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“She probably forgot to eat.” Nasir cleared his throat. “She’s diabetic.”
“I remember. Anything else you need from me?”
“No, get some sleep. We’ll leave for London first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Ms. Reddy has agreed to spend time with Zara baby, then?” Ahmed inquired, all polite affability.
Yana’s multiplenosechoed inside Nasir’s head like a chant. She hadn’t simply refused him. No, she’d looked horrified—as if he’d invited her to sacrifice herself at some demon’s altar.
He usually encouraged that impression of himself in most people, including his extended family and friends. That she saw him as some kind of autocratic, unfeeling beast grated, though.
“Sir?”
“No, she hasn’t agreed.” He bit out the words. “But she will. Even if it means I have to—”
“I know that you and Ms. Reddy don’t see eye to eye, but I will not support kidnapping the young woman, sir. Even for Zara baby’s sake.”
Nasir laughed, the tension in his muscles relaxing for the first time in days. His bodyguard’s strait-laced morality and hero complex never ceased to amaze him. “Things are going to be hard enough dealing with her, Ahmed. She doesn’t need you as her champion.”
“Beg your pardon, sir, but your father taught me that everyone deserves a champion. Ms. Reddy does, too. Especially since I’ve never seen you treat anyone with the kind of...” Ahmed broke off, then cast him an arch look that communicated everything he didn’t say. “Have you forgotten how much your mother loathes Ms. Reddy?”
“She’ll understand that Zara needs her,” Nasir said, but even he didn’t believe it. His mother’s reaction to his bringing Yana home was a bridge he’d cross when he came to it.
“I just think bringing Zara baby to her could’ve been easier,” Ahmed added with infinite patience.
“And let her drag Zara around like unwanted luggage just like Jacqueline did? Let my five-year-old daughter be exposed to alcohol and drugs and parties and toxic behaviors like her mother did? Should I also expose her to all the lurid gossip about her mother and her lovers that’s still flying around even after all these months?”
“You’re holding your wife’s past mistakes against Ms. Reddy. I’ve never known you to be so...cruel.” Ahmed sighed. “Itisa hard situation. But if Ms. Reddy says she cannot make it, then she must have a good reason. I have seen her with Zara baby and she adores her, just as much as the little girl adores Ms. Reddy.”
The conviction in Ahmed’s voice only fortified his own. “Don’t worry, Ahmed. I won’t make you a party to this. You can catch a different flight.” His jaw tight, Nasir stared at the woman who was sure to cause him untold problems once he was in his house. “But by kidnapping or some other way, she’s coming home with me.”
“Who’s kidnapping whom?” Yana asked behind him.
Nasir turned around to find the young doctor glancing up adoringly at her, his arm propping her up. “Everything okay, Doc?” he asked, wishing he could laser the man’s arm off with his vision.
“I’m fine,” muttered the irritated voice next to him.
Whatever the doctor saw in Nasir’s face, he replied hurriedly, “Ms. Reddy’s vitals are all good. Just exhaustion brought on by weakness.”
“Glucose levels?”
“Normal. The chocolate bar you fed her helped stabilize her. She just needs lots of rest, hydration and proper meals.”
“Ahmed,” Nasir said, somehow holding on to the last thread of his patience.
His bodyguard escorted the reluctant, dazed doctor out the door while he was still shaking his cell phone in Yana’s direction in the universal sign of “call me.”
Finally, Nasir turned his attention to her.
Yana stood leaning against another high-backed lounger, her fingers fiddling with the jacket he’d draped over her.Hisjacket.
It hung on her shoulders, the thick collar drawing his gaze to the smooth skin between her small breasts and the one button holding it closed farther down. The tie holding her hair together had fallen off and now the golden-brown waves fell past her shoulders, the edges curling up.
“Don’t treat me like an idiot,” she bit out, all huskiness gone.
She still looked pale to him, but at least the fight was back in her. “Don’t act like one, then.”
“Just because you’ve caught me out at a bad time doesn’t mean you get to look down that arrogant beak of a nose at me.”
