“He’s here early,” Rupert said with a terse frown in Samir’s direction, earning a sharp look of warning from Ashley. Ashley, with his short cropped hair and heavy-set frame, was hard to see as a threat. But as for Rupert, with his striking good looks and obvious resentment to Samir, he was looking more and more like a jealous boyfriend, and Sam didn’t like that one bit.
Not that he was threatened. He would freely admit he’d never felt for anyone what he felt for Grace. Their chemistry was irreplaceable. But she spent day in, day out, with these men. Was it possible she’d shared more with Rupert than energy bills and cereal?
“I invited him,” Grace said, oblivious to Rupert’s scowl. “I’m glad you could make it.” Her gaze fell to the distinctive Harrods bag hooked over his shoulder.
“Just a few offerings for Jacob,” Sam said with a boyish smile that made Grace’s stomach flip flop.
“You really shouldn’t have,” she said. “He’s quite spoiled enough as is.”
“It is just a few things.” Sam crouched down and picked the small boy up, delighting in the way Jacob pressed a big, bubbly kiss into his cheek. “May I give them to him?”
“Of course,” Grace said, but it was all she was capable of uttering. Her throat was swiftly closing over with emotion. The sight of the two of them together pierced her heart. They were so clearly alike, seeing them like this made her feel desperate for all they’d missed. All of them. With eyes suddenly bright, she excused herself from the dining room, moving to the kitchen to open the wine and pull herself together.
“He doesn’t like Thomas,” she heard Rupert saying accusingly, minutes later when she rejoined them, carefully holding a tray with four wine glasses.
“Rupert,” Ashley warned quietly.
“Well, he doesn’t. Something you’d have known if you had been around.”
Grace was amazed that Sam was able to tolerate such unkindness. She placed the tray onto the table and turned to defend Sam, but the look he gave her was enough to keep her quiet. A small smile of reassurance, and a tussle of Jacob’s hair, and she visibly relaxed.
“You are right, Rupert. I have not been here. But I intend to be around from here on in.” He modulated his voice, so that he might as well have been recounting the alphabet for all the malice it contained. “So you are going to have to get used to my presence in their lives. Besides,” he scooped up the small Thomas the Tank Engine replica and held it in his hand. “All little kids learn to like Thomas at some stage.” And with exaggerated chug-chug noises, he drove the train from the little boy’s ankle, along his calf, up his tummy to tickle under his chin. It elicited great peals of laughter from Jacob, who smacked his little hands together and said, “Mo! Mo!”
“You want more?” To his credit, he didn’t show Rupert even a hint of gloating when he smiled up at the other three adults in the room.
Grace realized that Rupert was under the same spell as she. They were, after all, so alike, and it was difficult to tear your eyes away from the picture they made.
“Come on, my little cherub,” she said, “It’s time for you to have your bath. Would you like to help me, Sam?”
Sam simply put his hand out, and on autopilot she placed her own hand in his. “Lead the way,” and his eyes were filled with sensual promise that did funny things to her whole body.
“Is it always this disastrously messy?” He asked, five minutes later when the entire bathroom was covered in bubbles and water, and every bath toy Jacob possessed had been joyously launched from the bath, to anywhere else.
“Pretty much.” She looked over Jacob’s little head, and caught Sam’s eyes. “I’m sorry about Rupert. He’s very protective of me.”
“I gathered as much,” he said, without giving away his suspicion that the other man was, or had been, in love with her.
“He’s a really great guy, though, Sam. Don’t judge him for caring.”
Samir felt his frustration increase. He didn’t want Grace to live with ‘really great’ men. He wanted her all to himself. And though he prided himself on being politically progressive, he knew that with Grace, he was capable of doing whatever it took to have her in his life, and more importantly, in his bed. Even if it meant kidnapping her and Jacob, he’d do it.
Settling Jacob to sleep that night took a little longer than usual, as Sam insisted on reading all of his favorite books, peppering each with questions to Grace about Jacob’s development and growth.
Finally, as he began what he promised would be his final iteration of The Gruffalo, she let out a small laugh of frustration. “This truly is the last one, you two.” Turning to place a kiss on Jacob’s forehead she smiled down at this beautiful child who she adored with all her heart. “Mummy’s going to check on dinner. Sam will turn the light out in a minute. I love you, sweetie.”
Sam watched her go, and again, the intensity of his feelings for her, and what they made him capable of, terrified him.
“Rupert, listen,” she said after removing the Coq au Vin from the heat and pulling out four bowls. “Try to be a little nicer to Sam, okay? He had no idea about Jacob. I have no doubts he would have helped out if he’d been here.”
“It’s not that,” he said, taking a long sip of his wine. “You guys obviously had sex. You don’t have to be a genius to realize you should swap numbers just in case something like this happens. Come on, Grace. You were stupid then, don’t be stupid now, too.”
“Hey,” Ashley, busy fishing cutlery out of the drawer frowned at Rupert. “That’s uncalled for.”
“Thank you, Ash, but I can defend myself. Rupert, you, of all people should give up lecturing me about this.” She was so annoyed she didn’t hear the clicking shut of Jacob’s door, nor the quiet approach of Samir’s footsteps. “I’m not like you. I don’t have a revolving door to my bedroom. You might be well versed in the etiquette of one night stands, because, God knows, you’ve had enough of them to have written the bloody book. But I’ve only slept with two men in my whole life. You, and him. And I didn’t know that there should have been black and white rules in play. What should I have done, hmm? Asked him before we got down to business to leave his number, email address and postal address on the fridge? Maybe a bank account too, just in case I needed help with the expenses?”
Samir’s face was ash beneath his golden skin. He hadn’t even thought about the financial burden which Grace had been forced to endure on her own. The knowledge that he had been right about Grace and Rupert was far from pleasing to him. He hovered just outside the kitchen, and the only reason he didn’t barge straight in was because he wasn’t sure he could trust himself not to start throwing punches.
“He should have got in touch,” Rupert said moodily.
“What he should and shouldn’t have done is none of your business, Rupert. Besides, Sam’s explained it to me, and I understand. I understand why it wasn’t possible for him to contact me. I believe him when he says he’s sorry.” She took in a deep breath. “I like this guy, Rupert, and I want you to like him, too. He’s Jacob’s dad, and he deserves to be in our lives. But even if it weren’t for Jacob, I like him. I know you have always felt you sort of own me, but you don’t. If you can’t accept this, then I don’t know what I can say to you.”
“I don’t accept it,” Rupert snapped back abruptly. “You are way better than him. What do you even know about him, Grace? You know his name, and that’s it.”
Her skin colored, because she knew he was right. “It’s none of your business,” she sounded upset, and Sam longed to burst through the doors and take her away, over his shoulder if that’s what it took. No one got to upset her. No one got to speak to her like this.
“It’s none of your business,” she reiterated.
“Come on. I’ve given up the last two years of my life to help you when you were pregnant; to help you raise Jacob. You don’t think that gives me a say? This prick left you pregnant and alone at twenty two and now you want us to throw open our arms to him?”
<
br /> Sam took a step back. She’d been twenty four, hadn’t she? He thought back to that night. How young she’d looked. She’d looked like a teenager. And she’d been only a little older than one. Why had she lied? He closed his eyes against the rolling guilt flooding through him.
“Guys,” Ashley interrupted, “this is ridiculous. I know you have a lot of history. Rupert, you love Grace. Grace, you love Rupert. We all love Jacob. We have to do what’s best for him, and even you, Rupert, can acknowledge that having Sam in his life is a good thing.”
“I certainly don’t have to acknowledge that. Why does Jacob need him?”
“Because I am his father,” Sam said, and when he strode purposefully into the kitchen, his face was so dark with rage that even Grace felt a thrill of fear. “I was not aware that I needed a panel to approve my relationships. But now that I see I do, let me say this. I am here and I intend to be in Grace and Jacob’s life. I am his father, and if you knew anything about me at all, you would know that blood ties matter to me, more than anything else.”
“You live in another country,” Rupert said, clearly too angry to be sensible and keep quiet.
Grace bit down on her lower lip as she saw Sam pin him with a look so cold it was glacial. “I have asked Grace to bring Jacob to visit me. And I’m confident she will.”
“What?” Ashley surprised Grace by interjecting. “You can’t be serious.”
“Sam,” Grace threw him a measured look. “I think this was a mistake. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can have you at the Round Table dinner.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Samir felt an unfamiliar emotion, perhaps rejection, as he realized she was about to throw him out.
Slowly, Grace crossed the room and put her hand in his. Though she looked as calm as anything, up close, Sam could feel her hand shaking. She looked first at Ashley and then at Rupert. “We’re going out for dinner. We can talk about this when I get back.”
She tugged on Sam’s hand and he followed, wordlessly.
Once they were out in the warm evening air, walking into a sky that was tinged peach and pink, she let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m so sorry, Sam. I misjudged things. I should never have suggested tonight without speaking to them properly first.”
Samir angled his head away from her on the pretence of watching a car sail by. “You should not have to get approval for them to make decisions affecting your private life.”
“You must understand, it’s a little more complex than that.”
“Because you and Rupert were lovers?”
She tugged her hand away and wrapped her arms around her slender waist. “It complicates things, yes.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“When? That night we were together, it didn’t seem to matter much. I didn’t interrogate you about your past. And you didn’t volunteer the information. How many women have you slept with?”
Sam hesitated. There was no way he could be honest with Grace about that. He had been born to a position of rare privilege and wealth and he had certainly enjoyed a large portion of his twenties to the utmost. “I see your point.”
It didn’t escape Grace that he hadn’t responded, but she was too angry with Rupert to really care.
“But,” Sam said after a few minutes of quiet had elapsed, “I do not live with any of my ex girlfriends.”
“We were friends for a long time,” she said thoughtfully. “Since we were kids. We briefly thought there was more there.”
“How long did you date for?”
“Two years.”
Sam coughed to hide his surprise. “That is not briefly,” he said quietly.
Grace shrugged. “It wasn’t serious.”
“Perhaps not for you, but I believe Rupert is still as in love with you now as he was then.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You’re wrong. He’s the one who ended it. He wasn’t ready to commit, apparently.”
“Idiot,” Sam said sympathetically, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight to his side. He liked the way she felt there. Snug against the hard planes of his body, her head just at the right height to kiss whenever he wanted.
“And,” Sam said as they rounded a corner and entered the Kings Road, “you were apparently not completely honest with me about your age.”
“Argh!” She clasped a hand to her mouth. “I had forgotten all about that.” She lifted her eyes to his face and quickly looked away again. “I don’t even know why I didn’t tell you the truth. I think there was a part of me that was terrified you might not find me attractive if you knew I was only twenty two.”
He frowned. “I shouldn’t have. I’m twelve years your senior, Grace. But even if I had known, I don’t think there was anything on earth that would have made me turn away from you that night.”
She changed the subject to cover the effect his words had had on her. “This place is good. Shall we eat here?” She pointed to a little Italian restaurant next door to a pub.
“Only if you promise me one thing.” He said, pausing just outside the door and putting his arms around her waist.
“What?” She asked huskily.
“That you’ll cook me, and just me, your legendary Coq au Vin another time.”
She let out a small laugh. “I think that can be arranged.”
Dinner was one of those rare, unquantifiable experiences. She learned so much about Sam that by the end of the night, she felt she could have aced a quiz on him. She knew about his three younger sisters, and his mother, and his father, and it became even more apparent to her how much he loved his country. But as he’d spoken of Elaminar, she’d felt herself getting more and more caught up in the place he described. “It’s a very progressive state,” he said proudly. “Religiously tolerant, great education system, good health care. Crime is low. You will love it.”
“Don’t pressure me, Sam. You know I can’t just agree to bring Jacob out there. You’ve only been back in my life two days.”
“I know. I am truly not trying to pressure you. I’m sorry. My exuberance gets away from me sometimes. I just know how much you will love it. And how much my mother will love him.”
She nodded, grateful that he seemed so quick to understand. “I know. I just have to remember that I’m making decisions for two people these days.”
“Three people,” he reminded her seriously, leaning forward and taking her hand in his. “Remember that our fates are now, and always will be, intertwined.”
She gulped and lifted her wine glass to her lips. “I know. I’m trying to do the right thing for you, too.”
His smile was wide, breaking the serious mood. Afterwards, as they walked back to her place, Grace said, “Sam, I’m working tomorrow night. Usually Ash and Rupert mind Jacob. But why don’t you?”
“Are you sure I’ll be welcome?” He pressed with a cynical twist of his lips.
“That’s not up to them. It’s my house and my son, and if they’ve really got a problem with it, then they can move out.”
“I am sure it won’t come to that,” he said, but inside, he was relieved at her quick willingness to separate from the other men. It would make it all the easier for her to accept his deception when she arrived in Elaminar if she weren’t pining for Ashley and Rupert. A burden of guilt lifted from his shoulders. That was one less problem he had to contend with at least. “As for spending time with Jacob, I would be delighted. Thank you, Grace.”
“It’s no problem. You are his dad, after all. And you’re great with him. Where does that come from?”
Oddly enough, he had no idea. “I’ve never had much to do with children. I just feel very comfortable with Jacob.”
She thought about that as they walked home, and wondered if there was some secret genetic realization that had flared in their child the minute he’d seen Sam. None of the usual toddler tantrums had emerged. Usually, Jacob was jealous of anyone new, who threatened to take his mother’s attention. But with Sam, he seemed completely a
t ease.
They rounded the corner into Grace’s street and unconsciously, their pace slowed so that they were hardly moving. For Grace’s part, she was reluctant to the end their night together. But, even at a snail’s pace, they finally reached her door.
“Would you like to come up?”
“I don’t think that is a good idea, somehow.”
“Ah!” She said with mock accusation. “You’re leaving me to face the music on my own. How ungallant of you.”
“I think you are more than capable, Grace.” He stared into her mesmerizing eyes, and Grace had the strangest sense of time standing still. They were barely touching, but only an inch or two separated their bodies. She tilted her face to his, unknowingly inviting him to draw her in, to be nearer to her. Her breathing was labored now, as desire overtook every other sensation in her body.
“You know,” Samir said in a voice that was thick with lust, “it occurs to me that we never shared a proper first kiss.”
Passion ran, like an out of control wildfire, through her body. “I don’t remember our first kiss as being lacking in any way.”
He shook his head slowly from side to side. “It was not lacking, no. It was a prelude to sharing a bed. A proper first kiss should be more like this.”
And he slowly, gently, looped one arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. Her eyes flew up to his and expectantly, she dipped her tongue out to moisten her lower lip. He watched the small gesture, feeling his need for her stirring hard and fast. He brought his other hand up and ran it through her hair, pulling at the long, silky blonde waves with fascination. He could see from the rise and fall of her cleavage that she was as desperate for him as he was for her.
He lowered his head and, at the precise instant she parted her lips, he claimed them. Desire threatened to swamp out rational thought but he knew his plan hindered on convincing Grace that theirs was a relationship of romance and love, as well as passion. Passion they had in spades. And so, though he wanted nothing more than to pile her into his car and drive her to his executive suite in the city, and spend the night making love to her over and over, he forced himself to exercise restraint.
One Night with The Sheikh: An accident of fate brought them together, and it would bind them for the rest of their lives. Page 7
