ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (84 page)

“Thank you…” she whispered, just barely. The only thing she had said inside the walls of the palace the entire time she’d been there. “You are very kind.”

Sheikh Itamar smiled at her, an expression that looked so foreign on his face that it almost looked foreign. “Of course. I’ll have you escorted to a more comfortable room where you might relax. Once I have finished
discussing
the situation with my son, I shall send for you and we might figure this out together.”

Although Keisha did not like the idea of leaving Ahmed alone—or rather being left alone without him—it did sound nice to rest some. She was not so far along with child that she was already getting tired early on, but the stress was a lot for any woman and she was relieved at the prospect of some sort of reprieve.

Ahmed, however, seemed less convinced. “You think you can just hide her away and maybe she’ll disappear?” he accused with a spark of anger in his voice.

Keisha frowned. She hadn’t interpreted it that way, but should she have?

The Sheikh fixed his son with a cool stare. “As you have mentioned, she is with child. If there is too much outside stress, it might negatively impact that child. Whatever you think of me, surely you must know that a grandson above all else is my priority.”

Ahmed remained unconvinced, but Keisha already felt better about the whole thing.

They will accept me,
she thought amidst feelings of relief and happiness.
They will love this child and in time, they will accept me.

She placed a staying hand on Ahmed’s arm before he could do anything rash and ruin the whole thing. Smiling sweetly at him, she whispered, “Please. I am so very tired now.”

Ahmed frowned, but thought it over, finally he sighed and nodded his head slowly. “Whatever you need.”

It was nearly four hours later when Ahmed finally got away from his parents. They were badgering him about his life choices—
What were you thinking shaking up with some common whore? Did you think marrying her would force us into acceptance? How could you have brought her home pregnant?
—but when they’d asked him to give her up, he’d stood firm.

He would not leave Keisha out in the cold, no matter what it might cost him.

Now, he was walking hurriedly down the halls in search of Keisha. She had been sent to one of the guest rooms so that she could “rest” though Ahmed knew that it really was merely an excuse to get her away long enough that they might get a moment alone with their son to “convince him” that he’d made a horrible mistake.

Clearly, they had been unsuccessful.

He had an idea which room Keisha had been taken to, though after the explosion with his parents, Ahmed was not about to ask them one way or the other. He’d settle for searching every room in the castle before he spoke to them again.

As Ahmed turned a corner he ran straight into the youngest of his sisters (still a full two years older than he), Lilac. She was beautiful if a little short and a little fuller than his other sisters. She wore a bright blue Sari with golden trim and soft lace hanging as an accent. Her makeup was done to make her already large eyes seem even wider, giving off the effect of her being almost doe like. It was a play for innocence, of course, as Lilac was desperate to hold onto her claim as being the youngest—even when Ahmed came along to disrupt her spot.

It worked only on their father, softening his usually hard blows, though Ahmed doubted even
she
could have gotten away with what he’d done unscathed.

“Brother,” she greeted with a little bow of her head. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

Already frustrated, Ahmed debated simply rushing right past his sister to find Keisha, but he felt as though he’d already burned enough bridges today. Best not to destroy them all in one fell swoop.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he forced a small smile. “Nonsense,” he told her, trying to sound casual and maybe a little teasing, though he was sure he missed his mark. “You certainly saw me today. Don’t you remember when you and our sisters peeked inside the great hall to see what it was your little baby brother had done this time?” He winked at her to help keep the accusation of snooping out of his voice and it worked.

His sister grinned back at him, then shrugged her slight shoulders, batting her eyelashes feverishly. “Surely you won’t fault us for being
curious
!” she countered. Looping her arm through his, she began to escort him off to the right, detouring him from the hall he had been aiming to go down in search of Keisha. “After all, it is not every day our brother brings home a… woman.”

She hesitated on that last word as though she’d been about to say something else, but reconsidered at the last moment. Most people thought of Lilac as just a silly, even stupid girl, but Ahmed knew better. She had the whole world fooled—including their sisters and parents alike—but he’d seen how she worried away at people with kindness and false innocence until she got what she wanted.

She’d been doing it for years and up to this point it had never bothered him. This was all a game each of the children played with their royal parents, but he was beginning to quickly suspect that she was now using her wiles on
him
and he did not appreciate it.

He glanced back over his shoulder, looking at the hallway he’d been about to go down. “That woman is my wife,” he told Lilac sternly, not even attempting to be light or teasing. “That makes her your new sister and I hope that you will treat her accordingly.”

Her pretty face broke into a horrified scowl, just for a brief second, so quick that most would have missed it, but Ahmed had caught sight of it. She was furious at his new bride, and it was difficult to tell why—if it was just about her position being jostled
yet again
, or if it was more along the lines of their parents and had to do with Keisha’s status—but he’d seen it.

And then the anger was gone. Her doe eyes were wide again and she had a sweet smile on her face. “Of
course
, dear brother! Anyone who has your affection, has mine, too.”

Her voice was honeyed sweet and Ahmed did not believe it for even a single second. His lips pulled down in a frown and he stopped suddenly. At first, Lilac tried to keep going, trying to pull him insistently along by the crook of his arm, but he held fast. Finally frustrated, Lilac turned back around to him, a small pout on her face.

“Ahmed, what are you
doing
? Won’t you walk with me?” Her eyes darted back towards the way they’d come and he realized then for certain what he’d already suspected: she was trying to distract him.

Jerking his hand roughly out of Lilac’s grasp, much to her dissatisfaction, he pointedly turned on his heel and away from her. He began to walk away determinedly, pointedly even, back towards the hall he had initially been going down, all of a sudden absolutely certain that that was the hall Keisha was down.

“Ahmed!” called Lilac after him, but he did not even turn to look at him. “Ahmed, you are being ridiculous! Come walk with me. We’ll look at the gardens!”

She continued to call after him for a while, but he did not look back and did not break stride. He was starting to realize something slightly dreadful: like his parents, his three sisters were not going to welcome Keisha with open arms. It would be a constant battle between his family and his new wife to find some sort of peace and acceptance.

The thought did more than just worry him; it terrified him. What if he could never get the lot of them to get along? What if they would forever be throwing spurs and barbs at each other, determined to make poor Keisha’s life miserable? And what of the baby? When it was born, would his parents find it in their hearts to accept the child? Would his sisters?

These questions he was afraid to have answered, because he had a sinking suspicion that it would be a negative answer. They weren’t going to accept her any time soon and he was not sure how to change that.

Ahmed had realized just how unrealistic his expectations had been when he announced his plans to marry to his mother and father the day before he’d rushed in to marry Keisha. His parents were never going to approve a marriage to a girl from such a low class and if he tried to force their hand officially, then they would push back with all their might.

And a Sheikh had a lot of might.

So, in desperation, with a lack of options, Ahmed stole into the night and found his love. He married her at a small ceremony instead of the one she deserved, fit for a queen, but he did not care and neither did she. So long as they were married.

Ahmed had been naïve to think that being married would solve all of their problems with his family. Marriage, though it seemed permanent, was not entirely. There were ways to break it and he was certain that his mother was researching all of them now as he walked down that very hall.

But a pregnancy was more. It was
his
child! Surely they could find some compassion for a child that was half his?

Ahmed was not sure, but he knew one thing: he had to find Keisha before any of his family tried to dissuade her from their intentions.

Keisha awoke to the sounds of gentle knocking on the door. For a moment, she was disoriented and almost afraid.

Where was she?

This lavish, huge room was most definitely not her tiny little apartment there in town. Then she remembered that she was not in her apartment; she was in the
palace
. It all came rushing back to her and with a start, she realized that it had not been just a dream. Ahmed had actually married her and he had brought her home to meet his parents.

Which had been a disaster.

For a moment, she felt terrible. She remembered how the Sheikh’s wife, Ahmed’s mother, had
fainted
upon hearing the revelation that Keisha had been wed to her son. It was not exactly an encouraging reaction and his father, the Sheikh himself, hadn’t fared much better. Instead of fainting, he’d yelled and cursed and thrown orders that no one knew how to follow. He’d all but said he’d rather Keisha been
dead
than walk around as a living bride to his son.

She shivered slightly at the thought.
He would not have me killed,
she chided herself, promising that this would not be nearly as bad as they all thought. It would just take some time to get used to.

More than that, the Sheikh had seemed to have come around there at the end. The anger had fizzled out and died, replaced by a surprising tenderness once he realized that she was pregnant. Perhaps that trumped everything, even her lowly position. Perhaps that was why he’d turned so kind and offered her this lovely, lavish guest room to rest in.

She hoped so.

Her hands went to her stomach, rubbing affectionately though there was as of yet no bump to show that she was with child.

Soon,
she thought with a small smile.
Soon I will be the size of a watermelon and I’ll waddle like a duck! And then I’ll give birth to a beautiful baby! Maybe even a boy, one who will grow to be the next Sheikh after his father.

The thought made her giggle a little. Who would have ever thought that Keisha Singh—Keisha
Kandalama
now—would give birth to the next Sheikh?

But even if the child was not a boy, she would be happy and love it with all her heart. It represented the best, happiest part of her and of Ahmed, she was sure. The child would be blessed with the best from both of them and it would grow into this world like a beautiful garden, she was sure of it.

The knocking that had initially awoke Keisha came again and she realized that it was someone at her door. Thinking that it was perhaps Ahmed—she did not know how long she had dozed off or what he had been doing in the meantime, and was suddenly very anxious to see him—she slid off the plush, huge bed and put her bare feet on the cold marble floor. She shivered a little at it, then hurried across the room to the large double doors. Pulling them open, she was surprised—and just a little bit disappointed—to see that it was not Ahmed at all, but two lovely women.

They were both smiling and had very similar features. Their faces heart shaped, their eyes dark, but lovely lined in thick black lashes and heavily done eyeliner. Their hair was just shy of being pitch black and hung down their backs almost to their rears in perfect, sleek plaits. One wore a purple Sari and the other wore a pink one, both lined in intricate gold designs and draped again by sheer, vibrant mesh and lace. They could have been twins, they were so similar, but Keisha had no idea who they might be.

The one in purple smiled sweetly and offered her hand. “I am Naiad, Ahmed’s oldest sister,” she announced, offering her hand which was delicate and soft. Keisha took it gently, then Naiad introduced the young woman beside her. “This is my younger sister, Mahira. Is not she lovely?”

Mahira was indeed lovely and it seemed like she most certainly knew it, too. She grinned widely showing perfectly straight, white teeth against her ruby red lips. “You must be our
newest
sister,” Mahira said in an excited, but quiet voice as though this were a delicious secret to be gossiped and shared between the three of them.

Keisha smiled hesitantly. Both of these girls—
women
—seemed very pleasant and they were so beautiful, both smiling happily at Keisha, that surely they were going to be the portion of Ahmed’s family that would accept her.

Opening the door wider, Keisha stepped back to allow them inside. “Please, come in? I’m afraid I’ve been sleeping most of the day away and it is so very wasteful. I would much rather sit and visit with the both of you.”

Mahira and Naiad both shared a look that might have almost been sly, but they smiled brightly at Keisha and thanked her quickly as they stepped into the room, as though worried she might change her mind at any moment. The two beautiful women hurried inside and gestured behind them at the door.

“You should close that,” Naiad told Keisha casually, still smiling sweetly. “There are so many ears in the palace and I think I would rather have a moment for just us girls before all of this business spills out into the rest of the world, would not you?”