“Sir, there are patients.”
“Then tell me where she is.”
Dr. Galloway rose. “What on earth is that?”
Maggie sat up. “Um, he’s with me.”
The doctor stared at her. “He’s the—”
“No. Not the father. Just someone I know. He’s…” She shrugged, not sure how to explain about Qadir’s imperious proposal and impossible assumptions.
“You can let him in,” Maggie said. “It’s okay.”
Dr. Galloway left to get Qadir while Maggie tried to figure out what he was doing at the doctor’s office. How had he even known about her appointment? Then she remembered the date book on her desk. Had he looked there?
She knew better than to be happy about the invasion. Qadir was here for his own reasons, but they were unlikely to be overly thrilling to her.
The door to the exam room flew open and he stalked inside. “You did not tell me about your appointment.”
“I know.”
“I wish to be informed of these things.”
“Why?”
“Because it is not right for you to keep this information from me.”
She sat up on the examining table and did her best to look dignified while dressed in a thin cloth gown that tied in the back.
“This isn’t your child,” she reminded him, refusing to get lost in his dark eyes or remember how good his mouth felt against hers. “You have nothing to do with my pregnancy.”
“I want to marry you and be a father to your child. That makes me involved.”
“I didn’t accept your proposal. Weren’t you listening?”
“You weren’t saying anything I wanted to hear.” He reached for her hand. “Maggie, why are you being difficult?”
She snatched her fingers away before he could touch them. “This isn’t difficult, Qadir, it’s real. I’m not willing to be a convenience in your life. I want more.”
The door opened and a young woman wheeled in a monitor. She paused. “Should I come back?”
“Yes,” Qadir said impatiently.
“No,” Maggie told her as she scowled at him. “I want her to stay. I might be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat.”
His expression softened. “So soon?”
“We can try,” the technician told him.
“I would like to stay and listen.”
Maggie thought about fighting him, but what was the point?
She lay back down and was hooked up to the monitor. A few minutes later, a soft, steady beating filled the room.
It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard and it terrified her to the bone. There really was a baby. She was going to be a mother and responsible for the life growing inside her.
What if she wasn’t any good? What if she messed everything up? Then she remembered her father and how much he’d loved her. She wanted that for herself and her child.
She turned to look at Qadir, to see if he understood the wonder of the moment and was crushed to find he had slipped out when she wasn’t paying attention. Apparently he hadn’t cared as much as he claimed.
“It was the sound,” Qadir said as he once again paced, but this time in his brother’s quarters.
“A heartbeat?” Kateb sounded unimpressed.
“Yes, but more than that. I cannot explain what it was like. There in the room. Proof of life.”
“You know this isn’t your child,” Kateb said.
Qadir dismissed the information. “Not the child of my body, but we are still connected. I will forbid her to leave. It is within my power.”
“Not without reason,” his brother reminded him. “You could always drag her into the desert. I know places where you will never be found.”
“Maggie would not enjoy the desert,” Qadir said, wondering why she had to be so difficult and how he could convince her she had to stay. “There must be something I am not saying to her. Something she wants to hear.”
His brother looked at him. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“What?”
“You really don’t understand why she’s not happy with you?”
“And you do?”
Kateb stood and faced him. “She’s a woman. She wants to be loved.”
Qadir stiffened. “No. I will not.”
“Because you loved Whitney and she walked away?”
Qadir ignored the question. He would not speak of her with his brother. The pain was too—
He paused. There was no pain. Whitney had been many years ago. Perhaps she was the reason he was reluctant to fully engage his heart, but he no longer cared for her in any way. But to risk loving again…
“Whitney didn’t stay because she couldn’t face what being your wife meant,” Kateb said. “Is that Maggie’s problem?”
“No. She is fearless.” Feisty and determined. She challenged him. He enjoyed her challenges, especially in bed.
“So the problem seems to be you.”
Qadir glared. “I have proposed. She has refused. The problem is hers.”
“Did you tell her you love her?”
“No.”
“Did it ever occur to you that you should?”
He started to explain to his brother that the problem was he didn’t love Maggie, but he couldn’t seem to speak the words. Why was that?
Did he love her? Was that why he’d wanted to grind Jon into the dust? Why he didn’t want to let her go?