A Bride For The Sheikh (6 page)

“Chrystal, you look amazing,” Carla said when Chrystal opened the door to them that evening. “Have you had some more work done?”

“Just a little bit here and there, just a few touch-ups.” Chrystal adjusted her heavily exposed cleavage. She was wearing a short, lime green dress that was cut very low both at the front and down the back. “Hi, Sarah, and you must be Angelina. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Nothing bad, I hope.” Angelina put out her arm to shake Chrystal’s hand, but the hostess ignored the gesture and just gave her a rather tense, broad smile.

“Come on in, ladies,” Chrystal said and ushered all of them into the house.

The huge mansion had several floors, ornate chandeliers, and heavily gilded furniture. It reminded Angelina of the sultan’s palace on a smaller scale, but not much smaller. Chrystal led them through to a large reception room, filled with long, black leather sofas and huge glass-topped side tables. On the sofas sat about thirty young women, all of whom seemed to know Sarah and Carla as they all called out and waved to one another.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Chrystal asked. “How about some frozen margaritas? Jessica and I have had such fun making them this afternoon. Jessica, come here,” Chrystal called out to a very tired-looking woman, who stood out from all the others as she was wearing a plain black dress with a white apron pinned to the front. “Come on, girl, quickly, my guests are waiting. Get some more drinks for everyone.” The woman hurried out of the room. “You wouldn’t believe the problems I’ve had with this maid,” Chrystal said to Carla. “No sooner had we had her shipped in from the Philippines, then she said she was sick and took to her bed for a week. A whole week, can you imagine!”

“Surely she’s entitled to sick leave?” Angelina said.

Chrystal looked as if Angelina had just proposed sending the maid on a six-month cruise. “But she can’t just lie in bed all day. Who would do the housework?”

“Maybe you could,” Angelina suggested.

Chrystal laughed. “With these nails? You must be kidding.” She flashed a set of perfectly manicured nails, which looked more like talons.

The maid returned with a tray full of drinks and passed them round. The cocktails were in large bowl-shaped glasses with salt round the rim.

“Now, if you ladies would excuse me,” Chrystal said and walked off to join a group of extremely tanned, blonde women on the other side of the room.

Angelina took a sip of her drink. The salt stung her lips and was followed by the sharp, cold taste of frozen tequila. “This has alcohol in it,” she whispered to Carla.

“I know. It’s great, isn’t it?” Carla took a large sip of her drink.

“But I thought it was illegal in Bezira.” Angelina knew that Bezira was quite liberal for a Middle Eastern country about many issues, such as the way women were allowed to dress, but alcohol was completely banned.

“Chrystal can get hold of anything. I think she knows a couple of pilots who smuggle in booze for her,” Sarah explained.

“But what if she gets caught?” Angelina asked.

“She won’t get caught. Her father’s the sultan’s financial adviser, his right-hand man. The most she would get is a caution, if that.”

“But you can’t have people who are above the law. That’s not right.” Angelina put her drink down on the table.

“That’s just the way things are here in Bezira.” Carla picked up Angelina’s drink and handed it back to her. “Relax, enjoy yourself. You can’t change the way things are, or maybe you could take the matter up with your friend, Sheikh Rashid?” Carla nudged her.

“Leave her alone,” Sarah said. “We’ve teased her enough about him. Now, Carla, why do you think Chrystal is in such a funny mood? She seems really off-hand with us.”

“Maybe it was my comments about her maid,” Angelina suggested.

“No, she’s been acting strange since the minute she opened the door to us.”

“You’re right. Normally she’s full of all the latest gossip and scandal,” Carla agreed. “And she was touchy when I talked to her on the phone earlier today.”

“Maybe she was jealous when you told her that Sheikh Rashid had given Angelina a Mercedes,” Sarah said.

“Chrystal has plenty of cars. She could ask her daddy for a new Mercedes anytime she wanted. It must be something else.”

“Perhaps all the plastic surgery has gone to her brain.” Sarah laughed. “Come on, let’s get some more margaritas and we’ll introduce you to everyone.” Sarah took Angelina by the arm and led her over to a group of women sitting next to a full tray of drinks.

Angelina chatted happily to Sarah and Carla’s friends, asking them about their lives in Bezira and what brought them to the Middle East. They were a mixture of nationalities and backgrounds, and Angelina was interested to hear what they had to say about themselves. Chrystal, their hostess, kept her distance and Angelina was pleased about it. She remembered where she’d seen her before; she was the woman in the tight red dress who she’d pointed out at the sultan’s party—the woman who turned out to be Rashid’s friend, or at least acquaintance. She seemed to remember something about Rashid saying that they weren’t friends and she could see why. Chrystal came across as an extremely unpleasant person.

After about an hour, a huge selection of food was served by the increasingly worn-out looking maid. It was mainly Tex-Mex, such as burritos and tacos, which Angelina wasn’t very keen on, but she helped herself to a large plate full as she needed to soak up some of the alcohol. The margaritas were strong and she was beginning to feel a bit woozy.

Once almost everyone had eaten, and the maid had cleared everything away, Chrystal went round herself with a tray of champagne.

“Real champagne!” one of the women exclaimed. “It’s been ages since I’ve tasted this stuff. You really are spoiling us tonight, Chrystal. Thank you.”

“Thank you so much for coming.” Chrystal beamed back, showing off a set of perfect, if slightly large, white teeth.

When she offered Angelina a glass, Angelina declined. “I think I’ve had enough already.”

“The party’s just starting.” Chrystal placed a champagne flute in front of her. “I insist. I have a very special announcement to make and everyone needs to have a glass to toast me with.”

Angelina nodded in assent and picked up her glass. She took a sip and felt the bubbles go down her throat. It then mixed with chilli that she’d eaten and made her feel a bit sick. She put the champagne back down on the table.

As soon as everyone had a glass, Chrystal stood up at the front of the room and tapped on the side of hers. The chatter around the room gradually came to a halt and everyone turned to look at their hostess.

“First, ladies, I would so like to thank you all for coming this evening,” she began. A few of the women thanked her in return. Chrystal smiled at them. “I’ve invited you all here this evening because it’s always wonderful to catch up with old friends who’ve moved away and now only come back to Bezira to visit.” She raised her glass in Carla’s direction and Carla raised hers back. “And it’s always interesting to meet new people.” Angelina felt Chrystal’s cold blue eyes bore into her own. “However, I’ve also invited you all here tonight as I have a very special announcement to make. As you all know, my father and I have made Bezira our home and we’ve taken on many local customs and ideas.”

“I can’t see any evidence of how she’s adapted to Arabic culture,” Angelina whispered to Sarah, who sat next to her.

“Being rich, having a big house, lots of flash cars. She’s taken on a lot of local customs.” Sarah giggled.

Chrystal stared at the pair of them, and a woman on the other side of Angelina told her to hush.

“As I was saying, my father and I have embraced this country as our own and as a result, we have found ourselves not averse to the local custom of arranged marriages. In fact, my father has arranged for me to be married.”

“Chrystal!” one of the women standing next to her blurted.

“An arranged marriage? No!” another one said.

Chrystal waited a minute for the general commotion and whispering to die down. “As my father has only ever had my best interests at heart, he’s arranged a marriage that he knows will not be unwelcomed by me; one that I am in fact overjoyed to announce this evening.”

“Who is it?” someone called out.

“I’m just coming to that,” Chrystal said, looking irritated by the interruption. “The official announcement will be made soon, but I wanted to share my good news with my closest friends first. It is my joy to tell you all that I am engaged to marry Sheikh Rashid bin Jafari Al Abid, the sultan’s son.”

The audible gasp rippled across the room. Angelina looked at Chrystal in shock, only to see that Chrystal was looking directly back at her, grinning.

“To Chrystal and Sheikh Rashid!” the woman next to Chrystal announced. Everyone lifted their glasses and called out, “To Chrystal and Sheikh Rashid!” Everyone except Angelina, who sat frozen to the spot, too stunned to move.

“Are you okay?” Sarah asked. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that Chrystal was engaged to the sheikh. I would never have brought you along if I’d known.”

Angelina took several deep breaths. “I’m fine, thank you. I just need to go to the bathroom.” She excused herself and left the room.

She had no idea where the bathroom was and didn’t really care. She just needed to get away from everyone and let the news sink in. After wandering around the cavernous house for a few minutes, she found a door that led to an outside terrace. She breathed in the hot desert air. It seemed to weigh down on her. Even at night, the heat was horrendous.

She couldn’t believe that Rashid was engaged.
Why hadn’t he told her?
she asked herself, but then there were many things that he hadn’t told her, such as the fact that he was a royal prince. Maybe that was why he hadn’t told her who he really was. Maybe he wanted to have a clandestine affair with her and keep his engagement secret, or maybe the engagement was what he wanted to tell her about at the restaurant the other night. A thousand questions raced around her mind. She wished she hadn’t had the margaritas as they were stopping her from thinking straight and the sweet champagne didn’t help either.

“It must be a bit of a shock for you, mine and Rashid’s marriage.” Chrystal must have followed her out.

“I thought you were engaged, not married,” Angelina replied, trying to keep her voice steady. The last person she wanted to break down in front of was Chrystal Longhorn.

“Married? Engaged? It all amounts to the same thing in the end,” Chrystal said, waving her arms around. The large gold bracelet on her arm clanged against the metal rail around the terrace. “Whoops! I must be careful with this. It was a present from Rashid.” She waved the bracelet in front of Angelina’s face. “He knows how much I just love gold jewellery.”

Angelina remembered the large box of gold jewellery in the back of Rashid’s car. It must have been for Chrystal. “And he knows how much I love Mercedes cars,” Angelina retorted, though the minute the words were out of her mouth, she regretted saying them as such childish remarks only brought her down to Chrystal’s level of spitefulness.

Chrystal put her face right up against hers. “I don’t know who you are, or where you’ve come from, but Sheikh Rashid’s mine. He might have given you a fancy car, but that was only as payment for screwing you.”

Angelina winced at the idea of Rashid paying her for sex.

“He did, didn’t he?” Chrystal asked. “He screwed you senseless.”

Angelina didn’t reply.

“He has a birthmark right here on his left buttock, doesn’t he?” Chrystal turned around and pointed to a spot on her tight little ass.

Angelina nodded. She knew the mark that Chrystal was referring to. She remembered telling Rashid that it looked like a heart and he’d told her that he had two hearts and they were both hers. Perhaps only one of them was hers and the other was Chrystal’s, as she was obviously sleeping with him as well. Angelina tried desperately not to start crying.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” Chrystal continued, “and I know all about Arab men and how they behave. Trust me when I tell you that Rashid’s just sowing his wild oats and having a meaningless fling with you. You must remember that he’s a royal sheikh. He can do and have whatever he wants. He’ll soon be tired of you. If you’re lucky, you might get a nice fat check at the end for your services. Now if you’ll excuse me, my friends are waiting inside for me.” Chrystal opened the glass terrace door and stepped inside.

Angelina felt a gust of cool air coming from the house. She waited a few minutes and then followed Chrystal inside. She felt hot, angry, and slightly sick. All she wanted was to get back home and go to bed. She found Sarah as soon as she could and said she had to leave.

“Of course. What a dreadful thing for Chrystal to do, to announce her engagement like that when she knew that you were seeing Sheikh Rashid. I’ll just go and get Carla.”

Carla was their designated driver and had had only a few sips of the cocktails before switching to soft drinks. Both Angelina and Sarah had drunk too much to drive, so they had to wait for Carla to say her goodbyes to everyone before they could go. As they waited, Angelina was sure that the other women were talking about her. They kept on whispering together in small huddles and glancing furtively over at her. Chrystal just smiled in her direction in a sickly sweet way. Angelina had never wanted to get away from a situation so much in her life. Finally, they were ready to go and got into Angelina’s new car.