times worse. What were you thinking?’
His eyebrows rose in astonishment. Clearly he wasn’t used to anyone questioning his actions.
‘It can’t get any worse. Not after the photos they’ve already got.’ He folded his arms over his dark suit, for all the world like a corporate raider contemplating a run on his stocks, not a Middle Eastern potentate. Surely sheikhs wore long robes and headscarves?
‘But now they’ve seen you here they’ll think—’
‘They already know.’ His tone was so grim it made the tiny hairs at her nape stand up. ‘In fact—’ he paused, his voice dropping to a silky, dangerous note that made her think of an unexploded bomb ‘—some would say they know more than I do.’
Arden wanted to say the press didn’t know anything. They assumed. But it was splitting hairs.
‘Couldn’t you have sent someone instead?’ She crossed her arms tight across her chest, where her heart catapulted like a mad thing against her ribs. Grateful as she was for assistance, she refused to feel guilty about what had happened. This wasn’t down to her. He was the one who’d attracted press attention. She was a nonentity.
‘I did send someone. But they reported you were surrounded. Your phone is switched off and I assumed that if a stranger knocked on your door, claiming to represent me, you’d think it was a ruse to get you out to face the cameras.’ Ebony eyes held hers, challenging.
Reluctantly Arden nodded. He was right. She’d never have opened the door to anyone she didn’t know.
‘I had to come. There was no other choice.’
How did he sound so calm when they were in this mess? Arden couldn’t begin to imagine how she and Dawud could go back to their normal, anonymous lives. She wanted to rant, to point the finger of blame at him, but what would that achieve? She had to protect Dawud. There was no time for the luxury of hysteria.
Besides, despite her fine words, she hadn’t been forced into that telltale kiss.
Shame filled her. She’d clung to his broad-shouldered frame, losing herself in his sensuality, in the pull of an attraction that was as powerful as it had always been.
Despite the way he’d abandoned her years ago.
Despite the fact he had a fiancée.
Arden hated herself for that. She should be immune to him now. Her stomach dropped and she stepped away, her back colliding with the wall. Determination filled her. She would not fall under his spell again.
‘What?’ His voice was sharp.
‘Your fiancée.’ The word rasped out, rough-edged.
‘Not my fiancée.’
‘But Hamid said—’
‘Hamid doesn’t know everything.’ That twist of his mobile mouth looked cruel. As if the words he held back would flay someone alive.
Slivers of ice pricked her all over.
In that instant he morphed from saviour to threat.
She’d been almost relieved to see him but suddenly, as if scales fell from her eyes, she saw him not as the man she’d once loved, or as Hamid’s cousin and a potential safe harbour in this press storm, but as an absolute monarch, accustomed to getting whatever he wanted.
Arden licked her lips. ‘What do you want?’
Her gaze flicked to the closed sitting room door before she could stop herself. He noticed. Of course he noticed. How could he not hear the muffled children’s ditty and guess who was in there?
The fact he hadn’t even turned his head towards the other room only scared her more.
Thinking he’d washed his hands of her once their affair was over, even covering his tracks with a false name, she’d believed herself a sole parent in every sense. But Idris was here now, and she realised in dawning horror that she had no idea how he felt about a child. A male child. A child he might consider his heir. A child he might try to take.
Terror dug razored claws into her belly and her stomach cramped so hard she doubled up, gasping. Surely he didn’t plan to steal her baby!
‘Arden? What is it?’ This time he did reach out, long fingers branding her upper arm and sending flames licking through her.
‘Don’t touch me!’ It was a hoarse whisper, the best she could do. But it was enough. He reared back as if scalded.
She straightened, forcing herself to stand tall, jutting her chin to lessen the distance between them.
‘Tell me what you want.’
Had she just made the biggest mistake of her life, letting Dawud’s father into her home? A father who had the power, physically and financially, to take her baby away?
‘Tell me!’ Heat glazed her eyes. If he thought he was taking Dawud from her, he understood nothing about a mother’s love.
Something she couldn’t decipher glowed in those narrowed eyes. ‘I want to get you and your son to safety, where you won’t be bothered by the press. Then, we need to talk.’
Her stomach did that roller coaster dip again. Talk didn’t sound at all appealing.
But she was out of choices. She and Dawud couldn’t stay holed up, hoping the press would leave. They had to go out some time. Idris was her only lifeline. No one else could get them away from the press. She had to trust him, for now at least.
‘Pack what the pair of you will need for a couple of days. There’s a car outside to take you away and one of my men will be posted nearby to make sure none of the paparazzi break in here to get more fodder for a story.’
Arden’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t thought of that. Of some stranger pawing through their belongings, sullying their home.
‘Don’t worry. It won’t happen. I won’t let it.’
Arden snapped her mouth closed, reeling at his absolute conviction. Never in her life had she been able to rely on anyone. Every time she’d begun to trust she’d been let down. Her parents, foster parents, even Hamid, pretending there was more to their friendship than existed.
There was something inherently appealing about Idris’s assurance. Just as well she knew better than to depend on him. But, for the moment, she and Dawud needed help.
‘Give me ten minutes.’ She started down the hall then stopped, hesitating outside the sitting room door.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll wait here.’ It was as if he read her mind, her worry about Dawud.
She hesitated, unable to dismiss the thought of him simply striding in, picking up Dawud and carrying him out of the door.
‘You are both safe with me.’ That deep voice mesmerised—so grave, so measured. She badly wanted to trust him. He took a single step nearer. ‘You have my word, Arden.’
She caught
