Prince Nadir's Secret Heir(45)

                His sigh was one of aggravated patience. ‘Okay, tell me what you need to make this work for you.’

                Was he serious? ‘Time.’ For one thing. ‘You listening to what I want would help.’

                Nadir pulled a wry face. ‘I promise to try and listen to you but unfortunately I can’t do anything about your first request because time is something I seem to be in short supply of right now. And I have never seen the point in stalling when the outcome is not in question.’

                His high-handedness was one of the things that had attracted her to him so she really only had herself to blame. ‘I take it you mean the outcome of us marrying and if you do then the outcome is only not in question for you.’

                ‘For us.’

                ‘This is what I would call not listening,’ she said with exasperation. ‘Because at this point there is no us. There is you and me and a baby. I mean—what about where we’re going to live? What about what school Nadeena will go to? What about her emotional well-being?’

                His crooked grin made her breath catch and she wondered if that wasn’t exactly the outcome he’d been trying to achieve. ‘You will live where I live. Nadeena will go to a good school and we both want what is best for her.’

                ‘You’re simplifying.’

                ‘And you’re making it complicated.’ It was he who sounded exasperated now.

                ‘It is complicated.’

                ‘It doesn’t have to be.’

                Imogen’s eyes shot to his as the tenor in his voice roughened and, just like that, sex was in the room again. Or at least in her thoughts. ‘Be serious, Nadir—we don’t even like each other any more.’

                ‘I like you.’

                About to tell him that what he thought of her was inconsequential anyway, she found the words dissolving on her tongue as she watched him hunker down and start trickling water over Nadeena’s feet. Nadeena reached forward and grabbed one of his thick fingers in her chubby hand. Imogen closed her eyes and then opened them again when Nadeena giggled and splashed the water with her feet.

                Nadir smiled. That smile that had melted a thousand hearts, including her own.

                They looked so beautiful together. Her daughter and the man who had once made her so impossibly happy she’d thought she would burst. Both dark-haired and with goofy smiles. Nadir started saying something softly to Nadeena in Arabic and Imogen felt that strange tug in her chest she knew was a type of longing. A type of longing that she really didn’t want to feel again.

                ‘Don’t you want more?’ The words were out of her mouth before she knew she was even about to say them and when Nadir looked up her heart stuttered at how incredibly virile he looked.

                His eyes skimmed over her and if she wasn’t mistaken lingered on her lips. Heat suffused her cheeks. ‘More what?’

                Imogen didn’t want to say it but it was as if someone else was directing her mouth. ‘Love. Don’t you want to marry for love?’

                His grimace spoke volumes. ‘Love is for greeting cards and grandmothers, not for marriage.’

                ‘Which shows you how wrong we are for each other because I only want to marry for love.’

                ‘I already told you my parents married for love. It caused nothing but grief.’