The Billionaire's Surprise Babies

by Sophia Lynn

  Anna glanced down, unable to meet his eyes when she was being so damned silly.

  "I'm sorry," she muttered, but he shook his head, bringing her closer to him.

  "There's nothing to be sorry for at all," he said. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I just broke down your door for apparently no good reason at all."

  "You were that worried about me?" she asked. "That…is a very expensive door."

  "It's far less important than my love who just locked herself behind it," Rakim said firmly. "Now let's try this again. Why did you run?"

  He scowled briefly.

  "Anna, you need to tell me the truth. What we did here today...have you ever done it before?"

  Anna blinked at him. Were they even speaking the same language? What in the world did that have to do with anything?

  "Um, you mean...doing intimate things in the library? Uh, no, I guess not..."

  "No, I mean any of it. Have you ever made love to a man before?"

  She finally realized what he was asking, and she could feel humiliation flood her cheeks with red again.

  "Oh god, am I really that bad at it?" she blurted out. "You think I ran because I was some frightened virgin?"

  "No!" he said, and a small part of her was amused that she had finally managed to shock him.

  "Then why would you think...?"

  He frowned at her.

  "When I first entered you, you flinched," he said bluntly. "I hadn't thought that you were a virgin before that, but then I wondered."

  "Oh," Anna said, looking down. "Well, it's been a little while for me. I guess that I've not had the most...active love life in the world."

  Or much of one, if she was being totally honest, which right now, she wasn't sure that she cared to be. She had had one lover before, a short and embarrassing affair, and it sure as heck hadn't been anything like what she had just experienced with Rakim.

  "Are you still in pain?" he asked, and she shook her head.

  "All right then, can you tell me why you did run?"

  She knew that she owed him an explanation for her sudden and dramatic sprint for freedom. She opened her mouth to give it, but then to her dismay, tears welled up in her eyes again.

  "Oh damn it," she whispered, swiping hard at them, but he pulled her hands away from her eyes.

  "Come here."

  She let him tug her over to her bed where he lay her down on top of the comforter. There was a box of tissues next to the bed, which he used to dab at her eyes. The gesture was so sweet that it almost made her tear up again, but she managed to hold it back to a few sniffles.

  He stretched out on the bed next to her. Resting against his chest with his arm around her shoulders, she thought that she might be able to speak clearly.

  "It wasn't anything you did," Anna started. "I promise you that. What we did was...amazing. It felt amazing, and I never want to regret it. It was just...the enormity of it all. I've not known you for very long, and you’re my boss on top of it all. I do good work here, and I'm very happy with it, and I don't want to jeopardize any of it."

  "Is that all?" asked Rakim in surprise. "You are simply worried about your job? I promise you, I am hardly the type to fire my lovers."

  "I mean, that was on my mind, but it was more than that. Rakim, we barely know each other."

  "I would say that we know each other very well now."

  "No, not like that. I mean, yes, you now know me better in the physical sense than anyone else in the world, but Rakim, we haven't really talked at all. We...we don't know things like where the other person grew up..."

  "In the capitol city."

  "Or what sports we might like...”

  "Soccer and sometimes American football."

  "Or our favorite foods..."

  "Rare steak, but I'm not very picky."

  She couldn't help laughing at his quick answers, but she still shook her head.

  "I just don't know you, and that frightens me," she said, a plaintive note in her voice.

  Rakim made a considering noise, and Anna smiled. She could hear the soft noise rumble throughout his body as if he were a great cat, and she pressed her cheek against his chest.

  "I think that is a very American thing to think," he said.

  "Beg pardon?"

  "Listen, you can know all those facts about me and still never scratch the surface of who I really am. Tell me what your favorite color is."

  "Um, purple, I guess."

  "Right. So now I know that you like purple, but liking purple doesn't tell me how brave you are to come to a new job posting halfway around the world all by yourself. It doesn't tell me how beautifully you translate Arabic to English and back again. It doesn't tell me what your smile looks like when I've surprised you. It is just a fact."

  He sighed, holding her close. When he dragged her close to him like this, she could feel a spark of passion rise up between them again, something sweet and hot. She wondered if there would ever come a time when he didn't pull this powerful response from her.

  "In the UAE, we say that passion and knowledge are two things, and one does not bow to the other. In some ways, we know each other very well."

  "And is that all you want?" she asked, her voice soft but strong.

  Here it was. This was the crux of it all. The passion he had given her was a powerful gift, but she didn't know if it was meant to be a one-time encounter, a single moment when their lives came together and then pulled apart again.

  "We already have more than that," he said firmly. "If it was just passion, I think we would have met sooner than this and parted ways again not long after. No...this is already something else. What it is, I am not sure, but I do know that I wish to find out."

  He paused, and when he spoke again, there was a hesitation to his voice that she had never heard before.

  "Is that something that you want to find out as well?" he asked, and she felt as if the sun had come out from behind a dark bank of clouds.

  "Yes," she murmured, leaning up to kiss him. "Yes I would."

  Chapter Six

  There was something strange and exciting about having the sheikh of Abu Dhabi as a lover, Anna thought two weeks later. It was both like and unlike what she had expected.

  When she was a bit younger, Anna had read plenty of magazines, half-envious and half-confused by the lives of the famous people described within them. Rakim was a man who was featured regularly in magazines throughout the world, but in their time together, there was never any real glamor to it. He wore luxurious clothes, but they were clothes that were also comfortable and worn—ones he had had for years. The house staff prepared him whatever meals he wished, but he was just as likely to go and grab a quick meal on his own, or to share a meal with Anna.

  Sometimes, he seemed like a normal man, if a wealthy one.

  Other days…being in Rakim's life was like living in some kind of fairy tale. She still couldn't forget the first time he had taken her riding on the mountain trails.

  “I'm afraid that I don't know how to ride,” she protested. “I've never been on a horse, let alone tried to steer one down a mountain.”

  “It will be fine,” he said with confidence. “If you have never ridden before, I will certainly not force you to ride alone. You will simply ride with me.”

  He had said it like it was law. She dressed in her warmest jeans and sweater, and she followed him apprehensively out into the stable. The horses all looked enormous to her, and though most of them looked very friendly, Rakim led her to fiery gray steed that was practically dancing in its stall.

  “Ah, there we are, my darling,” Rakim crooned, stroking his hand along the horse's arching neck. “What a perfect beauty you are.”

  “Is...this one your favorite?” Anna asked warily, looking up at the horse. Unlike the others, it was tall and sleek, its eyes as bright as stars.

  “This is Marta, and he's one of the prizes of my stable, yes. He is the product of three generations of careful breeding, all starting with
my father.”

  She could see the beauty in the horse and the pride that Rakim took in it. It was a gorgeous animal, but its height and its size made her nervous.

  “I am not sure that I can do this, Rakim,” she murmured. “I am not sure that that horse likes me all that much.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  The question startled her, and she looked up at him in confusion.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It is a simple question at the bottom of it, Anna. Do you trust me or not?”

  There was a slight smile on his face, but there was something more serious behind it. She knew that whatever answer she gave, it would have to be the truth. The sheikh would accept nothing less. She thought for a moment, and she knew what her answer had to be.

  “Yes, I do trust you,” she said softly, and a white grin split his face.

  “Good. Then believe me when I say that you are going to be all right. I would never do anything that was going to cause you pain or injury. So today, you are going to learn a bit about riding. Come here, I want you to meet Marta.”

  She took a deep breath, realizing that it was time to put her money where her mouth was. Marta looked at her as if he were deciding between stomping her or licking her, but when Rakim had her feed him a sugar cube, he decided on the later. She was startled by how soft and velvety the horse's nose was, and by how softly he could lip the sugar away from her.

  “There,” said Rakim, nodding approvingly as she ran her hand along the animal's neck. “Now that you are friends, we can take you riding.”

  She laughed, because surely there was more to it than that, but as it turned out, Rakim wasn't kidding at all. Instead of having one of the hovering stable hands saddle Marta for him, he did it himself, and when he was done, he boosted Anna up on the wide saddle. For a moment, she blinked owlishly on top of the horse, who whickered and paced in place. It felt as if there were a small earthquake going off only underneath her, and she tensed, but then Rakim was vaulting up behind her.

  When she felt his broad chest against her back and his arms settling on either side of her, Anna felt herself relax slightly. He was here, and she did trust him. He was not going to let anything happen to her.

  Of course, that feeling of safety only lasted as long as it took for them to clear the stable. The moment they were on the trail, he squeezed the horse's sides with his knees, and they were off.

  "I thought you were going to start off at a walk!" she protested, and he laughed.

  "Remember that the faster the horse goes, the more smooth the ride is. I thought that you might appreciate a quicker trip up the mountain."

  "How very thoughtful of you!"

  Despite her initial fear, however, Anna quickly learned to enjoy the trip. She hung on to the saddle-horn in front of her, but somehow, despite the speed and the rocky trail, she never felt too frightened. She knew that Rakim was watching out for her, making sure that she was never anything but steady.

  It seemed like no time had passed at all before he wheeled Marta around, turning him off the trail and towards what looked like a small paddock.

  "Here, let me help you down. You're going to like this."

  Getting off the horse was harder than getting on, Anna discovered. The moment her feet touched the ground, she grunted, suddenly aware of a stinging soreness in her inner thighs.

  "It is normal," Rakim assured her. "When you learn to ride properly, the soreness will be a thing of the past."

  "I will be honest,” she said, "I don't think that I ever thought about riding as something that I would personally do before today."

  "And now?"

  "Well, now thanks to you and Marta, maybe I will consider it."

  He laughed at her cautious answer.

  "Well let me see if I can further convince you," he said with a slight smile. "Will you come with me?"

  She started to follow him, but her legs felt like jelly. She was astonished at how tiring simply sitting on a horse could be.

  "I'll be along in just a moment," she said, but then she squeaked with surprise as Rakim scooped her up in his arms.

  "I'm the impatient sort," he said wickedly. "I like getting my own way."

  "I know all about that," she retorted, thinking of their last night together, but she smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  He carried her to the edge of the paddock. From where she had stood it had looked like it sloped down the mountainside, but when she could look over the edge, she saw that it was a steep drop.

  "Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, burying her face in Rakim's shoulder, "I didn't know we were up so high!"

  He laughed a little, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

  "Do not worry, darling," he said. "I have a hold on you here, just like I did when you were on Marta's back. Why don't you look out beyond the drop-off? This is what I brought you here for."

  "I...I am not sure I can," she said, her heart still beating hard from the scare. "I'm not afraid of heights, but I am also not very fond of them."

  He gave her another kiss, this one on her earlobe. It was warmer and more sensual than the one before, and it sent shivers through her. Somehow, her fear of the edge only made the pleasure more delicious and she clung to him even tighter.

  "I think I gave you an order," he purred. "Or should I show you that I am the master here, too?"

  "Unfair," she whimpered, but she knew that it was a lost cause. His method of showing her he was master was simply to lay her down and pleasure her until she gave in. Perhaps once or twice she had defied him on purpose to make him prove his status, but in general, it was a very convincing strategy.

  "Well?"

  "All right, I'll look," she said, taking a deep breath. Slowly, she turned her head to see.

  What she saw made her jaw drop. The entire valley was spread out below her. She could see the palace, but beyond that, she could see the town. There were the fields, green and gold, and the deeper green of the forest, so dark it was nearly black. Above that all was the bright blue sky, perfectly cloudless and smooth, and all Anna could think was that she could drown in this beauty.

  "Well, little one? Is it worth looking?"

  "Yes," she said with a smile. "Absolutely. Thank you for helping me to look...master."

  She said the phrased deliberately low and husky. Anna was still not always sure what the world-famous sheikh saw in her, but she was not above using it for her own ends from time to time.

  She glanced up coyly to see that his blue eyes were darker now as he looked at her. His body was powerful, holding her tirelessly, but now she could tell that there was another strain to it as well, a thread of need that ran between them and that was now pulled taut.

  "Sheikhs were once conquerors," he said softly, pulling her back from the edge. He set her down on the soft grass and came to rest at her side. There was a nip to the air that kept it from being balmy, but the slight chill simply made her more alert, hungrier in a way that she couldn't quite describe.

  "Were they?" she asked softly, and he nodded.

  "They would descend on lands with their armies at their back, and they would offer terms, surrender or die. Those who surrendered were taken into the empire, made free citizens...but perhaps not all would be."

  Anna swallowed, stroking Rakim's hand gently. She had always heard that rich men had soft hands, but his were rough from his years of horsemanship.

  "Who were the exceptions?"

  "Sometimes, a sheikh would see a local girl, a beauty who captured his eye. He might have wives distantly, he might have been married to his sword as was occasionally said in distant times, but sometimes when he saw a girl, he had to have her."

  "And if she was unavailable?"

  His grin was bright and just short of savage.

  "Then she would be made available for him," Rakim responded. "If he had to, he would sweep in during the night, throwing her household into disarray. He would catch her up on his horse, throwing her before him like
some kind of precious treasure that needed to belong to him, only to him."

  Anna shivered, pressing herself against him. She could imagine how frightened the girl would be, taken away from her quiet life, and how afraid she would be of what came next.

  "Would he take her to some high place, far above the world she had known?" Anna suggested.

  "He might, and after taking her down off his horse, perhaps he would massage her poor thighs, so sore and unused to the saddle. That would change in the days to come, because a sheikh's lover had to be as skilled as he was if she was to follow him across the world, but that first day, perhaps she would be pampered a little, spoiled a little."

  Rakim sat with his back against the tree, and with a little urging, he settled Anna between his spread legs. She leaned her back against his chest, marveling at how comfortable she was, and then she made a soft sound of dismay as he started to work her jeans down her legs.

  "Rakim!"

  "Shhh, don't worry, my little beauty. Let me take care of you."

  She hissed at the shock of cool air against her inner thighs, but when his fingertips started to trace light patterns over her sensitive skin, she couldn't deny that it felt good. Then he started to rub the sore spots in earnest and she groaned, leaning back against him.

  There was a kind of magic in his fingers, she thought hazily. The buzzing soreness that had been there before was slowly and carefully worked away, and in its aftermath, she was left as limp and relaxed as a strand of seaweed.

  When he grew a little too rough, she made a soft whimpering sound and he pulled back a little. When she needed more, she arched up into his hands. Anna lost track of time as she rested in his embrace, letting him massage her soft flesh.

  At some point, she started to feel him grow hard, and in response, she squirmed slightly, pressing back against him even as she came up out of her haze a little. There was no urgency to the passion at all, nothing besides the sweetness that came with being so close to a man who knew her body so well. There was no stress or fear, and as she settled back against him, she opened herself to his touch even more.

  At some point, she lost her jeans and underwear, and in another life, Anna would have been shocked at her wanton display. Now the sunlight was spilling across her utterly bare flesh, in front of the entire world, but all that mattered was the fact that Rakim had his hands on her, that Rakim was touching her and holding her.