Sheikh's Pregnant Princess

by Sophia Lynn

  When she had finally delivered her child - their son - her cry had mingled with his, victorious against all the odds.

  Elise had nearly wept when they laid her perfect son on her belly, sweat running down her face.

  "I must look awful," she said with a laugh, and Nadim shook his head.

  "No," he said, his voice full of tenderness. "You are beautiful."

  "Oh, you are so beautiful," said another voice, and startled, Elise looked around for the woman who had spoken. At first, she thought it was one of the nurses, but then she saw the figure by the door.

  The woman was Middle Eastern with a river of dark black hair that flowed down to her waist. She wore a bright turquoise dress that skimmed the floor, and she moved like the flight of birds skimming over the sea.

  She was beautiful, but something about her told Elise that she was dangerous, and she lifted a hand to ward the other woman off. She didn’t know how she knew, but there was a great feeling of fear in her heart.

  She came close to Nadim, gazing up at him with a pretty smile. For some reason that Elise couldn't understand, Nadim's face was in the shadows.

  "My son is so beautiful. You should give him to me now," she said.

  Of course Nadim wouldn't do that. Of course Nadim wouldn't give her son to a stranger, but then with a sinking feeling in her chest, Elise realized that this was no stranger.

  This was his wife.

  The woman was so beautiful that she could have outshone the sun, and when she smiled, despite what she meant to Elise and the child that she had just birthed, Elise felt warmer.

  In pain and confusion, Elise turned to Nadim, but Nadim only had eyes for his wife.

  “Of course, darling,” he said with a soft smile, and with that same quickness that Elise had often admired, he took the baby from Elise's arms and handed him to his wife.

  “Oh, he's perfect,” the woman cooed, laying a soft kiss on the infant's head. It would have been the perfect picture of domestic love if it hadn't been Elise's child she was holding. It was her child, wasn't it? Despite the tears that were falling down Elise's face, she couldn't be sure. Was that her child? She was the one who had given birth to him.

  She realized that Nadim was looking down at her with a dark gleam in his eyes. She knew, she knew, that this man was never going to bring her harm, but despite that, she shrank away from him, folding in on herself with a soft whimper.

  “Do you really think that you have any rights to that child at all?” he asked, his tone deceptively mild. “Do you think that you are going to be allowed to be a mother to a child that you have sold?”

  She wanted to protest. She hadn't understood. He was the one who had made the offer to her, and now he was telling her this? It was too terrible. She couldn't let them have her child. She couldn't let some woman, no matter how rich or how beautiful, take away the child that she already loved more than life itself...

  But that was what was happening.

  The woman, never looking up at Elise, never giving her a second look, walked away, still holding her son, still speaking soft endearments to him, and with a scornful look, Nadim followed her out the door.

  Elise could feel the tears falling down her cheeks, she could feel the deep and yawning emptiness in her where love and warmth should have been, and as she started to scream with despair, she woke up with a start.

  “Elise? Elise, stop, you are dreaming. It is all right, I promise, you are only dreaming...”

  For a moment, she refused to believe him. The shock of the dream was slow to fade, and for a moment, she simply gazed at him with wild accusation, certain that he was the man who was going to take her child away. Then she realized that it was a dream, but the belief was still true. If everything went according to the plan that she had agreed to, he was going to take her child away.

  Somehow instead of making her want to draw away from him, it made her bury her face in his chest.

  “Oh, oh little songbird, poor thing...”

  The terrible thing was that the world still felt right when she was in his arms. She still felt as if he would make everything fine, that it would all work out someday. Even as Elise's heart scrambled for traction, she couldn't bear the hope. She had lived her life depending on no one but herself, and right now, she had no reason in the world to change that.

  She was just getting herself back under control when she looked up and realized that Nadim was already fully dressed. For a moment, she thought that she had somehow slept through the day, but then she realized that it was still dim, barely morning out the windows, and she saw that he was wearing a sharply-cut gray suit, not something he would have worn every day on the island.

  “Nadim...”

  He made a face, and then with a regretful sound, he pulled away from her. When Nadim stood up, Elise wondered if some kind of wall fell down between them, something that would block them from each other. She didn't know why, but it suddenly felt as if he were a million miles away.

  “I am sorry, but I need to return to Hadara,” he said, his voice heavy. “I do not know when I will be able to return.”

  “Oh,” Elise said uncertainly. The vestiges of the dream still clung to her. She didn't quite understand what he was saying. “Do you mean that you do not know what day you will be returning, or...”

  Nadim flinched, and he shook his head. He had seemed as if he was in a hurry to leave, but now he sat down on the bed again and took her hand.

  “No...I mean that I do not know whether I will be able to return. There are affairs at home that have apparently been neglected, and I must attend to them. There is...a great deal that I wish I could tell you, but I cannot.”

  He paused, took a deep breath, and looked into her eyes. He may not have said that he loved her the night before, when all of the world seemed to be whipping around them, but now she could never deny that he cared for her. The pain in his gaze was enough to make her want to throw herself into his arms, but she held back, afraid of what was coming.

  “I am not sure if I can return to Omorphia. I know that I cannot continue to do as I have done, staying here with you without a care...”

  “Nadim!”

  “I...do not want this to pull us apart. Stay here. This place can be your home as long as you wish it to be,” he said. “When I can, I will send for you, and things can be as they were, though perhaps we might find ourselves in a little penthouse in Hadara instead.”

  He stood away from her again, and this time, there was something resolute in his stance, even if his eyes were haunted.

  “I do not wish to take my leave from you. I would not do it for the world, but...I must. Good-bye, Elise. I hope I will see you again soon.”

  Elise could not find words as he turned and strode out of the bedroom. Outside, she could hear the powerful car start up and purr away towards the airstrip.

  She felt empty, as if she were a shell of a person instead of who she had been before. She stared at the place where he had stood and quickly realized that there was a space in her world that was now empty.

  I didn't even brush my teeth, she thought with a tone of desperate hilarity.

  Everything was happening so fast that she could barely understand it, but as she hugged herself and the tears started to fall, she knew the most important thing.

  Nadim was gone.

  She was alone.

  ***

  Ever since the phone call that he had received first thing in the morning, Nadim had shut his emotions into a tiny box and refused to look at them. They would distract him, they would do nothing but bring him pain, and they would not serve.

  Instead he dressed quickly, readied himself for the car that was immediately sent for, and spent a solid five minutes gazing down at his lover. Elise slept restlessly that night, her fair brows knitted together in a frown and soft murmurs coming from her lips. He might have watched her even longer, but then she started to cry out, and it was time to wake her.

  He had known that leaving Elis
e would be terrible. He had known that perhaps since the beginning. Allowing her into his life was welcoming pain into it. There was always the idea that by letting her in, one day, he would have to watch her leave. Right now, however, he knew that there was no way he could have prepared for the pain that he was feeling. This pain tore through him like some kind of wild animal, utterly unforgiving. When he was not thinking of her look of hurt and betrayal, his last glimpse of her, he was thinking of how much pleasure they had given each other, the laughter and the passion.

  Last night, she had given him the most precious gift anyone could, and he had only repaid it with silence. If anything was going to haunt Nadim to his grave, he rather thought that that would be it.

  As the plane ascended into the sky, he leaned back into his seat. His heart and mind cried out for the songbird he had left behind, but he knew that he had to focus on the challenges ahead of him. When he knew that he could speak without saying something that he might regret, he called Ahmed.

  “Give me an update,” he said without preamble.

  “The preliminary search units are reporting back in at this point, sir,” Ahmed said. His voice was still crisp and competent, but there was something terribly tired about it. “There has been no sign of the sheikha yet.”

  Nadim rubbed his eyes.

  “Has there been any sign that the media has figured this out?”

  “None at the moment, sir. There are the usual rumors that there is unrest in the royal household, but a fair number of the media outlets actually believe that she is with you.”

  “Well, that is a blessing at any rate. Is there anything else that I should be aware of?” he asked.

  “No, sir. With that update, you now know as much as everyone else does.”

  “Good. I should be able to land in Hadara within four hours or so. Make sure that there is a car waiting to take me to the palace as soon as I land. Call me if anything else happens.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  After he hung up the phone, Nadim searched his heart for the emotion that should have been there. His wife, the woman that he had been married to for years, had disappeared. At first, there was fear of kidnapping, but then it was noticed by the staff that she had been packing carefully for some time. Women who were kidnapped didn't take a mountain of clothing and jewelry with them, and they did not lock the door behind them when they went.

  Nadim knew that he should have felt heart-broken, or at least furious, but after the initial shock and the sheer grief of leaving Elise, he only felt empty.

  No.

  He felt free.

  Grimly, he stared out the window. When he saw Malaya again, they were going to have to talk, and he knew that no matter what the circumstances were, she would not be happier after it was over.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Elise tried. She truly did.

  Eventually, after she could not cry any longer, she got up from the bed, she went and showered, she dressed. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she did manage to eat some toast. After finding out that she could no longer stay in the house where every echo seemed to make her think of Nadim, she started a long walk in the nearby olive grove. She knew that she could call for a car, but right now, Elise knew that she needed to be alone with her thoughts.

  So what happens next? Elise wondered. Where do I go from here? Do I wait?

  There was a part of her that did want to wait. The feelings that she had were worth waiting for. She knew that feelings like this did not come around often enough that she could simply let them go easily. She was a singer, an artist, and overall, she knew that this kind of love could move worlds.

  However, that was really only true as long as that love was reciprocated. She had once been told that you should only move the world for someone who would move the world for you, and she believed that. The night before, she had offered her living, breathing heart up to Nadim. This morning, he had left her.

  Walking in the grove, Elise almost fell to her knees with the pain of it. It was terrible, it was awful, but it still had to be faced. He did not love her, and no matter what happened, whether he returned or he only wished to do so, that would not change. She could not live her life hoping that it might. That would make her a fool, and slowly, moment by moment, day by day, it would destroy her.

  That meant that there was only one solution.

  She had to leave.

  The moment she made that decision, she felt as if someone had laid thousand-pound weights on her shoulders. She had moved around a great deal in her short life, and usually when she made the decision to leave, she felt wonderfully free. This time, she felt something much different, but she knew that it had to happen nonetheless.

  At that moment, Elise stepped out of the grove and found herself blinking up at the sky. Instead of the blue it had been when she left the house, it had turned a leaden gray. It was utterly foreign from how the sky had looked her entire stay on Omorphia, and she felt a superstitious chill run up her spine. There was a cool wind that whipped up, and with a frown, she turned her steps back towards the house. There were a dozen things she had to do, but even as she planned them out, she couldn't help but risk a glance up at the sky. There were already a few drops of water pattering down. One kissed her cheek lightly, and Elise stepped inside.

  She couldn't stay here any longer, and it felt as if the weather was agreeing with her. She needed to get out, and as she entered the house again, she realized all over again that without Nadim, it was not a home, not truly.

  ***

  A day later, Nadim was in tightly closeted meeting with the minister of commerce of Isal, and when there was a tight knock on the door, they both looked up. The minister gave Nadim a frustrated look, but Nadim ignored him as he walked quickly to the door.

  Ahmed was on the other side, a grim look on his face, and Nadim didn't even ask him for the news. Instead, he turned to the minister with a closed expression on his face.

  “I'm sorry, but I'm going to need to end this meeting. Speak with my secretary, and he will make sure that we can resume this at the earliest possible convenience.”

  The minister sputtered with outrage, but Nadim was already forgetting about it as he strode out of the room, Ahmed at his side. He did not stop until they were in a private conference room with the door locked securely behind them.

  “Has there been some sort of development?” he demanded, and Ahmed nodded.

  “She has been found, sir. She was in Morocco.”

  He scowled.

  “What the hell is she doing in Morocco?”

  “She was struck by a car, sir. She was crossing the street with an unknown male. A car driven by a drunk driver swerved around the corner and struck her. The male ran off, and she was taken to the hospital. She was injured, a broken leg and a fractured hip, but otherwise she is expected to make a full recovery. Currently, she is in a private room, and as far as we know, the press has not yet discovered who she is.”

  Nadim's mind was whirling, but all he did was raise his eyebrows.

  “An...unidentified male, you say?”

  Ahmed looked straight ahead, and from the uncomfortable way that he spoke, Nadim could tell that there were layers to the story yet.

  “Yes, sir. This man was seen in Morocco with the sheikha the previous night, and this morning as well.”

  “Then he is her lover,” Nadim said, and then much to his assistant's shock, he started to laugh.

  The whole situation was ridiculous, his marriage was a sham, and somehow, all he felt right now was free, because the pieces of a plan were dropping into place. He knew that in a moment, he would have to put things together, to decide what he wanted to do, but for now...he simply laughed.

  "All right," Nadim said, shaking his head. "All right. I need to get to Morocco as soon as I can. Make that happen, and make sure that the head of the royal law division is on the plane with me, as well as whatever staff he needs. I want to be in the air in an hour's time."

  "Ye
s, sir," Ahmed said, and if he was not certain what was going on, he gave no sign.

  Nadim was aware that he likely looked like a madman, but none of that was important now. Between one moment and the other, he had been given the chance to make his life right again, to make his life and Elise's right, and he refused to let that chance slip between his fingers.

  He glanced down at his phone, and his fingers almost shaking, he found a photo that he had been looking at the entire flight back to Hadara. It was a candid shot of Elise. He wasn't even sure she knew he had taken it. In it, she was standing close to the water, letting the waves lap at her feet. The sun was setting behind her, and her blonde hair looked like it had been set on fire.

  She was beauty and song and everything he refused to live his life without, and by God and all the heavens, he was going to get her back. There was no question about it.

  He ghosted his fingertip over her face. He wanted nothing more than to call her, to tell her that everything was going to be all right, but right now, that felt too risky. Everything was up in the air, and he had to make sure that he did not ruin things before they were started.

  Nadim shook himself. There was business in Morocco to attend to.

  ***

  Elise decided that she didn't want to call for the plane that Nadim had said was at her disposal weeks ago. It would have felt as if she were relying on him even for her escape, and that was too much. Instead, she called for the car to take her to town, and with her old knapsack slung over her shoulder, she looked like a tourist who had come to see the sights.

  However, an observant person would have seen that her old knapsack was stuffed full to bursting with things that she needed, and that she walked with purpose, like someone setting off on a long journey.

  When she got to town, she had the driver drop her off, and then she made her way to the ferry. To her surprise, there was an enormous crowd waiting for at ticketing office, which was staffed by an enormously harried man with a thick mustache.

  "What's going on?" she asked a woman nearby. "I've never seen it so busy."