Page 12 of The Innocent Carrying His Legacy

He’d had a sense that while Miss Ivy Dean might look delicate, she had a spine of pure steel and he could see that in her now, a force of will that had probably decimated lesser men. A will that no doubt was very used to getting its own way.

You would enjoy matching hers with yours.

Oh, yes, he would. But this was neither the time nor the place, and she was very definitely the wrong woman. Perhaps he’d take care of his urges later, with someone else. He had a few women he could call on for such purposes and they were always very pleased to see him.

He stared at the small fury in front of him, debating whether or not to let the interruption pass, because he certainly wouldn’t if she’d been one of his men. Then again, she wasn’t one of his men.

No, she’s the mother of your child.

The possessiveness wound even tighter, a shifting, raw feeling that he didn’t much care for, so he crushed it.

He had no time for such emotions, not when they were the enemy of clear-headed thinking. His own father’s choices had been poor ones, but he’d been correct when he’d taught Nazir that a soldier had to divorce himself from his emotions. Following orders required neither thinking nor feeling, only doing. And leading men required only cold intellect. A good leader led with his brain, not his heart, and certainly Nazir had learned the truth of that.

‘You can’t keep me here,’ Ivy said furiously. ‘I’m a British citizen. I’ve registered with the consulate. They know where I am. If anything happens to me they’ll come and turn this place inside out!’

Nazir gazed at her dispassionately as she went on at some length, not interrupting her this time because, in the end, she’d run out of words, not to mention breath. And then she’d learn that it didn’t matter what she said or what she did, he’d made his decision. He’d given her his order and he would be obeyed.

Eventually she stopped, her pretty mouth finally closing and settling into a hard line.

‘I don’t believe I threatened you with death, Miss Dean,’ Nazir said calmly. ‘Or offered you violence. I merely said you were to stay here.’

Her chin lifted. ‘Your reputation would say otherwise.’

‘But, as you’ve already ascertained, that reputation is merely a rumour I put around to discourage visitors.’

She looked mulish, making something almost like amusement flicker through him. How strange. He wasn’t often amused these days—life as a professional commander of armies wasn’t exactly fun-filled—and the expression on Ivy Dean’s face was a nice distraction.

She had no apparent fear of him and seemed determined to get her own way, despite being an Englishwoman on her own in a fortress full of elite soldiers, any one of whom could kill her easily should he give the word.

Not that he would. He’d never harmed a woman yet and he wasn’t about to start. Still, she didn’t appear to understand that if she was going to be afraid of anyone, it should be him. It was almost as if she found him...unimpressive.

Well. That would change.

‘I can’t stay any longer than a couple of hours,’ she warned. ‘I’d like to get back to Mahassa before dark.’

She would not be back in Mahassa before dark. He could fly her there in one of his helicopters, of course, but he wasn’t going to. Not yet at least. He needed to think through the implications of a few things before he made any definitive decision, and until that happened she would stay here, where he could keep an eye on her and the baby.

‘You will stay for exactly as long as I need you to stay.’ Automatically, he flicked an impersonal glance over her, the way he would do with any of his men—their well-being was always his top priority since an army was only as strong as its weakest soldier. Her shoulders were set in lines of obvious tension, one hand clenched in a fist at her side while the other rested on her stomach. He’d noticed her do that a couple of times already. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as ambivalent about the child as she seemed.

The snaking sense of possession coiled and shifted in response, as if something in him liked that she was protective of the child.Theirchild.

But no, he couldn’t afford to start thinking like that. Regardless of what he decided to do about it, the baby was simply an opportunity and he needed to treat it as such.

She looked tired, though, and no wonder; she’d trekked all the way through the desert in the heat of the day to confront him, getting sunburned and dehydrated. It must have taken some courage to do that and then to face him as well. All to fulfil some promise she’d made to a friend.

‘You know I won’t hurt you,’ he said suddenly, prompted by what urge he wasn’t sure. ‘You’re safe here.’

She blinked and then that stubborn chin came up. ‘What? You think I’m afraid? Of you?’ Her gaze travelled over him, taking him in, and he was conscious of a certain tightening and a brief flicker of heat right down low inside him. As if some part of him liked the way she looked him over.

Then she sniffed. ‘I don’t think so.’

Again, amusement caught at him. She was very determined to remain unimpressed by him, wasn’t she? Now why was that? In his experience, women had a variety of responses to him, but being unimpressed was not one of them. Not that being impressed by him was something he demanded, but it would have been more convincing if he hadn’t noted the flush of colour that had stained her cheeks as she’d stared at him, visible even through her sunburn. Or how her gaze had lingered on his chest where his robe parted.

Interesting. Nazir filed that particular observation away for future reference, since he was not a man to ignore a detail, no matter how insignificant, and it could prove useful at a later date.

‘You might come to revise that opinion,’ he said casually. ‘Besides, regardless of what you think of me, you’re tired and need more liquids, and probably some food too.’

‘I’m fine. Don’t feel you have to put yourself out on my account.’

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