Sheikh's Scandalous Mistress (11 page)

“What? Am I at Senator Jackson’s guest house?”

“Actually, it’s a lake house out quite aways from my home. It’s the place that I take mistresses to, so a bit more secure than a guest home,” the senator replied, his deep Texas drawl grating on her.

She tried to stand and realized that her ankles and wrists were bound. Standing up, restricted as she was, became almost impossible around the swell of her abdomen. “You son of a bitch.”

“Now, now,” he said, running a hand through his thick salt-and-pepper hair. “That’s no way to speak in front of the little one. You don’t want to raise him wrong, cursing like that.”

“I want out of here, you asshole.” She gestured as best she could with her shoulder toward the still gushing wound in Margery’s forehead. “You have to get her help and stress is terrible for the baby. Margery doesn’t even have anything to do with this.”

“Her name wasn’t on the first article’s byline, but I’m sure you’ve picked her brain for ideas and shared your sources with her. If you won’t crack, then if Miss Simmons wakes up, perhaps she will.”

“She’s hurt!”

“If I don’t get exactly what I want out of you both, then you’ll both be
dead
,” the senator replied, dropping all pretense of two people just talking out on the porch in the summer sun with some sweet tea between them. Rushing across the way to Amanda, he gripped her jaw so tightly that tears sprang to her eyes. That was where she’d been struck, and she was pretty sure something was badly bruised, if not strained from the blow. “Did you ever think about that? That when you kept sticking your nose in my business, it would go unnoticed or unpunished?”

“I was going to end you,” she said. “I’m still going to end you. I’ve talked to so many people you’ve hurt, seen the way you’ve let those cartels grow and destroy countries. You think I’m not going to go after you every day with everything I have until you’re in prison? If you think I’d let this go on forever or let you get close to the presidency…”

“Well, those plans have been in place a long time, darling, and if you don’t like it, then that’s a shame,” he said, striking her hard with the flat of his palm. It was enough to make her see stars.

He dropped Amanda’s head, and she let it fall forward and coughed as blood pooled in her mouth. God, maybe the combinations of blows had
broken
something in her jaw. Coughing again, she spit blood out onto the rose-embroidered bedspread.

See that bastard replace that
.

“You see, Miss Sinclair, you and your friend might not even care about yourselves. Journalists are so valiant and so stupid that way—so hopelessly noble. You have two options, and they’re good ones. I’ll pay off your child’s college education right now and give you a few zeros to grow on if you shut your pretty, little mouth.”

“I can’t,” she spit out, her mouth still dripping a bit with blood.

He reached behind his back and pulled a gun from his belt. It was large, and she thought maybe it was a 9 millimeter. He readied it with an ominous click. At first, he aimed at her forehead. “You might not care about yourself, but you care about your child,” he said, directing his aim at her gut.

“I can’t. You hurt people.”

“Then I’m afraid I’m about to seriously hurt all of you,” he said.

She closed her eyes and silently begged her unborn child to forgive her. There was no way she could take hush money or walk away when she knew people were suffering.

I’m so sorry, baby
.

There was a loud bang, and she flinched, expecting the searing pain of lead in her gut.

Except that wasn’t happening. Fearing she was already in shock and beyond the pain, she opened her eyes. She wasn’t struck.

In fact, as she watched, an impossible sight filled her vision. Somehow (and God, maybe she was hallucinating), Amir was there, wrestling the gun from Senator Jackson’s grip. The older man reached back and tried to slug Amir, but her lover dodged the blow and smacked his fist hard into Jackson’s face, causing his head to whip back. Jackson’s grip on his weapon tightened and he broke away from Amir, cocking it again.

She screamed, but Amir dove for the senator. The gun went off and blood sprayed from Amir’s left hand.

“Jesus, Amir, be careful!”

They were both on the floor now, rolling for the gun that had been spilled from Jackson’s hand when Amir tackled him. Both were getting at least a hand on it as Amir rolled over on top of Jackson. There was a shot then, one that seemed like thunder going off beside her ears, and both men froze. Fear flooded her as she was convinced that it must have struck Amir. She’d lost the father of her child and would soon be joining him at the end of a madman’s gun. Then, after what felt like forever, Amir rolled off of the senator and stood, straightened his shirt and tie as best he could with his right hand.

The senator still lay, unmoving, on the ground. Blood gushed from his abdomen and it was clear he’d never be getting up again.

“Amir, you came?”

He nodded and came to her, gently untying her and then pulling out a cell phone and barking orders into it in Arabic. “My security team was fighting his. I’ve explained what happened and an ambulance will be on the way for all of us. Dear Allah, what did that monster do to you?” he asked, even as he reached out to stroke her face.

Amir seemed to realize he’d been offering her his damaged palm before she took it in both of her hands delicately. Leaning down, she kissed his mostly clean wrist. Then she reached over and brought Amir’s good hand to her belly.

“You saved me and…you saved our son.”

She’d never been a fan of hospitals. Her mother had been in one after her accident. She’d suffered for a few days in a coma before she’d been declared brain dead. The acrid stench of bleach, the droning buzz of the monitors, and the wheeze of the tubes all set Amanda’s teeth on edge. Yet, this time it was a good thing. She had some oxygen tubes in her nose, helping her get enough air after all the stress and fear of the last couple of days. Margery was doing better, too. She’d actually been discharged yesterday and had come by Amanda’s bed as soon as she could. She’d been lucky to have a concussion and nothing more serious that had kept her knocked out. Hell, Margery was even scheduled to visit Amanda again today. Since Amanda was pregnant, the doctors all felt it was safer for her and the baby to stay in the hospital a bit longer, for both observation and to help her blood pressure go down to normal levels.

That was fine by her.

She’d take anything to help her feel more normal when her life had just exploded. She’d almost been killed, almost lost both her child and the man she cared about. On top of that, now Amir
knew
everything. If she had a few extra days to spend in a revealing hospital gown and eating bland Jell-O, at least it gave her time to think.

There was a knock on her door, and she called for the person on the other end to come in, assuming it was Margery coming back with another massive stuffed animal for the little buddy (Amanda hadn’t decided on a name yet). She wasn’t completely sure how to feel when it was Amir. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw him. Even with his own bruises and his bandaged hand, he was as beautiful as ever. His eyes were like amber and his sharp cheekbones caused her belly to flare with warmth, leaving no doubt in her mind that she was still attracted to him.

But she was also confused. How had he known? Had he been watching her all this time? And how would he feel about her now? Now that she’d almost gotten him killed with her investigation and had hidden their son from him for months. What could she possibly say to him?

“Amir…” she started, and then trailed off. For once in her life she was at a loss for words.

“I think I should start,” he said, slinking in with all his inherent lithe grace before settling himself in the chair by her bedside. “I had my security detail on you, but you must have figured that out by now.”

“I did, and two days ago that would have made me angry. I’d have called it ‘chauvinist’ and ‘overbearing,’ but that’s the only thing that saved
all
our lives.”

He nodded and put his hand on hers over her abdomen. At least via contact, they were unified for a minute as a family. He may want nothing to do with her after all of this, might wish for her to go away with the bastard child that he probably didn’t want. But for just this moment, they were the family she hoped they could be.

“I knew you were pregnant because of the security team as well. Honestly, I assumed that you had a new boyfriend or lover. I didn’t dare to think it was mine.”

“It is. I haven’t been with anyone since Abu Dhabi,” she said, her voice taking on a harder edge than she’d intended.

“I didn’t imply that you were easy, more that I couldn’t believe something that amazing could happen to me.”

She shook her head but didn’t move her hand. “But after everything you said about your family’s expectations and your sister. I know how hard it must have been for you to lose Farana because it still guts me every day that I don’t have a mother. Some holes never seal up. So how do I know that you really want us?”

Amir’s eyes went wide. “How can you think I wouldn’t?”

“You said—”

“Forget what I said,” Amir interrupted, his amber eyes seeming to blaze with his fury and sincerity. “I just saw a madman try and murder the two people I love the most in the whole world. I got into the room and saw that gun leveled on you, and after you told me about the baby, I almost collapsed when I realized how much I could have lost.”

“So you want us?”

“If you want me, if you can forgive me for the way our affair got leaked and for following you.”

“You saved my life, and I’m the one who took a freefall at work and went nuts doing things in public I’d never do, making choices I never should have made.” She paused as he seemed to still and look away. Amanda pressed her hand to her belly. “Don’t get confused. I don’t regret him at all, but I regret the way things escalated so fast and caused all that gossip about us. I regret that I hid things and made a mess of it all.”

“But we all have a second chance. I’ve always been a fan of those,” he said, pulling his hand away and standing up. Amanda wanted to object. After all, the caress of his hand over their son felt better than anything she’d ever felt.

Of course, then he was getting down on one knee before her.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, and even their little buddy seemed up and awake, kicking against her stomach and swimming in circles.

Is this really happening?

He pulled out a large velvet box and started to speak. “Amanda, I know our relationship has been unconventional.”

“You can say that again.”

He winked at her but didn’t get up. “If you interject, then I can’t do this right, and it won’t be as romantic.”

“So it’d be my fault?” she added, grinning back at him, relieved to be able to have any life left at all, let alone one where the man she loved—the father of her child—was proposing to her.

“Maybe,” he said, his amber eyes growing serious again. “I don’t care what anyone says about us. I don’t care how our family came to be. All I know is that I can’t live without you or our son. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?” he punctuated the question by opening up the box, revealing a massive diamond in a platinum band. “It was my mother’s, and her mother’s before her. It’s been in my family for five generations. Would you take it?”

“Yes!” she said, holding out her hand as Amir slipped on the ring. She marveled at how perfectly the ring fit her finger. It was as if Fate, itself, was giving its blessing.

He stood up then and kissed her, his tongue tangling with her own. “I love you, Amanda.”

“I love you too.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever like yellow,” Amir said, shaking his head at her.

Amanda laughed as they exited the newly remodeled nursery. So much had changed in the two years since she’d almost died and said yes to the proposal of a lifetime. Since then, the full extent of Senator Jackson’s corruption had come to light, all of it helped along by a head of state testifying to Jackson’s crimes and providing his own team’s forensic profiles. All of Jackson’s legacy and prestige in the United States had been dismantled, and the current administration was vowing to do its best to help take apart the regimes he’d funded in Central America. Amanda had written a whole series on the scandal and had been rewarded not only a Pulitzer, but also an offer for her old job back and then some at the
Sentinel
. She’d been happy to accept the award, but much to Harris’s frustration and Margery’s sadness, Amanda had refused the job.

Moving to Abu Dhabi had seemed like right choice. She’d been following in her mother’s footsteps, but now she wanted to be different and forge her own path and be there for her son and her growing daughter. Only a few months into her second pregnancy, she wasn’t even showing yet, but soon their family would be growing yet again. As long as she didn’t kill Amir over his terrible jokes about the little girl’s nursery.

“Yellow is a perfect, sunny color,” she replied, as they passed Farana’s room.

Their boy’s room was decorated in deep emerald walls and tons of posters of the Muppets. He’d fallen in love with
Sesame Street
. Their son was sixteen months old, and always toddling around, giving the nannies and his grandmother a heart attack as they all tried to keep him from getting into everything. Amir liked to joke that he took after Amanda—hardheaded with not enough common sense. But he was a firebrand of energy and she didn’t expect their daughter to be anything less.

Both of them tiptoed quietly to the crib’s edge and leaned down one at a time to kiss his chubby cheeks.

“Thank you,” Amir said, as they both gazed down at their angel.

“For what?”

“For everything.”

“You know,” she said, winking at him, “there’s a great way to say thank you.”