when he told her that Karim was breaking their engagement.
“Yes?”
The musical lilt of the softly feminine voice that emerged from the call box poured through Hassan, raising both his body temperature and his doubts about the whole situation. That voice certainly didn’t sound as if it belonged to a cold woman who had agreed to trade romance for a marriage of convenience.
But then, who better than he knew that appearances were quite often deceptive. Physically he was the mirror image of Karim and yet, mentally, they were poles apart. Karim was an extrovert, the life and soul of every social gathering, while he was far more reserved. Social chitchat did not come easily to him.
“Is anyone there?” Kali’s voice sharpened slightly, and Hassan hurriedly cut off his thoughts. He didn’t want her annoyed to start with. She was going to be upset enough once he broke the news of Karim’s perfidy to her.
“Sorry,” he began.
“Karim! Thank heavens you’re back. Come on up. I need to talk to you.”
Damn! Hassan thought. Karim was wrong. Again.
Kali’s welcome hadn’t been that of a woman who didn’t care one way or the other about her engagement. She was clearly ecstatic to hear her fiancé’s voice. As if she’d been counting the days until Karim returned to New York.
But why? Hassan wondered uncertainly. According to Karim, their engagement was an arranged affair based on their mutual respect for each other’s work with emotionally troubled children rather than any personal feelings they had for each other. He’d said that they had met during the course of their work and had never actually dated.
Karim had told him that he’d felt it was time he married and had children, and he’d decided that he’d have a better chance of making a success of marriage if he chose a woman who shared his interests and goals. That, when he’d made a list of the women he knew, he’d realized that Kali Whitman fit all his requirements for a wife. So he’d written her a letter explaining his position and asking her to marry him. Karim had said that she had considered his proposal for almost a week before finally accepting it the day before he’d had to fly to Australia for a conference.
Hassan frowned. Of course Karim’s assumption that her acceptance meant that she agreed with his practical approach to marriage didn’t mean it was true. Kali Whitman could have agreed to marry his brother because she was in love with him.
He had no way of knowing what her original motivation had been, and he hated walking into a situation blind.
Hassan forced himself to enter the elevator when his every instinct was urging him to run from what threatened to be a very unpleasant interview. But he couldn’t. He was the responsible twin, he reminded himself. The twin who had always tried to make amends for Karim’s thoughtless behavior. But this was the last time! From now on, Karim could clean up his own messes.
The elevator slid to a smooth stop on the sixth floor.
Hassan stepped out and headed toward 6C, still undecided as to how to tell her what Karim had done.
Stopping in front of Kali’s apartment, he stared blindly at the oak door. Maybe the best way to break the news would be a blunt, unemotional statement of the facts. But the problem was it wouldn’t stay unemotional for long. She’d probably burst into tears and then what was he supposed to do?
He shifted uncomfortably at the thought of trying to deal with a hysterical woman.
He lifted his hand to knock, but before he could, the door swung open.
Hassan blinked, his hand suspended in midair as he stared at the unexpected vision in front of him. Small and slender, Kali barely reached his chin. He swallowed uneasily as he noticed the thrust of her full breasts against the rust-colored sweater she was wearing. Hastily wrenching his gaze upward, he turned his attention to the cloud of reddish-brown hair that framed the creamy perfection of her ivory skin and the delicacy of her perfectly formed features.
The strangest sense of disorientation filled him when his eyes met hers. They were the most gorgeous color, like the chestnuts that grew on his mother’s estate in England.
Chestnuts were good luck, his nanny had told him. As a boy he’d gathered them by the pocketfuls and hidden them in his room against future need. Which is what he would like to do with this woman. Secrete her away somewhere for his own personal enjoyment.
“Karim?”
Dimly, as if from a distance, Hassan heard the melodic sound of her voice, and his eyes dropped to her lips. A sudden tightness encircled his chest as he studied their delectable curve. They looked so soft. Soft and mobile and made to be kissed.
Karim was out of his tiny little mind, Hassan thought as he remembered his brother’s description of her. Calling her “kind of attractive” was like calling their father “kind of rich”—the understatement of the year. Kali Whitman was the most sensually alluring woman he had ever seen.
He froze as she unexpectedly leaned toward him and kissed his cheek. His guts clenched painfully at the feel of her lips against his skin, and it was all he could do not to grab her and capture her mouth with his own. He wanted—
His head examined, he thought uneasily. Kali Whitman had been taken advantage of enough by his brother without him compounding the sin by kissing her.
Kali stared up into his face, instinctively shaking her head in an attempt to banish the surge of desire that had so unexpectedly engulfed her when she’d kissed him. What was the matter with her? she wondered uncertainly. She’d kissed Karim when she’d accepted his proposal. Or rather he’d kissed her. A rather restrained touching of their lips that she found vaguely pleasant. So why was it different this time?
And it was different. For a timeless moment she’d completely lost track of what she’d wanted to say to him. All she’d been able to think about was how she’d felt. Excited and full of anticipation. As if he really were a beloved fiancé who’d just returned from an interminable absence.
Troubled, Kali studied his face, looking for a clue to explain her strange reaction. She couldn’t find one. Except for appearing slightly paler, as if he’d spent the entire two weeks of his conference in Australia inside, he looked exactly the same as she remembered. Her inexplicable sense of disorientation grew as she suddenly noticed the silvery sparks that seemed to swirl through his night-dark eyes. Funny, she’d never noticed them before. She blinked, and they were gone, making her wonder if she really had seen them.
“Um, I…” Hassan said, and Kali winced at the uncertain note in his voice. Poor Karim, he’d asked her to marry him because she was a levelheaded, intelligent woman not given to romantic excesses, and here she was staring at him like a teenager unexpectedly faced with her favorite rock star.
Feeling gauche, Kali rushed to say, “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. I was afraid you wouldn’t get back in time.”
“In time?” Hassan repeated, looking for an opening to break his news.
Kali stepped back. The added distance helped her to think a little more clearly. From here she couldn’t smell the delicious scent that clung to him. It reminded her of woodlands and sunshine and crisp autumn air. And it wasn’t the one he’d been wearing the night he’d taken her out to celebrate their engagement. Perhaps it was something he’d
