Running a hand through his soaked hair, she kissed his mouth, then kissed her way down the stubble of his chin. Scraping her teeth along his jaw, she then playfully bit his lower lip. She reveled in the animal moans that escaped his throat. There was something heady in knowing that she’d made a sheikh—someone so powerful—revert to basically keening.
Pulling back to speak, she looked back into his beautiful eyes and gave him what truth she could. “Thank you, and you’re an amazing man.”
“I love you.”
“I care about you so, so much,” she offered, trying to ignore the way he stiffened just a bit. It was all she could give and still feel safe. And Jennifer believed in staying safe.
“Then let me show it to you,” he promised, removing his hand. Then she felt the head of his manhood poking up against her channel, stroking her most secret lips. “I can make you feel so amazing, wild one. You’ll have no idea what hit you.”
“Then show me, please,” she said, craning her neck so that she could pull his earlobe into her mouth. She bit it gently, letting it scrape between her teeth.
He seemed to almost growl, a low rumble that she felt in his chest, and then he thrust deeply inside of her in one fluid motion. She mewled at the sensation of him, the way his generous girth filled her, stretching her and making her feel complete in a way that she never had before. This was their first time fully making love, and she had never felt more connected to another human being. She’d never even imagined that she could be.
He rocked his hips against her, and she slammed her eyes shut, letting the pleasure build through her. Floating in the water, gravity was an afterthought, and it felt as if her husband couldn’t possibly dive more deeply into her, but he did. With every thrust, his manhood plunged deeply inside of her core, and she wished wholly that he’d come soon and shoot his seed inside of her.
Jennifer kept her eyes closed as she continued to kiss him, her own ministrations making their way down his throat and then laving at his pulse point. Eventually she began to lick his chest, enjoying the well-chiseled muscles there, and then his nipple, flicking her tongue against it. Even as she did this, the thundering of his hips became more frantic and she bounced in the water in order to match his fast rhythm.
Just as she hoped, he came first, and her body was filled with his warmth. As she leaned her head back, Jennifer let out a long, loud moan. Then she felt it, the pleasure crescendo in her own body.
When she finally felt somewhat collected, she found that she’d sagged onto his chest and both of them were still lying in the tub, bobbing up and down with the capriciousness of the Jacuzzi’s jets.
“See,” he said, running a hand through her blond hair. “I told you I loved you. I’ve shown you. I hope so much that the lock on the bridge leads to so many more things. You have no idea how much, my wild one…my beloved.”
“I know,” she said, feeling like a heel that she couldn’t commit, like she was somehow insane even though it was far more irrational to agree to forever when they’d barely known each other a month. Still, the words he wanted were too hard to say, so she again offered what little solace she could. “I care about you, and I’m so very grateful. Bahan, you make me feel like no man ever could.”
“At least that’s something,” he said, but his voice was not as happy and carefree as before. There was a heaviness there that tore into her heart like daggers because she knew that she had done that to him.
“I think so.”
And it just has to do for now.
***
He was lying in perfect bliss. That was the only phrase to describe how he felt with the woman he loved and cared about wrapped in his arms. Last night had been a revelation of lovemaking, more than just once in the Jacuzzi, and Bahan wasn’t shocked that Jennifer was still sleeping away in his grasp. He would have been too, except he’d long ago trained himself to be up with the sun. The curtains on their window had been left open and the minute the first rays came through the glass, his eyes were open. Still, he felt that he could stay here forever with her, just taking in the scent of freesias and burying his nose in her long, golden locks.
“You’re so beautiful.”
He sighed a bit then, even as he forced himself to move out from around her. It wasn’t an easy task, and he had to wonder if the girl he loved was also part octopus. It definitely seemed as if she had more than one set of arms, possibly four. Finally, though, he was able to disengage himself from her. Yes, he was on his honeymoon and Fareed was very capable of taking care of the business with the emporium’s construction. However, it never hurt to keep abreast of everything in his business. It was only seven here, according to the bedside table, but it would be past noon in New York. Surely he could check his cell phone quickly before Jennifer woke. No, scratch that. Based on her adorable yet light snoring, Bahan judged that he had a lot of time left before his beloved would rise.
He clicked on his phone and was shocked to see that when he dialed his voice-mail inbox, he had over six messages. His heart jumped into his throat. There was no way that Fareed had messed something up so direly over the weekend. It was possible it was father, but his father was a dignitary and he’d caught CNN just last night before their bath. If his father had died, it would have been breaking news across the planet.
There was only one other possibility.
Dialing in his number, he waited with baited breath and hoped against hope that this wasn’t what he feared it was.
“Hello? Bahan? God, this is Rose. I haven’t been able to get Jennifer, and maybe she didn’t get an international SIM card. I don’t know. I tried the hotel, too, but they said you were out, and I don’t know what to do. It’s Sydney. She had been doing fine with the dialysis and her kidneys are alright, but for some reason her blood sugar is spiking incredibly high. They’re afraid she’s going to fall into a coma and they’re working as hard as they can. I know you were supposed to come home on Tuesday, but if you could hurry back… Please, Bahan, she needs to be here in case.”
Bahan dropped the phone even as it beeped to yet another frantic message from Rose.
“Dear Allah, no.”
He leapt back from the main room of the suite and into the bedroom. Stopping there at the threshold, he gave his bride one last moment to enjoy her peaceful slumber, to feel the relaxation her life had lacked for so very long. She’d kill him if he didn’t tell her soon, but she deserved just a few extra seconds of sleep. She’d had so little since Sydney had been admitted to the hospital, and she was going to have so little from now on.
But time was of the essence.
Reaching over, he shook her shoulder. “Beloved, you have to wake up.”
She snored once more and then rolled onto her back. “I don’t care if you’ve ordered the greatest croissant spread in the world and all the crepes and some other luxury breakfast. I am going to sleep until ten, and you’re going to let me,” she said, her tone joking and light.
Oh Allah did he hate to shove reality in her face like this, but her sister needed her.
“It’s Sydney.”
Those words had the effect of pouring ice over her body. Jennifer snapped out of bed and was rushing for her suitcase. “What’s going on?”
“Rose called. We had our phones off but I checked mine. Her kidneys are doing fine with the dialysis, but her blood sugar keeps climbing and they’re having trouble fighting it. They…”
“She needs me, and this is all your fault.”
Bahan blinked at her, and then he held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I don’t understand. I’m trying my best to help you and to help your family. How is this my fault?”
Her back stiffened a bit, but Jennifer kept rushing for her toiletries in the other room, zipping about faster than a jackrabbit. When she spoke, she focused on shoving her bottles into the suitcase. “It’s not your fault that she’s hopefully going to get better if we can get past this spike, and I do appreciate that.”
“Why
are you dismissing me so fast?” he asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.
She spun around and dodged him as quickly as if his touch had scalded her. “I let myself be distracted.”
“You’re allowed to have one day. You saw her same as I did on Friday. Sydney looked as perky as ever, and she wanted you to have a good time. This could have happened just as easily with us back in New York.”
“But it happened here!” she said, throwing down a teddy that was in her hands. The lace fell through the air slowly and finally fell onto the bed between them. “I have tried so hard to be there for my mom and my sister, and I was here when I shouldn’t have been. I gave myself five seconds to feel I could have a life, to even have a fake marriage like this, and now…it’s like I’m being punished.”
“You’re not,” he said, reaching out and trying to at least stroke her cheek.
She stepped back again, and it tore at him to see the pain etched on her face, those huge tears welling up in her eyes. “I can’t have anything for myself. I can’t have you. I mean, I’d never annul this. I know that you need to have the marriage complete the terms of your agreement, I do.”
“And I’d never deny aid to Sydney, not now. I mean it. She feels like my little sister sometimes as well.”
“But I can’t be a day-to-day wife. I just can’t be. There’s nothing I’d like more than to have fun in Paris or to take time to go and see ‘my kingdom,’” she said, smiling ruefully. “I bet that Yemen is lovely.”
“Its beauty is only second to your own,” he said, bowing low. “You don’t have to face everything alone. You never have to feel that way. I’m right here, and I can help you.”
“I just need to get home, and frankly, Bahan, I can’t be distracted.”
“So I’m a distraction now?” he asked, an edge coming into his own voice. Bahan had tried to be patient, tried to reach her. Damn it all, he was trying to reach her now, but this bloody woman was the most stubborn being he’d ever met. It was growing impossible to be rejected all the time, and he didn’t understand how she could keep pushing him away. He was a sheikh, damn it, and he didn’t have to take these torturous vacillations in her mood. “How is that even fair?” he asked.
“Because I loved last night. It was the best night of my life, hands down, but it wasn’t my real life. This isn’t a real marriage. You’re the one who knelt down in the hospital for me. You’re the one who told me all the specs that you and Fareed had come up with. I’m just the woman you inserted into slot B. You needed someone to help fill the spirit of the law. Yes, we have fun, but I just don’t have time for fun, and you can see why now, Bahan.”
“Your sister didn’t suddenly nosedive in her health because you were away for a weekend,” he said, starting to pace.
“But it feels like it. I was here when I should have been the person watching her by her bedside. I was here when I’m sure Mom’s a complete and utter wreck. I just…you’re too dangerous for my missions, Bahan, and I’m completely sorry about that.”
He stopped and raked a hand through his hair. “But you’re not sorry.”
“I’m not?”
“No, this is what you expected all along. I can see it in your eyes when I talk to you.”
“Because I can’t say more than ‘I care about you?’ Don’t you think anything more is far too fast after only a month?”
“I don’t, actually,” he said, leaning low, getting so close to her lips that his breath was on her cheek. It burned him that that was as close as Jennifer would let him get to her. It somehow didn’t feel like just hours ago that those delicate, tender lips were covering every conceivable inch of his body. “I think that you can know very soon who you care about, whom you can be with.”
“I don’t, and the truth is, the people who matter are my mother and sister. I can’t disappoint them again. If Sydney makes it, I have to always be by her side, stay focused.”
“Of course, if you run away to New York now, if you just let the clock run out on our marriage until I secure the line of secession, then you don’t risk anything.”
“I’ve risked more in my life than you know,” she said, her voice distorted through her gritted teeth.
“Maybe, but I can see it all now. You’re going to pull the ripcord with me here and now, push me away because you’ve already convinced yourself no matter how hard I tell you otherwise that I can’t possibly love you back. You’re shoving me aside not for your family or Sydney’s health but because you’re a coward!” he said, panting hard.
“That’s not true,” Jennifer said, zipping up her suitcase and trying to shove past him.
He grabbed her arm tightly and spun her around to face him. “Look me in my eyes and tell me part of running isn’t because you’re scared, that this is about us too.”
“It’s about my family,” she said again, as if reciting some nursery rhyme or school fact by rote, but he noticed the way her eyes wouldn’t meet his.
“Then you can’t face the fact that I really could be the one for you. Admit that to yourself, at least. You’re trying to hide. I guess you’re not my wild one after all.”
Chapter Ten
“How is she?” Jennifer croaked out as she raced out of the elevator and into her mother’s waiting embrace with Rose standing close by.
Her throat was scratchy and hoarse, and that was her fault. She’d flown back from Paris on her own. After their fight, Bahan said he didn’t want to upset her anymore or be a “distraction” for her family. He’d also mentioned that he might as well fly back to Yemen for a bit, coordinate some contracts that his family’s construction and shopping emporium business was trying to solidify with their nearby neighbor Dubai. Oddly, he hadn’t mentioned those contracts before, but what did she expect? After she’d broken away with him, set their marriage up as a complete and utter marriage of convenience and for show, Jennifer couldn’t honestly expect him to stay.
Everything felt so hollow, like someone had scooped her insides out like a pumpkin at Halloween, and the tears on her flight hadn’t helped with the exhaustion or depression either. But that wasn’t her choice anymore.
All she could do was be there for Syd. To help support her sister as best as she could.
“She’s in a coma,” her mother said, before breaking down in tears again.
Jennifer shot an apologetic look at her secretary and best friend. “Rose, you’ve been amazing. If you give me a couple of hours to figure it all out, I’ll take a shift off and take you out for a huge thank-you dinner.”
“You don’t owe me anything, honey,” the brunette said, leaning over and kissing her cheek. “Just take care of her, and make sure that the doctors do everything they can.”
“You know I will,” Jennifer said, forcing her voice not to waiver. Her mother needed her to be strong, like always.
After Rose had disappeared behind the shutting elevator doors, she turned to her mother and led her to a plastic chair. It amazed her that even in the best hospitals, the waiting room chairs could also double for diabolical torture devices. Or bright orange parking cones.
“Mom, do you need to go home and get a change of clothes or a shower?”
Her mother shook her head, the graying strands of blond hair tangling over her face as she did so. “I couldn’t leave here if I wanted to. I have a bag with spare stuff and I can always shower in Syd’s room. She’s not going to be able to object…I…what if she can’t ever do anything again?”
Her mother started sobbing and that scared Jennifer more than anything else had, even Rose’s voice mail. She’d never seen her mother completely lose it before—not the day her father left, not with Syd’s other stays in the hospital, and not even when Jennifer told her about her sister’s need for a transplant. If even Carole Wilde thought that hope might be gone, then the situation was dire. Usually, her mother was the toughest damn woman she knew, as well as the biggest optimist. After all, where else would Sydney get her bubbly kindness from?
“She will,” Jennifer said, shushing her mother and rocking back and forth with her. “I’ll sit right by Sydney, hold her hand long enough for you to shower in the room. You’ll feel better when you’re clean.”
“What about you?”
She blushed, trying to think about how she’d explain her bath from last night. God, had it only been twelve hours since Bahan had made her scream in pleasure?
“I’m clean. Bahan’s jet had a shower facility on it.”
That much was true. She’d showered again over the Atlantic, not wanting her hair to be tangled or to smell like sex when she got to the hospital. It made her feel marginally more human, to accept the reality of the situation spinning out around her.
Her mother frowned, finally noticing that her husband wasn’t with her. “And where is Bahan?”
“He’s…we had a fight.”
“I don’t understand.”
She sighed and hugged her mother tightly one more time. “I don’t know if I do either.”
“Is he still in Paris?”
“He had sudden business come up in Yemen.”
Her mother pulled away and narrowed her sharp blue eyes at Jennifer. “Really?”
“Don’t you want that bath now, Mom?”
“Yes, but don’t think we won’t be talking about your missing husband more. I’m very disappointed in Bahan. He’s been so caring and generous so far. This doesn’t feel like him at all.”
She didn’t say anything as they entered her sister’s room. It felt like a hot poker searing her heart to see Sydney’s pale form laid out on the bed. Her face was the only part of her skin poking out from under her blankets, and it was as pale as a ghost. Her eyes didn’t even flutter under her eyelids, and the huge plastic tubes were pushing down into her mouth. Sydney was lost in wires as well, a mass of them plugged in around her heart to help monitor its slow but steady beat.
Sheikh's Fake Fiancee Page 8
