The Sheik’s Command
Page 20
He inhaled, thinking no more secrets. What he knew about Omair, she, too, would know. “Omair sometimes contracts to a private military organization based on Sao Diogo, an island off the west coast of Africa. This company occasionally subcontracts to the CIA or the Pentagon. Omair tells us very little about his work, Nikki, but I do know his people can organize this. I have already spoken to him about it. Nikki Hunt will cease to exist. She will have fled the mission in Mauritania and vanished, presumed perished in the Sahara.”
“What…about my orphans?”
“We will make them ours, Nikki.”
“All seven?”
He laughed. “Eight if we count the new baby that will be born in the Summer Palace. They, too, can bear the Al Arif name. It will mean a lot to me.” He smiled, feeling warm, feeling a sense of family, feeling like a true patriarch. All things he’d missed and begun to crave upon his return to the desert. Things he’d begun to crave when he’d met Nikki.
He sensed her shift in energy, her joy, and Zakir reached up to touch her mouth. He felt her smile. His heart soared. It gave him such pleasure to make her happy, to give hope back. To protect her.
“What about Mercy Missions, Zakir? You mentioned that you told the Tenerife base that I was here—”
“We’ll work it out. We can say any number of things, for example, that we lost contact with you again when you returned to the Rahm Hills.”
“And your enemies on the King’s Council—what if they’ve already dug up something on my past?”
“Those enemies are all now in custody, Nikki. They will stand trial at once, and anything they know will go with them to their graves. We still do not yet know who was pulling their strings, but if we do this quickly—if we change your identity and we marry very soon—you will be safe.” He cupped her face. “Will you accept my proposal and become my queen of Al Na’Jar? Will you rule by my side and help guide me when I stray?”
“Zakir, what if some journalist tries to trace my background and finds I am this person with no history?”
“Omair’s contacts are the real deal, Nikki. They’ll plant a false past for you. And they—and I—will make sure that Sam Etherington can’t touch you.”
By leaking to the press that he had tried to kill his wife.
He lifted her face to his. “Please, Nikki, be my queen. Rule by my side. And in return I promise to protect you and keep you and our children safe.”
“Yes,” she whispered, not believing this was possible. Not fully able to comprehend that her ridiculous childhood fairy-tale dreams had come true—she’d found her prince. She’d found family. After all she’d been through.
“I love, you, Zakir,” she whispered as she leaned up to kiss him. “More than you will ever know.”
Zakir took her into the private garden off his chambers, where she bathed in rosewater, the sun warm on her naked skin. And they made love again, so tenderly and so poignantly, and Nikki felt as if she had come home. Into the arms of her sheik. Where he would keep her safe. And loved. Always.
And she would guide him through his darkness in return.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5541-2
THE SHEIK’S COMMAND
Copyright © 2010 by Loreth Beswetherick
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