn't looking at the beauty in the house. Instead, he was looking at her reaction to it, and she blushed a little bit. Why would he care what she thought of it? It was only going to be a private place where they could... where they could...
She shook her head to get the thought out. That particular thought had been getting more and more insistent over time, however, and very soon, she knew that she would not be able to ignore it at all.
Before Adil could see the distress on her face and ask her what was wrong, however, there was a noise from the backseat.
"Mama? Mama, I have to go to the bathroom..."
"Of course," Annabel said with a rueful smile. "Adil, do you mind...?"
"Not at all, I'll go get the house opened up."
Marissa had been tractable enough when she went to sleep, but she was disoriented and a little fractious when she woke up. They found the bathroom just fine, but afterward, she was overwhelmed by the manor itself, because that was the only word that would suit a place so large and gorgeous.
"Mama, it's so big. Where are we going to live?"
"Right here for now," Annabel repeated patiently. "It won't always seem so large..."
Adil had been keeping his distance to let the two of them get used to the space, but now he stepped forward.
"I find that when I am afraid of things that seem to large, I need to start smaller," he said. "Perhaps I can help."
Marissa looked suspicious, but to Annabel's relief, she agreed to try things Adil's way. She took his hand easily when he offered it, and Annabel trailed the pair down the hall.
"All right," Adil said, stopping at a door that was marked with gold paint. After a moment, Annabel could see that it was a horse dancing on its hind legs. "This is where you are going to start."
When he opened the door, he revealed a room that was easily larger than their old living room, but far cozier and more luxurious. There was a child-sized bed in the far corner with drapes of some kind of gauzy fabric hanging from the ceiling, an enormous braided rug in the center of the room, and a large chest off to one side. Along one wall were two long shelves, just high enough for a four year old to reach, filled with books. The walls of the room were painted a smooth creamy violet with white trim giving it a nearly fairytale feel.
Marissa looked around in wonder. Annabel half-expected her to run straight in, but she glanced up at Adil and her mother.
"Whose room is this?" she asked, and Adil laughed.
"It's your room if you want it," he said. "Once upon a time, when my family came here for meetings and for vacations, it was mine. When I realized that you and your mother were going to be coming to stay with me for a while, I had some people update it with what I knew of you. Your mother mentioned that violet was your favorite color."
Had she? Annabel remembered Adil asking that during the hectic week she was getting ready to move. She had thought it a little strange at the time, because he had offered no explanation, but she had dismissed it quickly as she dove back into the preparations.
"It is," Marissa said, her voice slightly wobbly, and then with a soft cry, she threw her arms around Adil's waist, burying her face in his belly."
"Thank you, thank you, I love it!" she said, and Annabel could see the shock in Adil's face as well as he stared down at the little girl's exuberance. After a moment, though, he softened and hugged her gently in return.
"I am glad you like it," he said, and Annabel could sense a real warmth there, something caring that she wasn't sure he had experienced before. "Now, how do you feel about exploring this room for a bit? It's small, and you can spend all the time in it you like before you venture into the rest of the house. The bathroom is right across the hallway, and if you need your mother and I, you can just shout for us. We won't be far."
Marissa glanced at Annabel, who nodded her head. She was relieved that her daughter had found a safe space to start with.
"All right, I'm going to explore," she said, and she walked straight towards the books.
Annabel waited until they were back in the living room before she turned to Adil.
"Thank you," she said fervently. "Thank you so much. I was wondering if she would have a real bedroom here, and I was prepared to make a space for her... but having something waiting for her, something that was made just for her is so much better."
Impulsively, she hugged him, and he laughed a little, hugging her in return. It was strange in a way. She could feel the heat that always ran between them, but now it was tempered with something that was a great deal more tender.
"I had wondered," he said. "When I was young, my parents traveled a great deal, and I went with them. I was always a little more of a handful when I was staying in a guest room of some sort. I used to travel with my favorite chest of toys, and that helped, but I was always happiest in a room that could be my own."
"Kids like the familiar. They want to know about changes well in advance of them happening, and it always goes a lot better if their parents can make sure that they have something to hang on to... but of course you must know this," she said, realizing that she had been lecturing a little.
"Not at all," Adil said cheerfully. "I am glad that one of us has some experience. But let me show you at least some of the hacienda to you."
She realized why he said 'some' of the hacienda. The place was enormous and sprawling, a relic of the Spanish occupation of some five hundred years ago, Adil explained. The place had been burned down more than once, and his family had taken it over almost a century ago. They had rebuilt it, giving it every modern convenience while retaining the elegant structure, and the result was a much beloved manor house.
"My mother used to call it the Ruby," Adil said with a shrug. "I am never sure why, but it does gleam."
"It does," Annabel said. "I can barely believe that Marissa and I will be living here."
"It is a good choice for many reasons," Adil said. "There is a popular resort town on the other side of the oasis. It is very exclusive, and there is an excellent hospital there if necessary. Though there is security that prevents anyone from the resort from coming here, we will have access to anything we want from beyond. The household staff and the cook come from the resort town."
Annabel finally had the opportunity to broach a subject that had been on her mind for a while.
"Are you going to be staying here with us?" she asked. "I mean, I know you are going to be here to... um... to be with me, but I wasn't sure if you were going to be with us the rest of the time."
She saw a number of emotions flicker across his face, none of them easy to read, and then he simply looked at her.
"Do you want me to?" he asked.
Annabel swallowed hard. She didn't want to leave herself vulnerable to this man who already held so many cards in his hand. She didn't want to be a bother to him when he had already been so generous, and she certainly didn't want to be seen as a clingy and dependent nag. However, he had asked her a question, and she wanted to be honest more than anything else.
"I hope you will," she said, dropping her eyes. "That is... I feel as if I would enjoy it more if you were here, and that Marissa would as well."
She jumped a little when she felt his finger touch the point of her chin, making her look up.
"Then I will stay as much as I can," he said, and there was a slight smile on his lips. "I have business that will call me back to Sakhi, but we are going into a slow season for me. Less demands on my time, less things that cannot be handled with a phone call or a video call. I want to be here with you and with Marissa.
"After all," he continued, "the more chances we give our project, the better, yes?"
He referred to the reason why they were here in the most oblique of ways, but it made Annabel's head jerk back and her hands clench into fists. She could feel her nerves rattle, and she had never been more grateful than she was in that moment to hear Marissa call for her.
"Coming, pumpkin," she called back, and she hurried away.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark frown cross Adil's face, but it was too late to do anything about that.
She thought ahead to the night, and she pushed it out of her mind. However, Annabel knew that that was only going to work for a short time, and with every moment that passed, that time was getting shorter...
***
Marissa had enjoyed the dinner of delicious tapas that the cook had left for them, nibbling a little bit of everything and sorting what she loved from what made her made a face. After dinner, they had done a little more exploring, both inside the hacienda and out.
Then in the way of small children everywhere, she had gone from happy and chattering one moment to nearly asleep on her feet the next. Exercising her parental judgment, Annabel had decided that it would not harm anything if Marissa skipped her bath and brushing her teeth one night, and shepherded her daughter to bed. She was aware of Adil's eyes on her back as she got her daughter ready, and then she felt a warm pang as Marissa asked for a goodnight kiss from him as well.
When they turned on the small star-shaped nightlight in Marissa's bedroom and shut the door, Annabel could feel her heart beating like a jackrabbit's in her chest. She knew that if she spoke, it would be with a waver in her tone, but she had to do it anyway.
You knew that there was a price to pay for all of this, she told herself, but he interrupted her thoughts.
"You look frazzled yourself," he said, his face serious and unreadable. "Why don't you take a shower and get ready for bed? I am going to go for a walk just to get used to the property again."
"But it's dark," she protested, and he smiled a little.
"I have been taking visits to Ruby since I was a little boy. I am used to it. Go. Relax a little. It looks like you need it."
"Which... which bedroom is mine? Where would you like me to sleep?" she asked.
Earlier, Adil had shown Marissa where he slept. The master bedroom was enormous and beautiful, decorated in warm wood and emerald silk, and equipped with an utterly enormous bed at the center of it. There were also a number of other bedrooms in the hacienda as well.
Adil paused, and Annabel knew that there were layers and layers to that question, so many things that it would be impossible to answer them concisely.
"Why, in my bedroom of course," he said, and there was a thread of steel there. She swallowed hard, unsure of how to respond to that, but then he was walking away from her, his back straight.
***
I am a fool, Adil thought, stepping out in the warm night air. It was still comfortable enough from the day, but as night fell and the sand started giving up its heat, the temperatures would drop dramatically. He walked into the hacienda's courtyard, walking the paths he hadn't walked since he was a young man. He had come here a few times since his parents' deaths, but not often.
When he and Annabel talked of children, when they talked about food, hell, when they talked about most things, it was fine. Adil could feel a warmth from her that he had not felt from most people in his life, and he could bask in the presence of a warm, intelligent and willing woman.
Apparently, sex was not something they could speak about.
Whenever the specter of their bed came up, her extraordinary blue eyes went wide, and she looked ever so slightly like a rabbit that was a truck's path.
Adil growled, and he just barely stopped himself from punching a marble pillar.
She knew what our bargain was when she made it, he thought viciously. She has come all this way, she has taken my money, and she has agreed. She cannot back out now.
Could he take her when she was disgusted with him, however? Could he work himself over her when she was trembling, her eyes wide with distaste, or worse yet, when she was turned away from him and imagining someone else?
He cursed himself for a fool as his body tensed at the thought of her. That was the real problem. It seemed that no matter what, he desired her. The deal might have been a motivating factor, and he needed an heir, but at the bottom of this was a need that could not be quenched elsewhere. She was what he wanted, and nothing and no one else could do.
He walked until the purple night sky had dimmed entirely to black and the first stars were lit like torches in the sky. At the end of it, he was slightly sore, and he had no more answers than he had when he began. Adil wanted what he wanted, and he had no idea how to wipe that look of distress from Annabel's eyes.
The house was silent when he entered and locked it behind him. When he paused to listen, he could hear no sound from anywhere. He guessed that Marissa was deep asleep, and as long as he had been gone, perhaps Annabel was too.
Perhaps it is for the best, he thought, walking to his room and tugging his tie loose. Perhaps what we need is time, even if I think this desire between us will kill us both.
Adil was startled when he he opened the door and found the lights dimmed. He could smell sandalwood in the air, and when he glanced at the bed, a fog of heat fell over his vision.
Resting on the bed was Annabel, dressed only in a cafe au lait colored negligee, her head crowned with braids and an intent expression on her face.