Even the friends she’d made at the hospital, she’d always kept them at a wary distance, afraid of letting anyone close. But now...one of them had to take that first step. One of them had to clean the slate and start over.
“Can we try to be friends, Zafir? For the sake of our child?”
Silence beat in tune with the thud of her heart.
Slow amusement dawned in those golden depths, sending her system into stunned shock. One tip of that sensuous mouth tipped up, carving a crease in his cheek. “Brood horse, Lauren?”
A strange sound—a combination of a horrified squeak and an outraged gasp fell from her lips. “That’s what you get out of the whole speech I just gave you?”
“So do we have a breeding program in place after you deliver this one?”
“You did not just call...you’ve gone mad,” she flushed as he folded his hands in exaggerated patience, his mouth twitching. “A breeding program? Really?”
His jaw was rough with stubble, there was tiredness in the lines of his face. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him, to tell him that she understood him a little better now, that she understood the pain he hid so very well. But he wouldn’t welcome her sympathy or her gesture of affection.
All he’d ever wanted, could ever want, from her was only one thing.
“If you’re the brood horse, that makes me what? Your stud?”
The twitch of his mouth was infectious, the light in his eyes irresistible. “My very own Arabian stallion?” she said. He raised a brow in that infuriating way that he did.
His mouth finally curved into a full, breathtaking smile while her nerves thrummed at the sudden change in his demeanor. She understood why he had been worried and angry even, but now he was joking...
No, he was flirting with her. How? Why? Was he seducing her with that smile and those awful puns?
“I asked for that, yes?”
She exhaled long. “I seem to cause you—”
“I understand why you jumped in to help this time,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m also willing to accept that you made an ill-informed and wrong decision with the right intentions. But you have to promise me that you won’t take any more unnecessary risks.”
Her ire rose at his autocratic tone. But since her new motto was to set aside her needs and insecurities for the sake of her unborn child, she said, “Anything else that Your Highness is willing to cede?”
“Behraat’s political clime is changing. If I curb your freedom, it’s because your safety—” He raised a hand when she opened her mouth, and continued, “and not just because you carry my child, is important to me. I would not have you hurt in any way, Lauren. Ever.”
She folded her hands, willing her heart to stop racing. Never had she heard that raw emotion in his tone, never had such simple words held such sway over her. “Is your offer to reevaluate our situation after the baby’s here still valid?”
“There will be no need.”
Shaking her head, she glared at him. “You promised.”
“Come here,” he said in a curiously flat, nonthreatening tone.
He meant to touch her. That intent in his gaze was like a tug at her senses that she found herself swaying to the balls of her feet. “No.”
Something hot and needy detonated in his gaze. And it took everything she had to not scuttle away like cornered prey.
He took one step toward her and she instantly sidestepped. “I think you have a subconscious fantasy of me chasing and capturing you, Lauren.”
Heat tightened her cheeks. Being chased by Zafir, being wanted by him, needed by him...it was a crazy fantasy she’d already indulged in, all right. That messed with her head far too often. “Zafir, I...” She faced him, ignoring her racing pulse. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
Another step closer. “No, habeebti, we won’t fight.”
“I don’t want you to touch me either. There’s only so many times I can pull the ‘do what you will with me’ routine.”
Something almost like amusement glinted deep in his eyes. “All I said was to come closer. I’d like to see the changes my child is making in your body,” he said in an exaggeratedly patient voice.
“And then, we can talk? Like adults,” she rushed over her words as he loomed over her, “adults who’re going to share a huge, life-changing responsibility,” his hands covered hers and tugged her, their legs banging each other before he steadied her, his scent luring her in, as she continued speaking, “who both want the best for their child and...” soundless pants fell from her mouth as his hot gaze seared wherever it fell, “who would never, ever, force their child to pick sides.”