‘What?’ he asked as if he sensed her tension.
‘I should go back to Nadeena.’
He gently tugged her still damp hair out from under his arm and stroked it back against the pillow. ‘Stay. I’ve missed holding you like this.’
His admission startled her and set off a warm glow as if a cluster of fireflies had set up house inside her chest. ‘Me too.’
She felt him place a light kiss against her hair and turned her face into his throat.
‘Then sleep. I’ll check on Nadeena in a minute.’
She wanted to protest, she wanted to say that she needed to do it because she always had and Nadeena’s safety was her responsibility but Nadir rolled her onto her side and spooned her, his big body swamping hers and cocooning her in the most delicious warmth and a deep lassitude invaded her already weakened limbs and turned her limp. It was blissful, this feeling of being utterly taken care of, and no doubt—if she let it—highly addictive.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
OR IT COULD have been highly addictive if it had continued. But of course it had not, Imogen thought glumly as she stretched to place her nose against her knee, her groin muscles protesting the once effortless stretch.
They had made love twice more during the night, once fast and another time slow and indulgent, his fingers drifting and stroking over every inch of her body as if he couldn’t get enough of her and then in the morning she’d woken up to find him gone.
At first she’d not minded, stretching her overused muscles and indulging in sensual recall. Then she’d realised that she couldn’t hear anything and that she’d overslept for the first time since she’d become pregnant and had raced out of bed, pulling on her T-shirt that had been wedged half under his giant bed and set off down the hallway to find Nadeena’s cot empty.
Slightly panicked, she’d then rushed into the living area to find Tasnim and Maab taking care of Nadeena at the outdoor table. Relieved, she’d pulled up, taken her smiling daughter into her arms and hugged her, the rush of relief bringing with it the subtle aches and pains in her body that brought her awareness back to how well loved she had been the night before. Then she’d glanced around for Nadir. Tasnim said that he had given Nadeena the small amount of milk left over from when Imogen had expressed the night before and told them not to wake her unless it was absolutely necessary.
As if on cue, her breasts had tingled and she’d sat in a shaded lounge chair and fed her daughter. And waited for Nadir to return.
She’d sat there with a secret smile on her face and thought that maybe she’d been wrong to leave Paris so hastily fourteen months ago. That maybe she’d been wrong not to have realised that he would want what was best for her and the baby.
That had been yesterday morning’s thoughts. Now, another day and a half later, Imogen was wishing that she had run further fourteen months ago and that he’d never found her because, apart from a note sent to inform her that he would be in late last night, she hadn’t seen or heard from him since.
It would have been the classical wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am scenario except for the fact that she still had an enormous ring on her finger that she was sure someone would hack off to obtain if she ever ventured out into a public place with it on.
She glanced at it now, wondering why she still wore it.
It wasn’t because she was under any illusion that the man who had given it to her genuinely cared about her. And it definitely wasn’t because she thought he craved her company as much as she stupidly craved his. Not that he’d ever know that was how she felt. No, she might have felt her heart crack open a little when he was touching her, kissing her, making love to her, but his behaviour over the last two days had sealed it back up with more precision than a blowtorch. And to think she’d imagined that she was falling for him all over again. Thank goodness she’d disabused herself of that errant notion.
And yes, on some level she knew she was being unfair to him because of his current issues in Bakaan but she knew he had a reputation for working hard. Working hard and playing hard. So she knew this was just a sign of her life to come and she didn’t like it. He made her feel like an afterthought while she found herself wanting so much more from their relationship. More than he clearly did.
The realisation was emotionally debilitating and if he thought that giving her a couple of extraordinary orgasms would be enough to make her comply with his every wish then he had another thing coming. Especially since she’d had at least a day now to stew over the news that they were to be married at the end of the week.