The Sheik's Secret Twins (6 page)

That was fine with him though.  He
hadn’t
wanted to marry her, he’d wanted Siri.  But Siri hadn’t had the right political connections and his ex-wife had been perfect for the job.  So they’d both done what they’d been raised to do, and that was to protect their countries and create a bond. 

Now that the bond was no longer needed, they had parted ways, leaving him free to pursue this woman who became more interesting the more he watched. 

He was standing in the office area high above the warehouse but he could see down from the window that looked into the
vast
warehouse space.  He saw Siri’s
efficient and bubbly
assistant as she tried to catch her boss, but the
assistant with her bright, curly hair
was on one side of the warehouse, while Siri was on the other. 

Although the
amusing
chase was interesting, he didn’t have a great deal of time, nor
any
patience
to wait
.  He’d waited four years to see his woman and he wasn’t going to
delay
any longer than necessary.
  He wanted Siri in his arms and in his bed, he wanted to pick up where they left off and find a way to forge a future between the two of them.  He’d already cleared the path for their marriage with his advisors.  He hadn’t asked, he’d told them who he was going after.  With his marriage behind him, they
all agreed enthusiastically that a new marriage, to a woman Malik cared for, was the answer to ensuring prosperity in the kingdom
and longevity of his line. 

Malik watched with a chuckle as the assistant’s head bobbed in one direction in search of Siri, while their prey moved in the opposite direction.  Obviously, this wasn’t the most effective way to bring Siri to him, he realized.  Malik
pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number his assistant had given him.  Sure enough, as soon as he heard the answering ring, Siri looked down at her waist where her cell phone was attached.  She glanced at the phone number and he could even see her biting her lip in indecision.  He almost chuckled when she pressed the “Ignore” button and slammed the phone back into the holder at her waist. 

She was cute when she was irritated, but that also gave him an idea of what was coming.  Instead of calling her again, which she would probably ignore once again, he texted her a message, then pressed send and waited, watching for her reaction. 

Siri looked at her clip board again but the words and numbers didn’t register in her mind.  That phone number….it couldn’t be him.  Could it?  How could he have the same phone number he’d had four years ago?  And why in
the
world had she remembered that phone number?  This definitely wasn’t the same phone so she didn’t have the number programmed in as she had in the past.  When he’d called four years ago, his name had popped up on the small screen and she’d eagerly taken the call, excited to find out when he would be back in
Chicago
. 

Now, however, she wanted nothing to do with the man.  Burn me once, shame on you.  Burn me twice, shame on me.  There was no way she was even talking to the man who left her one day and turned up married to another woman the next day, without a word or explanation.

Okay, so he might have tried to explain in the letters she’d rejected, but at the time, she was too furious with him for any explanations.  Then, once she found out she
was pregnant and her own letter
had come back rejected, she’d been too terrified of what was to come.  Explanations weren’t worth much at that point, she’d needed help and she’d gotten none, except from her mother and father who had been absolutely wonderful throughout her whole
terrifying and difficult
pregnancy. 
He had no idea how hard it is to carry twins, attend classes and start one’s business all at the same time!  He could rot at the other end of the line for all she cared!  The man was as good as dead in her heart. 

How dare he even try to call her after all these years, she fumed!  His first marriage ended so now he’s going to try and pick up where he left off?  As if nothing had occurred in between?  As if he hadn’t completely rejected everything they stood for while they’d been together?  What arrogance! 

There she went again, thinking that he might have thought their relationship as significant as she had.  To him, she’d probably just been an affair, a whim.  She’d come to the conclusion that she’d been his “port” lady, the woman he comes to when he’s in this particular city but meant nothing to him since he most likely had, and still had, women in several other ports that met his needs there.  She had to stop thinking that she’d meant anything at all to him.  If she had, he never could have
betrayed her like that
. 

Goodness, why was she even thinking about all this?  She had work to do and a phone call from a man who had abandoned her was not going to distract her from her goals for the day.  She had shipments to
review
, both incoming and outgoing.  She had payroll to approve, a marketing meeting later this afternoon
, financial reports to go over, new products to test and a million other things that were more urgent
…she didn’t have time to dream about painful methods of retribution to a man she’d never see again since he was a million miles away.

She was walking towards the loading docks when her cell phone vibrated, indicating a text message.  She looked at the screen and almost dropp
ed the phone.  ‘I’ve missed you
’ was all the screen said, but the phone number from which the message had come was from that same number, the one she wasn’t going to touch!

She deleted the text, ignoring it completely and headed towards the
busy
loading docks once again, furious that the
obnoxious
man thought he could just
casually
pop back into her life. 

She was almost to the docks when her phone vibrated again.  She almost dropped the clip board in her fury, but was able to control herself.  Barely.  “Can we meet?” the message said.

Siri wanted to throw her phone across the
bustling
warehouse.  The crash would be very satisfying, but unfortunately, it wasn’t Malik’s
arrogant
head so it wouldn’t really count.  And it would only cost her more money
and time
to replace her phone and that man had cost her a whole lot of money.  Well, to be fair, he’d also gifted her with her two little
wonderful
boys.  She glanced down at her watch and was relieved that she still had some
precious
time before she had to pick them up.  She really just needed to focus and get through her day before it became too late.

The next message came just as she was about to call over her loading manager, a barrel chested man with a
n old fashioned
handlebar mustache in his
late
fifties who pushed through the merchandise with a tight leash, ensuring that all shipments were
accurate and
on time. 
Since hiring him three years ago, her complaints had dropped to almost nothing.  The man was a genuine treasure and had relieved a great deal of stress when he’d implemented his shipping procedures soon after his arrival. 

“Hi Joe,” she called out as she
approached,
forcing her mind to concentrate on the shipments that were coming in and not on the text messages she’d just received.  “How are the latest shipments?  Will they be ready in time for….” She started to
ask
but then shook her head. “Joe, I apologize.  I won’t even finish that question because I know you have it all under control and any shipments that are scheduled to go out will happen.  I’m just losing focus today and it’s coming out in odd ways.”
  She almost picked up her cell phone and glared at it just for good measure but knew that the effort would be lost on the inanimate object. 

Joe’s eyes widened
slightly
and then he chuckled, his mustache twitching merrily.  “Thanks for the
unexpected
compliment Ms. Siri, but feel free to ask anything you’d like.  We have all one hundred and fifty parcels ready to ship in the next hour and Gerry is at the
packaging
conveyor belt making sure that tomorrow’s shipments are ready as well.  We have the computer checklist Tory built up last m
onth and
it’s working real well so we’re actually slightly ahead of schedule.  By the end of this month, we should be even better and only the last minute, overnight orders will be a daily exception.
”

The man’s voice was gruff from
years of
yelling at the
NASCAR
races and probably too many
cigarettes
and beer, but he was a gem as a manager.  “Thanks Joe.  Sorry for the questions.  Just trying to outrun something.”
  Or someone, she thought with irritation.
 

She turned on her heel and walked back towards the offices, determined to get payroll finished before she left for the night.  Mary, her payroll manager, was already hard at work ensuring that all fifty-nine employees got paid on time and she’d never missed a deadline yet, but she also needed Siri’s approval to make those deadlines. 

Again, her cell phone vibrated and Siri considered just ignoring the message this time
, sure that whatever message just came through, it was definitely from him
.  She didn’t want to know what he had to say.  But her eyes glanced down and she gasped when she read the words, “You look beautiful, by the way.”

Chapter
3

How could he know what she looked like? 

Was he here?  How could he know?  Was he just saying that
to mess with her mind
?
  It wasn’t his style, but who knows what he is like now. 

“The red sweater looks good
,
”
came
the next message.

With those words, she knew that he was here.  In her warehouse!  There was no way he could know what
she was wearing from over in Duban or wherever he might be in the world
! 
He could only know she was wearing a red sweater if he was actually looking at her. 

She looked around, her heart pounding and her hands starting to sweat.  She couldn’t believe that he was actually here!  Fury pounded through her and she glanced up towards her office window.   Sure enough, there he was, standing in the window watching her.  How long had he been there?  Had he been watching her the whole time.  She glanced down at her cell phone, noting the time of the first call.  He’d been
here
for at least fifteen minutes! 

Damn that man!  There was no way she would allow him to invade her space. 
This was her personal domain and she wouldn’t permit him to come here and fluster her or make her crazy the way he’d been doing for the past few minutes!  He’d given up the
right
to speak to her casually, to give her compliments or anything else
four years ago when he’d married another woman only days after spending the night with her!

Dorothy, her assistant, rushed up to her, out of breath and sweating slightly.  “I finally found you!  There’s a guy up in your office.  A gorgeous guy!  He asked if he could see you and he has the most amazing accent you’ve ever heard!  And he’s buff!” 
she
finally finished, her eyes wide with excitement and curiosity.  The woman was completely discrete about anything that was happening in the office, but Siri looked at her flushed cheeks and knew she’d never confide her relationship with Malik to anyone here in the warehouse or office. 

Knowing that Dorothy expected Siri to drop everything she was doing so she could run up and see the ‘buff’ guy only irritated Siri more, but she tried to hide it.  Dorothy wasn’t the target here.  It was all on Malik’s end that she wanted to shoot darts at. 

“Why is he here?” Siri asked, gritting her teeth to keep from snapping off her assistant’s head at the idea that Malik was ‘gorgeous’.  If she only knew what kind of a weasel that man was, Dorothy wouldn’t think
he
was so nice to look at. 
No amount of muscles could compensate for a poor character and low morals.

Dorothy’s curls bounced as she pointed towards the offices above the warehouse. 
“He said
something
a
bout wanting to talk with you.  He mentioned he was an old friend.”

“Old enemy, more like it,”
Siri
mumbled underneath her breath.  “Thanks Dorothy.  Tell Mary I’ll be in to approve the payroll in a moment.  I just need to get rid of a bug.”

Dorothy stared after her boss, eyes wide at the idea that the man in her office could possibly be the bug
upon which her boss might stomp.   Surely she’d misunderstood.  The charming, marvelous fellow she’d spoken to several minutes ago could never be thought of as an unwanted pest!  Either
that,
or her boss was just teasing.  Yes, that must be it, she thought as she watched Siri walked with determination towards the offices.