“Yes!” she replied and threw herself into his arms. “I love you! Yes. This is so perfect!”
He kissed her then and she put all of the love and happiness into her return kiss. When he pulled back, he slipped a ring onto her finger. A smaller ring this time. And she loved it! “It’s beautiful!” Danielle sighed. Looking away from the sparkle on her finger, she wiped away tears, but they were tears of happiness this time. “I love you, Mika!” she whispered as emotions choked her.
“I love you too, Danielle!” he groaned, then bent to kiss her once again. The time for conversation was over!
Epilogue
Danielle groaned. “Not again,” she muttered, seeing her son’s nanny standing in the doorway to her office. “What did he do this time?”
The nanny smiled. “Nothing, Your Highness,” she stepped closer, revealing Danielle’s adorable son, Rashid, who looked so much like his father that it was startling.
“Is he okay?” she asked, pushing back from her desk, her swollen stomach hindering her movement.
“Yes,” the nanny laughed with reassurance. “Apparently, you had a conversation with him last night about his baby sister?”
“Or brother,” Danielle corrected. “We don’t know the gender yet.”
“Sister!” three year old Rashid announced, grinning stubbornly up at his mother. “It’s a girl.”
Danielle opened her arms, inviting him to come to her. “So what makes you think that you’re getting a sister instead of a brother?” she asked, hugging him close.
Rashid leaned his head against her shoulder, his toothy grin making him look like an adorable version of his rugged father.
“Because I want a sister!” he replied with a toddler’s confidence that the world revolved around their wishes.
She laughed. “Well, then! It must be so!”
“What must be so?” a deep voice asked.
Danielle turned to watch as Mika enter her office, the sunshine seeming warmer and brighter as he lifted their son up into the air, tickling his belly and causing Rashid to giggle with delight.
Rashid wrapped a chubby arm around his father’s neck and grinned. “I made this,” he announced and turned the picture around to show both of his parents. “It’s for Gramma because she’s having a bad day today,” he explained.
Danielle’s heart ached because, yes, her mother’s disease had progressed to the point where she often didn’t know what was going on around her.
“That’s so sweet of you!” Danielle whispered, kissing Rashid’s cheek gently. “I think that…” she trailed off, her eyes widening suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Mika demanded.
“Um…” Danielle’s hands pressed against her swollen tummy. “Rashid, I need you to go with your nanny now. I think…” she stopped, pressing her lips together as pain raced across her stomach. “I think I’m going to have your baby sister now.”
Rashid bounced slightly in Mika’s arms, then pushed away and raced over to grab his Nanny’s hand. “Maybe I can teach my new sister to ride horses this afternoon!” he exclaimed.
The nanny chuckled, and took Rashid’s hand. “I think it might be a bit longer than this afternoon before your sister can ride a horse, but let’s go draw her a picture, shall we?”
A moment later, Rashid and his nanny were gone and Danielle groaned, bending over as another contraction hit her.
Mika was instantly by her side. “Honey, let’s just take things one at a time. You had Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks with Rashid.”
Danielle shook her head, squeezing his hand. “Nope! Not the same,” she finally growled out.
“How do you know?”
“Mika! My water broke! I’m…”
Mika didn’t hesitate. He lifted her into his arms, yelling to his guards to call the doctor. Since he’d had a delivery room set up inside the palace, there was no need to race anywhere but down the hallway.
Once in the delivery room and changed into the ugly gown, Danielle watched Mika out of the corner of her eye as she followed the nurses’ and doctor’s instructions, breathing in as she’d learned, as the contractions came fast and hard.
Six hours later, a baby boy came into the world. Danielle released a fatigued but happy laugh. “Oh, Rashid is going to be so disappointed,” she sighed, but with a thrilled sort of exhaustion that Mika could feel.
“I suspect that he’ll get over it,” he murmured, emotions hitting him as he looked down at the newest member of his family. “He’ll just get to teach this little guy to ride instead of a sister, don’t you think?”
Danielle smiled in agreement. “Absolutely. But you’re going to have to tell him that his baby brother won’t be strong enough to ride for a while yet.”
Mika groaned. “He’s not going to accept that,” he replied.
Danielle lifted a hand, cupping his rough cheek. “I’m so glad that you didn’t accept me saying no to you all those years ago.” She swallowed. “I love you, Mika.”
“I love you too.”
Excerpt from Oz’s Story – “Love and Secrets”
Book 5, The Diamond Club Series
Release Date: July 19, 2019
Click HERE to Get “Love & Secrets”
Something jerked him out of deep, desperately needed sleep.
Barking?
Oz lifted his head slightly, not sure he was fully committed to caring about whatever was outside. Was it a threat?
He listened again, his brain still foggy but….
Nothing.
Laying his head down again, Oz figured it had just been his imagination. Pulling the pillow closer, he shifted and…
There it was again. Odd.
What the hell? A dog?
Lifting his head again, he searched for, and found, Betty staring at him. His faithful, overly haired dog whimpered at the end of the bed. Every night, Oz ordered Betty to the bottom of his bed. And every morning, he found the sweet, affectionate canine pressed against his back/side/legs/head/face…wherever she could be touching him with as much of her body as possible.
And because Oz was such a sucker, he never admonished her for creeping out of her designated bed space.
Betty heard it too, her fluffy ears perking up, her head pointing towards the window…every part of her on high alert.
So, if it wasn’t Betty outside of his house, which was deep in the woods and as far away from humanity as possible…who was barking?
And a better question…why was a dog barking at…Oz looked at his clock and groaned. It was five thirty in the freaking morning! Normally, that wasn’t an issue, but when he’d just fallen into bed two hours ago, five-thirty was on par with what he thought of as hell.
“Someone is going to be in a world of hurt,” he snapped as he jerked out of bed. Betty, always ready to play and a horrible guard dog, raced ahead of him, pausing at the stair’s landing to ensure that Oz was following before sprinting down the stairs, black nose pressed tightly to the door, butt wiggling in anxious eagerness to find out who was in her territory.
He opened the front door, glaring out into the surrounding woods, trying to locate the culprit, as a furry thing whisked past his legs.
“Betty!” he ordered. His normally obedient border collie, didn’t even glance over her fluffy shoulder as she darted towards…a bull dog? A big, gruff bull dog? And yeah, that beast was racing towards his Betty as if she were a doggie biscuit drenched in bacon grease.
“What the hell!”
Immediately, some awkward, albeit romantic butt sniffing ensued, tails wagging and happy barks emitted, or were they flirtatious? Whatever, they kept doing it like some strange doggie dance designed to entice and allure. “Betty!” he called, trying to bring her back inside.
“Bart!” a feminine voice called out. A moment later, a blonde with tight yoga pants and an equally tight sports shirt appeared through the trees.
Immediately, Oz felt like Bart, wanting to sniff and dance and entice. There wasn’t
a need for butt sniffing, he thought stupidly. But…oh man, what an incredible ass! The blonde woman bent over and latched a leash to the bull dog’s collar. “Come on, Bart. That was naughty of you to…”
That’s when the blond saw him.
Belatedly, Oz realized that he was naked, having just gotten out of bed. The woman’s eyes widened and he thought about laughing, but the color of her eyes, even from this distance, was amazing! Feeling the crystal blue of her gaze all over his body was better than butt sniffing!
The woman stared. He stared. In the back of his mind, Oz heard the dogs barking while Betty continued to flirt with the big bull dog, apparently named Bart. But he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the blond beauty! She was stunning! Her soft, red lips parted. Her eyes moved over him, warming him, caressing him with crystal-blue heat.
His body reacted and he stepped closer, only to stop when her eyes widened further. She stepped backwards, and he noticed her nipples press against the tight sports shirt.
“You’re…ummmm…” the blonde pointed weakly and Oz looked down. Sure enough, he had a full on erection going.
He shrugged. “Yeah, it happens when a woman wakes me up at this hour of the morning.”
The woman laughed and quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. “Yes. Well, I…” her eyes darted downward once more. Lingering. His body hardened further and her reaction made him want to howl. Or drag her inside to continue what she was currently doing with her eyes.
“Oh” she gasped, then twirled around as her dog raced around her legs, trying to get another sniff of his Betty. The two dogs were circling, wanting to entice the other. He chuckled, watching the woman try and control both dogs without falling down. It wasn’t working.
“Are you just going to stand there? Or are you going to control your dog?” she snapped over her shoulder.
“Always ready to help out a lady in distress,” he replied and hurried down the stone steps. He caught Betty’s collar and pulled her back. But the woman was still tangled up in Bart’s leash. It was an interesting predicament and Oz couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the show as she bent over, her perfectly round ass right in front of him as she stepped over the leash and untangled her legs.
“Thank…” she stopped as she turned around and looked up at him. “You’re still naked!”
He shrugged. “You asked for help. I provided.”
“But…” she glanced down and her eyes lingered again. “Well, why didn’t you pull on some pants?!” she hissed, ripping her gaze away.
“Why? You’ve gotten an eyeful already. Pulling on pants wasn’t going to change what’s already there.”
The woman abruptly turned her back to him, but he could feel her eyes roll. “Come on, Bart. Let’s go.”
She walked away in a huff, tugging on Bart’s leash while the bulldog stared longingly back at Betty. Oz knew exactly how he felt, as he watched the blonde beauty walk away, her spine stiff with outrage.
With a chuckle, Oz bent down to scratch Betty’s ears. “That’s one way to meet the new neighbors,” he soothed. Betty only whined slightly, her soft ears twitching as she stared off in the direction where her lost love had disappeared.
“I know, honey. But he’s gone.” With a gently tug, he got Betty back into his house.
“Food,” he announced. Betty began to dance with excitement, easily distracted. After moving his company to Kentucky, he’d chosen a piece of land that was only ten miles from the airport and quickly commissioned this house. It was modern in design, with massive windows that looked out at the forests. In the great room was a smooth wall of glass that revealed the trees that were just starting to burst with leaves as the spring warmth helped ease the world out of the winter doldrums.
He padded barefoot into the huge kitchen where the new, modern appliances gleamed, waiting impatiently for him to break them in. He couldn’t wait to start cooking, experimenting with different flavors and ingredients, using the state of the art equipment that he’d had installed. But first, he’d have to get pots and pans. The black granite countertops were sparkling clean at the moment, but as soon as he went grocery shopping, he was going to make…something delicious. He hadn’t decided what his first meal would be, but the idea of cooking for a blonde beauty with a great ass sprang to mind.
“The gall of that man!” Charlotte grumbled as she stomped through the crackling oak leaves back towards her house. “Naked! The man was literally naked!” She shook her head, then looked down at Bart as his lovingly ugly features turned towards her. “He was naked, Bart!”
Her dog’s stub of a tail wagged but since there wasn’t much of it, his whole body wagged, making him appear to swagger.
“Yeah, I know. You didn’t like him either. He was…” Impressive came to mind as that massive erection appeared in her thoughts. “Annoying!” she substituted quickly. “What kind of man walks out of his house naked when a stranger is around?” she asked the dog. More swaggering from Bart and he sneezed violently. “I agree. He wasn’t tasty at all!”
She unlocked the door to her small, cottage-style house, tossing the keys onto the entry table. “How about some breakfast?” she offered. A moment later, she dumped dog food into his bowl, scratching Bart’s ears affectionately as he smashed his face into his bowl, barely taking time to breathe as he inhaled the food.
“Are you coming to the office with me today?”
Bart barely looked up in response, but Charlotte took that to mean that he was all in. As a psychologist, Charlotte had trained Bart to help in her therapy sessions. The sweet, ugly animal seemed to have a sixth sense for when a person needed a bit of a snuggle. He’d move from his doggie bed in the corner of her office over to the couch where her patients usually sat and just rest his muzzled chin on someone’s knee. There was something about a dog’s affection that soothed the soul and helped her patients get through whatever emotions were haunting them.
Kids were initially scared of Bart’s gruff face. But Bart knew how to snuggle with even the smallest of creatures. There were a couple of kids who had screamed at the first sight of Bart, terrified out of their minds of dogs in general and Bart in particular. Bart was undeterred. When he saw a small child screaming, he simply walked away to his basket of toys, sort through until he found one he liked and brought it back, lowering his belly to the ground and nudging the toy closer and closer until the child understood. They were fast friends after that.
Forty-five minutes later, Charlotte was showered and changed into black slacks and a cream silk blouse, her hair pulled back, showcasing simple pearl earrings. “Okay, buddy. Let’s roll!” she called to Bart.
The big lug leapt from his doggy bed and swaggered to the garage. He knew the drill and jumped into the back seat, but always wanting to be as close as possible to Charlotte, he squeezed his body closer to the console between the seats. As soon as she stepped into the car, she spotted his game. He gave her that guilty, wistful, “please don’t push me away” look and Charlotte rolled her eyes, scratched his ears and gave in. She got a lick to her silk-covered elbow as a reward and she started the engine. “You’re spoiled, dude,” she told the canine as she backed out of the garage.
If she glanced in the direction of her new neighbor’s house, lingering ever so slightly along the leaf-hidden driveway, it was only because she still couldn’t believe how…huge…the man was. “He was tall, Bart!” she said guiltily. “Just really tall. And with broad shoulders!” She kept thinking about him, his naked glory all…out there on display. “Didn’t he have a lot of scars for a man his age?” she asked the dog. Bart snuffled her elbow in answer. “What kind of job does he do that would cause scars like those, do you think?”
She chatted with Bart until they reached her office. She heard the jingling of his collar when she pulled into the parking lot. “Enough about him,” she announced. “His house is finished now, so we’ll just steer clear of that side of the woods, okay?”
Bart stood on the backseat and shook his
head. “No, you’re not going over to visit that border collie again,” she admonished the dog, attaching his leash. “She let you sniff her butt on the first date. She’s a hussy!”
And if Bart seemed to grin right back at her, as if to say, “Yeah, just try and stop me.” Charlotte told herself she was just being fanciful.
Click HERE to Get “Love & Secrets”
The Sheik's Gentle Triumph Page 13
