One Night Of Consequences Collection. Annie West
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which impressed everyone within earshot, and joined them.
The audience cheered when they realised what was going on and the female dancers surrounded Imogen, much to Bjorn’s consternation, and wound shimmering skeins of fabric around her to match their own costumes.
She stood with her feet together, toes turned out and he grinned as he remembered the time he had teased her about looking like a duck. She’d quacked and told him that after years of dancing she couldn’t help it. He’d kissed her and told her he loved it. He still did.
Missing a step, she laughed and delighted the other dancers with her unaffected nature and he tensed as he wondered how any man looking at her could fail to want her as much as he did. Immediately following that thought was the one that said he should bundle her up right now and take her back to the palace. Back to his bed.
Only the dance had started and he couldn’t turn away from her as she mastered the routine. His gut tightened and then the dance changed and the men joined in.
They looked at him with an air of hope rather than expectancy because, of course, his father had never mixed with his people like this, preferring to rule from the lofty heights of the palace walls. If he were to take the job he wouldn’t rule that way and neither would Zach.
And then he realised what dance they were about to perform. It was the dance a man did when he was courting a woman and his instinct was to beg off but then he caught Imogen’s eyes, her swaying figure. To hell with it. He moved to stand opposite her. He had never performed it before but he had seen it done many times as a boy. She looked up at him with a shy expression. Did she know what this performance represented? That it signified undying love?
His steps faltered as he circled her. Was that what he was feeling? Love? He immediately discarded the idea. He’d never wanted to find love in his life because—as he’d learned from first-hand experience—deep emotion brought even deeper mistakes and he liked his mind clear and sharp. Not that it was exactly clear or sharp right now but that was just lust and lust could be sated.
Imogen’s words about how she only wanted to marry for love came back to him. What would it be like to have hers? Something tightened in his chest. He didn’t want that from her. It was enough that they were compatible in bed. That they enjoyed each other’s company. He stepped closer to her than he should have. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ he growled in her ear.
She looked up at him with big eyes and he thought to hell with it and kissed her before dragging her off the dance floor amidst the shocked gasps of his countrymen. Things would be changing soon enough in Bakaan. He’d just add PDAs to that long list of improvements.
* * *
Imogen could feel the tension radiating from Nadir’s big body in the car and desire made her blood grow sluggish in her veins. That dance they had performed back at the restaurant had been highly erotic even though they’d never actually touched. And Nadir had performed it like a professional. She’d guessed that it was some sort of mating ritual and she wondered if Nadir had ever danced it with another woman before. She wanted to ask, but she wouldn’t.
Instead she thought about how much his people had loved it when he’d joined in and she wondered yet again why he didn’t want to be King. He would be exceptional in the role. Was it because of his father? His sister who she didn’t feel comfortable enough asking him about? And when would she start to feel comfortable enough with him to be able to freely discuss what was on her mind?
‘Did you have a good time?’
‘Yes.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You’re biting your bottom lip. What’s wrong?’
Imogen glanced at the driver of the car. ‘Nothing.’
‘By now I understand that nothing inevitably meant something.’
‘You’re not that clever,’ she said, smiling in spite of her misgivings. But he was and it was a bit disconcerting to think that he knew her so well already.
Fortunately he let it drop as the car swung through the palace gates and stopped at the front steps. They both got out and Nadir didn’t try to talk to her until he’d closed the door to his suite.
After finding out Nadeena was okay, Imogen once again found herself standing awkwardly before Nadir when what she’d love to do was go up to him and wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him.
With masculine grace he moved to lounge on the sectional sofa. ‘You want to talk about nothing yet?’
Imogen sighed. ‘Okay, fine. I was wondering why it is you don’t want to be the next leader of Bakaan.’
She saw the minute the shutters came down over his eyes and shook her head. ‘And why it is that as soon as I ask you something personal you refuse to talk.’
‘I run a large organisation that is already showing the strains of my absence. I don’t have time to run Bakaan as well.’
‘You told me once that you love to take companies that are on the verge of collapse and turn them into something wonderful and, from what I can tell, Bakaan is in an identical situation.’ She studied the way he rigidly held himself. ‘If it helps, you are clearly a natural born leader, Nadir, and the people love you. You could do this job with your eyes closed.’
‘It’s not a question of capability. It’s...’ He sprang from the sofa as if he had too much energy coursing through his system. ‘I never expected to do it. And what about you? That would make you my queen. Given that you’re struggling with the whole concept of wife I can’t imagine you’d be thrilled with the role.’
Surprised that he was even asking for her opinion, Imogen thought carefully before answering. ‘I honestly don’t know. I always thought I would one day open a dance studio and teach dance and...women seem to be very much held back here.’
‘In some ways, yes, but equal opportunity for women is one of the key reforms Zach and I have discussed, along with better social infrastructure that would turn Bakaan into a competitive and vibrant place people would want to visit and invest in.’ He stopped as if he realised how impassioned he sounded. ‘Zach will make a great leader. And you should definitely open a studio. You’re a beautiful dancer.’
Was he serious?
‘You’d accept having a wife who danced for a living?’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t know...’ Imogen felt at a loss. ‘Maybe because you’re a prince who has a Harvard education and speaks nine languages.’
The way he studied her unnerved her. ‘Why should that matter?’
‘I don’t know but it does.’
‘Not to me.’ He frowned. ‘Who made you feel bad about your profession? About yourself? Was it your father?’
His shrewd comment startled her. ‘Why would you say that?’
‘My head of security spoke with him when I was trying to find you and, as far as I’m concerned, a man who doesn’t know the whereabouts of his daughter can’t be much of a father.’
‘He wasn’t. And no, he never approved of my occupation. He was quite tyrannical at times and really remote at others. It was very confusing when I was little.’
‘Ah, don’t tell me—his affection was conditional on how well you toed the line.’
‘Your father too?’
Nadir raised an eyebrow. ‘My father’s idea of giving someone a choice was to tell them how he wanted it.’ A shadow came across his face as clear as a puff of smoke being brought in on the breeze. ‘I left home at fifteen and headed to the Caribbean, where I took up bartending at a strip club.’
Her eyes widened with shock. ‘You did not!’
He laughed. ‘I can mix a Slow,