LITMIR.BIZ

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habibi. And I’m in no state to be gentle with you. Stay put. Rest. If you need anything, Ahmed will be right outside. Or pick up the phone and dial my personal butler. But you are not to leave this suite. Is that understood?’

      Annoyance at his high-handedness snapped her spine straight, the lust wearing off a little. ‘You can’t keep me prisoner here, Rahim.’

      He raised sleek eyebrows. ‘Are you absolutely certain about that?’

      She gasped, but he was striding to the door. Before she could blink, he was gone. She sank back against the plush sofa, deflated and exhausted, her mind whirling at a thousand miles an hour.

      The only way is forward...

      Allegra had no idea what those words meant. But what she did know was that nothing about her pregnancy had brought Rahim anything even close to joy. His shocking disbelief, followed by a rigid acceptance, had done nothing to allay her own fears of the role her heart was already embracing but logic insisted she would fail at.

      Despair crushed harder, brimming her eyes with hopeless tears. She brushed them away, but they surged again.

      She knew how transient life could be. How volatile and uncertain.

      She was bringing a child into this world without knowing its father’s true feelings about being a parent, or even what he intended to do with the bombshell she’d dropped at his feet. Besides staking his ownership of their child, Rahim had done very little else.

      And there was still the issue over the stolen Fabergé box. Allegra groaned and stretched out on the sofa. She was trapped here till Rahim returned. She could either wallow in despair, or use the time to make further plans for her child’s future. Now that Rahim knew about the baby, there was the equally daunting matter of telling her family.

      She would tell them...as soon as she found a way to prevent Rahim from sending her to jail for stealing!

      * * *

      Rahim cradled the single-malt Scotch in his hand, his gaze lost in the swirls of the amber liquid. He had yet to take a drink in the six hours since he entered the private gentlemen’s club in the exclusive street in Geneva.

      He was to become a father.

      His level of alarm wasn’t as catastrophic as he’d imagined it would be. But neither had he believed a single night of madness would set his life on this roller-coaster path.

      And he’d yet to formulate a different plan than the single one blazing a path through his brain.

      In all things he made contingencies but for this he had none. Allegra was pregnant with his child. A child whose blood was already stamped with the same destiny Rahim had been born with. A child whose gestation and eventual birth carried the same risks his mother had been subjected to.

      The hand clutching his crystal tumbler shook. He tightened his grip and threw back the drink, welcoming its bracing sting.

      Glancing up for the first time in hours, Rahim saw that the club had filled. He recognised a few faces but didn’t return the greetings nodded his way. The scowl on his face discouraged patronage, but it drove home the fact that he was recognised wherever he went in the world. People had seen him with Allegra, both in Dar-Aman and here in Geneva. Rahim had made it his business to confirm she hadn’t dated anyone in the past two months. Once evidence of her pregnancy became public knowledge, it wouldn’t take a genius to work out he was the father of her child. Not that he intended to hide that fact.

      Which brought him to the matter of how his subjects would take a child born out of wedlock. His people had been through the wringer economically and even socially.

      What kind of ruler would he be to throw another scandal into their lives when they were reeling from the legacy his father had left them with? Not to mention the further damage to his personal reputation that could set back months of negotiation for a better future for his people.

      He shook his head as his personal valet stepped forward bearing the silver tray that held the Scotch bottle. Rahim shook his head, knowing his choices couldn’t be found in drink. But the more he stared into the bottom of the empty glass, the larger the answer blazed.

      For his heir.

      For his people.

      For himself.

      There was only one choice.

      * * *

      ‘Marry me.’

      The shock wave that powered through her made Allegra grip the cushion beneath her as she struggled upright. The magazine she’d fallen asleep leafing through fell to the floor. ‘Rahim, you’re back!’

      ‘Marry me.’

      ‘What?’

      Rahim stood before her, still in his jacket, his hair spiked in all directions, like he’d run his fingers through it many times. ‘You’re carrying my child.’

      ‘So?’ she squeaked, her mind scrambling past the visual wallop he packed just by being him.

      Eyes turned a burnished bronze blazed at her. ‘Marry me.’

      Numbly she shook her head, the few words she’d managed so far the extent of her vocal ability as she tried to absorb what Rahim had just asked of her. She was still shaking her head when he reached forward and cupped her jaw.

      ‘If you have arguments, speak them now.’

      Hysteria bubbled up inside her. Frantically, she tried to pull herself together, speak the words that would restore sanity. ‘I can’t.’

      His grip tightened. Imperceptibly. But she felt it. And she saw the cold withdrawal in his eyes before he freed her.

      Turning, he strode to the bar set on the far side of the elegant living room, and poured a shot of amber liquor. Throwing it back, he rolled the side of the glass over his lips before he set it down with a sharp click.

      Slowly he strolled back to her. Despite the steady, unhurried pace, Allegra’s spine tingled with dread.

      ‘Are you prepared to lose everything you’ve spent your life building without due consideration?’ he enquired casually, his balled fists sliding into his pockets.

      ‘What are you talking about?’

      ‘I’m talking about your foundation. Your freedom.’

      Ice-cold fear climbed into her throat. ‘My freedom?’

      ‘Once the disappearance of the box is discovered, you can be assured charges will be brought.’

      Allegra gasped. ‘You said you didn’t give a damn about the box,’ she muttered through frozen lips.

      A hard light momentarily gleamed in his eyes. ‘I don’t. But there are others who do. It wasn’t just a personal possession you stole. Before my mother died, she expressed a wish to have her collection made a national treasure, to be displayed in the Dar-Aman National Museum upon her death. My father could never bring himself to honour that wish.’ His face tightened for a moment before his features neutralised. ‘As Dar-Aman’s ruler, the collection is now mine. I’ve had my hands full with other matters of state to get it done. But my mother’s wish is one I intend to honour in the coming months. The theft of such a treasure is an offence punishable by a lengthy prison term.’

      Panic clawed through her. ‘And how does marrying you change my fate?’

      He shrugged. ‘As my queen you’d have to answer to no one. The box can be my wedding gift to you. Marry me, and your grandfather need not lose his precious keepsake. Your foundation will continue to thrive, free from the scandal that could see all your hard work turned to dust overnight. My people won’t have to suffer the consequence of the scandal of an illegitimate child. And most importantly, our child won’t suffer the stain of being called illegitimate. He or she will be my true heir, with an unchallenged birthright.’

      The calculated way he enumerated his wishes chilled

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