Prince Nadir's Secret Heir(37)

                ‘Actually, I can,’ he said with all the arrogance of a man born to privilege. ‘But I won’t.’ He paused, ran his hand across his stubbled jaw. ‘I will, however, stop you from taking Nadeena away from me again.’

                Imogen’s insides seized and she knew her face went pale, her breathing laboured. ‘I hate you.’ Because he’d just effectively narrowed her choices down to marriage to him or give up her child.

                He nodded as if this was normal. As if she hadn’t dreamt of him and wished in her darkest moments that he wouldn’t come for her. Tell her that he missed her. Tell her that he loved her. Tell her that he couldn’t live without her. Dreams not worth the sleep they had interrupted.

                ‘A child deserves to be raised by both parents.’ He regarded her steadily. ‘Or are you going to argue with me about that too?’

                ‘Only if both parents love and want her.’

                ‘I agree.’

                Imogen clamped her mouth mutinously closed and turned her attention to the intricate patterns on the Persian rug at her feet before she said something she’d truly regret.

                Nadir sighed. ‘Believe it or not, Imogen, I only have Nadeena’s best interests at heart.’

                ‘Do you?’

                ‘Yes.’ She heard a hardness enter his voice at her scepticism.

                She looked at him and all the fight left her and a great sense of doom pervaded her limbs. ‘And what if a marriage between us is the worst thing for her?’

                He looked genuinely perplexed by her question. ‘I don’t see how it could be.’

                ‘Because it would be nothing but a marriage of convenience.’

                ‘I don’t see it that way.’

                She blew out a frustrated breath. ‘How can you not?’

                He stepped in front of her, breathing as hard as she was. ‘Because there’s nothing remotely convenient about marriage and ours will be real.’

                Real? Imogen swallowed heavily and lost her breath. ‘I hope you don’t mean what I think you mean.’

                ‘We will be man and wife in every sense of the word, habibi,’ he said softly with the same confidence she had once loved.

                Imogen’s chin jutted forward. ‘I didn’t think you were into force.’

                She knew that if she revealed just how badly he affected her it would be akin to lying down and waving a white flag. So she held her breath as his eyes ran over her face and down over her throat and willed herself not to move, silently urging her racing heartbeat to slow to a moderate gallop.

                As if he couldn’t help himself, he raised his hand and brushed his thumb across her lips in a whisper-soft caress that made every one of her nerve endings tingle. For a long moment they just stared at each other and then he ruined the moment by speaking. ‘Force, habibi?’

                The gentle words mocked her and she jerked back and stepped away from him, doing her best to ignore the way the blood pounded heavily through her body and highlighted her inability to control her attraction to him. No man had ever affected her so deeply that she forgot who she was and where she was and she refused to give him that kind of power over her again. It made her feel helpless to follow her own will. It made her hungry to taste him. It made her willing to risk everything. Almost...