believed that she could have conceived; somehow such a development hadn’t really seemed possible to her. Now she learned that she was very much mistaken. She was expecting a baby, a real, live little baby. In the space of one wildly reckless night Jasim had contrived to get her pregnant.
That same evening she received an unexpected visitor. The doorbell buzzed and when she addressed the caller through the intercom, it was Prince Murad’s voice that answered her. Elinor was appalled by his arrival and would have done just about anything to avoid the humiliation of answering the door and actually having to deal with her former employer. Unfortunately there was no decent way of avoiding the issue.
‘May I come in and speak with you?’ the older man asked politely.
‘Of course.’ In the elegant living room, Elinor linked her hands tightly together. ‘You must be wondering why I left Woodrow so suddenly—’
‘Elinor … let me be frank. I know that this apartment block belongs to my brother,’ the prince admitted, his expression grave and concerned. ‘I am sorry that you have left my employment and I would rather that it had been for any other reason than this. I had a great affection for your mother and I feel responsible for you as her daughter. You have chosen to take a most ill-advised step.’
Her strained face flamed with colour. ‘I know you mean well, but I’m an adult and I’m here of my own free will, Your Highness.’
‘Jasim has had many women in his life, Elinor. He cherishes none of them, and he will not marry any woman who has already lived with him.’
Elinor’s hands twisted. Confronted by such cruel candour, she felt as if her heart were being ripped out at the seams. ‘I’m not looking for marriage—’
‘But you deserve better than this tawdry arrangement,’ Murad pronounced with an angry wave of dismissal that encompassed their surroundings. A small and portly but still dignified figure, he sighed. ‘I loved and respected your mother. I would never have asked her to be my mistress. You must value yourself more. Surely this cannot be the future that you wanted?’
Although it was still only early evening, when Murad left Elinor went to bed and cried. Seeing how she had sunk in the older man’s estimation had upset her. But, at the same time, she knew that there was no way that she was prepared to become Jasim’s mistress! Apart from anything else, her pregnancy would alter everything, she reasoned wretchedly. When he had carted her off to bed in an excess of lusty passion, conceiving a child with her would have been the very last thing on his mind. How was he likely to react to such a shattering development?
Jasim had returned from New York a day early. Warned by his security team that his brother had visited Elinor, he arrived at the apartment a couple of hours later. Murad’s seeking out of Elinor had confirmed his every suspicion about the nature of their relationship and he was angry and full of distrust. Never before had his older sibling sought to interfere in his private life! So what kind of a hold did Elinor have over Murad that he had felt the need to come up to London specifically to confront her?
‘Jasim …’ Elinor sat up in bed with a start as the overhead light went on. ‘I had no idea you were coming back tonight!’
Sheathed in a charcoal grey business suit that was beautifully tailored to fit his lean, tautly muscled physique, he looked spectacular. Deprived of the sight of him for almost two weeks, she couldn’t help staring and drinking in every tiny detail of his appearance.
In his turn, Jasim was studying the tumbled bed, questioning why she was in it at barely past eight o’clock and asking himself if his own brother could have shared it with her earlier that evening. Her nose was pink and her eyelids reddened and swollen, making it clear that she had been upset and that she had cried. Fierce anger and disgust filled him. ‘Evidently …’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ she questioned in bewilderment.
‘Did you entertain my brother in that bed as well?’
Her eyes widened in shock at that question. ‘That’s a horrible thing to ask me—’
‘But an even more disgusting thing to have to suspect,’ Jasim countered rawly, dark eyes glittering like golden diamonds of derision over her. He strode round to the side of the bed, closed a hand round her arm and tugged her upright to face him without ceremony. ‘Answer me.’
‘Why? Do you and your brother make a habit of sharing women?’ Elinor demanded shakily, her outrage threatening to strangle her voice. ‘I slept with you so, for that reason, you assume I’m just some slut who would be quite happy to sleep with your brother as well?’
The level of her incredulity cooled Jasim’s temper and sharpened his wits. He registered that he had come within an ace of revealing too much knowledge. He had given her no reason to suspect his motives in pursuing her and if Murad was still chasing after her, it would be unwise to either alienate her or turn her loose.
Deeply wounded by his lack of faith in her, Elinor stared at him in angry reproach. What had happened to the guy who had sworn he wanted to see more of her? He pushed a hand through the black hair on his brow and raked it back in a gesture of frustration. She noticed that his hand wasn’t quite steady and registered that he was a great deal more disturbed than he was prepared to show. On the outside he seemed so cool and controlled, but inside he seethed with anger, outrage and passion. Suddenly she believed she understood what was wrong. Evidently, the reverse side of that passion was a jealous, suspicious streak a mile wide. On the balance side, however, when she had challenged him he had backed off, presumably appreciating that his suspicions were ridiculously irrational. She wondered if the behaviour of some other woman had taught him to distrust her sex.
‘How did you know your brother came to see me?’
‘My security team have been keeping an eye on this apartment.’
Wondering if she was supposed to be flattered that he should consider she required that protection, Elinor nodded and began to pull clean clothes out of the drawers in the cabinet by the bed. ‘I’ll get dressed. We have to talk.’
Jasim tensed. The idea of further discussion was the sort of womanly threat he avoided like the plague. He would much have preferred joining her in bed. Sex would have released his tension and buried the argument much more effectively than a verbal post-mortem.
Stiff and self-conscious now in his presence, Elinor went into the en-suite bathroom to dress, pulling on the jeans and the T-shirt she had chosen at speed. She wished she had had some warning that he would be returning early, for she would have liked the chance to dress up. Glancing in the mirror, she groaned, convinced that she looked horribly plain with her pink-rimmed eyes and weary pallor. When she re-entered the bedroom, Jasim was standing by the window in the living room. He still looked unrelentingly severe and he swung round, saying flatly, ‘What did my brother want with you?’
An uneasy flush warmed her cheeks and she wished she could have been more frank with him about her late mother’s relationship with Murad. But, on her first day of employment, the older man had made her promise never to divulge that connection to anyone, for he had feared that the truth would be misinterpreted and would cause them both embarrassment. Since her friend, Louise, had already made seedy insinuations about the same issue, Elinor had decided that Prince Murad had been more astute than she in foreseeing what others might make of the story and she had no intention of being equally frank with anyone else. ‘The prince thought that I was making a mistake leaving my job and getting involved with you. He said that he felt responsible for me.’
Jasim’s superb bone structure set hard as granite beneath his bronzed skin. Well, that was certainly telling him the lie of the land! Murad had been sufficiently angry to follow her to London and question her current circumstances. Jasim studied her exquisite face and the tumble of Titian curls that were so bright against her creamy skin. He wondered how he had ever deemed that hair unattractive. How had he also failed to appreciate the obvious fact that so beautiful a woman might also have the power to set brother against brother? He was stunned that he had contrived to overlook that obvious angle and it was now