The Di Sione Secret Baby

Nura looked puzzled as she straightened from checking the temperature of the four gold-plated taps that gushed water into the cavernous bath. ‘No, they are not His Highness’s relations. But they’re very important to him.’

Allegra tried to laugh but the sound came out skewed. ‘Wow, next you’ll be telling me there’s a secret passage between this wing and the sheikh’s bedchamber, like in the movies.’

Nura’s laugh was more natural, a shy twinkle in her eye as she plucked warming towels from a rail and laid them within arm’s reach of the bath. ‘There is a connecting passage, but it’s not secret. Everyone knows it is the last door along this hallway.’

Allegra’s nausea increased. She’d visited enough cultures around the world on behalf of her charity to know that harems and the taking of concubines were still a thing, even in the twenty-first century.

She didn’t know how else to ask the question burning on her tongue without coming straight out with it—does the sheikh keep concubines?—so she pulled hard on her diplomatic nerve and bit back the urge.

As detestable as the idea was, it was none of her business. Rahim Al-Hadi’s sexual conquests, singular or numerous, shouldn’t be something she wasted valuable time or brain matter over.

With a wrench at the master tap, she shut the water off. ‘Thanks for your help, Nura. I’ve got it from here.’