The Scandalous Collection. Кейт Хьюит
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sound of the traffic?’ She met his grim expression and shrugged. ‘It’s what I can afford, Hassan, that’s why. Any available money I have goes straight back into the business, rather than being wasted on paying a high rent.’
‘Your father doesn’t give you an allowance?’
Ella almost laughed out loud, wondering what kind of planet he was on. Or maybe it was a mark of her father’s chameleon-like qualities that he could still manage to convince the world that there was money in the family.
‘No. I don’t get anything from my father.’
He heard the acid note which had tinged her voice and for the second time that day he noticed the faint blue shadows beneath her eyes. Didn’t pregnant women suffer excessively from fatigue? A sudden pang of guilt washed over him. ‘Perhaps we will sit after all,’ he said unexpectedly, putting his hand on the small of her back and guiding her towards one of the chairs. ‘You look a little tired.’
Ella didn’t have the energy to object, but the small act of kindness left her feeling dangerously vulnerable. And she was tired. All the emotions which had accumulated over the past few weeks had left her so wrung out that it was as much as she could do not to put her head in her hands and weep.
She thought about all the plans she’d made for the future. All her strategies for exploiting a gap in the market and making a success of herself. Her determination that she should earn a decent living for herself and never have to rely on a faithless man, the way her mother had done.
Where were all those plans now?
Up in the air, that’s where. Because every woman knew that a baby meant a major career juggle, whether you were single or not. And now she had to deal with a powerful and dauntingly sexy man who she suspected was going to try to outwit her. And she still didn’t know what it was he wanted.
He waited until she was settled before he sat on the sofa opposite her, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his black eyes enigmatic and watchful.
‘So when is the baby due?’
‘Well, it’s been fourteen weeks since the party, which means the baby’s due in January.’ She looked at him steadily. ‘January 8, to be precise.’
Hassan tensed, because having an actual date to focus on changed everything. It transformed her pregnancy from a dark and unknown spectre into something real. Something which was happening. To her and to him. For a moment there was silence while he tried to make sense of her words. That early in the new year, as the snows were falling onto the highest peaks of the Samaltyn Mountains, he would become a father.
‘This is momentous news,’ he said slowly.
‘Yes.’
‘Who else have you told?’
She hesitated. ‘Only my brother, Ben.’
‘He is discreet?’
She heard the doubt in his voice and bristled. ‘Actually, there’s nobody as discreet as Ben, though you probably find that difficult to believe as he happens to be a dreaded Jackson.’
‘Actually, I happen to know that in the business world your brother has a formidable reputation,’ conceded Hassan drily. ‘But this is something very different.’
The nod to Ben’s undoubted talent should have pleased her but Ella was too concerned with the implication behind Hassan’s question to do anything but stare at him in growing horror. ‘Why are you so concerned who knows about this? You think … you think …’ She sucked in a deep and unsteady breath and expelled it again on a horrified shudder. ‘Listen to me, Hassan Al Abbas. I am having this baby, no matter what. And nothing you can ever say will change my mind.’
The fierce look on her face was unmistakable and for a moment he admired her passion and integrity before indignation reared its head and his face darkened. ‘You think that I am suggesting—’
‘Don’t even say it!’ she warned.
Hassan gave an impatient wave of his hand. ‘I am not used to being interrupted.’
‘Well, I’m not used to having insults hurled at me. So if you can manage to keep a civil tongue in your head, I promise I won’t interrupt you and then we should be fine, shouldn’t we?’
His eyes narrowed as he remembered her determination to remove him from her office so that she could continue working and suddenly a solution came to him. Suddenly, he realised exactly how he should handle this. ‘We need to decide what we’re going to do,’ he said.
The use of the word we made Ella faintly uneasy. ‘I told you, the decision has already been made. I’m having the baby, and I’m perfectly prepared to bring her or him up on my own.’
‘But you can’t make decisions like that because it isn’t just your baby,’ he said softly. ‘This child has royal blood in its veins. Do you have any idea what that means, Ella?’
‘How can I? The world of sheikhdom is a mystery to me. Actually, come to think of it, so are you.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’ His voice dipped as he ran his eyes over her body. ‘I think there are plenty of things about me which are no mystery whatsoever.’
The sensual allusion was obvious and, she suspected, intentional. To Ella’s fury, she felt her face grow hot, despite all her best intentions. She’d vowed not to react to him in any way other than a strictly business-like one, and now here she was, colouring up like a naive schoolgirl. ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’
A mixture of emotions he didn’t even want to acknowledge made him want to hurt her. To make her pay for having trapped him, because wasn’t that easier than admitting that he had walked right into it? ‘What, the sex you couldn’t get enough of?’
‘But it was the same for you!’ she flashed back. ‘Wasn’t it?’
He met the challenge in her eyes and had to fight down an urgent desire to kiss her. He had been wondering just what it was about her which had made him lose his head—and his body—so completely. Her own amazing body coupled with his own frustration had been obvious contenders, but he realised that her fearlessness was a turn-on too. He’d seen it in the way she’d turned on him in the darkened corridor of the palace at Santina and faced him down. And she was demonstrating it now—her clear blue eyes wide and unafraid, despite the enormity of her situation. ‘Yes,’ he admitted harshly. ‘It was the same for me.’
His words ignited memories she was trying her best to forget. The feeling of being in his arms. The crush of his mouth on hers and the instant flaring of her body in response. Ella tried to ignore the sudden yearning to have him make love to her all over again. Concentrate on what is real, she thought as she forced herself to confront her greatest fear and most foolish hope. ‘Are you saying you want a hands-on role as father?’
For a moment, Hassan didn’t answer. ‘I’m saying that’s a possibility. But I think it’s important that we discuss your needs first.’
Ella blinked in surprise. Was that genuine concern she heard in his voice? ‘My needs?’ she echoed.
‘Well, you have your own business, don’t you? I don’t know very much about party-planning, but I imagine it must require a lot of hard work and dedication, especially as you’re the boss.’
Cautiously, Ella nodded. ‘Yes, it does.’
‘And some pretty unsociable hours?’
‘That’s one of the drawbacks,’ she agreed, softening in spite of herself, because she would never have believed that he could be quite so understanding.
‘And a baby might get in the way of that?’
‘Well, ye—’ The words died on her lips as she looked into his face and saw that it wasn’t concern but calculation she saw in his black eyes. And suddenly,