A Secret Birthright. Оливия Гейтс

sadism laced with a terminal god complex?”

      She buried her face in her hands as he paraphrased her opening salvo, before looking back up at him, embarrassment and humor a heady mix in her eyes. “Do you think there’s any chance you can pretend I never said that?”

      He quirked his lips, reveling in taking her in degrees from desperation to ease. “Why would I? Because you were wrong? Are you sure you were? Maybe I behaved because you handed me my head.”

      A chuckle cracked out of her. “I doubt anyone can do that.”

      “You’d be really, really surprised what you can do.”

      He let to me go unspoken, yet understood.

      Before he could analyze the effect this declaration had on her, Emad entered with the waitstaff.

      Fareed saw the question, the hope in his eyes as Emad took in the situation. Fareed gave a slight headshake letting him know she wasn’t the woman they’d been looking for.

      But she was the woman he’d been looking for.

      After preparing the table in front of them, and with disappointment and curiosity filling his eyes, Emad left.

      For the next hour Fareed discovered new pleasures. Coddling Gwen—to her chagrin, before she succumbed, ate and drank what he served her, delighting in her resurfacing steadiness, in the banter that flowed between them, the fluency of appreciation.

      Then Emad knocked again. This time he ushered in a woman carrying a child. Gwen’s child.

      Fareed couldn’t focus on either. He only had eyes for Gwen as she sprung to her feet, her face gripped with emotions, their range breathtaking in scope and depth. Anxiety, relief, welcome, love, protection and so much more, every one fierce, total.

      He heard the child squeal as he threw himself into her eager embrace. He registered the elegant, classically pretty redhead in her late forties, who Gwen introduced as Rose Maher, a distant maternal relative and Ryan’s nanny. He welcomed her with all the cordiality he could access, filed everything about her for later analysis. Then he turned to Gwen’s child.

      And the world stopped in its tracks.