The Di Sione Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Legacy 2)

‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘There’s only one course of action. I intend to get back, and keep, what is mine.’

Staring into his eyes, Allegra grew hot all over, absurdly affected by words that pertained to oil rights and furthering his riches.

But it was there all the same, fuelling a whole heap of confusion.

They reached the doors of her suite, and Rahim threw them open. Nura was nowhere to be seen and Allegra’s heart began a discordant hammer as she walked into the living room, followed closely by Rahim, and his overwhelmingly masculine presence.

‘Well, thank you for bringing me along. It was certainly an eye-opening experience,’ she said when she’d ran out of places to direct her attention and finally looked in his face to find him watching her with an intensity that dragged more heat through her stomach.

It took monumental willpower to tear her gaze from the sensual curve of his mouth.

He prowled to where she stood and caught an errant curl that had escaped her ponytail. Thoughtfully, with unhurried movements, he rubbed the strands between his fingers before tucking it behind her ear.

The electrifying touch, though it whispered over her skin for a few seconds, sent wild and fiery currents racing through her. Allegra’s stomach clenched in reaction to the arrows of fiery arousal lancing her. She forced herself to swallow when her mouth filled with a longing she couldn’t describe. When his hand fell to his side, it was all she could do not to catch and pull it back up to repeat the caress.

‘I’m glad your eyes have been opened.’

‘Are...are you?’ she asked vaguely, still yearning for his touch with a hunger that scared and surprised her.

As if he’d read her thoughts, his hand slowly lifted. This time he caressed her cheek, then her jaw, his touch almost reverent as it traced her skin. When he reached the corner of her mouth, Allegra held her breath, almost too afraid to move in case he removed it. ‘Of course. It would please me even more if you applied your observations fruitfully. Can I count on you to do that, Allegra?’

Knowing she should be giving this conversation better attention, she tried to focus, but his thumb, now tracing her lower lip, threatened to send her reasoning into free fall. ‘I’m not sure...what...’

He placed a stalling finger on her lips. ‘I have a proposition to make to you, Allegra. One I sincerely hope you’ll be receptive to.’ His eyes burned as he looked down at her.

She’d seen that look once, in a movie when the male lead actor had made an indecent proposal to the actress. At the time, she’d silently scoffed at the improbability of it all. Now, with her breath lodged in her throat, Allegra waited, an almost forbidden excitement racing through her blood. When he said nothing after a few minutes, she cleared her throat. ‘What...what sort of proposition?’ she asked huskily, every sensitive nerve ending on her mouth reacting to the brush of his finger.

His beautiful eyes darkened, the hunger that clawed through her emblazoned boldly in his gaze. ‘One that I hope will align our goals now that you’ve spent some time in Dar-Aman.’ Once again his finger trailed over her skin. This time it wove a path down her jaw to her shoulder, then drifted down her arm to capture her hand. Catching her fingers with his, he brought her hand to his lips to kiss her knuckles. A smile tilted the corner of his mouth when she gasped. ‘We will talk further this evening. The banquet starts at eight. I will collect you shortly before then.’

He turned and walked out, leaving her in a state of sensual confusion and hyped excitement. And despite telling herself she was a fool to fall into such an obvious trap, Allegra couldn’t summon a practical enough argument to calm her racing pulse as she walked into her bedroom in a daze to undress.

* * *

Rahim strode away from Allegra’s suite with a burning in his bloodstream and the knowledge that the game had altered significantly. Not enough to sway him from what he needed to do for his people. More like the dimensions of his intentions had grown, while the prototype remained the same.

It wasn’t a dynamic he altogether welcomed, because he’d never been one to mix business with pleasure. Or let his personal urges get in the way of his ultimate goals. Sex with Allegra, no matter how detached he would choose to view it, would be personal enough to jeopardise what she and her foundation could do for Dar-Aman.

Because to put it simply, he wanted to bed Allegra Di Sione. He’d known it from the moment he looked into her enthralling eyes this morning. Even through her wild and unfounded tirades, he’d found himself pulled closer to the powerful attraction that tugged fiercely between them.

For a while this afternoon, though, he’d been sure he’d made a mistake in thinking she could be the answer to his problems. He’d been set to send her packing the moment they returned, but then she’d started asking him questions on the chopper. Even then he’d been sceptical. Her interest in what he was doing at Nur-Aman had been the convincer he needed to slam the brakes on putting her on the first plane out of Dar-Aman. Perhaps his trip hadn’t been fruitless after all. She’d taken an interest, and that was something he could work with.

Rahim knew without conceit that, with further work, he could knock a few holes in her preconceived notions about him, and he planned to use that leverage to his every advantage.

As for the crackling attraction between them... He let out a frustrated groan at the tightening in his groin.

Despite the intelligence that shone from her eyes and the monumental public success of her foundation, Allegra Di Sione had all the hallmarks of a high-maintenance woman in private. Beneath her practical and stoic demeanour, he’d glimpsed a passionate temper, one that could flare out of control if not handled correctly.

Rahim didn’t intend to be the one to handle her in that capacity. He’d had enough experience of high-maintenance women to last him a lifetime. His footsteps slowed as he neared his private rooms. All around him were signs of his mother—in the wide alcove overlooking her favourite garden where she’d kept exotic birds for her amusement, to the sitting rooms decorated with priceless rugs, tapestries and cabinets full of delicate trinkets. Everywhere he looked memories flooded him of her huge, all-encompassing smile when her father presented her with a jewelled ornament after a business trip, or her diva tantrum when a whimsical wish wasn’t fulfilled immediately.

It was a failing to nitpick his mother, but while Rahim had known he was loved with absolute devotion as a child, he’d experienced a period of abject fear of what his life would be like were that the love be taken away when he’d had a taster of it on his eleventh birthday.

His first vow not to allow love or any emotions resembling it into his life had been uttered that night. It had grown to spurn any overtures remotely resembling it as he grew older. Sex he could deal with. Hell, he’d made it a life choice to indulge in affairs of the flesh even while he conceded that his earliest forays into his shocking lifestyle had been mostly to get his father’s attention.

A sad and bitter truth he still had a hard time swallowing.