He stiffened. ‘And did the great Giovanni Di Sione condone the theft?’
She gasped. ‘Of course he didn’t! He never would.’
‘So you not only perpetrated a crime against me, you risked bringing dishonour to your family in the process?’
Pain twisted her features. ‘I’m sorry it happened, Rahim. Truly, I am. But when, right from the start, my visit went badly, I had very little choice but to...’
‘Seduce me with the enchanting delights of your sexy body, then steal away like a thief in the night?’ The harsh reminder roughened his voice.
Impossibly, she went even paler, and it was then Rahim pulled back and took a closer look at her.
‘What have you been doing to yourself? You’ve lost weight.’ He took in her deathly pale complexion, her slightly hollower cheeks and the bruised shadows beneath her eyes. ‘Have you been ill?’ he demanded sharply.
The lift doors slid open directly into the Emperor Suite. She stumbled out and away from him, shaking her head as she put the width of the living room between them. ‘Not exactly, no.’
A cold spear lanced his spine, far too close to what he’d felt a long time ago, when his pregnant mother had been rushed to hospital, for it to sit well with him. ‘What sort of answer is that? Either you’ve been well or unwell. There’s no in between. What happened?’
She threw out her hands in a stalling gesture. ‘Please. Slow down.’ One hand went to her forehead and Rahim reeled in shock when he noticed that her whole body was trembling. He found the idea that he’d caused that reaction deeply unsettling.
Crossing over to where she stood, he caught her by the shoulders. ‘Tell me what’s wrong, Allegra. Now.’
The eyes she raised to his were almost navy with fear and worry, clouded with whatever inner demons chased her, and he watched, his shock escalating by the second, as she blinked back sudden tears. ‘I can’t... I can’t go to prison,’ she stammered.
He frowned. ‘I don’t recall threatening you with incarceration,’ he replied.
Her hands braced on his chest, her gaze imploring. ‘I stole from you. It can’t be a coincidence that the moment I stopped sending the cheques, you appeared. You want some sort of retribution for what I did...’
‘Perhaps. Perhaps not.’ Rahim refused to admit to a certain compulsion in checking his mail once Allegra had started sending the offensive cheques. With each one, she’d written a small note expressing her remorse for what she’d done. He’d been mildly disconcerted when they’d stopped coming, as if a tenuous tie had been severed.
‘Why are you here, Rahim?’ she asked, her voice stronger now. As if she’d talked herself into facing him and whatever consequences her actions would bring.
‘I’m here because your actions need answering.’ And because I can’t stop craving you.
His arms dropped like leaden weights as the unspoken words seeped like poison inside him. He’d jumped on his private jet and travelled thousands of miles at a time when his people should come first. And although the reason for his being here was for his people, he couldn’t deny that seeing Allegra in the flesh came a very close second.
The similarity between his actions and how his own father had allowed Dar-Aman to fall to ruin because he’d been consumed by his mother powered through Rahim. He took a step back from her, then several. Finally he whirled and paced to the window.
No, he wasn’t like his father. Khalid Al-Hadi had allowed so-called love to weaken him to the point where he’d been unable to function once he’d lost the object of that love to complications in childbirth. Neither his kingdom nor his living first-born son had been worth rallying himself from the pathetic depths of despair for.
Rahim had watched his loving father turn into a husk so swiftly and completely that he might as well have been buried alongside his wife and unborn child.
It had taken long, hell-raising years before Rahim had accepted that his father had had no room in his heart for the son that lived. The only abiding emotion had been the grief that consumed him.
No, he was nothing like his father. He had never wanted a woman badly enough to contemplate throwing away everything for her. He never would.
‘Rahim?’
He swerved from the view, his fingers spiking through his hair as he fought the tentacles of memory.
‘I came here to set a few things straight with you,’ he sneered, deeply resentful that she’d led him to question himself when there was no doubt where his destiny lay. ‘You thought what happened in Dar-Aman wouldn’t go unchallenged. You were wrong.’
Allegra’s hand jerked to her stomach, her eyes more vivid against her ashen colour. ‘No. Please...’
From across the room, Rahim saw her sway. With a curse, he charged forward and caught her as her legs gave way. It occurred to him then that she hadn’t answered him when he’d asked what ailed her. Swinging her up in his arms, he carried her to the sofa and laid her down.
With a low moan, she tried to get up. Rahim stayed her with a firm hand. ‘I’m going to get you some water. Then you’ll tell me what’s wrong with you. And what the hell you’re doing giving long speeches and photo ops when you should be in bed.’
Her mouth pursed mutinously for a moment before she gave a small nod.
Rising, he crossed to the bar and poured a glass of water. She’d sat up by the time he returned. Silently she took the water and sipped, her wary eyes following him as he sat on the sturdy coffee table directly in front of her.
‘Now, tell me what’s wrong with you.’
The sleek knot at her nape had come undone during the journey to the sofa, and twin falls of chocolate brown hair framed her face as she bent her head. Rahim gritted his teeth against the urge to brush it back, soothe whatever was troubling her, reassure her that he meant her no harm.
He was so busy fighting his baser urges, and sternly reminding himself that he was in the right, and she in the wrong, that he didn’t hear her whispered words.
‘What did you say?’
Her jerky inhale wobbled the glass in her hands. ‘I said I’m not sick, but I can’t go to prison because I’m pregnant.’ She raised her head then, and stared back at him with eyes black with despair. ‘I’m carrying your child, Rahim.’
WITH THE LIFE-ALTERING words uttered, Allegra held her breath, expecting the world to crash around her. After all, who would want a virtual stranger with questionable integrity to suddenly announce they were to be the mother of your unborn child in a little over seven months?
Allegra hadn’t quite got over her shock of seeing Rahim again. She’d barely been able to keep it together on the stage after spotting him seated right in front of her, his body draped in a three-piece designer suit, and his face draped in volcanic rage.
Conducting her speech, knowing she faced an epic battle for survival that could very well end her once the conference was over, had been the most difficult thing Allegra had done.
Or so she’d thought...
At the continued thick silence that chilled her to the soul, Allegra glanced up. ‘Say something. Please.’
Rahim’s face was frozen. And ashen. Only his eyes moved. They searched her face, then dropped to her stomach for several tense heartbeats, before they snapped back up.
‘You’re pregnant.’ His voice was a rough husk, all emotion bled from it. ‘With my child. My heir?’
‘Y-yes.’