Harlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 2 of 2

changed everything because it was far removed from her far more prosaic expectations, which had run the gamut from Rafiq utterly denying that he could be the father to his having her conveyed back to the airport with a suitcase of cash to keep her quiet.
‘Aren’t you even about to ask me how it happened when I told you that I was on the pill?’ Izzy prompted.
Rafiq shrugged. ‘Does one question a miracle? I believe in fate.’
‘Apparently a course of antibiotics can stop birth control working properly, so that may be what contributed to the…er…miracle,’ she extended awkwardly. ‘And the episode with the condom, of course.’
‘Twins,’ Rafiq pronounced with a slashing smile, ignoring that reminder. ‘Could be boys, could be girls, could be one of each. That’s even more exciting.’
‘I’m surprised but delighted that you’re pleased about the development. However, it doesn’t sort out the problems,’ Izzy remarked stiffly.
‘There won’t be any problems to worry about once we’re married,’ Rafiq countered with supreme assurance. ‘Any problems you foresee will vanish.’
‘And I’d vanish too if that were the only solution,’ Izzy declared dizzily, stunned at that response, that apparent assumption that marriage was the only possible answer to their dilemma. ‘I’m only twenty-one. I don’t want to get married to anyone. I haven’t even started living my life yet. For goodness’ sake, I only had sex for the first time a couple of months ago!’
Rafiq registered that he had a problem and one he had not foreseen. For too long he had been encouraged to view himself as a matrimonial prize in terms of rank and wealth, his apparent infertility his only flaw. But the immediacy of Izzy’s rejection showed him that rank and wealth meant nothing to some women. It was a supreme irony, he conceded grimly, that even though he didn’t want to marry any woman her lack of greed and ambition might also have raised a tiny spark of enthusiasm in him for the venture.
‘We will discuss it tomorrow,’ he breathed in a driven undertone, emotions he didn’t want pulling at him, refusing to allow him to embrace his usual cool-headed thought processes. He had learned to be unemotional during his first marriage, had learned that it was the only safe way to cope with doing his duty. He could not change that mindset, not when once again he had no other choice but to surrender his freedom. Lightning could strike twice in the same life, he acknowledged, but at least this time he had the joy of becoming a father to lighten the load…

CHAPTER FIVE
A COUPLE OF hours after Rafiq left Izzy alone, she slid into the big bed with a sigh of appreciation for its comfort.
She couldn’t believe that she was tired again after napping throughout most of the afternoon but that had been one of the warnings given by the doctors. A multiple pregnancy would take more out of her than a singleton one and she would need more rest and a very healthy diet. She smiled, fingers creeping across her stomach as she thought about her babies.
It was an escape to think of them rather than the bombshell that Rafiq had dropped on her! Marriage? That didn’t fit in with her plans or expectations at all. Rafiq was out of touch. Women didn’t have to get married simply because they were pregnant these days, she soothed herself. Although being forced to take Rafiq to bed for the rest of her life could be an encouragement, she conceded guiltily, shocked and then amused by her drowsy reverie.
But then the bedroom door opened again and Rafiq strolled in, dark golden eyes widening a little when he saw her still awake, sapphire eyes rounding above the sheet with surprise, her hair tumbled across the pillow like a copper question mark.
‘It’s after midnight,’ Izzy pointed out a little unsteadily. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘This is my bedroom.’ Rafiq dropped the news without apology because he had a campaign to mount. Like it or not, freely choose it or not, he had to make Izzy marry him and he would do whatever he had to do to achieve that end result.
Izzy was so taken aback, she sat up against the pillows in a sudden movement. ‘Your bedroom? Why was I put in your room?’ she gasped.
‘Because everyone thinks we’re married.’
‘But we’re not!’ she protested vehemently.
‘We know that,’ Rafiq conceded. ‘But to make a major announcement of the truth that you are pregnant and we are not married would kick off a huge scandal and I’m not prepared to do that.’
‘Oh…’ Izzy kind of saw his point, which only infuriated her. Unfortunately, it was her fault that everyone knew that she was pregnant.
‘I owe Prince Jalil, my uncle and the Regent, more than that scandal after the hard work he has done to ensure that the Zenarian royal family is viewed with affection and respect again.’
‘Again?’ Izzy queried and then she shifted a hand, dismissing that mystery to concentrate on the here and now, which seemed rather more important. ‘Couldn’t you use another bedroom with the excuse that I’m pregnant and you don’t want to disturb me?’
‘No. Although it has been assumed that we were married in the UK, everyone also knows that we must have been apart for many weeks and to sleep anywhere but with you would look strange.’
Izzy breathed in very deep and compressed her lush pink lips. ‘Then it looks like we’re stuck with this sharing but it’s not as though I’m planning to stay long, so I’m sure we can cope until I leave again. Then you can say we’re divorced, can’t you?’
Rafiq said nothing at all because there was nothing to say to that unwelcome suggestion. If it hadn’t been for the twins she was expecting, they could have taken that road, but then they wouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place had it not been for her pregnancy. His brain, which until that moment had been very much preoccupied with