night in his Paris apartment all those months ago.
God, if she’d only left work five minutes earlier or later this whole situation might have been avoided. She swallowed heavily and forced herself to meet his hard stare, his raised eyebrow that could make him look either wickedly seductive or incredibly foreboding. Today it was definitely foreboding, which didn’t help to explain the electrodes of excitement pulsing through her body, making her both shivery and hot at the same time.
No, not excitement, she corrected; it was adrenaline. Her fight or flight system was on overload; her reaction could hardly be considered excitement after the way he had treated her. The reminder of that helped calm her down and she gave him a tight smile, a deep sense of self-preservation warning her not to answer his question just yet. ‘It’s a surprise to see you like this.’
‘I’m sure it is, habibi. Now answer my question.’
Swallowing heavily, she raised her chin. He used to whisper that term of endearment to her when he was about to seduce her and God, she wished it wasn’t such an effort to hold those erotic memories of their fleeting time together at bay but it was. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Don’t play games with me, Imogen. I’m not in the mood.’
A ripple of unease slid down her spine and Minh, obviously sensing Nadir’s ire as much as she could, half stepped in front of her. ‘Ease up there, chief. There’s no need to be aggressive.’
Nadir slowly turned his razor-sharp gaze to Minh and, although Minh didn’t flinch, Imogen did. Unfortunately Minh had no idea that the infamous rebel prince was Nadeena’s father. Imogen hadn’t told anyone.
‘And you are?’ Nadir’s question came out as if he’d just asked Minh if he had any last requests.
‘Imogen’s friend.’
‘I suggest you back off, Imogen’s friend.’ Nadir’s lip curled into a sneer. ‘This is not your business.’ Then he turned the full force of his attention back to her and Imogen really wished that he hadn’t. ‘Well?’
How could he make one word sound so powerful?
‘Sorry, but I don’t like your attitude, chief.’ Minh puffed out his chest and Imogen groaned. ‘You need to dial it down a little.’
‘It’s okay, Minh.’ She gave his arm a squeeze, only just realising that her arm was still linked with his. ‘I know him.’
Nadir pinned her with a patronising look. ‘That’s putting it mildly, habibi.’
His meaning was clear and Imogen felt a flush rise up her neck.
‘I don’t like him,’ Minh said softly.
Neither did she but she drew on all her training as a performer and gave him a smile worthy of an award. ‘It’s okay. Really. Why don’t you head home? I can take care of this.’
‘You’re sure?’ Minh looked dubious.
‘She just said she was, didn’t she?’
Imogen only just managed to prevent Minh from trying to stand up to Nadir again and patted a sleepy Nadeena, who had grown restless. ‘Go. Really. We’ll be fine.’
‘Call me if you need me,’ Minh ordered, reluctantly heading towards Green Park tube station.
As soon as he was out of sight she let out a relieved breath. One hardcore male was better than two, wasn’t it?
Reluctantly turning back, she calmed her breathing and faced Nadir. ‘What’s this about, Nadir?’
‘What do you think?’
She tried to pull off a nonchalant shrug but her movements felt stiff and disjointed. He’d walked away from her fourteen months ago so she had no idea. ‘If I knew I wouldn’t ask,’ she countered, slightly annoyed herself now.
His silvery gaze transmitted how unimpressed he was with her response. ‘How old is she?’
‘How do you know she’s a she?’ Imogen hedged.
‘I don’t think it’s customary to dress a boy in a pink sunhat.’
‘Maybe I’m just bucking the trend.’
His hissed breath held a wealth of reaching-the-end-of-his-tether impatience. ‘How. Old. Is. She?’
Completely unprepared for both his anger and his relentless questioning, Imogen was at a loss as to how to follow the advice of her inner voice that warned her to tread cautiously and found herself blurting out the truth. ‘Five months.’
He rocked back on his heels, his hands going to his waist and pushing his jacket back to reveal his broad chest. ‘Then our affair did result in a child.’
Their affair? Talk about clarifying how he had felt about her back then... ‘I didn’t say that,’ she retorted forcefully.
The words came out rushed and his eyebrows shot up. ‘Then you were sleeping with someone else while we were together.’ His voice held the tenor of a wounded bull, which didn’t impress her at all.
‘Trust you to take that line of thinking,’ she said scathingly, remembering how he had basically accused her of the same thing their last night together in Paris. ‘And it’s none of your business.’
‘If she’s not mine then whose is she?’ His gaze once again narrowed in on Nadeena.
‘Mine,’ she countered evenly.
Nadir’s lips turned up into a snarl. ‘Do you really think you can fob me off with semantics?’
Imogen felt a dull pain tweak behind her right eyebrow. After the way he had treated the news of her pregnancy, she wanted to know his current motivation before blurting out any more home truths. ‘Look, Nadir—’
He said something in Arabic, cutting her off, and stepped closer to her, his wide shoulders blocking out all the natural light behind him. Imogen felt the cool glass of the shop window at her back and briefly closed her eyes to try and steady her racing heartbeat, only to snap them open again when Nadir’s voice sounded way too close to her ear. ‘Dammit, you’re not going to faint, are you?’
Faint? Faint? She stared up at him and then darted her eyes to the side. No, she wasn’t going to faint. But she did want to run. Fast.
‘Uh-uh.’ As if reading her thoughts, Nadir shook his head. ‘You’re not going to run again, Imogen, my sweet.’
Again? What was he talking about—again?
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about but I really need to go. I’m working another shift tonight.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Just so we’re clear, habibi,’ he grated silkily, ‘I have not searched for you for the past fourteen months to be given the runaround now.’
Imogen immediately felt hot and cold and then hot again and, just like the first time she
