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Of that horrendous fight when he’d seen her coming out of Nick’s room after delivering a bottle of champagne to him and confiding in him that she was attracted to Azar.
Then had come the double blow of Nick warning her that Azar might not feel the same, followed by the cruel, humiliating words Azar had thrown at her soon after, confirming Nick’s words.
Her pain had been soul-shattering and her despair uncontrollable. She had known everything she’d thought special and sacred about giving herself to him had been a lie. That he was rejecting her as cruelly as her father had done. That she was getting a taste of everything her mother had suffered.
Throat-searing sobbing had been followed by a profound vow to herself not to fall into her mother’s trap of risking her emotions on a man. A man who would never feel one iota of what she felt for him.
She had been devastated that the man she’d given herself to thought of her as nothing but a convenient bed-warmer—a toy he could play with and discard—and she’d readily accepted when Nick had offered to take her for a drive, to get her away from Azar.
Only to suffer a different sort of terror. Nick, driving his Lamborghini way too fast, while raging—ironically—about Azar’s unfair privilege.
She remembered her screams as he’d taken a corner too fast. As tyres slid and glass shattered.
Then nothing.
Sorrow stung deep now, and the anguish of loss and grief for Nick was raw with reawakened memories.
Every look Azar had levelled on her since their accidental reunion finally made sense. All along she’d suspected she was the last woman on earth he’d ever want.
Now she knew.
He exhaled slowly. Heavily. Incisive eyes drilled laser-sharp into hers. The hand caressing her shoulder dropped to the bed and a different tension replaced the harrowing nightmare.
‘You remember.’
It wasn’t a question.
She’d survived one category five cyclone only to be plunged into another.
She pushed him away, hating her subconscious for not protecting her from this when it had protected her from those harrowing hours that last day in Arizona. Chest heaving, she threw her feet over the side of the bed and sat up, snatching up the towel she’d dropped earlier.
‘Eden?’ Imperious demand throbbed in his voice.
The battering continued, firing tremors through her body. ‘Yes. I remember.’
She didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know he’d stiffened further. That his deep censure was back.
‘I’ll get the doctor.’
‘No, I don’t need—’
‘I’m afraid this time it’s non-negotiable. You’ve suffered enough trauma for one night. I won’t risk your health.’
She wanted to laugh. Then cry. Then scream at him to stop pretending he cared for her when the glaring truth of how much he didn’t was a live wire writhing between them.
She clenched her teeth as he snatched up the phone and summoned his private doctor.
‘Are you sure you want to go down that route? I’m handing you the perfect excuse on a plate. A queen of unsound mind and low morals is surely worth the scandal just to get her out of the way and have full access to your son?’
His sharp intake of breath made her shut her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look at him. His voice ringing clear as a bell in her head was a searing reminder of one of the many insults he’d thrown at her that night, when he’d seen her exiting Nick’s room.
‘Women like you are only good for one thing. And even that cheap thing becomes entirely worthless when it’s spread about.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but if you’re trying to get rid of me scandal won’t be the thing that sways me. My father has told you the story of how my brothers and I came to be born more than a few times. I won’t be letting you go any time soon,cara. If anything, the challenge of drilling down into your choices intrigues me.’
She surged to her feet and spun to face him, fury momentarily overcoming the weakness and pain still gripping her body. ‘Challenge?Mychoices? How dare you? You called me deplorable names. And you…you—’
His sharp curse came as if from a deep dark tunnel. She realised she was swaying, losing her balance, just before he snatched her into his arms. Molten censure-filled eyes drilled into hers.