To Tame a Sheikh

by Olivia Gates

  She pushed at him with all her strength. “Don’t call me that. I’m not your anything.”

  She could have been fighting a brick wall. His hold didn’t even loosen. He even pulled her closer. “Not yet. But I can be. Your everything, if you only say the word. I can give you everything, Johara. Just name it and it’s yours.”

  Mortification washed over her as the full realization of what he was doing here radiated outward, drenching her in a storm of goose bumps. “Please…don’t do this.”

  He caught her hands, dragged her arms around his neck, held them in place with one hand, the other keeping her head prisoner as he swooped down and latched his lips to her exposed neck. She might have cried out, but the next second, thunder drowned out all her efforts.

  “B’haggej’jaheem, what are you doing?”

  Eight

  Johara’s heart stopped the moment Shaheen’s enraged voice slammed into her back.

  But it wasn’t only her heart that plunged into deep freeze. The paralysis was total as Amjad straightened in degrees, not in any hurry to turn to face Shaheen. She could only stare up at him as he raised his head, releasing her neck from the coldness of his lips, which may as well have been draining her life away. Then she met his eyes and the ice encasing her turned to stone as he let her see what he felt toward her for the first time. Sheer abhorrence.

  One hand was still locking both of hers around his neck. He brought the other one up and her horror deepened. To any onlooker—to Shaheen—it would seem as if he were unclasping the hands she had clamped there of her own will.

  Then Amjad moved aside, affording her a direct look at Shaheen. He was standing under the arch between the foyer and the expansive sitting area. She would have sobbed if she hadn’t been struck mute. She’d never imagined Shaheen looking like that. He looked…frightening.

  “Shaheen, you’re home early.” Amjad turned to his younger brother in a sweep of pure grace and power, unperturbed, imperturbable. “Johara and I were getting…reacquainted.”

  Inside, she was screaming. Don’t believe him. Outside, she could only watch his reaction in mounting horror. Then realization descended and she gave up trying to break out of her paralysis.

  Maybe this was for the best. Shaheen’s best. If he believed Amjad, he’d be hurt, betrayed. But he’d eventually be free of his love for her. Free of her. She wished that for him, the peace and freedom she’d never have.

  Shaheen moved then, walked up to them. Even with desperation descending on her, his every step closer thudded in her now stampeding heart like the ticking of a time bomb. And he didn’t even meet her eyes. He kept his locked on his older brother’s.

  Then he stopped, his gaze moving to the arm maintaining a hold on her waist. Without raising his eyes again he said, “Take your hand off Johara, Amjad. Or have every bone in it broken.”

  She shuddered. His voice was now as pitiless as Amjad’s. Worse. Laden with barely contained aggression.

  Amjad finally let go of her, raised both hands up in a cross between mock placation and false surrender. “Intense. And here I thought you were gentleman enough not to make this more…awkward than it is. So, little brother, is this your way of laying claim to a woman? Threatening other men off? Afraid if you let her choose which man best fulfills her…needs, she won’t choose you? So it is like Johara said. You are leaving her no choice but to succumb to your…attentions.”

  “One more word and you’ll be flat on your back with a broken jaw, spitting out blood and teeth.”

  “I should have believed you when you told me what a caveman he was being.” Amjad’s ruthlessly handsome face shifted from chillingly sincere as he addressed her to devilishly goading as he turned to Shaheen. “That was over a dozen words, by the way.”

  Shaheen pounced, grabbed Amjad by his casual yet superbly cut zippered black sweater. Every nerve in her body slackened as the two majestic forces of nature prepared to collide.

  They were equal in every way, so similar, yet seemed like opposites. Even in his fury, Shaheen’s spirit shone untarnished, radiating a spectrum of positive vibes and influences, while Amjad’s emptiness seemed to suck all light and life from his surroundings, to turn everything dark and hopeless.

  After a breathless moment of tension as she trembled with the need to throw herself between them but forced herself to let this unfold without her intervention, with a mutter of disgust, Shaheen pushed Amjad away so hard that his older brother took several steps backward to steady himself.

  “You’re not worth it,” Shaheen hissed.

  “Go ahead, make me the villain here. But this was mutual.”

  Shaheen bared his teeth on a fed-up grimace. “Shut up.”

  “Or what? You’ve already decided not to sully your hands with my blood.” Amjad straightened his clothes, swept the hair that had rained down his face to frame his slashed cheekbones back in place. “I didn’t know you were that involved, but maybe it’s for the best. You really have to be objective, Shaheen. A woman has a right to look out for her best interests. Johara is justified in looking out for number one and going out for number one. And let’s face it. With your problems, you don’t make the grade.”

  Shaheen gave a vicious snort. “Save your venom, Amjad, even if you have an unlimited supply of it. You must be far less shrewd and insightful than I gave you credit for if you believe for a second I’m buying this farce you staged.”

  Amjad gave him a pitying glance. “Is that what you’re hoping this is? Something I staged? How would I have staged her arms around me when you walked in?”

  “Knowing you, you bulldozed her into it. Knowing her, she was too considerate of who you are—to me, and to her in the past—to blast you off the face of the earth as you deserve.” Shaheen suddenly seemed to think Amjad deserved no more attention, swung to her, his face transforming in a heartbeat from intolerant and unforgiving to the very sight of tenderness and concern. “I’m so sorry, ya joharet galbi, that I exposed you to this indignity.”

  Overwhelmed, she whispered, “You didn’t do anything…”

  “It is on my account that Amjad has insulted you, in an effort to plant doubt in my mind about your feelings and intentions toward me.”

  “You realized what he… You know that I…” She choked, unable to go on. That he trusted her, didn’t even pause to question…

  All thought of giving him up for his own good forgotten, she threw herself into his arms, breath gone, her heart fracturing at his feet from too much love. He soothed her with gentle caresses, his words of love and apology unceasing. “I’ll always know what’s in your heart. You are my heart.”

  “My, Shaheen…” Amjad’s sarcasm fractured their moment of communion. “This has to set a new world record for patheticness. Think, little brother. Why is she back now of all times? Contrary to you, she knows you’re not as clever as you think you are, that we were bound to find out about your ‘secret’ arrangement.”

  Shaheen turned to Amjad, never loosening his hold on her. “We? You mean Father knows, too?”

  Amjad gave a denigrating huff. “With the hoops you’re making him hop through and the condition he’s been in since Aliyah and Anna returned? Nah. But if I put his and hers together when I saw her coming back to the palace all flushed and flustered yesterday while you were pointedly away, I’m sure others of lesser insight will catch on and connect the dots.”

  Shaheen shook his head in amazement. “So enlighten me, Amjad. What is Johara’s plan, in your opinion?”

  Amjad sighed as if he had to explain that things fell down or water was wet to a moron. “She’s after a ransom. Yours. I was pretending to offer her myself in return for unhooking you from her claws when you interrupted.”

  Shaheen massaged her waist, as if to erase Amjad’s accusations and disdain. “But I didn’t interrupt. You dragged me away on a wild-goose chase, waited for Johara, timed your performance so I’d walk in to see her presumably in your arms. And you thought I’d charge in and accuse h
er of betraying me.”

  Amjad looked the image of uncaring boredom. “Would have been less…traumatic for you lovebirds if you had. Pity. I gave ‘nice’ a shot. I should have stuck with my forte—nasty. Now I will.”

  “First, you’ll do nothing, Amjad. Second, if Johara wanted to be bribed to leave gullible me alone, why do you think she insisted on all this secrecy?”

  Amjad gave him a ridiculing look. “Because letting you loose when you believe she walks on water will fetch a far higher price. And it worked. I was willing to pay top dollar.”

  Shaheen only laughed at that, looked down at her, no longer seething with affront, but highly entertained. “What would it cost for you to let go of me, ya joharti?”

  A smile twisted with a wince on her lips. “You know.”

  Shaheen stilled them in a fierce kiss before he looked back at Amjad. “Only I can make her let go of me, Amjad. And I’m never letting her go. So why don’t you get down on your knees and beg Johara’s forgiveness, then get out of here?”

  Amjad huffed in disgust. “She really has you clinging around her pinky with your face smashed against it, doesn’t she? Fine. Every man has a right to choose his poison. But risking war for her? Tsk.”

  “If you’re so concerned about war, why don’t you do something about it? Break your pathetic vow never to marry again and take one of those brides they want to shove down my throat.”

  “Oh, I did break it, when I saw you kicking and screaming. I thought as crown prince they’d jump at my offer. But father came back to me with the consensus within an hour. No bride will have me. They believe I’ll go all Shahrayar or Othello on them. Even if their families are willing to sacrifice their daughters at the altar of my madness, the families think I’ll turn on the next of kin. Comes from being viewed as a force that can’t be approached let alone harnessed and profited from, I guess.”

  Shaheen guffawed. “Aw, thanks for trying to spare me that at least. But I’m so glad you’re not shocked that you were turned down. You have been tearing through the kingdom—and the world—with borderline sane actions and insane gambles.”

  Amjad’s gaze grew more ridiculing. “Really? Then how has each one paid off big-time? Maybe I’m not as irrational as you all like to think I am. Digest this and gain new insight into your mad brother’s actions and convictions. You’ll find I’m right about other things, too.” He flicked Johara a just-wait-until-I’m-through-with-you look. “Her, for instance. Even if you can’t think so now, being caught in her love spell.”

  Johara saw Shaheen’s eyes soften. “It’s you who are under a spell—of hatred. You knew and loved Johara once, too. Yet you can’t access that knowledge or that love because of the paranoia you’ve been trapped in since Salmah. You will never understand that I’d mistrust myself before I would Johara. I trust her with my life, and far more.”

  Amjad pretended to dust himself off. “Yuck. All that sticky nonsense will take some heavy-duty sense to wash off. Well, you go ahead and smother yourself in her honey trap for now, while I—”

  He stopped, turned his head. Then she, too, heard what had caught his attention. A faraway drone. It was getting louder, nearer by the second. In moments, it was unmistakable.

  A helicopter.

  Amjad turned back, derision turning his beauty into that of an unrepentant devil. “Uh-oh. Sounds like the cavalry have realized what you’re up to and are charging here to save you from your mushy heart and malfunctioning mind.”

  Giving him one last impatient look, Shaheen clasped her hand and led her to the western veranda, where she noticed for the first time a clearance that must be a launching/landing pad.

  It was. In seconds, the helicopter landed there. As the rotors winded down, a very tall, broad man jumped down from the pilot’s side. He rushed to the passenger’s side to help a woman down, his movements as tender as Shaheen’s were with her. She worked out the woman’s identity when she recognized the man. Kamal Aal Masood, the king of Judar.

  Sure enough, Aliyah came into view, proving Johara’s deduction. And deepening her agitation.

  From the grim expression on Aliyah’s face as she approached the villa with her juggernaut of a husband, Johara knew that her reason for interrupting them the other night hadn’t been resolved. And Johara was certain that it concerned her. Probably Amjad’s same concern. And Aliyah was back to broach the subject with Shaheen, with a one-man army as reinforcement.

  The regal couple walked into the villa. Shaheen received them with her at his side, hugging them both and introducing her to Kamal. Kamal gallantly kissed her hand. Aliyah gave her the accustomed three kisses, one on one cheek, two on the other. It all seemed genial enough, but Johara vibrated with the tension radiating from the couple, from the whole scene.

  Amjad advanced on them, pulled Aliyah in for a quick kiss, thumped Kamal on the back, then got to the point without preamble, breaking the stilted cordiality. “So, Kamal, what warrants the presence of the king of Judar on our soil and on such a clandestine visit, too?”

  Kamal gave Amjad a smile that echoed his own, that of a man who knew his own power to its last iota, was versed in wielding it to its most destructive limits, who tolerated nothing but his own way, always. “So which part of ‘clandestine’ don’t you get, Amjad?”

  Aliyah arched an exquisite eyebrow at him. “Yes, Amjad, if we wanted you to be involved, we wouldn’t have come here.”

  Amjad held a hand to his heart as if Aliyah had shot him there with a barb. “Whoa. My little cousin-turned-sister has grown some sharp fangs. Especially with your weapon-of-mass-destruction husband at hand.”

  Kamal coughed a laugh. “If you think she’s baring her fangs because I’m here, then you should be reintroduced to your little cousin-turned-sister. I’m the one who holds her back when she wants to rip you to shreds. You remind her too much of me before she…unscrambled me.”

  Amjad gave him a look of mock sweetness, belittlment blaring in it. “Yes, I can see you’re all ‘fixed.’”

  Aliyah harrumphed. “You should be so lucky to find someone who’d ‘fix’ you, too, Amjad.”

  “How about I pass, sis? For the next few rein carnations.”

  Kamal stepped nearer, his smile becoming as confrontational as Amjad’s was disparaging. “How about I ‘fix’ you myself?”

  Amjad’s smile grew more provoking. He was clearly spoiling for the fight Shaheen had denied him. “That’s how you get your kicks nowadays, Kamal? You can’t win against the lady who has you whipped, so you pick fights to win her lenience? Shaheen just finished attempting the same thing, by the way.”

  “You know, Amjad, I’ve been wanting to deck you for a long time. Now is as good a time as any to finally act on the impulse.”

  As the two men squared off, Johara found herself absently thinking they could have been brothers, too. And it wasn’t just their height and looks. Kamal had more in common with Amjad than Shaheen did. There was the same harshness about him, chiseled into his face and carved into his being. This man could be ruthless. Must regularly be so, to be able to govern Zohayd’s big sister kingdom so well, to be obeyed so completely in this volatile region.

  Aliyah pushed the two men apart, one hand perpendicular to the other. “Okay, testosterone timeout. In your corners, boys.”

  Johara blinked at the transformation that came over Kamal as he looked at Aliyah. It was a shock to see softness melting him, love and devotion possessing his every feature and move. Johara recognized the emotions that she and Shaheen shared. She had no doubt Aliyah was everything to Kamal, that he’d die for her. And vice versa.

  Kamal gave Aliyah a loving squeeze. “Just because you wish it, ya rohi. But next time you want to shred him, let me know.”

  Amjad snorted. “So apart from airing the fond fantasies you all have of beating me up, can I hope you’re here on an undercover mission to save Shaheen from his stupidity, too?”

  Kamal’s lips twisted. “Maybe I’m here to show him some youngest
-brother solidarity, sharing my expertise in swatting off nuisance older brothers.”

  “You mean Farooq and Shehab?” Amjad huffed. “Those softies who left you the throne to be with their sweethearts? I almost feel it’s my duty to coach them in how to make your life harder. You have it way too easy.” At Aliyah’s jab in his gut, Amjad rolled his eyes, exhaled. “Fine. Keep your regal secrets. For now. I’ll leave you foursome to your sickeningly sweet double date.” He nodded at Johara as a parting shot. “I’ll be watching you.”

  The other three bristled. Johara almost blurted out that he wouldn’t have to, not for long. But Shaheen hugged her closer to him, his protective gesture deepening her muteness.

  As soon as Amjad was out of earshot, strolling nonchalantly to the door, Kamal gave a heavy exhalation. “We came here for an update on the progress of your plan and to give you our input, but…” He paused, looked apologetically at Aliyah then Shaheen. “I know I promised, and Amjad is a world-class and probably one-of-a-kind pain, but he’s an extensively powerful one, not to mention he’s got a major stake in this. Though I agree secrecy is paramount, I do believe he and Harres should be brought in now, not later. We need them.”

  Shaheen’s eyes flared with alarm. “I need more time. My plan is working. I’m gathering more information every day.”

  Kamal shook his head, emphatic, final. “It’s not working well enough or fast enough, Shaheen, and you know it.”

  “What plan?” Johara clutched Shaheen’s arm, her heart thudding with dread. “What’s going on, Shaheen?”

  Shaheen looked down at her, entreaty setting his eyes ablaze. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with, ya habibati.”

  Aliyah placed her hand on his other arm. “No, Shaheen. I now believe Johara has nothing to do with this. And since she doesn’t, she needs to know. This involves her, too, as much as or even more than it does any of us.”

  Johara’s heart almost uprooted itself as she watched Shaheen close his eyes for a long moment, confusion and worst-case scenarios crashing through her mind.