Sheikh's Baby of Revenge

by Tara Pammi

  Amira had no idea whether anything she said got through to Adir or not.

  He stared at her quietly, in shock as if she had transformed into something he couldn’t believe right in front of his eyes. As if she had taken a hammer and destroyed the pedestal on which his mother stood.

  And Amira lost all hope.

  “What will you do if Sheikh Karim refuses to acknowledge the connection between the two of you? Steal another bride? Drag his name through mud? He and Zufar are just as much innocents in this as you are.”

  He turned away from her and Amira had had enough.

  “You have to choose, Adir.”

  Fury emanated in those amber eyes, turning them to a burnished gold. “Do not dare to give me ultimatums. You’re my wife.”

  “I’m your wife, and I love you, and I cannot bear to play second fiddle to your past. As long as you cling to the past, there’s no hope. You will never see everything you already are, as I see you, as the tribes see you, as the world sees you—a magnificent ruler, a loving leader, a wonderful husband and a kind lover. You have to choose between your future and your past.”

  He shook his head and Amira fell to the bed, her limbs trembling.

  “No. I can’t. Whether I accept the past or not, I will not love you, Amira.”

  “That is where you’re mistaken. I’m not demanding that you love me no matter what. I’m more than prepared to live with what you do give me. But I can’t bear to be shuffled to second place by the past that haunts you. I can’t bear to love a man whose eyes are filled with shadows of the past. To love a man whose eyes are filled with pain.

  “Tell me, Adir, right this minute, can you look forward to our future, our life with this child, without forever thinking of a life you could have had? A life you should have had. With your father or your mother?”

  He looked as bleak as she felt. “No.”

  “Then we’re at an impasse. Because I will not live with a man who’s stuck in some other place. With a man who’s always looking back.”

  If she thought he felt nothing, the fury that dawned in his eyes shut down that assumption. His stillness was so unnatural given the burn in his amber eyes, the emotions rousing within.

  “You have no choice, Amira. You’re pregnant with my child. You’re my wife. And more than anything else, you love me. You will not leave me. I admit, I’m angry right now. But when I think this through, when I’m calm once more, I will return. And our lives will resume normally.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  IT WAS AMIRA’S favorite time of day when the setting sun painted the sky a myriad of pinks and oranges, and the colors were gloriously reflected in the blue waters that surrounded the palatial house.

  When she walked around the beautifully manicured gardens or took the car to the evening bazaar in the nearby village to enjoy the lovely profusion of colors and smells or when she packed a small picnic and watched the sunset from the beach, she could almost forget the rest of the world.

  And him.

  Almost.

  She could forget that her father called a hundred times a day, ready to rip her into pieces for daring to leave Adir. She could forget that when night came and she lay in that big bed in that huge bedroom, she cried herself to tears most nights. She could forget that in her waking moments, half the time she doubted herself for leaving a man who treated her with respect, kindness, even affection.

  But then there were moments like this when she placed her hands on her belly, and in her heart knew that she had done the right thing.

  She couldn’t live with a man who didn’t understand her love. Who thought it was a weakness he could use to bind her to him.

  Not day in and day out, no.

  Not even for her child.

  She had nothing to bargain with, either. And yet instead of fear, all she felt was courage. This was what he had given her.

  This courage to stand up for herself, this faith in herself and the choices she had made.

  He was going to be furious with her for leaving him, but he would not force her to live with him against her wishes. She had that much faith in him. In her love.

  She could not lose her self-respect just to be near him. As much as she wanted to.

  * * *

  She had barely put away the dishes from her dinner when she heard a car drive up the winding driveway.

  Frowning, she moved to look through the kitchen window. The guard lived in the outbuilding, and the two maids that looked after the house had already retired for the night.

  And then she saw him, a tall, dark form in the lights of the portico.

  Her husband.

  Hands and legs trembling, she made it to the living room just as he walked into the room.

  Fury and something else she couldn’t read settled into the lines on his face so deep he looked like he was sculpted that way. And when he opened his mouth, closed it, walked around the room like a caged wild animal and then smoothed his fingers through his hair roughly, Amira knew what the other something was.

  Fear.

  For her? For the baby?

  “I informed Wasim where I was going before I left,” she said.

  The fury didn’t abate at all. He stared at her as if he’d even forgotten she was there. As if the emotion was still riding him high. “You informed him?” He roared the words as if they were wrenched from him under the promise of pain.

  His fingers grabbed her shoulders, biting into them. He didn’t even seem to realize that he was hurting her.

  Neither did she care. It was the pure torment in his eyes that swept through her. That held her transfixed.

  She had never seen him so out of control. So ragged at the edge that she could almost believe he was falling apart.

  “That’s what you have to say about this? That you informed your guard that you’re leaving me? Leaving our marriage and disappearing to God knows where? That is not how a wife behaves. Given one chance, you’ll walk out on me? Is that what I should expect as a pattern for your future behavior, given the fact that you ran out on Zufar with me?”

  Amira didn’t even know she had swung her arm. Not until her palm met his cheek with a resounding sting that sent shivers up to her elbow.

  She hated violence of any sort and this was what he was reducing her to.

  Tears pooled in her eyes and she brushed them away angrily. Hurt splintered through her.

  “Get out. I don’t want to talk to you. If this is what you think of me, there is no need for words. I want a divorce. I never...” her words came out in a broken whisper “...I never want to see you again.”

  And then, when she thought she would fall apart, he pulled her to him. His arms around her, his mouth pressed against her temple whispering endearments, he held her as he had done that first evening. So tenderly, so gently, as if she were the most precious thing he had ever held. As if he couldn’t breathe if he let go of her.

  “I hate you,” she said. “I hate you for what you said, and I hate you for making me like this. I hate you for twisting my words, for hurting me. I hate you so much that I...sometimes wish I had never met you.”

  “No, Amira. Don’t say that.”

  “I begged you to let me and this child be but you dragged me into your life. I begged you to stay, I laid my heart at your feet, Adir, and you trampled all over it. Still, I’ve stayed strong. For this child. But you...you won’t let me have even this...little peace.”

  “I know, ya habibi, this is all my fault. Please, Amira, do not cry. Not over me. I couldn’t bear that I hurt you. No more.”

  Amira stayed in that embrace, holding onto him desperately, because she knew it would be gone in a minute. If this was what he thought of her... “She’s long gone, Adir. Right or wrong, she is long gone. And you can’t hold onto her. And I won’t blame her anymore when it is you that refuses hap
piness.”

  “I’m so sorry.” His words came out broken, stuttered. “I’ve been out of my mind. I was lashing out, so angry with you. I’m so sorry, ya habibiti.”

  She didn’t want that endearment but Amira didn’t call him out for it. “I told you, I left a message and made sure you would receive it. I took your bloody plane, demanded keys of your housekeeper and moved into your house. The women here, they’re loyal to you. They would have told you what I had for dinner, for God’s sake, if you demanded it. I kept myself safe. I’m not a child, Adir. When will you take me seriously?”

  “I was not worried about your safety. What I said, it was awful and wrong and only reflects badly on me. I couldn’t believe that you could just...”

  “Just what?”

  “Just leave me like that. When I was desperate to believe that you loved me. Just when I was beginning to fall in love with you, too. Just when I was beginning to understand that it was already too late, that you already owned a piece of my heart.”

  Shock waves running through her, she stared. Stupidly.

  He was apologizing and he looked even worse than when he had walked in. Clearly, what he had said to her hurt him even more than her. But now...this...

  Instead of soothing her, it only made her more mad. “Did you take anything I said seriously, ever?”

  “Amira—”

  She pushed away from him, wanting to look in his eyes. “You think I left just like that? You think I say words like I love you because I’m a naive, foolish girl? Make empty promises because I’m all fairy tales and fantasies?

  “I waited all night for you to come back. I worried about what you said to Karim, I worried how he might have hurt you. You sent a message saying you were busy in the morning. You were avoiding me. I didn’t do anything rash. I cried, I dried my eyes, took a shower. I even dallied over breakfast, waiting for you. And then, when you...you made it impossible for me to stay, I left. I called your pilot and arranged for him to pick me up. He couldn’t even reach you. Do you know how worried I was? If I had stayed in that hotel room, I would have...fallen apart.”

  “You left, Amira.”

  He kept repeating it slowly. Amira realized he was not just angry.

  And that fear she had glimpsed, it was fear that he had lost her.

  Lost her forever.

  The anger and hurt and fear that had been sitting like a hard lump in her chest all these days slowly began to deflate. He had been worried that he had lost her. Did she mean so much to him? Would they swing back and forth forever like this?

  No.

  “You declared so arrogantly that I would not think of leaving you because I loved you. Love is not a weakness, Adir. My love for you, it makes me strong.”

  “No, it’s not a weakness, and you were right about my mother. She loved me, yes, but you were right, she was flawed, too. And in her pain, she passed it on to me. Her legacy to me became this bitterness and if not for you, I would have never seen it.”

  Amira thought her heart would burst out of her chest. “What do you mean?”

  “I never went to see Karim that night. I stayed in the bar downstairs, just thinking, of everything you said. Such a fragile woman, such powerful words.”

  “I... I never want you to think I didn’t understand your pain. I just... I wanted you all for myself,” she said.

  “No, Amira, you shone the light into a lifetime of darkness. Every word you said, as the hours passed me by, I realized all of it was right. I realized suddenly I didn’t really care. There’s a certain closure in learning who my father was. In knowing that he loved her just as much as she had loved him. That even though she gave me up, I was born out of love. The minute I embraced that, my desperation to see Karim fell off.”

  When he fell to his knees and buried his face in her belly, fresh tears pooled in her eyes.

  “Everything has changed, Amira. And you’re the one who has done it. All my life, I longed to be acknowledged, to be given my rightful place. I longed for a place to belong. But you are right. I already have a family. It’s you and this child. It’s with the tribes. There’s nothing in life that I don’t have. Except your love, habibi. You, your love, that is what completes me. I’m so sorry for hurting you. For making you feel as if you were second in my life. I love you, Amira, with everything that is in me. You’re the first, Amira, in my heart. Just you.”

  Amira dropped to her knees and almost knocked him off his when she fell into his embrace.

  She was sobbing and he was laughing, and then he kissed her. But this time, he told her how precious she was to him.

  This time, there was no doubt in her mind that she had finally found a place to land.

  With the man she loved.

  With the man who understood her, accepted her and loved her. Just as she was.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed SHEIKH’S BABY OF REVENGE by Tara Pammi look out for the rest of the Bound to the Desert King series!

  SHEIKH’S PREGNANT CINDERELLA

  by Maya Blake

  SHEIKH’S BRIDE OF SCANDAL

  by Dani Collins

  SHEIKH’S SECRET LOVE-CHILD

  by Caitlin Crews

  Coming soon!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from MARRIAGE MADE IN BLACKMAIL by Michelle Smart.

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  Marriage Made in Blackmail

  by Michelle Smart

  CHAPTER ONE

  LUIS CASILLAS SNATCHED his ringing phone off the table and put it to his ear. ‘Sí?’

  ‘Luis?’

  ‘Sí.’

  ‘It’s Chloe.’

  That brought him up short. ‘Chloe... Chloe Guillem.’

  The woman who had spent the past two months treating him as if he were a carrier for a deadly plague?

  ‘Oui. I need your help. My car has broken down on a road on the Sierra de Guadarrama...’

  ‘What are you doing there?’

  ‘Driving. Was driving.’

  ‘Have you called for recovery?’

  ‘They can’t get to me for two hours. My phone is running out of battery. Please, can you come and rescue me? Please? I don’t feel safe.’

  Luis looked at his watch and swore under his breath. He was due at the gala he and his twin brother Javier were hosting in half an hour.

  ‘Is there no one else you can call?’ Chloe worked for his ballet company in Madrid. In the year the gre
garious Frenchwoman had lived in his home city she had made plenty of friends.

  ‘You are the closest. Please, Luis, come and get me.’ Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I’m scared.’

  He took a long breath as he did some mental maths. This gala was incredibly important.

  Ten years ago Luis and his twin had bought the provincial ballet company their prima ballerina mother had spent her childhood training at. Their aim had been to elevate it into a world-renowned, formidable ballet company. First they had renamed it Compania de Ballet de Casillas, in their mother’s memory, then set about attracting the very best dancers and choreographers. Three years ago they had drawn up the plans to move the company out of the crumbling theatre it had called home for decades and into a purpose-built state-of-the art theatre with world-class training facilities and its own ballet school. Those plans had almost reached fruition.

  Now they wanted patrons for it, members of the elite to sponsor the ballet school and put it even more firmly on the world’s ballet map. Europe’s elite and dozens of its press were already gathering at the hotel. Luis had to be there.

  ‘Where exactly are you?’

  ‘You will come?’

  It was the hope in her voice that did for him. Chloe had the sweetest voice he had ever had the pleasure of listening to. It wasn’t girlishly sweet, more melodic, a voice that sang.

  He couldn’t leave her alone on the mountains.

  ‘Sí, I will come and get you, but I need to know where you are.’

  ‘I will send you the co-ordinates but then I will have to turn my phone off to save what is left of my battery.’

  ‘Keep it on,’ he ordered. ‘Have you got anything to hand you can use as a weapon if you need it?’

  ‘I’m not sure...’

  ‘Find something heavy or sharp. Be vigilant. Send me the co-ordinates now. I’m on my way.’

  ‘Merci, Luis. Merci beaucoup.’

  ‘I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’

  Hurrying to his underground garage, he selected the quickest of his fleet of cars, inputted Chloe’s co-ordinates into its satnav, then drove it up the ramp. The moment he was clear, he put his foot down, tearing down his long driveway, past the stretched Mercedes with his waiting driver in it.