Royally Promoted

Epilogue

‘MYMOTHER,’MALIKSAID, turning on his side to look at his adored wife, who was busy reading an interior design magazine, ‘wants to know whether a palace is too extravagant a gift for our son.’

Lucy dumped the magazine on the table at the side of the enormous four-poster bed, which had been their top priority for the house they had bought four months previously ‘Our son...has yet to be born...’

She grinned and watched with a burst of love as Malik curved his hand over the swell of her belly.

She was eight months pregnant and was quietly amused that her husband seemed a lot more nervous about the impending birth of their baby boy than she. He’d made her pack her hospital bag over six weeks ago, even though she had rolled her eyes and told him that he was being over-dramatic.

The past few months had shot past. They had married and the wedding had been wonderful and intimate, with just close friends and family invited. Lucy had fretted that, after the magnificence of what an arranged wedding would have looked like, his parents would be bitterly disappointed. In her usual forthright way, she had aired her concerns with his mother, with whom she had developed a wonderfully close bond.

But not a bit of it. Nadia had confided that she and Ali would have adored something a lot less spectacular, but in the end they had followed tradition and done what had been expected.

Bit by bit, Malik was opening his eyes to what Lucy had gathered pretty much as soon as she had got to know his parents. They might have had an arranged marriage but within that arrangement was a bedrock of love, something Malik had never really seen.

She covered his hand with hers and then shuffled over to kiss him lightly on the mouth as he continued to caress her naked belly.

‘I think a toy palace would work very well in due course.’ She gazed at Malik lovingly. ‘Even though I know your mum and dad are thinking about the real deal.’

‘It’ll be very hard not to spoil him.’ Malik paused and smiled. ‘Just as it’s bloody impossible not to spoil you, when you let me.’

‘You already spoil me enough.’

‘You refuse diamonds and pearls.’

‘I have everything I could ever need.’ She stroked his cheek and felt their baby move in her tummy, preparing to join them, to make them a family of three. ‘I have you...’