“I’ll shoot both of you if you don’t stop this madness right goddamn now!” she shrieked pointing the gun at Darius and then Ephraim. When they didn’t notice, she pointed the gun past them and pulled the trigger twice, shattering the silence with the crash of gunfire.
This got their attention, and the two Sheikhs broke away from each other and stared at her in shock. Then they looked at one another, finally down at themselves. They were both soaked in sweat, streaks of blood from their wounds all over their heaving bodies. It was by no means clear whose blood was whose, and so Jan kept the gun pointed at them until they both dropped their weapons.
“OK, talk,” she said firmly, nodding at Darius. “You first. What in God’s name just happened? I leave you two alone for an hour, and you decide to stab each other to death?”
Darius stayed quiet for a long moment, and then he burst out laughing. A moment later Ephraim joined in, and it was the laughter of madness. Jan waited while the two Sheikhs let the adrenaline subside, and then she listened as they told her what had just happened back in Habeetha. She listened, and then she stared at the two Sheikhs, both of whom were looking at her as if she needed to resolve this, as if this was her first test. Her first test as queen.
“You know,” she muttered, shaking her head and finally lowering the gun. “I was hoping we’d have a few months to work out the details, get a better sense of how this was going to work, make careful plans for the wedding. But it looks like we’re going to have to accelerate things.”
Both Sheikhs were frowning, and Jan sighed and shook her head, folding her arms beneath her breasts and shaking her head again. “So right now both your armies are racing across the Golden Oasis in boats, right?”
“Yes,” said Darius.
“Correct,” said Ephraim.
“And aren’t we on an island in the middle of that same oasis right now?” said Jan.
“If you are suggesting we intercept them ourselves, that is ridiculous,” said Darius. “Ephraim’s army is undisciplined and whipped into a frenzy by this bombing. Who is to say they will not simply cut us down in their rage?” He turned to Ephraim. “Even if I am to believe you that the bomb was not trickery on your part, do you believe that you can stop your madmen from seeking vengeance, now that they have blood in their hearts?”
Ephraim took a breath, his jaw tight as he rubbed his stubble. He stayed silent, then quickly shook his head. “It is best if I go alone,” he said quietly. “Perhaps I can fly the flag of Habeetha and stop them long enough to reason with them. Perhaps I can—”
“And perhaps you will instead simply join your men and lead them in battle,” snorted Darius, shaking his head as doubt and mistrust clouded his eyes. “No. We both go. At least if there is to be fighting, it will happen on the water, where our civilians will be safe. He glanced toward where their two yachts were bobbing gently some distance away from the shore. Then Darius pointed at Jan. “You stay here. There are enough supplies, and we will come back for you.”
Jan’s eyes went wide. “You’re joking. No way in hell am I staying on some snake-infested island while you boys are destroying my kingdom before it’s even my kingdom!”
Darius and Ephraim both turned to look at her.
“Your kingdom?” said Ephraim, frowning deep.
“Your kingdom . . .” said Darius, his voice lengthening to a drawl as he stared into Jan’s eyes.
“You never let me finish what I was saying,” said Jan.
“And what were you going to say?” said Darius. “Finish. Please.”
“Finish. That’s exactly the right word. It’s time to finish this. Tie it up. Tie the knot.” Jan blinked hard and smiled. “This entire scheme was thought up to prevent a war, wasn’t it? And now, when a war has all but begun, you abandon the plan without a second thought. Marriage is about commitment, boys. It’s about follow-through. It’s about communication, determination, and the will to stay the course.”
“There will be plenty of time to worry about that,” Ephraim grunted, starting off towards the shoreline and the dingy. “Right now we have a crisis to deal with.”
“And so we’ll deal with it. All three of us. We give both your kingdoms something new, something dramatic, something that will blow them out of the water,” Jan said, leaning forward in her excitement. “We give them their new queen.”
36
And as the two fleets closed in on each other in the wide open Golden Oasis, one large yacht flying the flags of both Habeetha and Noramaar swooped in between them, the boat’s loudspeaker blaring in Arabic, the voices of both Sheikhs coming through loud and clear across the shining waters.
Both Darius and Ephraim spoke quickly as their war-vessels pulled up and circled the single boat, armed men staring in confusion at the two Sheikhs standing side by side, an American woman between them. By then Darius had spoken to his attendant, the woman who’d washed Jan’s feet. The attendant confessed that she’d spoken to Ephraim’s driver, and when Ephraim could not reach his driver, they all figured out what must have happened. But this was not the time to reason with hordes of angry young men. The only way to placate them was with a visual spectacle.
So Darius and Ephraim stalled things long enough for a chopper to arrive overhead, and everyone—Jan included—watched in awe as two clerics and several attendants were lowered down onto the deck of the boat. And then both armies watched in muted shock as the attendants draped Jan in wedding silks and the clerics began reciting the prayers of the nikaah ceremony, right there on the ancient waters of the Golden Oasis.
It took some time for the men to realize what was happening, and murmurs rose up on both sides of the fleets. But the clerics represented both Habeetha and Noramaar, and there could be no doubt that the two men on the boat were indeed their supreme Sheikhs. The armies were frozen in place, the confusion taking the fight out of them. How could they go to war when their rulers were standing together and partaking in what had to be the strangest wedding ceremony in the Islamic world!
“From this moment on,” said Sheikh Darius when the ceremony was done. He took Jan’s hand in his and waited until Ephraim took her other hand.
“Yes, from this moment on,” said Ephraim, smiling wide and raising his free hand to the sky. “We are all one. One nation. One kingdom. One people.”
“And one family,” whispered Jan as she stared in disbelief at the scene around her, men cheering on boats, battleflags flying, the wind wailing, herself in the grip of two kings, two Sheikhs, two husbands. “One family.”
∞
EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER
The news spread across the globe like a forest-fire in summer, and the reaction was overwhelming, far beyond their wildest expectations. Even the naysayers from Habeetha and Noramaar could not deny that the unprecedented three-way wedding had elevated the Sheikhs and their kingdoms to a level beyond that of mortal celebrities. Tourism skyrocketed, hundreds of couples wanted to get married on the shores of the Golden Oasis, debates about why it was about time shared marriages like this were accepted and celebrated raged on every medium from daytime talk shows to the editorial pages of the Times and Post.
Jan had been right in that she was a queen in name only. Naturally she wasn’t prepared in the least to actually run a kingdom in an unfamiliar land. The citizens knew this, but that didn’t stop them from getting caught up in the global frenzy and embracing her as their own. As for the Sheikhs, well, there was one minor detail to work out. One minor . . . bump, so to speak:
“I’m pregnant,” Jan told them that evening when the attendants had cleared the dinner table and left the two Sheikhs and the Sheikha alone. “The Royal doctors informed me this evening.”
Both Ephraim and Darius glanced at one another and then back at Jan. She could see the tracings of both joy and apprehension on their handsome faces, and she thought back to the strange argument they’d had ove
r who would be “first” husband.
Then Jan thought back to her own decision when she’d heard of their agreement that the first to father an heir with her would be first husband. Yes, her decision, which was based on something she’d read about the ancient hunter-gatherer tribes and how they’d managed to live peacefully in societies where every woman openly lay with multiple men of the tribe.
“Did you know that certain tribes believed that every child actually had more than one biological father?” Jan said slowly, taking a breath and looking at her two husbands. “No, seriously. After all, there was no way to biologically determine paternity, like we can these days. And it was that lack of knowledge that actually strengthened the bonds between generations of those tribes . . . because no one could be sure whose child was whose.”
Ephraim frowned and shifted in his chair. “What are you saying, Jan?”
“No,” said Darius, standing up and beginning to pace. “You cannot be serious.”
“I am serious,” said Jan. “It’s the only way. This is the only way we survive as a family.”
“It is not done,” said Darius. “A child must know who its father is.”
Jan touched her belly and glanced up at Darius and then at Ephraim, who seemed to be getting it now—judging by the color of his face. “Our child will always know who its father is. You. And you. Both of you. There can be no other answer. There will be no other answer.”
Ephraim laughed, his eyes darkening as he rubbed his chin and stood up. Now both Sheikhs were pacing around the long table, and Jan watched them. She knew this wouldn’t be easy, but it was the only way. She had to hold her ground. It was the only way she could balance the egos of these two powerful men. There would be more children, she knew, and she was determined that each child would look to both these men as his or her father. The real father.
She watched as the two of them sulked and grumbled, shouted and stamped. Ephraim swore he’d extract blood himself and get them tested. Darius agreed and said he’d hold her down while Ephraim did it. But Jan stayed strong. This was her body and her decision. They would come around. They had to come around.
“Both of you,” she said again. “Both of you will be the real fathers to each child I bear. Both of you. We’re one family, and that’s how it will be. One family. One blood. One tribe. Always and forever.”
And when she saw the mixture of both rage and recognition on their faces, Jan knew that this marriage would always be an experiment. It would always be a game. It would always be unpredictable.
Just like it would always be the three of them. Always and forever.
Always and forever.
∞
THE FORBIDDEN SCENES
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BY ANNABELLE WINTERS
THE CURVES FOR SHEIKHS SERIES (USA)
Curves for the Sheikh
Flames for the Sheikh
Hostage for the Sheikh
Single for the Sheikh
Stockings for the Sheikh
Untouched for the Sheikh
Surrogate for the Sheikh
Stars for the Sheikh
Shelter for the Sheikh
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Curves for the Sheikh (UK)
Flames for the Sheikh (UK)
Hostage for the Sheikh (UK)
Single for the Sheikh (UK)
Stockings for the Sheikh (UK)
Untouched for the Sheikh (UK)
Surrogate for the Sheikh (UK)
Stars for the Sheikh (UK)
Shelter for the Sheikh (UK)
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Shared for the Sheikh: A Royal Billionaire Romance Novel (Curves for Sheikhs Series Book 10) Page 16
