Sheikh's Forbidden Conquest

by Chantelle Shaw

  ‘It is my duty as a pilot to ensure the safety of my aircraft.’ Lexi looked at him steadily. ‘Your life is more important than mine. You are the Sultan of Zenhab and your people need you to rule the kingdom and build hospitals and universities and continue the work your father started to maintain peace.’

  ‘Of course your life is as valuable as mine, you little idiot,’ Kadir said harshly. He was beginning to realise how much harm her adoptive parents had done by failing to make Lexi feel loved and valued. He frowned as the full implication of what she had just said sank in. The possibility that the kidnapper might have placed explosives on the helicopter hadn’t occurred to him, but now he visualised the chopper exploding with Lexi on board and imagined her lying lifeless amid the tangled wreckage of the helicopter.

  He stared at her. Wearing army-issue combat trousers, a baseball cap and an attitude, she was beautiful and sexy, brave as a lioness yet vulnerable as a day-old kitten.

  She’d been vulnerable in his arms last night as they’d made love over and over and—

  Was it possible that she was pregnant with his child?

  She had told him in Italy that she wasn’t on the Pill, but when he had made love to her last night he hadn’t given contraception a thought. He had been too swept up with his selfish need for her to think logically, he acknowledged grimly.

  Feeling as though he had been struck by a lightning bolt, Kadir realised that everything had changed and nothing could continue as he had planned. He was bound by his duty to his kingdom and the promise he had given his father. But if Lexi had conceived his heir, then his greatest duty was to his unborn child.

  * * *

  The grey mountains of Zenhab were rugged and forbidding, and the Bedouin tribes who lived in some of the most ancient settlements in the world were as hardy as their surroundings.

  As Lexi landed the helicopter in the central square of the fortress town Sanqirah, a large crowd of curious onlookers gathered in front of the market stalls, although most people kept their distance and only a few daring boys surged forward to stare at the chopper.

  Kadir’s keen eyes noted that there were a couple of armed security guards posted around the square, but he was relieved that Sheikh Omar did not appear to be mustering his forces, which perhaps meant that Jamal’s plan to incite the tribes into civil unrest had not yet happened. However, Kadir was aware that the situation could become more volatile after he had discussed his marriage contract to Princess Haleema with her brother.

  He jumped out of the helicopter after his bodyguard Nasim, and spoke to Lexi while she was sitting in the cockpit. ‘I want you to fly straight back to the palace. I don’t know how long my visit will last, but when I return we will need to talk.’

  What was there to talk about? Lexi wondered bleakly. Kadir had made it obvious that he was not going to refer to the fact that they had slept together. Presumably he regarded their stolen night of passion as a shameful secret, just as her birth mother regarded Lexi as a shameful secret. Her old feelings of insecurity returned. She had not been good enough for her adoptive parents or Steven, and now she was not good enough for Kadir. How could she have thought that he might want her when he was about to meet the Princess he was going to marry?

  She watched him walk across the courtyard towards Sheikh Omar’s palace, his robes billowing behind him. He was a regal, remote Sultan, but she pictured him on Jinan wearing a pair of frayed denim shorts, or wearing nothing but a wickedly sensual smile, and her heart ached.

  * * *

  Sheikh Omar was a young man, and the responsibility of leading the mountain tribes which had been thrust on him after the death of his father, Sheikh Rashid, two months ago showed on his tense face as he greeted the Sultan of Zenhab. Once the servants had poured cups of rich black coffee and placed a plate of sweetmeats on the low table, Omar dismissed his staff so that he and Kadir were alone.

  ‘Welcome to my home, Your Highness.’

  ‘I apologise that my arrival was delayed,’ Kadir replied. ‘I understand that my uncle Jamal visited you.’

  Omar nodded. ‘I will speak frankly. Your uncle wishes me to lead the mountain tribes into civil war against you.’

  ‘I know Jamal wants to seize back the Crown and rule Zenhab. Ten years ago he brokered a marriage arrangement between me and your sister, Princess Haleema, because he believed that with the support of your father he would have more power over me and be able to influence my decisions.’ Kadir hesitated. He knew what he must do. His duty lay with Lexi, who might be carrying his child, but as he pictured his father’s beloved face his heart ached with remorse. Forgive me, Baba, he begged silently.

  ‘My greatest wish is for there to continue to be peace in the kingdom,’ he told Omar. ‘But I must be honest and tell you that I am unable to honour my marriage contract with Haleema. I intend to outlaw forced marriages, and this is one of many changes which I hope will allow all of the population of Zenhab, men and women, to live their lives with greater freedom.’

  In the silence that followed, Kadir was aware of each painful beat of his heart. Would his decision lead Zenhab towards civil disturbance? He knew he was taking a great risk. Ten years ago, when he had sought to claim his right to rule the kingdom, he had been forced by his uncle to sign the marriage agreement with a girl he had never met. But he was no longer prepared to be swayed by threats. He was convinced that forced marriages were wrong, not just in his case, but for the whole population. He was determined to stand up for his beliefs, but he had no idea what the new leader of the mountain tribes thought. The old Sheikh Rashid had been a warmonger, much like Jamal. Was his son any different?

  Omar stood up and walked across the room to open a door. When he returned to Kadir he was accompanied by a young woman wearing traditional robes and a headscarf. Her expression was calm and intelligent, and her dark eyes observed Kadir with curiosity.

  ‘This is my sister, Princess Haleema,’ Omar introduced her.

  ‘I am pleased to meet you after so many years of wondering about you, and I am even more pleased that you do not wish to marry me, Your Highness,’ Haleema said with an unexpected frankness that brought a smile to Kadir’s lips.

  ‘Haleema and I share your wish that the peace and prosperity which Zenhab has enjoyed under your rule and, before you, your father, Sultan Khalif, will continue,’ Omar said quietly. ‘We also share your views on forced marriages. My father told my sister when she was just eleven years old that her marriage had been arranged and she would not be allowed to choose her husband. Haleema wishes to go to university and train to be a doctor, and she has my support. It was not possible when my father was alive. He believed in the old ways and would not have understood my sister’s ambition to follow a career, a vocation, which will allow her to help the people in our remote part of Zenhab. But my father is dead and I am the new leader of the mountain tribes.’ Omar smiled ruefully. ‘Your uncle Jamal was not pleased when I told him that I fully support your rule, Your Highness. I ordered my staff to lock him in his rooms, but I am afraid he managed to escape.’

  ‘I’ll issue a warrant for his arrest and have security staff at the airports and ports watch out for him. Jamal cannot be allowed to go free after what he has done.’ Kadir’s jaw clenched as he remembered those moments on the helicopter when the kidnapper had threatened Lexi with a gun.

  In the aftermath of being kidnapped, when they had feared for their lives, it was perhaps unsurprising that their desire for one another, which they had tried so hard to suppress, had finally exploded in fierce passion. With his arranged marriage ended, he had resolved one problem only to face a new one, Kadir brooded, thinking of the possibility that Lexi might be pregnant.

  CHAPTER TEN

  KADIR COULD NOT fail to notice Lexi’s suitcase standing in the middle of the sitting room when he followed her into her apartment at the palace. She had refused to meet his gaze when she’d opened the door, and he could feel the tension emanating from her slender frame as she sto
od on the opposite side of the room from him.

  ‘Are you going somewhere?’ he murmured.

  ‘I’m going back to England. You agreed to release me from my contract after I had flown you to the mountains to visit Haleema,’ she reminded him.

  ‘The situation has changed. I agreed to you leaving before we became lovers.’

  ‘We are not lovers!’ She whirled round to face him, her blue eyes flashing. ‘We spent one night together but we shouldn’t have done. We should both have been stronger and not given in to desire.’

  Lexi turned away from Kadir and cursed her traitorous heart for leaping when she sensed him walk across the room towards her. The familiar scent of his aftershave stole around her and she dared not look at his handsome face. The moment she had opened the door and seen him, dressed in black jeans and a polo shirt, she had struggled to maintain her composure. She wished she had left the palace before he’d returned, as she had originally planned to do. But she could not leave Zenhab without saying goodbye.

  ‘I think it was inevitable that we would make love.’ His deep voice broke into her thoughts. ‘We were attracted to each other from the moment we first met.’

  How could he sound so matter-of-fact about the most incredible night of her life? Perhaps because for him it had just been sex, Lexi thought bleakly. And, having satisfied his inconvenient desire for her, he had hurried to meet his future bride.

  ‘I take it that you met Haleema? So, when is the wedding?’

  Kadir heard the hurt in her voice and guilt washed over him because he knew he was to blame. Lexi might be acting like a spitting wildcat, but he had discovered on Jinan that she was so vulnerable.

  ‘I did meet her and her brother. I told them that I wished to break the marriage arrangement, and Haleema and Omar supported my decision.’

  ‘You broke your marriage contract!’ Lexi’s heart gave another painful lurch. ‘But I thought you had to marry Haleema in order to keep peace and avoid civil war.’

  ‘That was true when Sheikh Rashid was alive. My uncle Jamal could count on Rashid’s support. But Omar is not like his father. He wants peace in the kingdom and welcomes changes to some of the old traditions.’

  ‘So Jamal’s plan to cause trouble backfired.’

  ‘Yes, thankfully. My uncle is now in custody after he was arrested trying to leave the country.’

  Lexi shivered as she remembered those terrifying moments when she had feared that the kidnapper might kill them. On the island her emotions had been raw, and she had been unable to resist Kadir because facing death had forced her to face up to the truth—that she was halfway to falling in love with him.

  But even though he had ended his marriage arrangement with Haleema, she had no expectation that he wanted a relationship with her.

  She picked up an envelope from the table and thrust it at him. ‘It’s my letter of resignation. You agreed to forget the financial penalty if I end my contract early, but if you’ve changed your mind I’ll send you the money I owe when I’m back in England.’

  Kadir opened the letter and skimmed his eyes over the terse two lines Lexi had written. ‘How will you repay me when you have other debts?’

  She stiffened. ‘How do you know about my private life?’

  ‘You know I had a detailed security check run on you before I employed you as my helicopter pilot.’

  ‘It’s a pity you didn’t run a more detailed check on Fariq. It would have saved a lot of trouble.’ If they hadn’t been kidnapped and stranded on Jinan, their heightened emotions wouldn’t have exploded in frantic passion and they would not have made love.

  Lexi grimaced. Love hadn’t been involved. They’d had sex, and just because it had been amazing, mind-blowing sex she had stupidly hoped that she meant something to Kadir. But the truth was she meant nothing to him and now that he was free from his arranged marriage he could choose who he wanted to marry. No doubt he would want a beautiful socialite to be his bride, she thought dully. In England he was Earl Montgomery and one of the most eligible bachelors in Europe.

  Kadir slipped the letter into his pocket. ‘The financial penalty clause in your contract does not apply because it is not your fault that you have to resign.’ Kadir paused and took a deep breath before taking a step towards Lexi. ‘Have you considered the possibility that you could be pregnant?’

  Lexi’s eyes widened.

  ‘The Civil Aviation Authority’s advice to female pilots is that they should not fly in the early stages of pregnancy,’ Kadir continued.

  Lexi bit her lip, wondering how he could sound so calm about something so potentially life-changing. But if she was pregnant it was not his life that would change, she thought grimly.

  ‘It’s unlikely I’m pregnant. It was the wrong time of the month for me to have conceived.’

  He gave her an impatient look. ‘We both know that can’t be predicted. We will need to know for sure.’

  ‘Well, since I’m boringly regular, I’ll tell you in just over a week.’ She hated herself for blushing, thinking how ridiculous it was to feel embarrassed about discussing such a personal issue when Kadir had seen, touched and kissed every centimetre of her body. ‘I’m certain there’s nothing to worry about, but if there are any repercussions from our irresponsible behaviour I’ll let you know,’ she told him with a forced airiness.

  The situation felt surreal. She couldn’t be carrying Kadir’s baby, Lexi assured herself. But the stark fact was that pregnancy was a possibility after she’d had unprotected sex. Actually, she felt a bit sick, but she was probably imagining it, she told herself. What she definitely felt was a fool. She was a sensible, responsible twenty-nine-year-old and she had no excuse for risking an unplanned pregnancy. But when Kadir had stripped her naked in the tent on Jinan her only thought been how desperately she wanted him to hold her, to feel safe in his arms and for him to make love to her.

  She picked up her suitcase and opened the drawer in the bureau to retrieve her passport. ‘I’ll phone you from England once I have any news.’

  ‘If you are pregnant you will marry me.’

  Her head whipped round, and the fact that the drawer was empty did not register in her brain at first. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

  ‘You have a better suggestion?’

  He was serious? Lexi laughed shakily. ‘If I’m pregnant, which I am quite sure I’m not because I can’t believe fate would play such a ghastly joke, then it will be my problem and I’ll deal with it.’

  He swore. ‘If by deal with it you mean what I think you mean...’

  Something in his voice, an indefinable emotion, made her pause, and she paled as his meaning sank into her dazed mind. ‘I would never do that.’ Shocked beyond words, her hand shot out before she had time to think and she struck his cheek, leaving a red imprint of her fingers on his olive skin.

  His eyes glittered dangerously and he caught hold of her arm as if he thought she might slap him again. But Lexi was horrified by her loss of control and her mouth trembled, betraying her intense hurt.

  ‘My biological mother admitted that she wanted to abort me,’ she said thickly, ‘but by the time she found out it was too late to get rid of me.’ She swallowed. ‘If it turns out that I have conceived your child I will take care of it and...and love it, because I know better than most what it’s like for a child not to feel loved.’

  ‘And I know what it feels like for a child to be loved.’ Kadir’s dark eyes burned into hers. ‘My father showered me with love and affection, and I have every intention of doing the same with my child. The baby that is possibly already developing inside you will be my heir, and if you are carrying my son he will be the future Sultan of Zenhab. But, more important, our child has the right to be brought up by both its parents. Far from being ridiculous, marriage is the only option I will consider.’

  Lexi felt as if an iron band was squeezing her lungs. Kadir’s words and, even more, the fierce emotion in them, filled her with a strange sense of relief that if th
e unthinkable had happened and she was actually pregnant, he would accept responsibility for his child.

  He would be a wonderful father, she thought. In her mind she pictured a baby with olive-gold skin and dark curls and thick black eyelashes. She imagined Kadir cradling his son in his arms and she felt a sudden acute longing to be part of the tableaux, for Kadir to look at her with the same love in his eyes that he felt for his child.

  What was she thinking? ‘There are other ways that we could both be parents to our child without a sham marriage that neither of us wants,’ she said stiffly.

  ‘Not in Zenhab there aren’t. The kingdom is becoming more progressive, but the Zenhabian people will not tolerate their Sultan fathering an illegitimate child.’

  Kadir suddenly smiled and the sexy curl of his lips evoked a purely physical longing in the pit of Lexi’s stomach. ‘If we have to marry, it won’t be a sham, certainly not in the bedroom. I already have proof that we are sexually compatible.’

  Lexi saw determination stamped on his hard-boned features and panic gripped her. He was deadly serious that if she was pregnant he would insist on them marrying for the sake of their child. He had been freed from his arranged marriage, only to be faced with a marriage of convenience and she would be his unwanted wife, just as she had been her adoptive parents’ unwanted daughter once they’d had a daughter of their own.

  ‘I doubt the Zenhabian people would support a marriage between us if they knew the circumstances of my birth,’ she said tautly. She had never revealed to anyone the truth of her background, but once Kadir learned the facts she was sure he would drop the crazy marriage idea. ‘And they would find out about me. Your press may not be as intrusive as the European paparazzi, but someone will dig up the dirt about me.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘A woman named Cathy Barnes is my biological mother. During the early years of her life she worked as a prostitute, selling sex to fund her drug habit. My father was...’ she shrugged helplessly ‘...one of her clients, a stranger who went to a hotel room and paid for sex with a woman he would never see again, much less know that his sordid transaction had resulted in a child. Me.’