LITMIR.BIZ

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when he jumped in first.

      ‘Wanted to marry for love? Is that what you were going to say?’

      She nodded and then shook her head. No, she hadn’t been going to say that; she’d been going to say that in the beginning she had wanted that but now—

      ‘Yes or no, Imogen?’

      ‘Yes, I wanted to marry for love but...’ She swallowed, her eyes searching his face for some clue as to what he was thinking or feeling. But this was the stranger Nadir—the man who had picked her up a week ago. The man who had walked out on her in Paris. A terrible premonition raised goose bumps along her arms but she pushed aside her apprehension and answered honestly. ‘I’ve come to terms with that now.’

      As if he’d somehow been waiting for that exact answer, he slowly raised guarded eyes to hers. ‘Then you’re free to go.’

      ‘I’m sorry?’

      ‘I said you’re free to go.’ He moved towards the door.

      ‘Nadir...wait. I don’t understand what you’re saying.’

      ‘I’m saying that I agree with you. A marriage of convenience is not a good enough reason to tie two people together for ever. Even for the sake of a child.’

      ‘Hold on.’ Imogen felt as if she had to fight to get every word out of her mouth. ‘You’re saying that you no longer want to marry me?’

      ‘I’m saying you’re free. You can leave.’

      The room tilted and Imogen put her hand out to grip the back of a chair. Tears of disbelief spiked behind her eyelashes but she refused to let them fall. ‘What about Nadeena?’

      ‘My lawyers will be in touch about visitation rights—isn’t that what they’re called?’

       Isn’t that what they’re called?

      He was so cool and remote she wanted to scream. ‘I meant—what about your desire to be part of her life? Permanently.’

      Her body started shaking. This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t be happening.

      ‘I still plan to be in her life. I just...’ He looked away as if it was too difficult to look at her. ‘I have reconsidered my position.’

      He had reconsidered his position? As if they were nothing more than a piece of furniture he had decided he no longer wanted.

      ‘Oh, my God!’

      ‘I still want her,’ he rasped harshly. ‘But not this way.’

      Stunned, Imogen could only stare at him, his words barely registering as her heartbeat raced out of control and her thoughts went along for the ride. All she could think was that he had changed his mind. ‘I told you this would happen.’ Suddenly she was fifteen again and her father was standing in the doorway and her mother was crying on the sofa. Thank God Nadeena wasn’t old enough to witness her own humiliation at the hands of this man. She lifted her chin. ‘Where’s Nadeena now?’

      ‘I told you she’s with Zach.’ He swiped a hand across his face but Imogen barely noticed.

      ‘Damn it, Imogen. I thought you’d be happy.’

      Imogen felt bile rise up in her throat but she held it back by sheer force of will, determined that he would not see how much he had hurt her again. How much she had let him hurt her again. God, she was an idiot of the most astonishing proportions. ‘I am.’

      He nodded. ‘Then there’s nothing left to say.’

      ‘Nothing,’ she assured him and sailed into the en suite bathroom before he saw the utter despair in her eyes.

      * * *

      Nadir sat behind his father’s old desk, staring at his computer screen. When the door banged open he looked up and found his brother dressed in celebratory robes with a scowl on his face.

      Zach didn’t waste any time on niceties. ‘What are you doing?’

      ‘Working. You look better.’

      ‘It’s amazing what a shower and a shave will do.’ Zach parked himself in the chair opposite the desk. ‘Why are you working? You’re getting married in less than two hours.’

      Nadir focused on the email he’d been trying to read. ‘Not any more. I’ve instructed Staph to send the guests home.’

      ‘I know. He came to me.’

      ‘Well, it’s good that you’re here. We need to discuss who will lead Bakaan and I’ve reconsidered my position. If you don’t want the position then I’ll be the next King.’

      ‘Big turnaround.’

      Nadir grimaced. ‘It’s amazing what can happen in a week.’

      He’d found his ex-lover and his daughter, he’d fallen in love with them both and he’d lost them both. And taking on the role of leading Bakaan into the twenty-first century would keep him busy enough so that he wouldn’t think of any of it.

      ‘Nadir, bro...?’ Zach used the kind of placatory tone he might if he was facing a band of militants with only a soup spoon to defend himself. ‘I’m not sure that’s the most important thing to discuss right now. What’s going on?’

      Nadir thought of the scene he had interrupted in Imogen’s room. Her ex-lover holding her tightly in his arms.

      At first he’d been furious, his instinct to grab hold of the smarmy buffoon and pull him off her and beat him to a pulp for daring to touch what was his. Then he’d registered that Imogen wasn’t resisting. That she was snuggled against him and that she was weeping. Sobbing, almost.

      Those tears had torn at his heart and he’d realised in a flash of unwelcome insight that he was behaving exactly as his father had done in stealing his mother from her tribal village in a fit of passion and then forcing her to bend to his will when he had taken another wife. Of course his circumstances were different from his parents, he knew that, but he also knew that the common denominator wasn’t. He was a tyrant who hadn’t given her a choice. He now had and she’d very definitely exercised it.

      He forcibly shut his emotions down. He knew it had been a mistake to let them out. They had confused things. Made him think that sex was love when the truth was that he and Imogen shared a phenomenal chemistry and a child and he cared enough about her that he couldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to do. ‘Nothing is going on.’

      Zach looked at him. ‘Pull the other one—it has bells on it.’

      Nadir cut him a brooding glare. ‘Fine. I found Imogen in the arms of her ex-lover.’

      ‘Naked!’

      ‘No—’ he heaved a sigh ‘—she was crying.’

      Zach frowned. ‘Why?’

      ‘Because she wants to marry him, not me.’ Nadir surged to his feet in irritation and turned towards the windows. ‘How the hell should I know? Suffice it to say, she invited her ex-lover to our wedding and now they’re together.’

      Zach blew out a breath. ‘That’s rough. Why’d she do it?’

      ‘I assume because she loves him.’

      Zach nodded as if he fully agreed and then started shaking his head. ‘No, I meant why did she agree to marry you when she’s still in love with someone else?’

      ‘Does it matter?’ he asked briskly. ‘The fact is she was living with this guy in London and now she’s free to go back to him.’

      Zach nodded again. ‘Which she wants.’

      ‘Right. Now, there’s a lot to sort out. I’m hoping you want to stay on in Bakaan if you don’t take the leadership role because I’m going to need a right hand and I want that to be you.’

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