He asked, "Are you going to give me another baby, Skye?"
My smile faded as I watched him, how happy the idea made him. He met my eyes once more. "I want to experience everything that I didn't get to the first time. Will you give that to me?"
Everything was fading then. His face, his body, this very room. I wasn't with the two of them at all.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't surprised to find myself in my own bed in the room which I shared with Cole because that wasn't the first time I had had that dream. But maybe, it was the first time I understood its significance.
And what exactly about me had made Jasper Wells so happy after he had recovered from his first stroke and a few weeks later, had discovered I was pregnant.
****
Chapter Thirty-Five
Somewhere in the Caribbean
...
Armaan
I didn't know what it was about her. The havoc she wreaked everywhere she went, the arrogance coating her vulnerability or her ability to own up to who she was and not give a damn what the world thought. But whatever it was, I knew she wasn't a woman one could easily forget. Love her or hate her, she managed to drive even the sanest of minds to the point of obsession.
I watched her for a while, how even in the middle of a noisy and crowded scene such as this, she had a pen poised over the back of a receipt scribbling something her brilliant mind had spewed forth.
The dress she wore was of a dark peach colour, just up to her thighs with frills at the edges that made her look sexy and sophisticated at the same time. Her long, dark curls fell luxuriantly around those bare shoulders and with one slender, golden leg crossed over the other and her posture so regal, I felt myself starting to drool a little.
A lot of other men around the beach bar did so too along with some females. She ignored them all, lost in her own world of imagination and creation. She'd notice someone eventually, when she felt like it. Tonight, I wanted to make sure it was me.
It was just after sunset here in the Caribbean islands. I was at one of the beach resorts that sported an outdoor bar. There was jazz music playing somewhere close accompanied by the beat of steel drums a little far off and the ceaseless chatter of both locals and tourists penetrated by the sound of waves crashing on the beach all topped up by the balmy atmosphere surrounding us all.
Two months. I'd waited two months for her, given her the space she had asked me for and respected her wish not to spy on her. Two months which I had also taken to reevaluate my own life, work on myself as an individual. The first step had been to begin righting all my wrongs. Hamza and then the deal with Jasper. I'd been prepared to let Skye and Cole hate me. But that man...he was so stubborn and just like I had first believed, had his own concept of honour. He hadn't wanted to use the contract to excuse his mistakes nor hurt his family with the knowledge that one of their good friends had played a huge hand in contributing to the destruction of their relationship three years ago.
I shook those thoughts away as I focused on the present and approached the woman with whom my divorce had been finalised just last month. She was Jasmine Khan, my ex-wife now.
Sliding onto a wooden barstool next to her, I slowly breathed in her fragrance mixed with the night air, as always, the same as her name. It took her a while to notice me. She lifted her head from her scribbling and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Her eyes scanned my entire body from top to bottom and it was an effort of will to stay still instead of fidgeting.
She then returned to her notes and said in a lazy voice, "I bet even The FBI's surveillance system has nothing on yours."
Instead of replying, I simply ordered a drink, just tonic and water before taking out my phone and scrolling through it.
Jasmine gave me another look and cocked her head. "Seriously. What're you doing here? I told you not to follow me."
I frowned, pretending confusion and blinked at her. "I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" I asked her.
She narrowed her eyes, trying to understand what my game was.
We engaged in a brief staring contest before I smiled my most charming smile and casually extended a hand to her. "My name's Armaan by the way. Armaan Qureshi."
She glanced at my hand coolly before putting hers in it. "Jasmine Khan," was her muttered reply tinged with the slightest hint of suspicion.
I didn't release her hand when she tugged at it and her eyes widened slightly before she snatched it out of my grasp and gripped her drink, something fruity and flowery.
"Wait," I said. "Jasmine Khan...writer Jasmine Khan if I'm not mistaken? Aren't you like the hottest thing in town right now?" I paused as she lifted her chin and glanced over at me. "When it comes to the book world, I mean."
A slight smirk and a kindling in her dark eyes were the only signs that she finally realised what I was trying to recreate. Picking up her drink, she took a sip from it so I used the opportunity to swipe the receipt she had been jotting down ideas on and peek at it.
Jasmine turned to glare at me. "Hey, you don't have permission to look at that,"
