One Night Of Consequences Collection. Annie West

if he couldn’t help himself, he raised his hand and brushed his thumb across her lips in a whisper-soft caress that made every one of her nerve endings tingle. For a long moment they just stared at each other and then he ruined the moment by speaking. ‘Force, habibi?’

      The gentle words mocked her and she jerked back and stepped away from him, doing her best to ignore the way the blood pounded heavily through her body and highlighted her inability to control her attraction to him. No man had ever affected her so deeply that she forgot who she was and where she was and she refused to give him that kind of power over her again. It made her feel helpless to follow her own will. It made her hungry to taste him. It made her willing to risk everything. Almost...

      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.

      Imogen trembled and knew he felt it by the satisfied gleam that seemed to soften his gaze. ‘I’ve never stopped wanting you, Imogen, and that kiss back in my apartment proves we share an incredibly strong chemistry. Why fight it?’

      Realising with a pang that she was held captive under his unwanted spell, Imogen wrenched herself out of his hold and swung away from him. Embarrassed at how easily she became enthralled by him, how easily she succumbed to his words, his touch, she let anger at him, at herself, at the whole world take hold. ‘You want to know why?’ She squared off in front of him. ‘Because, no matter what happens, I have no intention of marrying you and because, despite what you believe, a marriage based on sex will always be weak.’

      ‘Perhaps. But you’re a smart girl and you must realise that a marriage based on mutual chemistry and shared interests has strength.’

      Imogen didn’t feel very smart right now. She felt wrung out and beaten. ‘And what do you think that we share, Nadir?’ she all but spat at him, desperate to lash out at him in any way that she could. Desperate to alleviate the giant ball of emotion welling up inside her and threatening to burst right out of her. ‘That could possibly hold a marriage between us together?’

      She slapped her hands on her hips and waited for his response but she should have known that he’d have an answer poised on his lips that would floor her. She should have known that a man whose negotiation skills in the business world were second to none would have something up his sleeve to make her feel as big as a thimble.

      ‘Nadeena.’ He paused to let his words sink in. ‘We have Nadeena.’

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      AFTER WAITING FOR Zach inside the council chambers for nearly an hour it was safe to say that Nadir was now extremely irritated. Yes, he’d managed to field a few important work calls while he waited but there was only so much he could get done from a country with limited Internet resources.

      He also needed to sort things out with Imogen but she’d steadfastly avoided him all morning and frankly he hadn’t tried that hard to challenge her on it. Last night’s discussion—hell, argument—had played heavily on his mind and made sleep impossible.

      Before picking her up yesterday he’d expected to find that she’d aborted his baby, mainly, it had to be said, because she hadn’t approached him for a truckload of money and for a while yesterday he’d continued to think that maybe she was somehow playing him for a fool. He’d continued to believe that she had run from him because she’d had something to hide.

      He didn’t think that now. She was too earnest in her attempts to get him to change his mind about their marriage. Too earnest in her belief that he had been the one to do the wrong thing by her and not the other way around.

      * * *

      He recalled her fierce expression when she’d mentioned his text. At the time he hadn’t contemplated the possibility that she would be upset by it. He hadn’t contemplated the possibility that she would feel abandoned by his return to New York and feel as if she had to deal with her pregnancy alone. Guilt knifed through him.

      He supposed, if he was honest, he’d been mostly to blame because he hadn’t communicated his feelings to her, but how the hell was he supposed to have done that when he didn’t know how he had been feeling?

      Dealing with emotions had never been his strong suit, even before his mother and sister had died.

      He remembered his mother encouraging him to embrace that side of his nature and his father telling him it was dangerous and it had been his father who had been proved right.

      Nadir sighed. He’d never seen