The Sheik's Pregnant Lover (Love By Accident) (17 page)

She pulled her hand out of his and placed it in the center of his chest, the space quickly becoming her favorite spot because she could feel his muscles, the heat of his body and the incredible heartbeat that told her so much about what he was feeling.  “I didn’t leave with To
m.”

“Are you in love with him?”

Sidra shook her head
to reassure him
.  “No.  Definitely not in love with him.  In fact, that night was the first
time
I’d even met him.  I was on a blind date because my friends were becoming worried.”

“Why were they worried?”

She smiled shyly and looked down
, her fingers moving slowly across his chest, feeling him move as she touched different spots that either tickled or felt good
.  “Because I’d started avoiding everyone, becoming a recluse.
”
  She moved slightly closer and looked up at his eyes, trying to determine if he might be receptive to what she was about to say.  When she noticed the same hidden hope in his eyes that she was feeling, she decided to go ahead and take the plunge.  “You see, I’d met this guy and fell in love with him, as crazy as that sounds.  He rode this enormous horse…” she tried to finish but Rashid had already pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his, kissing her like there was no tomorrow. 

She was pressed tightly against him, her mind more than just a little relieved that she was back in his arms.  She gave as good as she got, kissing him back, pouring her whole heart into the kiss to show him how she felt since he wouldn’t let her say it. 

“I’ve missed you so much!” he growled and swung her back up into his arms. 

Sidra laughed as she wound her arms around his neck, happy to be anywhere he was at this point.  “Are you going to carry me everywhere?”

He shouldered his way out of the dining room and walked briskly down the hallway, uncaring of the two burly men following behind them.  “I just might do that if it helps me to keep track of you.  I don’t ever want to feel that way again!”

He pushed into his private suite and Sidra was relieved when the two men stopped at the doors there, not following them into the suite.  “Do those guards follow you everywhere?”

Rashid tensed as he let her feet drop to the floor.  “Sidra, that’s one of the down sides to being married to me.  You’ll have to be protected at all times.”

Her eyes widened slightly, but she placed her hand on his chest.  “Will you be protected as well?”

“Always.  Privacy as you knew it will never exist again.”

She considered that for a moment before she accepted the news with a nod.  “Will our children be safe?” she asked. 

Rashid smiled down at her, pulling her closer as his arms wrapped around her waist.  “I’m glad you know that there will be more than this child.”

She stood up on her toes, pressing herself against him, feeling his approval of her move against her stomach.  “Of course there will be others.  But how about if we plan the next one a bit more logically?”

Rashid laughed, but nodded his head.  “Sounds like a good plan.”  And then he kissed her.  “I love you,” he said.  “I know it’s crazy to be in love with someone I’ve known for hours, but I fell in love with you when you turned around and had the map upside down.”

Sidra grimaced and shook her head.  “I love you too.  I don’t know exactly when it happened, and I tried to pretend that it wasn’t the truth when you didn’t call me, but I do love you.  So if you’re crazy, we’ll just have to figure out how to go insane together.”

He unbuttoned the jacket of her suit and shoved it off of her shoulders onto the floor.  “I know of several good ways to go insane.”

Sidra smiled shyly, but didn’t turn away.  “Bring it on,” she whispered. 

The Beginning….

Nine year old Rashid looked at the pink and pudgy thing in his mother’s arms, disgusted and irritated.  He didn’t want to be here.  He wanted to get back to his studies.  His instructor was just telling him how to calculate an angle which was much more fascinating than whatever this…thing…was.  “It’s a girl,” he said with nine year old disdain and stepped back from the bed where his mother was laying with the ‘thing’ in her arms.  He didn’t know why she wanted anyone else in the family.  The three of them were just fine!

Lila, Rashid’s mother laughed softly and nodded her head.  “You’re very smart,” he teased.  “She’s a girl and she’s very interested in meeting you.”  Lila looked down at her already handsome son with pride, understanding that he felt as if this new baby might usurp his place in her heart.  She had to be gentle so that he knew that she loved him just as much as before the birth of their new baby. 

Rashid glanced down once again, noting that the eyes in the round, pink face were closed.  He discarded the notion that the baby was even remotely interested in meeting him.  “I believe it’s more concerned with sleep mother,” he said carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings, but still not interested in his new baby sister.  “Besides, I wanted a brother.  Not a sister.”

Lila glanced up at the man standing at the end of the hospital bed with amusement. 
Majid
El
Hasham
Busain
, current Sheik of Tasain and one of the most handsome men she’d ever met in her life, looked down at his first born son with pride and amusement as well.  When Lila looked back at her son, still standing stiffly beside the bed and pretending to not be interested in the baby girl, she chuckled.  “Why would I want another boy?  I have a perfect son with you,” she replied and leaned over to kiss his dark hair. 

Rashid sighed, leaning in to the kiss and stepping closer to his mother.  “What are you going to call it?” he asked, trying to get into the spirit of the occasion.  Since they were alone in the room, he accepted her affection but he didn’t like it when others might see him.  They might think he was weak if they knew how much he liked his mother’s hugs and kisses and that couldn’t be allowed.  His father had told him over and over again how a ruler must never show weakness.  And the people of Tasain loved his father, almost as much as he did, so the invincible man must be doing something correctly. 

His father smiled down at his slightly larger family, beaming with
delight.  “Her name is Isla and she’s going to love you just as much as we do, son.” 

Rashid felt better when his tall, strong father walked to the side of the bed next to him.  “Will it cry?” Rashid asked carefully, slipping his hand into his father’s larger one, feeling better when his warm, strong hand wrapped around his smaller one. 

His mother laughed softly.  “Your sister isn’t an ‘it’, dear.  And yes, Isla doesn’t know how to talk yet so the only way she can tell us she’s hungry or uncomfortable is by crying.”

Rashid leaned against his father’s strong leg.  “I still don’t understand why you wanted a baby,” he grumbled.

He didn’t see the look cross between his mother and father because he was watching as the pink bundle moved, her lips pouting together and one hand reaching out as if to touch him.  Her eyes were still closed so he wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he reluctantly agreed that pink wasn’t such a bad color, as long as it was on a girl. 

Nine
years later
….

“Come on!” Rashid called out, pulling eight year old Isla along behind him.  “You’ve got to see this!” he said. 

Isla ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, but her older brother was much taller.  She hoped she could be as tall as he was when she got to be seventeen but she knew she had a long way to go before she could match her beloved brother. 

Well, she loved him today.  That wasn’t always the case.  Sometimes she just wanted to punch him but knew she shouldn’t.  She did on occasion though.  And only when he wasn’t expecting it because Rashid was fast and strong.  The last time she’d done something to him, he’d caught her and tickled her until she was crying, which she didn’t like.  But most of the time, he was pretty nice.  Especially when he helped her with her homework.  He had a lot of patience with her then. 

“Just trust me,” he said, his deep voice and broad shoulders already more than matching his father’s.  In fact, they were the spitting image, except that Rashid was now slightly taller.  The brother was extremely protective of his baby sister, especially since she’d transformed from a pink pudgy ball into a little girl he could play tricks on and he could talk to, when he wasn’t talking with his father about everything from politics to economics. 

“Is it
mother
?” Isla asked, concerned because she’d gotten so big lately.  “Has the baby come yet?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” he said, only slightly disappointed that she’d guessed so accurately.   Most of the time, he enjoyed his sister’s intelligence.  He was glad she wasn’t one of those irritating girls who only thought about shoes and clothes.  Isla was smart and picked up on her lessons quickly.  Otherwise, he would stay away from her as much as possible.  He really disliked women who were brainless and there were enough of them in the world!  Well, there were stupid men too, but he was thinking about the soft, sexy women and the way he liked to kiss them. 

A horrible thought occurred to him and he stopped in the middle of the hallway.  Isla stopped as well and looked up at him and he was startled to realize that his little sister was going to be a great beauty.  Would some other man do to her the things he thought about doing to other women? 

The idea of his sweet little sister in the arms of another man suddenly enraged him. 

“What’s wrong, Rashid?” Isla asked, suddenly worried about the furious expression on his face.  He’d been so excited a moment ago, what had changed? 

Rashid started to say something, his hand tightening on his arm as he looked down at her innocent expression.  “Don’t ever…” he started off, but stopped himself.  He knew that his sister would eventually marry, but he gritted his teeth with determination.  She wouldn’t marry some jerk!  Or someone
like
him, who….well, just not someone who would think of doing things to her that he thought of doing to other women.  Things like kissing and touching their breasts, of moving inside….

No!  She would be protected from that!  She was sweet and innocent.  She shouldn’t even think about having sex, much less doing it.  His mind always seemed to be thinking about sex and women and how lovely they were and how soft and pretty. 

Dammit
!  He had a responsibility towards his little sister, and now there were two of them!  What was a man to do? 

Father would know, he thought to himself.  Rashid knew he’d have a talk with his father as soon as possible.  He had to protect his sisters now! 

“Rashid?” Isla prompted when she saw his jaw clench.  She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him as best she could.  “Are you ill?  Should I call a doctor?”  Her mind frantically went through the possibilities but he didn’t have any of the symptoms she’d read about in the medical books she’d snuck out of the palace library.  She read them in secret, thinking they were the most fascinating things to read.  But none of them helped her right at the moment.  She couldn’t discern any problems with Rashid and that scared her. 

Just as suddenly as his ager came, Isla saw his face clear up and he smiled down at her.  “It’s nothing.  I just thought of something I need to discuss with dad.”  He squeezed her hand to reassure her.  “I promise
,
it’s nothing I can’t take care of.”

Isla smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.  He was right.  Rashid could do anything and if he had trouble, father was always there to advise him.  She sometimes became irritated with their discussions because they were always filled with boring talk of politics and money or buildings.  That was so boring!  But they liked it, so she tried very hard to keep quiet when they were intently arguing their side during a conversation. 

Rashid pulled her along again and they were walking as quickly as possible towards the area where the palace hospital was located.  The closer they got, the more concerned she became. 

At the hospital room door, he looked down at her with an eager expression, then shoved open the door to allow her entrance. 

Isla looked inside the room and saw her mother and father.  “Mother, why are you in here?” she asked, more than a little worried because everything looked strange here.  The bed wasn’t comfortable like the one at the palace, and the people all were wearing strange clothes, very plain and dull.  

She peered over the high bed, ignoring her mother and father’s huge grins.  Something was wiggling and she wanted to see.  “What’s that?” she asked as she noticed the baby.  “It looks like a baby.  Is that what was in your tummy?” she asked curiously. 

Lila laughed and nodded her head.  Patting the side of the bed, she encouraged her daughter to get a better look.  Rashid came over and lifted his little sister up high.  “Isn’t she pretty?” her mother asked, her long, tapered finger running down the chubby cheek of the newborn. 

Isla looked down, wondering what it was her mother and father saw in the baby.  “She looks squished,” she replied. 

Lila looked at her husband and they both laughed. 

“She’ll get pretty, just like you,”
Majid
said and took his daughter out of his son’s arms.  “Go ahead and hold her, Rashid.  You never held Isla when she was a baby so this is your chance.”