Sheik Defense

by Ryshia Kennie

  “I’m afraid there is.” He shook his head. “What happened is my fault.”

  “Dad, no...”

  “Ava, listen,” he said. “I shouldn’t have gotten involved. I should have called the authorities immediately,” he said. “I’ll regret that until the day I die. I made a mistake,” Dan said. “You could have died.”

  “I didn’t,” Ava said. “You’re an honorable man.”

  “A stupid one who should have played along, at least I should never have...”

  “It’s okay, Dad,” Ava said. “We all lived through it.”

  Dan was quiet for a minute. “I’ll be going home after all this.” He looked at Ava as if waiting for her to join in. “How about a short vacation before you start...”

  “My new job,” Ava finished as she shook her head, taking both her stepfather’s hands in hers. “I can’t, Dad. No more delays. I know you’ll be okay and I’ll visit at Christmas, I promise. But for now, I need to get my own life going in Wyoming.” She looked back at Faisal.

  “I see,” Dan said softly.

  “Dad...”

  “No, sweetheart, I really do.” He looked at Faisal and a silent understanding seemed to pass between the two men. “I’m tired. Maybe you two could come back later to visit.” He looked back as a nurse entered the room. “Besides, I won’t be here that much longer. My doctor said they had plans to discharge me.”

  “That’s right,” the nurse said with a smile as she overheard the last part. “I heard you’ll be discharged in a few days.”

  “It can’t happen soon enough,” Dan said with a smile as he looked at the arm Faisal had around his daughter’s waist.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Friday, June 17

  “I hate to leave him,” Ava said.

  It was two days since they’d found her father and he was well on the way to recovery. She’d spent time at her father’s bedside but she’d also spent time with Faisal. He’d offered her a suite in the luxury hotel his family owned and that he called his home away from home. But she’d spent more time with him than in the suite he offered, as they made up for the time they had lost. They’d laughed together and they’d seen a different side of Miami, a more laid-back, romantic side, as they strolled the beach at sunset and had supper in a quaint café they discovered by accident one day.

  Now, the late afternoon sun streamed in through the picture window as she sank into the thick luxuriousness of a mint-green leather couch. When they’d left her father after learning he’d been found, she’d felt at peace for the first time in days, knowing that he was safe. Now, she glanced around the Nassar company–owned penthouse suite in Miami. It was luxury with a toned-down touch. Classic rock played in the background and reminded her of Faisal’s love for seventies-era rock. Five years ago, she’d shared that love with him at parties and even a few lazy evenings like this. But she’d been twenty then. It seemed a long time ago. She held a cup of tea, a soft blanket over her shoulders as she tucked one foot beneath her and stretched the other leg out. “Dad’s been through a lot and when he’s discharged he’ll be going home alone...” Her voice trailed off and her lips tightened. “I don’t like it, but...”

  “You can’t be late to start your own life.” He cupped her chin, his eyes looking into hers. “You have a career to begin, a life ahead of you, a new job waiting. Your father knows that.”

  “I know.” She smiled as he dropped his hand and put his arm around her shoulders. “I can’t wait for that, at least I couldn’t until all of this.”

  “It will be fine. The excitement for your career will come back. The memory of this trauma will fade.”

  “Will it?”

  “I promise,” he said with a low growl in his voice.

  “Still, I owe him—”

  “You owe it to him to be happy,” Faisal said, looking at her with a smile. “You heard what the doctor said, he’ll be discharged soon,” Faisal assured her as they sat in the Miami penthouse suite. The suite belonged to the Al-Nassar family but was used primarily by him. “You need to start your own life, your own career,” he repeated as if saying the words in a different way would somehow make them more real to her.

  “How did you get so smart? You’re right. That’s exactly what my father would want.” She lowered her teacup and looked at him with a sheen of tears in her eyes. It was all so much to comprehend and yet she still felt she owed her father.

  “He wants nothing but your happiness,” he said.

  “I know you’re right. He’s said it often enough to me.”

  “It’s what every parent wants. I know mine did and I know Dan does too,” he said.

  She looked at him and saw something else in his eyes, a hint of nostalgia, sadness even. She put the tea down and took both his hands in hers. “I’m so sorry, Faisal. You lost your parents when you were a teenager. And here I am thinking of going off, of leaving him—”

  “Ava, quit dramatizing,” Faisal interrupted with a smile. “My parents’ accident was tragic but it has nothing to do with any of this. Sure, I’d change it if I could, but even so, no parent would hold back their child. That’s what kids do, grow up.”

  She looked down at her hands and smiled at the fact that they looked so small, almost lost in his. He seemed to notice not at all. Instead he pulled her against his chest, his arm going around her as if he was never going to let her go.

  “I think it’s time we began thinking about our own lives, our own family.”

  “What do you mean ‘our’?” She looked at him with a frown, her beautiful eyes troubled.

  “Don’t deny that there’s something special between us. There always has been.”

  She met that statement with silence.

  “I know we were apart...”

  “Five years,” she said with a hint of regret. “I thought of you often.”

  “I love you, Ava. I always have. And now with you in the same state, there isn’t even geography to separate us.”

  “That never separated us,” she whispered.

  “No, you’re right. It was our youth.”

  She turned her face up, an invitation she’d wanted to offer a long time ago. He took it as easily as she’d dreamed in the past. He leaned down and kissed her with all the passion of the unsaid words that lay between them.

  “Come with me,” he said thickly. He led her to a bedroom hidden down a hallway of soaring ceilings and skylights. The skylights dusted sunshine along the mellow wood floor. The floor reminded her that he had told her all those years ago that he was restoring old flooring he’d obtained from a demolished church. The old and the new wove together to make the suite breathtaking. On the floor by the sprawling bed was a woven Moroccan wool rug, its colors a dark, muted brown that was accentuated with patches of cream. Overhead a skylight streamed light into the room. Against one wall was a stereo system with a collection of vintage vinyl records lined up on either side. She didn’t see any more after that. Instead, she let him lead her to the downy seduction of the bed, which seemed to fill the room with a promise.

  It was she who pulled him down onto the bed as she fell backward, playfully testing whether it was as soft and as inviting as it looked. But it was his firm lips on hers, his readiness against her that took all her playfulness to the next level. Their clothes disappeared in their roughhousing of play and desire. An hour later they lay naked in each other’s arms.

  “This is how it was meant to be,” she whispered. “I hear Wyoming calling.”

  “Just Wyoming?” Faisal said with a laugh.

  “For the moment, yes,” she said with an answering laugh. “I love you, do you know that?”

  “I should hope so,” Faisal said. “I don’t want to lose you again. I only hope you feel the same way.”

  “You won’t be given th
at option,” she said with a smile in her voice.

  He leaned over and kissed her, hard and deep, and yet briefly. When he rose up on an elbow, he looked into her eyes. “You’re everything to me, do you know that, Ava? I love you,” he finished before she could reply.

  Tears glistened in her eyes as she reached up to draw him to her. “I wish every moment of our life could be like this,” she said.

  “Like what?” he asked thickly.

  “Spent together.”

  He ran a thumb along her collarbone. “That sounds perfect to me. Any way we cut it, we’ll be together...”

  “Forever,” she finished. “It’s everything I want, Faisal.”

  “We’ll be married,” he said as he plopped down beside her.

  “What kind of marriage proposal is that?” she asked with a giggle. She turned over on one elbow so they were nose to nose. Chest to breast, and despite how erotic it all was, for a moment they were serious.

  “Ava Adams, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  “Forever and always,” she replied as her lips met his. And the kiss seemed to last forever.

  When the kiss finally ended, they lay shoulder to shoulder. The air-conditioning caressed their heated skin and Ava thought she might have reached nirvana. It was then that Faisal reached under the pillow and brought out a box. “To seal the deal, my love.”

  “Are you always going to be this romantic?” she said with what she knew was a loving, yet sarcastic edge to her voice.

  “Open it,” he said with only a small hint of the Al-Nassar command she’d teased him about when they’d been together at school.

  She opened the box and saw a ring that was like none she’d seen before nestled in a satin bed. She wouldn’t even ask how he’d gotten it so quickly. She was quickly learning that it was the Al-Nassar way. Instead, she could only look at it with damp eyes. The band was delicate strands of gold that appeared to be braided together. The heart-shaped diamond sparkled in its setting. The ring truly reflected the love he’d so recently admitted.

  “It’s beautiful.” The words weren’t enough and yet that was all she could say. “It’s unique, romantic...” Tears threatened. She had no words to explain how she felt. It was a moment she’d never dreamed of despite how she’d always felt about Faisal. He’d been everything. He was everything.

  “You’re everything,” she said as if he would know what she meant.

  And the look in his eyes told her that she had said it all.

  “It represents my love and the love of family.”

  “You mean children?” she asked, looking into his dark eyes.

  “Maybe or maybe just the love of those we allow into our lives.”

  “That’s beautiful, Fai,” she said, leaning over to kiss him.

  He pulled her closer. His eyes looked deeply into hers. Then he kissed her, long and hard and hot. The kiss lasted a minute and then two before it ended. She looked at him with all the love she was feeling, the ring clutched in the palm of her fisted right hand as if she would never let it go.

  But a few minutes later she watched as he slipped the ring onto her finger. A ring that was unique and rare, much like the man she’d always admired and loved and had now agreed to marry. It was a ring fashioned from love, hope and a promise.

  Outside the sun shone even brighter as it offered all the hope and warmth of the promise of their future together.

  * * * * *

  Check out the previous books in the

  DESERT JUSTICE series:

  SHEIK’S RESCUE

  SHEIK’S RULE

  SON OF THE SHEIK

  Available now from Harlequin Intrigue!

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  TAKE IT TO THE GRAVE (Part 1 of 6)

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  “I know your secret. I’m going to tell.”

  As Sarah Taylor-Cox stares at the anonymous letter, her body starts to shake with dread. She has everything to lose—a gorgeous husband, a beautiful baby, and a picture-perfect house in the Hamptons. And now, the lies she’s built her life on are starting to crumble, one by deadly one...

  Collect all 6!

  Take It to the Grave (Part 1 of 6)

  by Zoe Carter

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  Take It to the Grave (Part 1 of 6)

  by Zoe Carter

  Prologue

  The clouds gather thick and furious, shutting out the sun.

  The smell of ozone is intense, warning me more effectively than the grumbling thunder. A storm is coming—a big one, perhaps the worst we’ve had in years.

  The thought of Elliot gets me moving.

  Elliot, with his soft skin and plump cheeks, the darling dimples at his elbows. Just four months old.

  An image of another baby, another time, creeps into my mind, but I push it away, stumbling on the damp sand. The nightgown my husband is enamored with twists and turns in the growing wind, tangling between my thighs. I long to tear off the slick fabric, but I don’t dare take the time. I have to find my child.

  “Elliot!” I scream his name even though he is too young to answer.

  The thunder makes a mockery of my cries, stealing my breath before I can try again.

  It’s no use, anyway.

  The beach is empty.

  Waves throw themselves at the shore again and again, churning themselves into foam.

  T
he ocean fizzes around my ankles and I climb farther up the shore to keep from getting dragged into the angry water. My foot comes down on a broken shell, but I ignore the pain as it cuts through the skin. The agony that swells in my chest at the thought of losing my son is far worse than the throb of my wounded heel.

  I can’t lose him—he’s everything.

  Please don’t hurt him. Not Elliot. He’s so innocent...

  But all babies are innocent, aren’t they?

  The rain, when it comes, is as enraged as the ocean, and I’m soaked through in an instant. I can’t bear the thought of my sweet little boy in this downpour. He doesn’t have his jacket. The image of Elliot, shivering and turning blue in his little sleeper, drives me forward. My eyes strain to see in the dim light, every breath I take ending in a cry for my missing child.

  I can’t leave him out here; I can’t.

  Then I realize the beach isn’t empty.

  There is someone standing by the rocks, watching me.

  Waiting for me...

  “Elliot!”

  My scream travels farther this time, echoing through the storm. Strength I didn’t know I had floods my legs, and I run faster.

  As I picture my missing son and how wonderful it will feel to wrap my arms around him again, I give no thought to my own safety.

  I run toward the dark figure on the beach.

  Sarah

  I tilt my head and let the sun caress my face, resisting the urge to close my eyes. Elliot burbles on my chest, and I stroke the soft blond down on his head.

  “Lucky baby,” I whisper. “Look what a handsome man your father is.”

  Sometimes it’s difficult to believe how lucky we both are. Warwick is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen—it’s still hard to believe he’s my husband. He grins at me now, flashing the kind of teeth most people will never achieve without hours in a dentist’s chair. His father catches Warwick smiling at me and gives him a friendly nudge.