The Desert Prince's Bride (The Sheiks of Altair Book 2)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  “No!” Stephen whispered.

  Giselle glanced back at him, his eyes were wide as he watched the people on the stage. The short man was taking the beautiful woman’s hand in his, then leading her towards Jaffri. What did that mean? When he took Jaffri’s hand as well, then clasped them together and kissed their fingers, she gasped.

  “Was that…?”

  “It was!” Stephen whispered back, obviously just as shocked as the rest of the audience.

  Giselle watched, still not sure that the gesture was intended as…. Jaffri’s face was blank. Then their eyes collided and…he was trying to tell her something. She couldn’t read the message in his gaze because of the pain crushing her heart.

  Jaffri was engaged! The clasping of the hands and the bride’s father kissing their fingers was the traditional sign of him blessing their union. It was the father of the bride’s way of telling the world that he approved of their upcoming marriage!

  Giselle felt dizzy. He was engaged?! He’d made love to her, knowing that he was engaged?!

  Giselle tried to think, to make sense of everything. But her mind…her heart…everything inside of her was just too stunned. She couldn’t make sense of anything at the moment.

  Jaffri’s gaze caught hers and she blinked back the tears. Even as she looked back at him, something occurred to her. There was no way this hadn’t been in the works for the past several weeks, most likely months! Royal engagements didn’t just happen! Negotiations had to have been happening for a long time.

  Was this why the trade agreement had finally been hammered out? Was the engagement of two royal families really what the trade agreement was about?

  “A wedding!” Stephen whispered excitedly behind her, oblivious to Giselle’s torment. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun! I love weddings! And not just the actual wedding ceremony and reception afterwards, Giselle. You know this means we’ll be working long hours because a wedding between these two countries would require celebrations of every kind! And the activities leading up to a wedding will be dramatically different from the actual wedding. Come on, we need to get planning!”

  He tugged her arm, pulling her out of the press briefing room, still unaware of the stunned expression in Giselle’s eyes as he started making lists. Stephen was brainstorming ideas at a mile a minute as Giselle stumbled along in his wake, unaware of his words. There was something about flowers and coordinating colors with the palace chef.

  All she was aware of was the brutal pain, the sense of betrayal, hurt, and humiliation that swamped her mind.

  They reached her office and she dropped into her chair. Stephen was pacing back and forth in front of her desk, but she still couldn’t hear him. All she could think about were the previous two nights, the way Jaffri had held her, his feet hanging off the end of her bed because he refused to leave her during the night.

  And the sex! Goodness, he’d woken her up so many times last night! Or she’d woken him up trying to get some room on the bed, but as soon as she’d done that…the whole whirlwind started over again.

  Her phone rang and she glanced down at the number. She didn’t recognize it, but she knew…deep down inside, she knew. It was Jaffri calling her. He was calling to tell her…

  What? What could he say? That his upcoming marriage didn’t mean anything? That they could continue to meet each other?

  This morning’s argument flashed into her mind and she dropped her face into her hands. He’d tried to warn her this morning! He wanted to buy her a house so that she wouldn’t be seen leaving his suite in the morning. He’d said he was trying to be sensitive to her feelings but…he was anticipating his marriage! He knew that the beautiful woman wouldn’t want Jaffri’s mistress leaving their suite every morning!

  Oh, she was such a fool! She’d thought he was such a great guy! But he wasn’t! He was a member of the royal family, a spoiled, entitled jerk who thought every woman would be perfectly okay with continuing an affair despite his upcoming wedding!

  She took deep breaths, overwhelmed by the pain hitting her from all sides. She was devastated, humiliated, heart-broken, and her muscles ached. This morning, the aches in her body had been wonderful because every twinge reminded her of the time she’d spent in his arms.

  Now those same aches were telling her what a fool she’d been! And that their relationship was over. It had barely begun, but what had she expected? She was a member of the palace staff, he was a royal prince. She’d said as much to him, as well as to herself, over and over again. Now they took on a more sinister tone.

  Even more, he was the crown prince, set to take over when Sheik Talal stepped down. Yes, that would be a long time from now because Sheik Talal was still perfectly healthy, but still, Jaffri was next in line to rule Altair. And she was… just a party planner.

  And a fool!

  “Are you okay?” Stephen asked, clear concern in his voice.

  Giselle looked up at him and smiled weakly. “I’m fine,” she told him, trying to actually appear fine. But she wasn’t fine. Not even close to fine. She felt sick.

  “You don’t look so good, honey. Maybe that bug you had the other day still isn’t out of your system. Why don’t you go home and rest for the remainder of today? We have a lot of…”

  “No,” she interrupted, then forced herself to smile, smoothing over her abrupt tone. She couldn’t let Stephen suspect how deeply this news hurt her. If word ever got out…well, she’d be the laughing stock of the event planning industry. “No, thank you, but I’m fine. Apparently, we have a lot of work to do!” She shifted the papers around on her desk, pulling out her notebook and grabbing a pen. “You were making lists of things we need to organize.” Looking up at him expectantly, she paused, her pen poised over the paper. “I’m sorry, how about if we go through everything again and I’ll pay attention this time?”

  Stephen looked concerned, but he sat down. “Right. But if you start to feel sick, I want you to go home and rest. No reason to push ourselves now. There will be plenty of time for that later.”

  Her phone rang again and she ignored it.

  “You need to get that,” Stephen said, looking at the number on the screen. “That’s Prince Jaffri’s assistant. You can’t ignore the crown prince, Giselle.”

  She picked up the phone, fantasizing about hurling it out the window behind her, and lifted it to her ear. “Giselle Jones,” she announced with as firm a voice as she could muster.

  “Prince Jaffri has requested your presence, Ms. Jones,” the man explained.

  Giselle’s pen slashed over the paper. “What time?” she asked, noting the censure in the stranger’s tone.

  “Immediately.” The line went dead.

  Giselle looked at the phone, her temper flaring.

  “What did he want?” Stephen asked.

  She lifted her notebook, pressing it against her chest like a shield. “Prince Jaffri has asked to see us. I guess you were right, we’ll need to get this stuff organized quickly.”

  Stephen clapped his hands together gleefully. “I love a good wedding! Hopefully, the bride will have some color choices for us already and we can start brainstorming on themes and ideas.” He grabbed an extra notebook off the nearby shelf, snatched a pen from her desk, and followed Giselle.

  Since Giselle had been there less than an hour ago, she was painfully aware of the curious gazes that followed her progress. They’d probably seen her storm into the man’s office earlier this morning and walk out with a silly smile on her face! Time to change their perception, she told herself. She’d simply pretend that she’d already known about the prince’s wedding announcement and that this was simply a follow up conversation.

  Giselle couldn’t come up with a comment that would announce she had already known about the wedding during her first visit, so she did the next best thing. “I think Princess Mila would look fabulous in green and gold for the pre-wedding events, don’t you think? Or maybe red?” she suggested as she passed the desks surrounding the prin
ce’s office.

  Stephen thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “She’d look stunning in green and gold. I don’t know about red for a wedding though.”

  “Not for the wedding, but with her coloring, what about the engagement party? That should be soon, right?”

  He nodded. “I hope so. And you’re right. Red would be great!”

  Giselle forced a laugh, hating how fake it sounded. “I’m sure someone as gorgeous as Princess Mila already has some ideas on what she’d like to wear, but we could surround her with those colors with a beautiful backdrop for all of the press conferences, such as the engagement photos. Depending on her chosen outfits, of course.”

  The man who had interrupted her and Jaffri earlier this morning stood up at his desk, looking from Giselle to Stephen, then back to Giselle.

  Giselle ignored the aide’s confused expression, pushing on with her plan to pretend that she already knew about the wedding announcement. “We’re here to see Prince Jaffri. I understand he wanted to see us. We’re ready to take notes on his wedding ideas.” She stood there, staring defiantly back at the man whose mouth opened and closed in confusion.

  “I believe that His Highness wanted to see you privately, Ms. Jones.”

  Giselle waved her hand dismissively in the air, doing a pretty good job of pretending that her heart hadn’t just been ripped out of her chest. “Oh, that makes no sense. Stephen is the man with all of the ideas. He’s brilliant at this stuff. I’m just his assistant. So Prince Jaffri most likely wants to see him.”

  She started to turn away but Stephen stopped her. “No, you need to stay. Your ideas are amazing. I love the green and gold idea.”

  She tilted her head, thanking him and ignoring the aide, who she’d already decided she didn’t like. “Really? I was leaning more towards what you said about the color red. It seems a bit more romantic.”

  He nodded. “You might be right. Romance is definitely ‘in’ right now. She is too vibrant for pinks, which is the ultimate romantic color.”

  Giselle forced a laugh, shaking her head. “Could you imagine Prince Jaffri surrounded by pink?”

  Stephen laughed as well. “Well no, but it might be amusing.”

  The door behind them was thrown open and a furious Jaffri glared at them.

  “Get in here,” he snapped.

  Giselle cringed, but she stepped forward, making sure that Stephen was right behind her. “We’ve already started discussing ideas for your wedding, Your Highness,” she explained brightly, starting the subject herself before Jaffri could say something that might reveal too much in Stephen’s presence.

  The frustration on his rough features was obvious, not to mention the way his hands were fisted on his lean hips as he glared at her. “I’m not engaged!” he snapped through gritted teeth.

  Both Giselle and Stephen stared back at him, not sure what to say.

  “Your Highness, I’m sorry if we misunderstood the gesture.”

  He turned around, pushing his hair off his forehead. The soft locks fell right back into place. “You didn’t misinterpret anything,” he growled, beginning to pace.

  Stephen glanced at Giselle, his mouth forming an O of confusion. Giselle, all the while, wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. The man seemed adamant but…the father’s kiss! The clasped hands! It was the traditional blessing!

  What was going on?

  Before Stephen could ask for clarification, Jaffri spun around, furious and looking as if he wanted to hit someone. “Sheik Sidoon wants us to be engaged.”

  Oh, well…

  Giselle’s heart sank once again, this time plummeting even lower than before. If the king…sheik…whatever, desired a marriage between his daughter and the ruler of Altair, then it was most likely going to happen.

  She lifted her pen, poised over the empty page as she frantically blinked back tears. “Your Highness, if we could get some preliminary ideas on what you want, then we can include those in the planning while speaking with Princess Mila.”

  He swung around, his blue eyes looking like blue fire as he glared at her. “Get this through your pretty head,” he snapped. “I’m not engaged. Not to Princess Mila. Not to anyone!”

  She pulled back and Stephen stepped in front of her, protecting her as any good boss should. “We understand that no formal announcement has been made, but if the blessing was given…” he trailed off. “Would you like us to hold off on planning for now, Your Highness?”

  As Jaffri opened his mouth, the doors slammed open. Sheik Talal and his wife stormed in, both furious as well. “What the hell is going on Sidoon?” Talal demanded, coming to stand next to Jaffri as Sheik Sidoon entered, looking like a stuffed peacock. He was obviously thrilled with the morning’s events as he strutted into the office.

  Even Queen Katherine, in all of her furious splendor, looked outraged as she glared at the short man. It was rare for her to show any sort of strong emotion in public. In private, rumor was that she was a strong, opinionated woman who had Sheik Talal wrapped around her little finger. From the way she walked over to stand next to her husband, Giselle suspected that they were both madly in love, wrapped around each other’s fingers.

  When the potential bride walked in, Giselle swallowed a jealous surge of hatred. Did she really have the right to be jealous of the lovely princess? It wasn’t right that one woman had so much in her life, wealth, power, beauty and the man Giselle…she couldn’t…wouldn’t define her feelings for Jaffri! It certainly wasn’t love. She’d just met the man a couple of days ago. It was just…lust.

  Yes, lust was a good enough term for what she was feeling.

  No, what she had been feeling. Past tense. Any other definition was too brutal to use. And any other label might further increase her humiliation. Anything else was just too hurtful to contemplate.

  The emotions pinging around…they just didn’t make sense. Giselle looked at the other people in the room, wishing she could just vanish. The king and queen were furious and arguing with King Sidoon, Jaffri was beyond livid and snapping comments towards his parents and the king. The lovely Princess Mila was…well, the woman’s lovely eyes were…Giselle couldn’t really figure out what the woman was feeling. Her eyes darted from Jaffri to her father then back again as she fidgeted with her bracelet.

  Everyone in the room was furious except for King Sidoon. Giselle had no idea what was going on. “I think we should leave,” she whispered to Stephen, wanting to run and hide, lick her wounds, so to speak. She definitely didn’t want to be in the middle of what looked to be a family and political battle.

  Jaffri heard her comment and pointed at her. “You stay!” he commanded.

  Giselle looked up at him, startled and unsure of how to proceed and surprised that he’d heard her. He’d seemed oblivious to her presence, more focused on the argument going on between the rulers. But apparently, her assumption was incorrect.

  She shook her head. “This is a private family issue,” she insisted as she rested a hand on Stephen’s arm. “We’re not family. We’ll leave.”

  Jaffri’s nostrils flared as he stepped closer to her. “If you take one step out of this office, so help me…!”

  Her eyes widened in horror and she looked around. Thankfully, the rest of the group was too busy yelling at each other to notice. Stephen, bless his heart, was watching the other participants.

  When she didn’t respond, Jaffri took her silence for agreement and turned around. “Enough!” he bellowed.

  Silence fell over the room as everyone turned to look at him.

  Unfortunately, into this silence burst Sada, the beautiful youngest sibling in the Altair family.

  “You’re engaged?” Sada yelped, throwing herself into her brother’s arms. “Why didn’t you tell us? We’d all thought you’d been sneaky the past few days, but we never suspected that you were secretly engaged!” She turned to Princess Mila and hugged her enthusiastically. “Welcome to the family! We have so much to teach you about dealing with
my brother! It’s going to be a lot of fun!”

  And then Prince Tavon entered the room. Giselle felt the temperature drop twenty degrees. His gaze took in his brother, then the beautiful Princess Mila. The exotic woman cringed, actually shrinking back at the look of disgust he threw at her. But to Giselle’s relief, Princess Mila shook it off and squared her shoulders, glaring right back at him, as if defying him to insult her again.

  Any other time, Giselle would have tried to interpret the complex undercurrents filling the room. But instead, she slowly backed towards the door while the yelling started up again. She felt Stephen’s hand on her elbow and slowly nodded as both of them backed up, carefully heading towards the doorway.

  As she closed the door behind them, she could feel Jaffri’s anger.

  “Wow!” Stephen said, laughing even as he shook his head. “Not a word to anyone, right?” he cautioned.

  Giselle smiled weakly, feeling as if she’d just survived a hurricane. “I don’t think I could explain it anyway.”

  He nodded his head. “Good. Let them work things out and then we’ll follow their instructions. Until then, we know nothing, we saw nothing, and heard nothing.”

  The aide who had been at the desk earlier stepped forward. “What’s going on in there?” he asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

  Giselle shook her head and answered honestly, “We have no idea.”

  With that, she hugged her notebook and tucked her chin to her chest as she walked away, following Stephen as they hurried out of the royal office area and back to their own humble office space.

  Princess Sada looked around, shocked at the tempers that were flaring all around her. Everyone was furious and yelling at the same time.

  That’s when Sada noticed the dark haired party planner sneaking away from the rest of the group. The woman’s shocked expression looked out of place, considering that she didn’t seem to fit into this argument. She’d met with Giselle during planning meetings over the past few months, knew her to be a brilliant event planner who fully grasped the political and social needs of every event she assisted with. Sada requested her every time she needed help with a party or social event because Giselle would listen to her requirements, make suggestions, and fully grasp the issue that needed to be addressed. She was a huge asset to the palace staff and…Sada turned to glance at her oldest brother. He was still glaring at the now-closed door, clenching his teeth. That was odd, Sada thought. It was almost as if…as if…