One Night Of Consequences Collection. Annie West

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      With masculine grace he moved to lounge on the sectional sofa. ‘You want to talk about nothing yet?’

      Imogen sighed. ‘Okay, fine. I was wondering why it is you don’t want to be the next leader of Bakaan.’

      She saw the minute the shutters came down over his eyes and shook her head. ‘And why it is that as soon as I ask you something personal you refuse to talk.’

      ‘I run a large organisation that is already showing the strains of my absence. I don’t have time to run Bakaan as well.’

      ‘You told me once that you love to take companies that are on the verge of collapse and turn them into something wonderful and, from what I can tell, Bakaan is in an identical situation.’ She studied the way he rigidly held himself. ‘If it helps, you are clearly a natural born leader, Nadir, and the people love you. You could do this job with your eyes closed.’

      ‘It’s not a question of capability. It’s...’ He sprang from the sofa as if he had too much energy coursing through his system. ‘I never expected to do it. And what about you? That would make you my queen. Given that you’re struggling with the whole concept of wife I can’t imagine you’d be thrilled with the role.’

      Surprised that he was even asking for her opinion, Imogen thought carefully before answering. ‘I honestly don’t know. I always thought I would one day open a dance studio and teach dance and...women seem to be very much held back here.’

      ‘In some ways, yes, but equal opportunity for women is one of the key reforms Zach and I have discussed, along with better social infrastructure that would turn Bakaan into a competitive and vibrant place people would want to visit and invest in.’ He stopped as if he realised how impassioned he sounded. ‘Zach will make a great leader. And you should definitely open a studio. You’re a beautiful dancer.’

       Was he serious?

      ‘You’d accept having a wife who danced for a living?’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘I don’t know...’ Imogen felt at a loss. ‘Maybe because you’re a prince who has a Harvard education and speaks nine languages.’

      The way he studied her unnerved her. ‘Why should that matter?’

      ‘I don’t know but it does.’

      ‘Not to me.’ He frowned. ‘Who made you feel bad about your profession? About yourself? Was it your father?’

      His shrewd comment startled her. ‘Why would you say that?’

      ‘My head of security spoke with him when I was trying to find you and, as far as I’m concerned, a man who doesn’t know the whereabouts of his daughter can’t be much of a father.’

      ‘He wasn’t. And no, he never approved of my occupation. He was quite tyrannical at times and really remote at others. It was very confusing when I was little.’

      ‘Ah, don’t tell me—his affection was conditional on how well you toed the line.’

      ‘Your father too?’

      Nadir raised an eyebrow. ‘My father’s idea of giving someone a choice was to tell them how he wanted it.’ A shadow came across his face as clear as a puff of smoke being brought in on the breeze. ‘I left home at fifteen and headed to the Caribbean, where I took up bartending at a strip club.’

      Her eyes widened with shock. ‘You did not!’

      He laughed. ‘I can mix a Slow, Comfortable Screw with the best of them, I promise.’

      ‘Nadir!’ Imogen covered her mouth to stop a giggle from breaking out. ‘Seriously?’

      ‘It wasn’t the most salubrious establishment on the street. After that I joined a building crew in the States and made money playing online poker.’

      ‘I...I’m shocked.’ And he made her Moulin Rouge career look like Disney. ‘I take it you and your father weren’t close,’ she said ruefully.

      ‘Actually, we were in the beginning. I was the heir. The golden child. As far as my father was concerned I could do no wrong.’ He paused and stared into the middle distance for so long she started to think he’d finished but he hadn’t. ‘And then I did.’

      His blue-grey gaze fixed on hers as if challenging her to ask him what he’d done that was so bad he’d lost the position as the favourite son, his face a mask of dark shadows.

      The moment seemed distinctly brittle compared to their earlier camaraderie and she didn’t know what to say. Ever since he’d come back into her life she’d wanted him to open up to her like this and share more of himself but now she felt that it would be invasive to ask him to continue because it was obvious these memories were incredibly painful.

      He regarded her from beneath his long lashes, a look of self-disgust etched across his face. ‘You don’t want to know what I did?’

      The quietly spoken question was savage and underscored by deep pain. Imogen swallowed heavily. She wanted to go to him and offer comfort but she had no idea how he’d respond to that kind of overture other than to disconnect from her again and it pained her to feel so awkward at a time when she felt he needed her the most. ‘Only if you want to tell me,’ she said, deciding that the decision had to be his alone without any real prompting from her.

      He scrubbed a hand across his face in a gesture she knew meant that he was stressed and her heart went out to him.

      ‘If we stay here for any length of time you’ll find out anyway.’ The words were toneless, as if he’d locked all emotion about what he was about to reveal in a place he could no longer access. ‘When I was fifteen my mother and twin sister were killed in a car accident because my father’s soldiers were chasing after them.’

       His twin sister?

      ‘Oh, Nadir, that’s horrible.’ She knew words were inadequate in the face of losing someone special because she still remembered how it had felt to lose her mother but she said it anyway because she wanted him to know that she was there for him. ‘Why would they do that?’

      ‘My sister suffered from Tourette’s syndrome and my father never accepted her condition.’ His tone was layered with resentment and contempt. ‘As she got older my mother saw how detrimental life was for her in Bakaan and she wanted to move to somewhere in Europe.’ His expression hardened. ‘My father refused her request even though they were divorced and so she decided to do it in secret. I was supposed to go with them but I knew my father would be angry and I didn’t trust what he would do once he found out.’

      Almost afraid to ask the obvious question, she did anyway. ‘And did you? Go with them?’

      He walked away from her towards the windows and leant his arms against the frame as he gazed out at the darkness. ‘No.’

      If Imogen had ever heard a more bleak word she couldn’t remember it and she waited for him to continue, suspecting that whatever he revealed next cut right to the core of who he was as a man. ‘Selfishly, I didn’t want them to leave either and so I told my father the plan.’ He gave СКАЧАТЬ