‘Oh.’ Didn’t he want to be King? And if not, why not? ‘I suppose, given that women aren’t allowed multiple husbands in Bakaan, your sister isn’t allowed to take over the throne instead.’
‘My sister?’ A muscle flickered in his jaw. Once. Twice. ‘Who told you about my sister?’
Not wanting to get the young servant into trouble, Imogen hesitated. ‘Tasnim. But don’t blame her. I pushed for the information.’
‘Then you didn’t push hard enough.’ His expression made her feel chilled. ‘My sister is no longer alive either.’
‘Oh, God, I’m so sorry.’ Imogen felt stricken as she saw a mask of pain briefly cross his face. ‘Did she die with your father?’
‘No.’ Nadir expelled a harsh breath, his emotions hidden behind the screen of his impossibly long eyelashes. ‘But you are right. She would not have been allowed to be a sheikha.’ His lashes raised and she could see that his emotions were now firmly under control. ‘Now, since Zachim has disappeared for the moment, I must attend a state dinner tonight and I need you to accompany me.’
‘But what about our return to London?’
‘It has been delayed.’
‘It can’t be delayed. I have a job I need to get back to and we’re really short-staffed at the café.’
Nadir gave her a dry look. ‘You will no longer need that job, Imogen, so you might as well quit.’
Imogen shoved her hands onto her hips. ‘I will not quit.’
Nadir let out a long sigh. ‘I hope to Allah that not every conversation we have is going to feel like I’m pulling out hen’s teeth. If you go into your dressing room you will find an evening gown for the dinner and Tasnim will help you prepare. If you need anything else—’
‘Nadir, every conversation feels like a struggle because you won’t listen. And I’m not going anywhere with you tonight when nothing has been resolved between us.’
‘Of course it has. We resolved everything last night.’
As far as Imogen was concerned, they had resolved nothing last night. ‘When?’
‘When we talked.’
She shook her head, frustrated that he could be so obtuse. ‘You might have resolved something last night but I didn’t.’
His sigh was one of aggravated patience. ‘Okay, tell me what you need to make this work for you.’
Was he serious? ‘Time.’ For one thing. ‘You listening to what I want would help.’
Nadir pulled a wry face. ‘I promise to try and listen to you but unfortunately I can’t do anything about your first request because time is something I seem to be in short supply of right now. And I have never seen the point in stalling when the outcome is not in question.’
His high-handedness was one of the things that had attracted her to him so she really only had herself to blame. ‘I take it you mean the outcome of us marrying and if you do then the outcome is only not in question for you.’
‘For us.’
‘This is what I would call not listening,’ she said with exasperation. ‘Because at this point there is no us. There is you and me and a baby. I mean—what about where we’re going to live? What about what school Nadeena will go to? What about her emotional well-being?’
His crooked grin made her breath catch and she wondered if that wasn’t exactly the outcome he’d been trying to achieve. ‘You will live where I live. Nadeena will go to a good school and we both want what is best for her.’
‘You’re simplifying.’
‘And you’re making it complicated.’ It was he who sounded exasperated now.
‘It is complicated.’
‘It doesn’t have to be.’
Imogen’s eyes shot to his as the tenor in his voice roughened and, just like that, sex was in the room again. Or at least in her thoughts. ‘Be serious, Nadir—we don’t even like each other any more.’
‘I like you.’
About to tell him that what he thought of her was inconsequential anyway, she found the words dissolving on her tongue as she watched him hunker down and start trickling water over Nadeena’s feet. Nadeena reached forward and grabbed one of his thick fingers in her chubby hand. Imogen closed her eyes and then opened them again when Nadeena giggled and splashed the water with her feet.
Nadir smiled. That smile that had melted a thousand hearts, including her own.
They looked so beautiful together. Her daughter and the man who had once made her so impossibly happy she’d thought she would burst. Both dark-haired and with goofy smiles. Nadir started saying something softly to Nadeena in Arabic and Imogen felt that strange tug in her chest she knew was a type of longing. A type of longing that she really didn’t want to feel again.