ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (120 page)

With a sigh, he tried to push the memories aside as he searched for his mother. He found the beautiful Ameena arguing with the housekeeper.

“If we put the table of food in the middle, there will be no room for the musicians. The table will have to sit by the wall,” Ameena said in an exasperated tone. Her whole face lit up when she saw her son. “Kamal! There you are! I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“Mother, you saw me yesterday,” he said with a smile as he suffered her kisses.

“Did I? Well it’s been such a long day. I’ve been working on the details of your party, and you’ve been hard to track down. We must decide on a final menu.”

Kamal shook his head. He knew that it didn’t matter what he wanted. His mother would simply bully him into having whatever she wanted. “I trust your taste,” he said gallantly.

“You are too good to me,” she said as she clapped her hands. “Now then, has your father spoken to you? I know he had some news to tell you, but he’s home even less frequently than you. I’m starting to feel like the only person in this family that truly lives here,” she complained.

Nahid was a busy man. It was because he was busy that his mother was able to enjoy his wealth. “He might have mentioned something about a special guest,” he said wryly.

Ameena caught his tone and narrowed her eyes. “Jada is a lovely woman, Kamal. I would think you’d be excited to see your childhood friend again.”

He might be, if he didn’t suspect that his parents were matchmaking. Still, he would never in his right mind tell his mother that. “I am, but as you’ve already pointed out, I have quite a bit on my mind. I have barely even given any thought to the party.”

“Nor should you,” she said quickly. “I have everything under control.”

Kamal chuckled. His mother lived to entertain. It was her specialty, and he knew just what would happen if someone tried to take even an ounce of control away from her. Absolute chaos. “Is there anything else you wanted from me?”

“Will you be here for dinner?” she asked absently. “Your father mentioned that his meeting might run late, and I wasn’t sure if you were going to accompany him.”

“No. I’m actually leaving early in the morning to speak with some investors, so I’ll be retiring right after dinner.”

“You work too hard, Kamal,” she said with a frown. “I don’t want you to turn into your father.”

“There’s much to do mother. One day the business will be mine, and I want to make him proud. One day, I will be the Sheikh, just like him. I will always be busy.”

She turned her head abruptly and stared at him. “We are proud of you, Kamal. We simply worry about you. I know something happened to you while you were in school, and it’s changed you. We just want to see you happy again.”

“I am happy,” he assured her. “I just have a head full of ideas.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

Where his father had been strict and disciplined, his mother had always been loving. Nahid used to complain that Ameena would make him soft, but Kamal had always dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps. The corporate business man had impressed him so, and he desperately wanted to show his father that he was ready to take the company into the future.

None of that had changed because of Sara. He’d imagined doing everything with her by his side, and her refusal to return with him threw him off balance. His parents weren’t wrong. He felt like he was drifting through life. That wasn’t how a man should be. That wasn’t how he would be.

As he walked away, he made himself a vow. He wouldn’t keep thinking of Sara. He would lose himself in the dream of what could be. He was strong and powerful. If she wouldn’t have him, then that was her loss.

Still, he couldn’t help but realize that even his own monologue sounded hollow in his ears.

* * *

Jada stepped out of her car and surveyed her family home while hiding her emotions behind a pair of sunglasses. The sun was setting behind the stone structures and casting a shadow over her. It wasn’t an omen. She knew exactly why she’d been called back. Her father had never been one to hide the truth from her. Kabul Al-Basir had returned from the states, and soon he would make a bid for her hand in marriage.

“Jada!” Her father opened the door and smile. “You have grown into quite the woman.”

“It has been four years since you’ve last seen me,” she said wryly, but she bowed her head.

Her father frowned. “I see Europe has done anything about your attitude,” but there was no heat behind his words. Jada knew that her father cared not what she said or did. Saddened that he had no sons, he’d prepared the way for her to marry wealthy and powerful, and his only concern was that she be beautiful so that she was acceptable.

He got her wish. Somewhere during puberty, Jada had she’d her awkward exterior and blossomed. Many had asked for her hand in marriage, and her father had shut down every one. Jada was his ticked to Kamal. She would marry and give him the son that he never had.

It wasn’t that her father was ever cruel to her. He gave her whatever she wanted and needed. Jada was abused, but she was ignored. With a mother and without the observing eyes of her father, Jada had turned to books, and they had been dangerous indeed.

While her head was full of ideas, they would do nothing for her now. She would be the Sheikh’s wife, and there was nothing she could do about it. “I apologize, Father. I am grateful to be home,” she murmured.

“That’s my girl. I’ll have your bags brought it, but before you get settled, I’ll need you to go out again. There’s a party that you must attend, and I need you to be properly dressed. This will be an important night for you Jada, so choose your dress wisely.” Her father nodded to a few men who rushed forward to unpack the truck.

Jada sighed. The flight had been a long one, and the last thing she wanted to do was go shopping. But her father had spoken, and the shops would be closing in a few hours. She wanted to point that she had plenty of dresses she could wear, but she knew her father needed to see her in something brand new.

“In fact, buy a few so I can make a final decision,” her father said absently as he handed her a card. “Something in green to bring out your eyes.”

Shopping and parties. Her father believed she’d be good for nothing else. How was she supposed to capture Kamal’s heart with these traits? Of course, he was probably raised to believe that these were the virtues of a woman. If she wanted this union to be successful, if she wanted any type of freedoms during her wedding, she would have to embrace the stereotype.

She might as well start now. Taking her father’s card, she bowed her head. “Of course. I’m sure I’ll find something that will please you and the guests of the party.”

Her father’s eyebrows shot up at her demure words, and she smiled in satisfaction. “That’s a good girl,” he muttered, but he was clearly troubled. Maybe he thought she was up to something.

Good. It was always good to keep her father on his toes.

She kissed him on the nose as he tried to look over his books, and he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her on top of him. “Kamal!” she laughed as she squirmed away. “We’re supposed to be studying.”

“Could have fooled me. You were the one that kissed me first,” he teased with a smile.

“Professor Harrison is going to kill me if I don’t finish grading these papers. I had no idea that undergraduate students were so boring,” she complained as she shuffled through her papers.

“Two years ago, we were undergraduate students,” Kamal pointed out.

“We’ve grown much in those two years,” she said with a solemn face. Then she broke out in a fit of giggles and tossed her head back. Kamal felt his heart skip a beat as the sun streaked through her beautiful red hair. She was the most stunning woman in the world. No one could compare to her beauty.

“Sara, I love you,” he said suddenly.

She turned her face and blinked in surprise. “Kamal,” she breathed. “Really? You have to say that now?”

“When should I say it?”

“You should say it when things are more romantic. Over a candle-lit dinner or in front of a roaring fire. You should say in when you can wrap you arms around me and murmur it in my ear.”

Leaning over, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ears and ran his fingertips softly down her cheek. “I have to say it when I feel it, my sweet Sara. There is no other way.”

She pulled back, but he could see the smile on her face. “Well. Instead of enjoying this romantic moment, I have to grade papers, and you have to study. So you’re just going have to stow that romantic moment until a more opportune time.”

Sara turned her attentions to her papers, but he could see the glow of bliss on her face. She was pleased. And that was all he truly wanted.

His heart ached as he buttoned his engraved cufflinks. Tonight would no doubt change his life completely, and everything he had dreamed about would slip between his fingers. He’d known long ago that he couldn’t have Sara. Kamal thought he’d come to terms with the fact that he’d never see her again, but as he imagined how tonight would go, he realized that he still ached for the girl he’d given his heart to.

Jada had been a gangly and awkward little thing when they were growing up. In a world where women were meant to be submissive, Jada was always loud spoken and annoying. He was often relieved by her outbursts. Even as a boy, he knew that an arrangement would be made for his marriage. The continuation of the Sheikh line would only be put in the hands of the perfect woman, and Jada was hardly that. Still, if she was back and his parents were making such a big deal about it, he knew that could only mean one thing.

Tonight, he would inspect her. His parents would ask for his opinion, but it wouldn’t really matter. By the end of the discussion, he would be required to meet her father and ask for her hand in marriage. No doubt they would expect him to do it before the end of the party.

Kamal’s mother was probably already planning the wedding.

Being born in a royal family had it’s perks. Kamal never wanted for anything. He was gifted two cars, but he also had a chauffeur and no reason to drive the cars. Guards shadowed his every move outside the walls of his palace, and there was always an abundance of food and drink.

And women.

Although Kamal could see that his father loved his mother very much, he still indulged in other women. At any given time, all Kamal had to was ask and a beautiful woman was presented before him. Dating Sara gave him his first taste of a monogamous relationship, and it had been hard at first. But she had made her expectations clear, and he had willing complied. Anything to make her happy.

Since then, there had been countless women in his bed. He’d tried to drive her memories away with sex, but none of it ever meant anything. He was hardly fulfilled.

Nahid walked through the entrance and smiled when he saw his son. Kamal met his eyes in the mirror and nodded respectfully. “You look like a man,” Nahid said with a shake of his head. “You look like you’re ready.”

Kamal steeled himself for his father said next. Here, in this moment between father and son, the rest of his life would begin to spin out of his control, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Your mother has coddled you, and I have indulged her. I will admit that sending you to America for your studies has had it’s perks, but it has also had its setbacks. Tonight, for your birthday, I will do right by you. Tonight you will face the people of this party not as a birthday boy or even as my son, but as my heir. You will one day wield all of my power, and the events of tonight will help shape you.”

His father said nothing about Jada, but he didn’t have to. The unspoken words hung heavy in the air between them, and Kamal lowered his eyes and nodded. “I will make you proud,” he said quietly.

Did it bother him that tonight he would ask for a woman’s hand in marriage? Not really. Kamal couldn’t have Sara, so it didn’t really matter who stood by his side. No one would compare to her, and he realized that.

“Come,” his father beckoned. “If we do let your mother know that we are ready to escort her down, she will take forever getting ready.”

Kamal let a genuine smile slip over his face as he followed his father out the room. Casting a last look at his room, he felt that smile fall away. These moments would be his last to hold on that insane hope. Tonight he was a man of duty. It was time to finally let the dreams of the boy go.

* * *

Dressed in light green with black embroidery, Jada glanced wearily out the window. Her father was pleased with her selections, but this particular dress made her hazel eyes seem more green than blue. Her father liked to tell people that she had his green eyes, but she was the spitting image of her mother.

He never talked about her mother. She knew they didn’t have a good marriage. She’d always been weak and sickly, and she’d passed before Jada could even retain any memories of her. Jada didn’t even have a mother-figure in the form of a nanny. As a child without any discipline, her nannies came and went often.

“There are rumors that Kamal was entangled with a woman while he was in America,” Jada told her father while she kept a close eye on his expression. “They say he fell in love, and he was never the same when he chose duty over his own heart.”

“Bah,” her father wave his hand around. “It doesn’t matter of his past. He’s had many women. He will fall for you tonight, and that is all that is important. You will do well, tonight, Jada. I’ve enjoyed the change in you. I was wrong. Europe was good for you.”

Europe was great for her. It actually pulled her away from her responsibilities and let her enjoy a few freedoms for once. But she couldn’t tell her father that.

As the limousine pulled up to the expansive home, Jada resisted the urge to put on her glasses. The sun well below the horizons, and the last of its light was fading. Everyone would know that she was only covering the truth was always visible in her eyes.

Or maybe they would think she had a disease. Perhaps she could play that to her advantage.