His Pregnant Prisoner

Part 36

The next couple of weeks passed in a blur. Just as Karim had warned her, Azar had summoned her twice but she had found excuses both times. Not that she was afraid of him. She was more worried she would rip into him for Karim.

Her first ultrasound was due in a few days and Karim and she had argued over the phone about whether they should learn the sex of the baby. And when he laughed like that, when he told her that he couldn't wait to kiss her, everything was perfect in her world.

She'd just finished her yoga class and showered when Mehab informed her that Alma was in the city and wanted to visit with her.

Thrilled, Nakayla welcomed Alma with a hug. She took the chubby infant from Alma, and cuddled her. Rita, who had stayed on to see Alma, translated between them.

Laughing, they chatted together happily. But when Rita repeated something Alma had said, Nakayla was confused. "I'm sorry, what does she mean, she's happy I accepted the arrangement?"

Rita asked Alma to elaborate. Alma's response, translated by Rita, "She says that her grandfather, the chief of the Mehreng, made a promise to Karim. In return for you saving Alma's and the baby's life, he would bring the tribes together, help Karim unite them with state. As long as Karim stopped following in his father's footsteps and married the nurse. With the tribes back in the fold, the High Council finally had to accept his rule."

Nakayla stilled where she stood, a kind of numbness spreading through her limbs. He hadn't even wasted an evening before he had proposed to her. And this was why...

Like everyone else in her life, she had only been secondary to his actual goal. Like always.

She slid to the settee in a shaking heap, her chest so tight that she couldn't breathe.

"Head down, Nakayla. Between your legs," Rita's voice sounded sharp, as if it was rolling in through a fog.

Breath came rushing into her in huge gulps and with it the sound of her heart shattering. She heard Rita rushing Alma out and closing the door. Heard her call her name, her face worried.

But as she raised her head, and scrunched her knees up, all Nakayla could see, hear, feel was Karim.

"I need you, Nakayla. Unlike anything or anyone else in the world."

He'd so cleverly laid out a trap for her without really saying anything, let her spin a story with his teasing glances and caresses and words.

Manipulated her into believing what they had was more. When it was not even the mere marriage of convenience she had thought.

Used her guilt that she had hidden the truth from him. Used their unborn child. Used her growing feelings for him.

Played the part of the charming, teasing man who was beginning to feel something for her.

All for Tahiti.

She hadn't asked for the fantasy of it. She hadn't asked for him to tease her, and charm her and pretend as if he cared about her.

You're the fool, Nakayla, something nasty whispered inside her head. You've always been a fool for him, since the beginning.

Again and again, he'd proved that only Tahiti counted for him. It was only Tahiti that had his heart.

Pulling in a long breath, she got up from the settee and told Rita that she wanted to lie down.

Behind her bedroom door, she crumpled onto the bed, every inch of her thrumming with fury.

She couldn't bear to be here another moment. Couldn't bear this ache in her chest. Couldn't bear to live the rest of her life with a man who had, again and again, not only showed her how little she meant to him, but used her and their situation.

How could she ever trust him again? How could she trust herself, when apparently, she could spin a fantasy out of nothing?

Afternoon gave way to evening and she shivered at the sudden chill coming in from the balcony.

She splashed water on her face, changed her clothes, called Abdul and instructed him to arrange a meeting for her. Only one person would help her leave the palace, the city and Tahiti without notifying Karim. Without caring about bringing down Karim's wrath.

She had to leave before he was back. Or she would never leave.

Worse, she would live the rest of her life, knowing that she would never have his love but crave it anyway, caught in a misery of her own making.

And she would not be alone in her misery.