Prince Nadir's Secret Heir(38)

                Forcing herself to take another slow step backwards, she banked her confused emotions as best she could and reached down deep for reason. ‘Be serious, Nadir. A child will completely cramp your lifestyle. They’re inconvenient and messy and exhausting and...and...’ Wonderful and joyous and funny and loving... She swallowed. ‘And smelly. Really smelly at times.’

                Nadir paced away from her and then turned sharply on his heel. ‘I don’t understand you. Most women would be jumping for joy at the prospect of having a rich man take care of her and her child.’

                ‘Except I’m not most women and I know this is a mistake. My parents married because my mother was pregnant with me and it was a miserable affair for everyone. They stayed together even though my father was seeing another woman because my mother believed a child should be raised by two parents. My father resented being tied to us and after a while I stopped wishing he would pay me attention.’

                ‘I won’t resent you.’

                Embarrassed at having revealed her deepest wounds to him, Imogen scoffed. ‘How can you say that? You have a reputation of being the unobtainable playboy that spans continents.’

                His lips thinned into a flat line. ‘People see what they want to see. But if you think love is some sort of guarantee of a happy union    , it isn’t. My parents were the poster children for that particular misconception and they didn’t last.’

                Imogen frowned. ‘I find that hard to believe if it was true love,’ she said huskily.

                ‘Believe it. They separated when my father took a second wife and—’

                ‘Took a second wife!’

                ‘Yes, it is the custom that men in Bakaan can take more than one wife.’

                ‘You can definitely forget marriage then.’

                He smiled wearily. ‘Don’t worry. I am not a masochist.’

                ‘Is that supposed to be funny? I think it’s appalling that men are allowed to have more than one wife. I bet the women aren’t allowed more than one husband.’

                ‘No. And it bothered my mother just as much. In the end they hated each other so much there was never any joy in visiting either one of them. My mother was always trying to get us to prove our love by feeding her information about our father and our father was constantly derogatory about her and wanting to know what she was up to behind his back. It was as if they couldn’t let each other go and frankly it was exhausting.’

                And no doubt emotionally crippling, Imogen thought. Which was so unlike the picture she had formed in her mind about his childhood. For some reason she had assumed that his life had been full of opulence and fun and the security of belonging to an ancient dynasty. It seemed she had been wrong. At least about the fun and security.

                Curiosity made her pause and she wanted to ask him more but he got in first.

                ‘Forget it.’ His flinty gaze seemed to penetrate deep into her mind. ‘And forget shared custody, Imogen.’

                At the reminder of their earlier argument Imogen’s spine straightened. ‘You’re impossible to reason with.’

                ‘That’s because you know I’m right.’

                Shaking her head, she would have turned away from him then—anything to put some distance between herself and his half-naked body that seemed to beckon her to reach out and touch it—but his hands came down on her shoulders and held her immobile.