One Night Of Consequences Collection. Annie West

to adapt to what passed as normality between them since Nadir had stepped back into her life. A normality that was still defined by past hurts and an uncertain future.

      ‘Here.’

      She blinked as a glass of water was thrust in front of her.

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘You’re welcome.’ He nodded and took it back when she’d drained the glass. ‘Can I get you anything else?’

      ‘No, no.’ She placed Nadeena on her shoulder to burp her. ‘No, everything should be—oh!’ Imogen squirmed as she felt warm baby spew slide down over her bare shoulder and the top half of her dress. ‘Oh.’

      She heard Nadir chuckle. ‘“Oh” is right.’

      The look on his face made her suddenly feel like laughing and groaning at the same time with embarrassment. Then Nadeena grew fussy and started crying, jamming her tiny fists into her mouth.

      ‘What’s wrong with her?’

      ‘I suspect it’s her teeth.’ She touched her hand to Nadeena’s forehead. ‘She’s not overly hot so...’ She scrunched her brow. ‘It could be that she’s just tired and out of sorts because it’s late. It’s hard to figure out what’s wrong with babies sometimes.’

      ‘Not just babies.’

      His rueful comment hung between them and just when she might have asked what he meant by it he held out his arms. ‘Here, give her to me.’

      ‘No, no...it’s fine, I can—’

      ‘I know you can, Imogen,’ he agreed flatly. ‘But you need to go clean up and I can settle her while you do it.’

      ‘Oh, right.’ Clean up. She’d completely forgotten about the sour milk on her shoulder and dress. She handed Nadeena to him and watched as he confidently tucked her into the crook of his muscular arms. ‘Come on, habibti,’ he crooned, ‘let’s get you settled.’

      Again Imogen was momentarily struck dumb by the sight of them together but unfortunately Nadeena didn’t stop crying and it made her hurry into the shower, where she quickly rinsed her hair and washed herself.

      Pulling on the oversized T-shirt she had used the night before, she hurried back to her room to find Nadir pacing back and forth and singing what sounded like an Arabic lullaby in his soft baritone.

      ‘She’s nearly asleep. Should I put her in the cot?’

      ‘I need to change her first.’

      ‘I’ve done it already.’

      Imogen stared at him. ‘You have?’

      ‘I’m not completely useless, Imogen. I can change a baby’s nappy.’

      Given that Nadir was the most capable man she had ever met, she didn’t know why she had ever doubted he could. Maybe because her father had never shown much interest in his duties as a parent. It made her realise just how low her expectations had been on the night that Nadir had walked out after discovering that she was pregnant. Maybe they had been low all along.

      The thought stunned her.

      Had she been waiting for him to disappoint her? Fail her? Because he had. Spectacularly so. Which didn’t fit with why he was being so helpful now. Was it to garner her cooperation with his dogged plan for them to marry or because he genuinely cared?

      Too many questions and too few answers but Imogen suspected that maybe he wouldn’t change his mind about marrying her and, worse, part of her didn’t want him to. This...she swallowed back a ball of emotion rising inside her chest...this was nice. Sharing the care of Nadeena with him, working together as a team. It was every woman’s wish to have her lover—her partner—around to talk with and iron out the kinks of parenthood. To journey through life hand in hand with someone there to help field the knocks it inevitably handed out. Someone who would care.

      But Nadir wasn’t her lover or her partner at this point and her mother’s dating advice had been to warn her that a man could put on a good show for thirty, even forty, days before the cracks started appearing. If you added up their time together in Paris and the last couple of days, Nadir fell smack bang in the middle of her mother’s bell curve. Would he revert to his playboy ways after that and start ignoring them both?

      ‘Imogen?’

      Realising she had spaced out and that she was extremely tired after all the emotion of the last couple of days, she glanced up at him holding Nadeena. She looked so tiny and perfect in his arms.

      ‘Just...’ She had no idea what she was going to say. ‘She might need a top-up.’

      ‘A top-up?’

      ‘A bit more milk.’ Her face flooded with colour as he understood and she thought how ridiculous that she should be embarrassed after all they had shared but she was. ‘I’ll do it in bed. It’s sometimes easier.’

      ‘But is it safe? What if you fall asleep?’

      ‘Of course it’s safe,’ Imogen said sharply. ‘I wouldn’t put her at risk, Nadir.’

      ‘I wasn’t questioning your mothering skills, Imogen, I...oh, hell.’ He rubbed his jaw. ‘This is all new to me. I want you to be safe.’

      Imogen’s heart gave a little leap. Not you, she derided the foolish muscle in her chest; he means he wants Nadeena to be safe. ‘I won’t fall asleep,’ she said wearily. ‘You can go.’

      Their eyes connected in the dim light and Imogen saw a look come over his face that she couldn’t quite define. If she had to guess she’d say it was as if he was trying to work something out but, whatever it was, it seemed to elude him.

      She lay on the bed and waited almost breathlessly as he leant over and laid Nadeena in the crook of her arm, sleepiness invading her limbs as her daughter latched onto her nipple once again.

      ‘Your hair is wet,’ he said gruffly.

      ‘I know.’ Imogen lifted her hand to smooth the damp, irritating strands away from her shoulder and tried not to show her surprise when Nadir’s hands took over the task, smoothing the long strands out on the pillow behind her.

      ‘It’s fine,’ she said, her breaths shallow and hurried at the intimacy of the moment. ‘You don’t have to do that.’

      ‘Stop trying to shut me out, Imogen. If you leave your hair like this it will be all tangled in the morning.’

      He continued working out the kinks and Imogen decided it was better if she just let him do it. And it felt good. So good.

      ‘Go to sleep,’ he said gruffly as he perched on the bed behind her. ‘I’ll transfer Nadeena to the cot when she’s finished.’

      ‘I can...’ Imogen yawned. She wanted to say she could do it but she didn’t. Instead she did something she hadn’t done for months. She fell into a contented sleep before her baby had fully settled.

       CHAPTER TEN

      NADIR LOOKED DOWN at the woman sleeping on the bed so soundly, her deep breaths even and relaxed. He remembered that she had always slept like the dead and he had often teased her about how hard he’d had to work to wake her through the night. Sometimes he’d even been in the process of kissing her soft body, teasing her awake with caresses that had tortured him and woken her panting. Always when she came awake like that she had wrapped her arms and legs around him and pulled him closer. Always she had moved with him and he’d angled his body in such a way that he knew would bring her to orgasm in no time. She’d groan in his ear, clasp him tighter, urge him on and then afterwards she’d sigh and curl herself around him, pretty much like she was doing to their daughter right now, and Nadir had the strongest urge to get into bed behind them and do the same thing.

      Only