“You’d have remembered my knee where it would have done the most good if you hadn’t let go of me.”
“So that was … What shall I call it? Misdirection?”
“It was doing whatever I had to do to get you off me!”
He nodded, his expression suddenly grave. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
“Believe me, Your Highness, there won’t be a next time.”
He gave her a long, steady look. Was he laughing at her? Did he think this was a joke?
Rachel didn’t wait to find out.
Instead, she undid her seat belt, got out of the car and took Ethan from the baby seat. Karim reached past her, grabbed her suitcase and the diaper bag, then clasped her elbow with his free hand and began walking toward a silver jet with the emblem of a falcon on its fuselage.
Steps led up to the open cabin door where two men and a woman, all in dark gray suits, stood watching them.
“My crew,” Karim said.
His crew.
His plane.
His life.
The sudden reality of what was happening hit Rachel with breath-stealing force. She stumbled; Karim dropped the bags and swept his arm around her waist.
“Dammit,” he growled.
The woman rushed down the steps and hurried toward them. She reached for the suitcase and diaper bag but Karim shook his head.
“Take the child.”
Rachel pulled back. The woman smiled reassuringly.
“He’ll be fine with me, ma’am. I’ll take him to the galley. I have diapers ready, food, a little carrier … His Highness saw to everything.”
Rachel blinked. “He did?”
“He did,” Karim said briskly. “Go on. Give the baby to Moira, or would you rather run the risk of dropping him?”
Rachel handed Ethan over. Then she stared at the Sheikh.
“When did you order all those things?”
“I had plenty of time to make phone calls while you were packing. There isn’t a woman alive who doesn’t take forever to pack.”
“I didn’t take forever. And are you always so sure of how things will work out? That I was packing at all? Just because you want something doesn’t mean it—” She gasped as he swung her up in his arms. “I can walk!”