Page 40 of The Innocent Carrying His Legacy

I was the only one in the home who was never adopted. One by one all the other kids were, including my friend, Connie, but not me. Never me...

She’d told him that days ago. He’d meant to tell her more about how he wanted her, but then she’d distracted him with talk about his past.

‘There was never anything wrong with you, Ivy,’ he said quietly, addressing not her statement, but the doubt he could see lingering in her eyes, and the underlying pain that went with it. ‘I don’t know why you were never chosen to be adopted, but it wasn’t due to a failure on your part. You know that, don’t you?’

Her lashes fluttered. ‘No. I don’t know that.’ Her voice was husky and uncertain. ‘There was one couple who I thought wanted me. They showed me a room they’d prepared for me, talked about how they couldn’t wait for me to be their daughter. But it...fell through at the last minute. I was told they’d changed their minds, though not why.’

A sharp, aching sensation caught behind his breastbone, and he was conscious of a simmering anger gathering along with it. At the foolish couple who’d changed their minds, who’d got a lonely child’s hopes up then dashed them. He felt anger for her disappointment and her pain. For the self-doubt it had obviously instilled in her.

The intensity of his anger seemed wildly out of proportion to what on the surface was merely a child’s disappointment. Except there was nothing ‘mere’ about it. Not when it had obviously cut her to the bone.

‘You really think that was your fault?’ He tried to control his tone, tried not to let any of his volcanic fury show.

‘I’m not sure who else’s it could be. And it wasn’t just that one couple, Nazir. There were others.’ Pain rippled across her lovely face. ‘I never knew why. And perhaps that was the worst part of all, the not knowing. Because it meant I couldn’t do anything about it, couldn’t do anything to change it. Couldn’t do anything to make myself more... I don’t know...more acceptable somehow.’

Nazir couldn’t move for the fury burning inside him, at the defeat and self-doubt in her voice. He wanted to hurt the people who’d hurt her, do violence to them, give them pain so they’d never make that mistake again.

Why are you thinking like this? Why are you letting her get to you?

The thought filtered through his anger like a thread of ice. Because hewasletting her get to him, wasn’t he? He was letting her feelings matter, lettinghermatter.

And he couldn’t allow it.

Perhaps your control isn’t quite as perfect as you think...

The ice became a noose, choking him, and this time it was he who had to look away, fighting to retain his grip on himself. Fighting not to leap up from his seat and find her enemies and vanquish them. Or, better yet, reach for her, drag her across the table, rip her clothes away and show her just how muchhewanted her. Then wipe that pain from her face for ever, brand himself into her skin, so she knew down to her bones that she was wanted.

‘You were always acceptable, Ivy,’ he said, fighting to keep his voice level, knowing he was sounding overly harsh yet unable to help it. ‘The problem was theirs, not yours. Never yours.’

‘Do you really believe that?’

There was such fearful hope in the words that he knew he couldn’t keep his gaze away, that he was going to have to look at her and let her see how deeply he believed it. He was going to have to reveal himself to her, even as his logic warned him coldly against it.

But he couldn’t not. He couldn’t be just another person who hurt her.

So he met her gaze, letting her see the truth, because her own honesty was a gift, a gesture of trust, and he could do no less. ‘Yes,’ he said, allowing conviction to vibrate in each word so she wouldn’t be in any doubt. ‘Everything about you is perfect. Your strength and your loyalty. Your passion and your intelligence. Your curiosity, your stubborn determination, and even your fury. Every part of you. Understand?’

She’d gone very still, staring at him, her gaze full of a thousand things he couldn’t read, all while the noose around his neck got tighter and tighter.

If you feel this strongly about Ivy, what about your child? How will you feel about him or her?

The question coiled around him, adding another strand to those already wrapped around his throat and pulling tight. Because it wasn’t only Ivy who had the potential to test his control over his emotions, the child would too. His child.Theirchild.

You’ll feel the same fury. The same need to protect, to defend. The same jealousy and possessiveness, and you will want more and more, and it will never be enough...

The choking sensation became more intense and he put the glass back down on the table and was on his feet before he’d fully thought about what he was doing.

Ivy stared at him in surprise. ‘Nazir? What’s wrong?’ The light flickered over her lovely face, illuminating the delicious shape of her body beneath her robe, and he was suddenly hungrier than he’d ever been in his entire life.

And not just for sex, but for something deeper, something richer. Something more.

Something he knew deep down that he didn’t deserve to have.

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ he said curtly. ‘I merely have some arrangements to make.’

But an expression of concern crossed her features. ‘Is it me? Did I say something I shouldn’t?’

‘No.’ He was sounding harsh, but he couldn’t stop it. ‘There are a few things I have to check on for our upcoming marriage.’ He turned towards the doorway of the villa, away from the table and the flickering light, and the lovely, warm woman sitting opposite.

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