“Then let me be clear.” She tilted her face, her heart doing a strange, throbbing movement in the centre of her chest. “I cannot allow you to have my baby—,”
He was mid-sentence but the words he’d already spoken punctured Cora and reinforced all her nightmares, so suddenly, she was slipping through consciousness, the light-headed feeling she was prone to overtaking her completely, darkness flashing around her and then absorbing her.
She wasn’t conscious of anything as she passed out, but it was Samir’s quick actions that saved her head from hitting the kitchen bench on the way down, Samir who caught her with his strong hands and lifted her as though she weighed nothing, cradling her against his chest and carrying her out of the kitchen and away from the farmhouse, using the entrance Leonidas had set aside for him—the entrance that was right by his helicopter.
He would probably regret this.
No, he woulddefinitelyregret this.
Kidnapping was not something he’d ever thought he’d do, but when faced with the situation, he made a split second decision driven not by logic and sense but gut-feel alone.
He had to talk to Cora. Privately, completely away from anyone else. His life had just had a torpedo slammed into it and he was spinning wildly out of control. The only way Samir knew how to react was to re-take control any way he could think of. Right now, that meant bringing Cora home with him, to Al Medina, where everything would make sense.
He had been fixated on the issue of an heir and now he had one. Sort of. It wasn’t perfectly neat and all of his original concerns about how she would feel being thrust into the limelight were still present, but the presence of a child had to take precedence. She was right—from that moment on, the baby determined the course of their lives.
He had to have this baby in Al Medina, which meant bringing Cora.
But he was sure he would live to regret his actions, just as soon as she woke up and realised what he’d done.
The white noisewas blissful and Cora struggled to wake up. She was so tired at the moment. All the time. A bone-weary exhaustion that made it difficult to function, and she was so comfortable now, sitting in such a plush leather seat, and the noise so rhythmic, a thwomp, thwomp that kept trying to seduce her back to sleep.
But something else was there—a memory. A panicky feeling, so she opened her eyes and was immediately confused, disorientated. She looked around, trying to compute how her setting had changed so completely, from the farmhouse kitchen to the inside of a helicopter and—her heart exploded.
Samir.
She sat up straighter. “What the heck?”
“How do you feel?”
She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Confused. Where am I?”
He moved closer, his eyes looking into hers. She stared back, mouth dry, stomach in knots, only he wasn’t looking with any purpose other than to make sure she could focus properly. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
She batted his hand away with irritation. “I fainted, Samir. It happens to some pregnant people—it’s from low blood pressure, nothing more sinister. Where the hell are you taking me?”
“Has this happened to you before?” He demanded, face so close she could see the flecks of gold in his eyes.
“Nuh uh,” she said with obvious anger. “Don’t you dare go acting as though you actuallycare. Whether I’ve fainted or not is none of your business. Now, answer my question. What’s going on?”
He compressed his lips, sitting back in his seat. “You seem fine, but a doctor will make sure of that later.”
“I don’t need to see a doctor,” she said through gritted teeth. “I just get a bit woozy sometimes.”
“Is that your professional medical opinion?”
“Don’t patronise me,” she said, with quiet determination.
He sat back in his seat, eyes still locked to hers, so Cora felt light-headed now in a way that had nothing to do with pregnancy and everything to do with the man opposite.
“How far along are you?”
Something cracked through her brain. A memory. A painful one, so she pressed a hand to her chest.I cannot allow you to have my baby.
Pain seared her. Fresh pain. The same pain that had caused her to black out. Shock and terror.
She averted her face, staring out the window at the landscape beneath them, bathed in the glow of dusk, so beautiful and yet she didn’t really see any of it. Her mind was in overdrive.
“Cora? How many weeks?”