The Sheik's Secret Twins (7 page)

“If you don’t
want him, send him my way!” Dorothy called out.

Siri barely hesitated as she heard her assistant’s bellow. 
“Believe me, you don’t want this kind of cockroach,” Siri called back. 

She practically ran up the metal stairs in order to get to her office more quickly.  She wanted Malik out of her office, out of her warehouse and out of her life.  She hated this man so deeply she couldn’t believe that she had it in her. 

“Who the hell do you think…” she started to say but he cut her off, simply by taking her into his arms and
covering her angry mouth with his.  His
kiss was hot, sexy and so blatantly erotic there was nothing Siri could do but kiss him back.  Her clip board fell to the floor, forgotten as her hands gripped the lapels of his perfectly tailored charcoal suit.  His hands, which had been holding both sides of her face, moved down to pull her against him, to show her that he was just as affected by the kiss as she was. 

By the time he lifted his head, Siri was clinging to him, her mind a jumble and
her voice
whimpering with need she’d thought was pushed out of her life
at his departure four years ago
. 

As he looked down at her, his eyes smiling into her stunned ones, he kissed her cheek and her ear, before pulling back once again
to look at her
.  “I’ve missed you, Siri,” he said softly
, his hands roaming over her back and sending shivers of anticipation all over her body
. 
No one knew how to touch a woman, how to touch her, like Malik. He knew all of her secrets, all the places on her body that sent excitement and desire zinging through her system and he used all of that knowledge to his benefit now. 

Siri pulled back just far enough, then with all of her might, she swung out, smacking him hard on his cheek.  Her hand stung from the impact and she could see the red imprint of her hand on his cheek but was unaware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.  “Get out!” she growled.  “I never want to see you again!”

She tried to take a deep breath to calm down, but her body’s betrayal had only made her angrier.  “I can’t believe you would do something like that after so many years and after what you did!”

He started to say something but she picked up her clipboard and shook her head. “Get out of my office, get out of my warehouse and get out of my life!”  She swung around and was just about to leave her office when he grabbed her arm, swinging her around and pushing her against the wall by the door to
her office.  “I deserved the slap.  I know that and I’m sorry for the pain I caused you in the past.  But I can explain,” he said, his voice rough and
yet still
soft,
gently
soothing. 

She tried to jerk away, but no matter how soft his voice, his hands were steel around her waist.  “Don’t touch me!” she snapped and tried to look away when his finger came up and touched her cheek,
tenderly
wiping away the tears on her
flushed cheek
. 

“I’ll leave now, but we’re going to talk.  After that kiss
we just shared
, you know there’s something still between us and we can make this work.  You just have to let it.
  You’re angry now and I deserve it all, and probably a lot more.  But we can work through this and make things better.
”

“You can just…” she started to say something, but shook her head and took a deep breath.  “You’re not going to get to me,” she said with as much dignity as possible under the circumstances.  “You left four years ago, you can just leave again.” 

With that, she turned around and headed down the
office
hallway, uncaring of where she was going as long as it was the opposite direction from him.  She wanted to be as far away from him as she could get, but
the warehouse
offices weren’t very large. 

She walked to the kitchen and looked out the front window, seeing the long, elegant limousine parked out front.  She swallowed painfully since the car reminded her of the times he’d picked her up in those long ago.  Why hadn’t she looked into him more carefully?  Why had she just let things go, happy to be with him and not asking any questions?  She wasn’t stupid, she should have asked questions, been curious at least.  She’d never asked any questions about his past, about his family.  He’d never offered and she hadn’t wanted to pry
into issues he didn’t offer information about. 

Looking back, she should have demanded answers to things that didn’t make sense.  She should have refused to enter into an intimate relationship with a man she didn’t fully know.  But at the time, she’d been overwhelmed by everything about him and the way he made her feel. 

She sank down into the one of the kitchen chairs, lowering her head onto her palm, trying to calm down enough to go back to work.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw the limousine pull away and drive out of the parking lot and thought she even saw two dark SUVs in front of and following the long car.  Yet another mystery, she thought.

Wiping the tears away, she pushed herself up and forced herself to walk down to Mary’s office.  “Is payroll ready yet?” she asked, trying for an even tone. 

Mary did a double take when she saw Siri’s face.  “What’s wrong?”

Siri shook her head and smiled.  “Nothing.  I just had a bad memory but it’s gone now.  Everything is fine.” 

They went through the payroll issues, but Siri’s mind was stuck on Malik and his parting words.  What did he mean about not being finished
?
  Did he mean that he wasn’t gone?

It didn’t matter if he decided that things weren’t finished between the two of them.  She wasn’t some powerless college kid just hanging out waiting for her big shot boyfriend to sweep into town and pick her up.  She was a business woman with things to do, children to raise and….

Oh no!  What would Malik do if he realized that Jacob and
Samuel
were his sons?  Hadn’t the paper mentioned something about him not being able to conceive with his first wife? 
What would he do if he realized he had a ready made heir already set to be trained? 

“I need to go, Mary,” Siri said quickly
, fighting the panic that was threatening to overwhelm her
and left the office.  “Wait, did you need me to sign anything?”

“Here,” Mary replied, pointing to the end of month payroll statement. 
She pointed out several items that needed Siri’s approval, explained a few other issues and then nodded when all was signed at the bottom, allowing the payroll to be disbursed.  Normally they went through the statement more thoroughly, but Siri simply couldn’t focus on the numbers today.  Not after Malik’s visit! 

“Thanks Mary.  I’m sorry I was so distracted today.”

“No problem.  We can go over the details tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Siri said and rushed out of the building.  She was a little earlier than normal to pick up her boys, but not abnormally so.  Sometimes she would pick them up and just go to the park.  She’d do that today, just to spend some time
with
them, to make sure they were okay
which was completely ridiculous except that she knew of the imminent threat to their compact little world
.

The thought of Malik finding out about them was so terrifying, she couldn’t even conceive of what would happen.  He needed heirs, and apparently, there was a great deal of pressure for him to marry
immediately
and have sons
to carry on his legacy and the prosperity of Malik’s reign
.  But
the man
didn’t know that he already had two perfectly healthy children, who were absolutely wonderful and spirited and intelligent and….

No, she wouldn’t allow them to be taken away from her.  He’d rejected them
four years
ago
,
he could just go have children with someone
other female
!  Let those kids be his heir, away from everything that was normal to them.  She didn’t want her boys to have that kind of
royal
pressure
and to have their future choices taken away from them at the tender age of three
.  She wanted them to be raised with hugs and kisses and the fear of asking out a girl for the first time, of football games and soccer and she might even torture them with piano lessons. 

She
automatically
stopped at a
red
light and rested her head on the
hard, unforgiving
steering wheel.  Was she doing the right thing?  If the roles were reversed, how would she feel if he hid her children from him? 

It didn’t matter if it was a ridiculous argument, she knew exactly how she would feel if her children were hidden from her knowledge.  She’d be furious and livid and would feel betrayed.

She couldn’t do that to him.  Hiding his sons
’
existence was the wrong thing to do
.  He’d rejected her letter, but how could he ha
ve known what was in the letter?
  She couldn’t use that
weak
argument any longer, it wasn’t fair. 
Especially after she’d
coldly
rejected so many of his letters
first and without wanting any explanation from him
.
 

The issue was
pointless
anyway
.  Whether he
had
rejected the letter or not, there were certain moral issues that rose above petty rejections or arguments of who rejected whom first
.  It was his flesh and blood and he deserved to know the truth.  She’d had no way of contacting him before, but she couldn’t even pull that point off the charts now that he was here, in
Chicago
and trying to see her. 

A horn honked behind her and she jumped, looking around
and trying to figure out where she was
.  The light had turned green and she quickly accelerated through the intersection, making her way
carefully
to the preschool building without really thinking about the directions.  Thankfully, she didn’t cause an accident or get into one.  At least, she didn’t think so.  At this point, she wasn’t
completely
sure what was going on around her
since thoughts of her boys being taken away from her so they could be trained to be royal
beings
rolled through her mind in a nightmarish
tableau
of heartbreak and loneliness, of having no say in how her boys were raised once Malik took them away from her
. 

She
forced a smile as she passed by the classroom
s
, nodding as politely as possible
to the teachers as she walked in, but inside, her heart was breaking.  This might be the last, normal night she’d have with these little guys.  She’d call Malik tonight and give him the news.  He’d probably want to meet them. 

And she was sure her little boys would want to meet their father. 

She stopped and watched her
guys
through the window, smiling as they laughed about something only they could hear since the two of them were sitting next to each other, building again
with their curly haired heads bent towards each other
.  Goodness, they loved building things, she thought with a heart full of love. 

Jacob looked up and glanced through the
classroom observation
window, his
chubby
face breaking out into a huge smile when he spotted her.  He immediately jabbed Sam who repeated the process.  Two peas in a pod, she thought and pushed away from the wall and walked in, loving their exuberant greeting as they both threw themselves into her arms, their
strong
little arms wrapping around her neck. 

Yes, this was all worth all the frustrations of being a
single mother of twins.  Completely worth every moment!

And
, sadly,
she couldn’t deny Malik this happiness either.  They
were rational, intelligent human beings.  Between the two of them, they
could
figure out an equitable compromise that would be good for the boys as well as for the other parties involved.  Surely there was a way to
work something out, she told herself with what little optimism she could muster.  Surely there could be a sharing agreement set up.  She almost started crying at the idea of these two little fellows not being with her every night, safely tucked into their toddler beds where she knew they were safe. 

Malik would kee
p them from harm
, she
was sure
. 
He might be a rat in the romance department, but these little guys represented the future of his country.  He wouldn’t let anything happen to them. 

She gathered their
preschool
bags,
spoke briefly with their
favorite
teacher about the day, then
walked them out to the car before tucking
them up in their car seats for the
short
drive home.