One Night Of Consequences Collection. Annie West
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to Allah that not every conversation we have is going to feel like I’m pulling out hen’s teeth. If you go into your dressing room you will find an evening gown for the dinner and Tasnim will help you prepare. If you need anything else—’
‘Nadir, every conversation feels like a struggle because you won’t listen. And I’m not going anywhere with you tonight when nothing has been resolved between us.’
‘Of course it has. We resolved everything last night.’
As far as Imogen was concerned, they had resolved nothing last night. ‘When?’
‘When we talked.’
She shook her head, frustrated that he could be so obtuse. ‘You might have resolved something last night but I didn’t.’
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.’
She could tell by his tone that he was deadly serious. ‘You really believe that, don’t you?’
‘No, I know it. Otherwise you would not still be arguing with me and resisting this marriage. You would be embracing the fact that I can give you a life few others can.’ His mouth tilted mockingly at the corners. ‘Including your friend back in London.’
Ignoring his last comment, Imogen was shocked by his view. ‘You would prefer that I marry you for your money? That’s so cold and...empty.’
‘It’s honest.’ He gave a frustrated shake of his head, keeping his face soft for Nadeena’s sake. ‘And tonight is important, Imogen. Or I wouldn’t ask.’
She swallowed and lifted her eyes to his. ‘Why?’ she asked bleakly. ‘I got the impression that Bakaan doesn’t mean anything to you.’
‘That’s complicated too.’
‘How?’
His face closed down and she knew he wouldn’t answer her.
‘Let’s just say that it is and leave it at that.’
‘So much for listening,’ she muttered.
He looked at her. ‘I have answered every question you’ve asked.’
‘You think?’
He rubbed a hand across his jaw. He needed a shave, she thought absently, and how was it possible for his mouth to be such a perfect bow? He caught her staring and awareness pulsed between them.
The kiss they had shared the day before jumped into her mind and by the way his eyes had now dropped to her own mouth she suspected it had jumped into his as well.
His silent scrutiny unnerved her and she moved sideways to get around him and hoped to heaven that he didn’t touch her because she wasn’t sure how she’d react if he did. Or at least she was sure but she didn’t want to have that reaction. She had a horrible way of mixing sex up with love when it came to this man and given his miserable views on love it would be emotional suicide for her to risk her heart—and Nadeena’s—on him again.
‘My country suffered a great deal because of my father’s reign. I will not worsen that by ignoring my current duties. Now, as much as I enjoy arguing with you, we are out of time. Will you come with me tonight?’
It wasn’t really a question. ‘Do you always have to be so pushy?’ she complained.
A cloud came across his face and, just like that, he was a stranger again. ‘I will watch Nadeena while you get ready.’
Frustrated at the way he just seemed to corral her into a corner as if she was a rogue horse, she tried to think of some way out. ‘She needs a bath.’
‘Then I will give her one.’
‘By yourself?’
‘Don’t look so surprised. I doubt it’s rocket science but if it makes you feel better I will have Maab present so that Nadeena can bond with her.’
Outdone by his logic, Imogen gnashed her teeth. ‘It will be a mistake taking me.’
‘Why do you say that?’
Because she had no experience of dealing with world leaders and dignitaries and she’d likely embarrass them both. ‘I’m a dancer. I danced at the Moulin Rouge. Surely everyone will think I’m unsuitable to be the wife of a king.’
‘No doubt some will.’
That stung and his ready agreement was like the flick of a knife across a wound that hadn’t quite healed.
He