Nadir took another swallow of Scotch. ‘What did you come out here for?’
The air between them thickened and he nearly said to hell with arguing; it was time to relieve some of the tension between them.
‘To talk.’
‘I’ve got a better idea.’
She frowned and he saw the moment the meaning behind his rough words became clear because her gorgeous eyes widened in shock. ‘I hope you don’t mean what I think you mean.’
‘Oh, I definitely mean exactly what you think I mean.’
She gasped softly. ‘How can you think about sex at a time like this?’
He thought about sex with her all the time. ‘Too soon for you, habibi? That’s okay. I’m a patient man. I can wait.’
‘Look, Nadir—’
‘Look, Imogen.’ He scrubbed a weary hand across his face. ‘I’m not in the mood for a discussion. We can talk tomorrow after one o’clock.’
‘Why? What happens at one o’clock?’
At one o’clock one of his pesky loose ends would be resolved. ‘It’s not important.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Does it have to do with what your brother was talking about before?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It seemed to matter to him.’
‘He’ll get over it.’
Her lashes fluttered down to hide her frustrated gaze. ‘Keep your secrets. I don’t want to know them anyway.’
‘It’s not a secret. I have business to sort out in Bakaan that doesn’t concern you.’
‘Fine.’ Her tone implied it was anything but fine. ‘Let’s stay on topic and discuss something that does concern me.’
‘By all means let’s stay on topic. Tomorrow.’
* * *
Imogen didn’t like the way his gaze swept over her and wished she’d kept her bra on after Nadeena had gone to sleep because every time his eyes dropped to her chest her nipples peaked. She just hoped that the lighting from the lamps was low enough that he wouldn’t notice. Not that she couldn’t see every muscle shifting on his torso. He raised his hand to rub at the smattering of hair on his chest again and Imogen barely resisted the urge to fan herself. Stay on topic yourself, she admonished silently.
The last thing she needed right now was to think about the offer he’d just made. Which only reinforced his playboy mentality.
I’m a patient man. I can wait.
So much for her earlier assumption that he didn’t want to sleep with her. The man would obviously sleep with anyone but he’d be waiting a long time if he thought he could use her to slake his hunger for a night. Been there, done that and now had the baby to prove it! A baby who didn’t need him.
Deciding that starting with that statement would be like waving a red flag at an irritated bull, she went straight to the second half of her plan instead.
‘So.’ She cleared her throat yet again. ‘Given that you said that you wanted to be part of Nadeena’s life, I looked up some alternative options for us that don’t include marriage.’
‘Good for you.’
His response was frosty but at least it cooled the air between them and she wouldn’t let it put her off. She narrowed her eyes as he crossed his ankle over his knee and then she calmly folded her hands in her lap. ‘So it’s obviously not an in-depth analysis, but from what I can tell there’s legal custody and physical custody and they’re quite different from each other.’
‘Are they?’
His laconic response reeked of disinterest and Imogen did her best to cap her irritation. ‘Yes. They are. Legal custody is about who makes decisions for the child and can be sole or joint and physical custody is about seeing the child. Again, that can be either sole or joint and that breaks down into supervised and unsupervised and even virtual visits nowadays.’ She took a deep breath and rushed on before he could interject. ‘There’s also the issue of how to split the time and it seems that the most popular is for the father to visit the child every second weekend and on public holidays. Unless you want to go the virtual route, of course.’
‘Of course.’
Imogen waited for him to say more. When he just smiled and curved his hands behind his head she suspected he was toying with her. ‘Well?’ she prompted stiffly.
‘I can see you’ve put quite a bit of effort into this.’
Imogen sucked in a litre of air and released it slowly. Perhaps she’d been wrong and he wasn’t toying with her. Perhaps he was going to be cooperative and let her go. ‘Not really.’ She gave him a small smile that seemed to stretch her dry lips to the point of cracking. ‘But it’s a start.’