and possessive with all that ‘child of the sheikh’ stuff? Her first instinct was to tell him to go to hell but some deep-rooted protectiveness told her not to inflame him. That he was not a man to make an enemy of, especially in these circumstances.
‘He’s an architectural student who poses in my life-drawing class.’
‘You have had sex with him?’
‘Of course I haven’t had sex with him! I hardly know—’ Too late she stopped herself as she realised the irony of her words, but not before a look of bitter triumph had filled his empty eyes with a dark light.
‘You hardly know him?’ he finished acidly. ‘You hardly knew me either, but that didn’t stop you opening up your milky-pale thighs for me, did it, Ella?’
Ella bit back the angry retort which hovered on her lips, telling herself that it didn’t matter. He was here to talk about the baby and that was the only thing which mattered.
‘We could waste a lot of time insulting each other, but I’m too tired to want to. And that’s not why you’re here, is it?’ She flashed him a polite smile. ‘So in the spirit of trying to conduct this conversation in a civilised way, perhaps you’d like to sit down?’
‘No, I’ll stand, thanks.’ For the first time in a long while, he realised that he had no game plan to follow, and no idea of how to get what he wanted from this woman. Although ironically, he still wasn’t quite sure what he wanted.
Restlessly, he went to look out of the window, just as a large red bus lumbered to a halt and discharged a group of teenagers who stood in noisy conversation right outside. When he turned back to face her, his expression was as perplexed as the grim faces of his waiting bodyguards. ‘Why do you live in a place like this, Ella?’
‘Why do you think? Because I like the sound of the traffic?’ She met his grim expression and shrugged. ‘It’s what I can afford, Hassan, that’s why. Any available money I have goes straight back into the business, rather than being wasted on paying a high rent.’
‘Your father doesn’t give you an allowance?’
Ella almost laughed out loud, wondering what kind of planet he was on. Or maybe it was a mark of her father’s chameleon-like qualities that he could still manage to convince the world that there was money in the family.
‘No. I don’t get anything from my father.’
He heard the acid note which had tinged her voice and for the second time that day he noticed the faint blue shadows beneath her eyes. Didn’t pregnant women suffer excessively from fatigue? A sudden pang of guilt washed over him. ‘Perhaps we will sit after all,’ he said unexpectedly, putting his hand on the small of her back and guiding her towards one of the chairs. ‘You look a little tired.’
Ella didn’t have the energy to object, but the small act of kindness left her feeling dangerously vulnerable. And she was tired. All the emotions which had accumulated over the past few weeks had left her so wrung out that it was as much as she could do not to put her head in her hands and weep.
She thought about all the plans she’d made for the future. All her strategies for exploiting a gap in the market and making a success of herself. Her determination that she should earn a decent living for herself and never have to rely on a faithless man, the way her mother had done.
Where were all those plans now?
Up in the air, that’s where. Because every woman knew that a baby meant a major career juggle, whether you were single or not. And now she had to deal with a powerful and dauntingly sexy man who she suspected was going to try to outwit her. And she still didn’t know what it was he wanted.
He waited until she was settled before he sat on the sofa opposite her, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his black eyes enigmatic and watchful.
‘So when is the baby due?’
‘Well, it’s been fourteen weeks since the party, which means the baby’s due in January.’ She looked at him steadily. ‘January 8, to be precise.’
Hassan tensed, because having an actual date to focus on changed everything. It transformed her pregnancy from a dark and unknown spectre into something real. Something which was happening. To her and to him. For a moment there was silence while he tried to make sense of her words. That early in the new year, as the snows were falling onto the highest peaks of the Samaltyn Mountains, he would become a father.
‘This is momentous news,’ he said slowly.
‘Yes.’
‘Who else have you told?’
She hesitated. ‘Only my brother, Ben.’
‘He is discreet?’
She heard the doubt in his voice and bristled. ‘Actually, there’s nobody as discreet as Ben, though you probably find that difficult to believe as he happens to be a dreaded Jackson.’
‘Actually, I happen to know that in the business world your brother has a formidable reputation,’ conceded Hassan drily. ‘But this is something very different.’
The nod to Ben’s undoubted talent should have pleased her but Ella was too concerned with the implication behind Hassan’s question to do anything but stare at him in growing horror. ‘Why are you so concerned who knows about this? You think … you think …’ She sucked in a deep and unsteady breath and expelled it again on a horrified shudder. ‘Listen to me, Hassan Al Abbas. I am having this baby, no matter what. And nothing you can ever say will change my mind.’
The fierce look on her face was unmistakable and for a moment he admired her passion and integrity before indignation reared its head and his face darkened. ‘You think that I am suggesting—’
‘Don’t even say it!’ she warned.
Hassan gave an impatient wave of his hand. ‘I am not used to being interrupted.’
‘Well, I’m not used to having insults hurled at me. So if you can manage to keep a civil tongue in your head, I promise I won’t interrupt you and then we should be fine, shouldn’t we?’
His eyes narrowed as he remembered her determination to remove him from her office so that she could continue working and suddenly a solution came to him. Suddenly, he realised exactly how he should handle this. ‘We need to decide what we’re going to do,’ he said.
The use of the word we made Ella faintly uneasy. ‘I told you, the decision has already been made. I’m having the baby, and I’m perfectly prepared to bring her or him up on my own.’
‘But you can’t make decisions like that because it isn’t just your baby,’ he said softly. ‘This child has royal blood in its veins. Do you have any idea what that means, Ella?’
‘How can I? The world of sheikhdom is a mystery to me. Actually, come to think of it, so are you.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’ His voice dipped as he ran his eyes over her body. ‘I think there are plenty of things about me which are no mystery whatsoever.’
The sensual allusion was obvious and, she suspected,
