‘That’s not necessary,’ she said huskily, instinctively snatching her hands behind her back.
A frown drew down his brows as if her reluctance hadn’t occurred to him. ‘Of course it is. Many of the guests at the dinner are Western. They will expect to see you wearing my ring.’
A sickening sense of inevitability crept over Imogen and made her feel incredibly vulnerable. Incredibly exposed. ‘I can say I lost it if anyone asks.’
His frown turned into a scowl. ‘If it’s the fact that you didn’t choose it yourself that’s the problem you can swap it at a later date.’
That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that she didn’t want to swap it. The problem was that the ring was exactly what she would have chosen had he given her the choice. But he never would. The ruthless way he kept sweeping aside her insistence that she would not marry him as if it was nothing more than an empty spider’s web dangling in a doorway was evidence of that alone.
‘You have no idea, do you?’ she tossed at him, wanting to somehow hurt him the way he was currently hurting her. ‘I don’t want to wear your ring because it will ruin it when someone who really loves me wants to give me one.’
Swearing under his breath, Nadir’s expression grew stormy. ‘Damn it, Imogen, there won’t be anyone else putting a ring on your finger. So you can get that out of your mind right now.’
She shook her head, aware that they were studiously not being watched by the guards who stood to attention around them. As if sensing her discomfort, or uncomfortable himself, Nadir drew her to the side of the room in what probably looked like a loving gesture.
‘I thought I had explained how important tonight was.’
‘You don’t explain things, Nadir, you talk until you get what you want.’
‘I have explained.’ His tone was marked with frustration. ‘I was supposed to renounce the throne today but Zach didn’t show up. Now I have to host a dinner.’
‘But why don’t you want to be King? Zach said it was your birthright.’
He shut down. She saw it instantly in the set of his jaw. ‘The why is not important. It’s the intention that counts. I don’t want the job. Zach does. I suppose you intend to be difficult about this as well.’
Hurt by the implication that she was being difficult just for the sake of it, she flinched. ‘I’d like to understand it.’
‘Do you want to be Queen—is that it?’
‘No, that’s not it. I didn’t even think about that until just then.’
He looked at her.
‘I didn’t. Why would I when I haven’t even agreed to marry you?’
She’d be flattered at his insistence on marrying her if she thought there was any deep sentiment behind it. Basically, it was because of Nadeena with great sex thrown in as a side order.
Without warning, Nadir reached out and raised her chin so that her eyes met his. Instead of looking fierce and commanding he looked frustrated and weary and her heart lurched.
‘I need you to cut me some slack here, Imogen. I feel like I’m holding on by a thread.’
The raw words and his pained expression gave her pause but she was loath to let her heart soften towards him because he’d likely trample on it without even noticing.
Of course the traitorous organ didn’t listen to her head. It never did when he was around. When he was this close to her that his scent wound its way inside her and made her ache to lean in and press her face into his neck.
‘What is it, Imogen?’ His thumb drew light circles across her chin, the gesture more comforting than sexual. ‘What are you thinking?’
The width of his broad shoulders blocking the soldiers from her view established a feeling of intense intimacy between them and it was as if the dinner guests on the other side of the large doorway didn’t exist. ‘Honestly, Nadir, I don’t know what to think.’ She looked up at him and knew that her expression was troubled. ‘I don’t know what to feel or what to do any more. This is all so confusing and unexpected. One minute I’m alone with Nadeena and then... And what we had in Paris.’ She swallowed heavily and his frown deepened. ‘It was so...so...’ She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say that it was so special. That she had counted the minutes from Monday to Friday during that month they had been together and prayed that he would fly in and rap on her front door and kiss her even before he said hello. ‘And now I’m scared because everything feels so broken.’
Broken like her own home life had been. Like her heart had been after he had left Paris and like she feared it would be again if she let her guard down and agreed to marry him.