He swung her into his arms, his strides swift and urgent as he carried her back to the car.
‘Yes, I’m aware everything bad that has happened to us
is my fault, but that is no reason to put yourself and the baby in danger.’ His voice was a thin, desolate line that cut her to the heart.
She glanced up at him, and noticed he’d lost every trace of colour. His eyes when he looked down at her as he deposited her in the seat were bleak, black pools.
Heart wrenching at his obvious distress, she murmured, ‘I’m fine, Rahim.’
He slid in beside her and secured her seat belt. Without answering he pressed the intercom and issued terse instructions. As the limo rolled away from the chopper, he picked up her hand and gazed at the blood seeping from her cuts. ‘I beg to differ, Allegra,’ he drawled. Taking a handkerchief from his jacket, he pressed it against the small wounds. ‘Consider your point well made.’
She gasped. ‘You think I did this deliberately?’
He shrugged. ‘You wanted my attention. Now you have it.’
Allegra wanted to scream with despair. She wanted to close her eyes and absorb that deep, sexily exotic voice and fool herself into believing everything would be all right. Most of all, she wanted to weep with joy that Rahim was here with her, touching her, albeit under harrowing circumstances.
But, dammit, she’d wept far too much lately. And all the reasons revolved around him. She snatched her hand from his, ignoring the throbbing in her palm.
‘Think what you like. It’s obvious I’m fighting a losing battle.’ Desperate for him not to witness how much those words hurt she glanced out of the window, saw where the limo had stopped on the palace grounds. ‘Why are we at the clinic?’
‘You just suffered a fall. You don’t think it prudent to check that you and the baby are fine?’ His tone held the same bleakness that lingered in his eyes, laced with a vulnerability Allegra had never heard before.
Her heart cracked but she reminded herself that Rahim was doing this for the baby. Before she could answer, the door opened. Her doctors and nurses swarmed the car.
She was ushered inside the private clinic Rahim had had created for her. A nurse saw to her hand as the doctors consulted in hushed tones. Through it all, Rahim stayed aloof, his expression unreadable as she was prepared for her scan.
The realisation that she hadn’t got through to him shook hard through her. She knew in her bones that the moment the scan was over, he would leave. And she would once again become the broken, pathetic creature who craved him to live.
No.
No more.
She didn’t care what it took. She was taking back her power.
Strolling to the curtain where she would be changing into her gown shortly, she glanced casually over her shoulder. ‘So where will you be heading to this time once this is over? Vietnam or the wilds of Scotland?’
His eyes stayed on the monitor, his folded arms tensing as he shifted on his feet. Somewhere along the line, his bow tie had come free, along with his two top buttons. Allegra forced her gaze away from the strong column of his throat and concentrated on removing the evening gown.
‘The Port of Dar-Aman. Berthing contracts were sold to foreign entities. I’m in the process of buying them all back.’
‘And you need to do that three hundred miles from home?’
‘Yes.’ Simple. Succinct. Cutting.
She got the message. But she was getting angrier by the minute. With herself. With him, for her inability to stem the waves of pain that hurled relentlessly at her.
Taking deep, calming breaths, Allegra met his gaze over the screen, and asked the question she’d been holding to her breast like a precious talisman which might crumble to dust any minute.
‘Why didn’t you tell me your mother died in childbirth?’
Rahim jerked from the wall, his eyes full of warning as he glared at her. ‘Because it wasn’t a subject I felt should be shared with a pregnant woman.’
‘What about your wife?’
His lips pursed. ‘You seem to be spoiling for a fight, habibi.’
‘Since when is wanting to know a few basic facts about the man you’re married to spoiling for a fight?’