Prince Nadir's Secret Heir(17)

                Careful not to waken Nadeena, she eased herself off the sofa, not as easy as it looked since it was one of those squishy ones designed for long afternoons lazing about, and cradled Nadeena in her arms.

                Hearing her, Nadir turned towards her and she hastily pulled her T-shirt back into place.

                ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

                Imogen raised her chin at his surly tone. ‘Home.’

                ‘To that buffoon you were with earlier?’

                It took her a beat to realise he was referring to Minh but she wasn’t about to get into another lengthy discussion with him and, although it was illogical, her gut warned her that if she answered his question honestly he’d never let her leave. And that was exactly what she was about to do. ‘You have no right to ask me that. But I am curious as to why you brought me up here. It seems like a waste of your time and mine.’

                His eyes held hers and he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘Is he your current lover?’

                Chilled, Imogen cuddled Nadeena closer. ‘You answer my questions and I’ll answer yours.’

                ‘I’m sorry.’ Nadir’s voice, his stance—heck, his very demeanour—had turned alert with predatory intent. ‘Did you assume you were in a position to bargain with me?’

                Imogen rubbed the space between her eyes, her arms starting to ache from holding Nadeena.

                ‘What I assumed,’ she said as she laid her daughter on the sofa and fixed cushions around her, ‘was that you weren’t interested in anything about me and what I do, or where I live.’

                ‘You are the mother of my child,’ he said as if that answered everything.

                And then she remembered why she was here and could have laughed at her own stupidity. This wasn’t about some romantic reunion     of past lovers. This was about a man with self-preservation on his mind. ‘We’ve already established that you don’t care about that.’

                ‘I care.’

                Imogen curled her lip. What he meant was that he cared about how much cash she was going to hit him up for.

                ‘I get it,’ she said tonelessly. ‘And while I think it’s incredibly selfish of you not to want to provide for your own flesh and blood you’ll no doubt be relieved to know that I don’t want anything from you and I never will.’

                ‘Excuse me?’

                ‘Nor do I expect that you will want to see her and that’s more than okay with me as well.’

                He started to laugh and she felt even more disgusted with him. ‘I don’t see what’s so amusing. It’s a travesty if you really think about it too much. Which I try not to do.’

                ‘You’re serious.’

                ‘I certainly don’t think abandoning your own child is something to laugh about, but maybe that’s just me.’

                ‘Except I didn’t abandon her—you took her.’

                ‘Are we back to that again?’

                His eyebrow rose. ‘Did we ever leave it?’

                ‘I want to go home, Nadir.’