by Leslie North
Yaseen exchanged a look with Zayid.
“What?” Nadim snapped.
“What if Aisha is your life path?” Zayid leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees. “Why doesn’t your work in Kendah count as an accomplishment?”
“Have you even seen the news out of Kendah lately?” Yaseen sounded astonished.
“I’ve kept up with it.” No. I can’t stand looking.
“Please. If you’d seen it, you—” Yaseen dug his phone out of his pocket, flicked across the screen, and handed it to him. “Just look.”
The news app showed article after article out of Kendah.
WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF KENDAH?
TIME RUNNING OUT FOR THE SULTANA
A FUTURE OF UNCERTAINTY
“They’re worried.” Zayid met Nadim’s eyes. “The press and the people are all concerned about the upcoming...transition.”
Nadim scrolled through article after article, all of them filled with questions. What would happen when Jamad took over? Aisha had been the one to guide them through a challenging time, and Jamad was nowhere to be seen. Could he keep them on an upward trajectory? One of the reporters had interviewed a person on the street. The quote stuck out at him as if it had been printed in bold, red letters. “I had hopes for Sheikh Nadim. He lifted up everyone he encountered. Especially Sultana Aisha. They were a strong team.”
He blinked, then blinked again. Nadim had the sensation of rising up from deep water and breaking the surface.
Of course. Of course.
“Zayid.” His brother looked at him, eyebrows raised. “I’m going to need a few people and some construction equipment.”
Aisha’s mother sighed on the other end of the line. “Darling, why don’t you just tell me what’s wrong? We’ve been talking for twenty minutes, and I can tell you’re holding back.”
Aisha spun around in her office chair, frowning. She didn’t want to admit that she still had feelings for Nadim. But her mother had been busy lately, and their catch-up calls had grown farther and farther apart. If she wanted to spill, she’d have to do it now.
She let the sadness come back in.
“Well.” Aisha swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “I might have ruined everything.” A strangled laugh escaped her. “Nadim was my best hope for marriage, and now he’s gone.”
“Oh, Aisha, you haven’t ruined everything.” Aisha could hear the breeze in the background of the phone call. She’d caught her mother on one of her daily walks, and she could just picture her, sitting there on a bench near the path. “Your father and I had some terrible arguments, you know. But we always found our way back to each other. There’s still time.”
Aisha’s mouth dropped open. “You and Dad never fought.”
Her mother’s laughter warmed her, despite how lonely she felt. “Oh, yes, we did. We just did it behind closed doors. No relationship is without its rough patches. That doesn’t mean we loved each other any less.” Aisha heard the smile in her voice. “It shows that we loved each other enough to work through the hard times. Do you and Nadim love each other enough to find a way back to each other?”
“I do,” she blurted out, her face heating and her heart breaking all over again. “But I’m not sure about Nadim. And I—I’m not sure how to navigate this rough patch. I sent him away. And even if I can fix it, it might not be fast enough to save Kendah.”
“Irene!” her mother called. “Yes, I’m ready to walk.” Her voice got a little louder. “Aisha, I love you. You can figure this out. I’ll be done walking in an hour if you want to talk. But honey?”
“Yes?”
“Have faith in yourself. You can get through this.”
Sanaa came in while Aisha was still staring at her phone, thinking about what her mother had said.
“I have a message for you, Sultana.” Sanaa approached the desk, a curious look on her face. “You’re needed in Liddah.”
“All right.” Aisha allowed herself a small sigh. Something to do with the storm, no doubt. The repairs wouldn’t be done for years. Even if she didn’t remain sultana, she’d still help. This was her country. Her home. “Let’s go.”
Sanaa put her in a black SUV and sent her on her way. Aisha watched the landscape roll by on the way to Neddah, her mind turning over her mother’s words. It wasn’t until they started making turns through the city that her suspicion rose.
“Where are we going?”
“The park, Sultana.” The driver steered them into place in front of it.
She had a thousand questions. Why were they here? It was a destroyed park...with a flatbed in front of it.
Aisha climbed out of the SUV without saying another word. What was going on? She hadn’t ordered any of this. The flatbed truck was loaded with a backhoe, a bobcat, and a cement mixer. As she watched, a smaller truck pulled up behind it, the bed filled with landscaping tools and supplies. Shovels. Rakes. Chainsaws. A woodchipper. And then a third truck. Construction workers piled out of it, and a man stepped out to shake their hands.
Her heart filled with a wild delight. Nadim. It was him, he was here…what was he doing?
He finished greeting the workers and came toward her wearing a determined smile. God, he was gorgeous. He stood straight and tall and wore a pair of sturdy jeans with a gray T-shirt. Even so, he radiated the confidence of a sheikh. Of a man who could handle anything.
“What are you doing here?”
Nadim stopped, inches away, and grinned.
“We’re going to restore your park, just the way it was before. You’re taking care of Kendah. I’m taking care of you. And there’s this.” He produced a flat box from behind his back, too flat and large to be a jewelry box.
Aisha took it with trembling hands and lifted the lid, then burst out into laughter. “Work gloves?”
“Look again.”
Around the ring finger of the left glove was an engagement ring. A simple platinum band with one diamond. Something she could wear while she worked. Her heart swelled, and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
“Only say yes if you love me.” She looked up into Nadim’s dark eyes, which shone with pride...and love. “You are my life plan, Aisha. I love you. You, Karyme, and Kendah. And I’ll be your strength and support for as long as you’ll have me. Will you marry me?”
“Yes. Yes.” She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. It was the sweetest, most desperate kiss of her life, and within seconds Nadim was nipping at her bottom lip, kissing her harder, stroking her hair. He pulled back after a long time, and he laughed, the sound pure joy. Nadim held up one finger.
“Before I forget.” He reached into his back pocket. “I need you to sign this. I won’t do anything without your okay.”
She let him hold the box with the gloves—and her engagement ring—while she took the paper and unfolded it. At first, Aisha couldn’t see through her happy tears, but she wiped them away. “Okay. Okay—let me read this. What is it?”
It was a work authorization for the park.
The place where she’d first started to fall in love with him. The place where her love for him started to overtake her duty.
She looked into Nadim’s eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
“Now,” Aisha said briskly. “Give me a pen.”
Epilogue
Nadim looked out over the pavilion in Aisha’s park, all of him suffused with joy. He had never been so happy in his life. More than anything, he wanted to imprint this moment on his memory—every detail. The sweetness in the air. The warmth of the sun in the sky. Flowers blooming at the base of the pavilion in neat, colorful rows. Wide stones soaked up the sunlight. It was close to Aisha’s original design, but he’d suggested some upgraded benches and a new material for the pathways that would make them more accessible to people in wheelchairs or parents pushing strollers. She’d agreed, and the park had come to serve even more people.
On their one-year anniversary, they’d retu
rned to celebrate their wedding.
It was wonderful, to see this new iteration of the park. It had taken Nadim and his crew several months to complete it all, and he was infinitely proud of how it had turned out. But there were always more things to do, he’d discovered shortly after. The work of being Aisha’s right-hand man never ended. He preferred it that way.
The original wedding ceremony had been small and quick, with only his immediate family and some close friends of Aisha’s. There hadn’t been time for anything else, what with disaster recovery still going on and the legal deadline for the wedding rushing in. It had been more important for them to get back to work than to plan a huge ceremony. But Nadim knew that it had disappointed many of the people in Kendah, who wanted to be part of the excitement.
There had been plenty of other excitements since—like discovering that Aisha was pregnant two weeks after he returned to Kendah. Now they had a five-month-old son, Inab, a chubby dark-eyed baby with a shock of dark hair.
On a nearby stage, a group of musicians turned their instruments. Nadim’s family—his brothers, sisters-in-law, and Karyme had all gathered in the freshly rebuilt pavilion at the center of the park. Sanaa held Inab nearby. To get to the pavilion, where they’d have the free concert, they’d strolled along the manicured paths. Every so often they stopped to look at the displays put there by the local artists and meet the artists themselves.
Of course, it wasn’t just his family. It seemed that most of the city had come to celebrate with them. Most of the country, even. It was just that he only had eyes for his family. It was a reception, concert, and art festival all in one, and the park was filled with people wearing delighted expressions and their best clothes. They all looked so happy. The storm, he could see, had finally lost its hold on Kendah.
Aisha came up next to him and threaded her fingers through his. “It was a good idea.”
“Which part?” He leaned into her. “The pavilion? The vow renewal ceremony? This party?”
“All of it.” Aisha’s eyes twinkled. “But especially our family.” She laughed. “Who’d have thought we’d be married a year with two children?”
I thought it, deep down where I could hide it away. “Nobody. Not a single soul could have predicted this.”
The past year had gone shockingly well. Aisha’s leadership had steered the country through recovery from the flooding. This festival was a celebration of how well the nation was doing under her leadership.
She nudged him with her elbow. “You know, this doesn’t officially begin until we give our welcome speech.”
He stared at her. “It doesn’t? What was the vow renewal then?”
“A little treat on the steps of the palace, husband mine.” She rose up on tiptoe and kissed his lips. At that moment, Karyme toddled over, the rest of the family just behind her. Nadim gathered her up in his arms and kissed her cheeks until she shrieked with laughter, and then he held her tight. Yes. This was where he belonged. What greater accomplishment had he been looking for? He knew now he would never find one.
Aisha took Inab from Sanaa and beamed down at the baby, then across at Nadim. “Are you ready?”
The moment he said yes, they would step up onto the pavilion’s raised floor and give their prepared remarks, welcoming all the people who had come to this evening of music, food, and art. Servers waited behind long tables of rice and lamb and a rich assortment of vegetables, waiting for permission to begin. The band had finished tuning. Their songs would float out over the crowd, and eventually, Nadim hoped, they’d all be able to dance together.
And tomorrow—he sighed happily at the thought of tomorrow. He and Aisha would finally set out on their honeymoon. Nadim’s brothers and their wives were going to stay with Sanaa to watch the children, all of them taking over the palace for a week. A honeymoon. No responsibilities. They’d instructed the staff only to call in case of emergency. It would just be the two of them on a beach in the south of France. Maybe he’d get some reading in...but more likely he’d spend the entire time drinking in the sight of his wife.
Nadim took another moment to drink her in now, there in the white gown she’d worn to the celebration. He looked around at all the people who meant so much to him. They were what mattered. They always had been. Thank God he’d come to see it before it was too late. Now the two of them could look forward to a bright future together, and it was so bright and full of warmth. Nadim ran a hand over Karyme’s curls.
He leaned down and brushed a kiss across Aisha’s lips, then bent to kiss the top of Inab’s head. He scrunched up his face, then giggled, his baby voice floating into the air above them.
“I’m ready.” He shifted Karyme onto his hip and stood up tall. “It’s all part of the plan.”
End of The Sheikh’s Rescued Baby
Hasan Sheikhs Book Three
The Sheikh’s Marriage Bargain, August 13, 2020
The Sheikh’s Pregnant Wife, August 20, 2020
The Sheikh’s Rescued Baby, August 27, 2020
PS: Do you love playboy billionaires? Then keep reading for an exclusive extract from The Sheikh’s Surprise Heir (Karawi Sheikhs Book One).
Thank you!
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About Leslie
Leslie North is the USA Today Bestselling pen name for a critically-acclaimed author of women's contemporary romance and fiction. The anonymity gives her the perfect opportunity to paint with her full artistic palette, especially in the romance and erotic fantasy genres.
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BLURB
Every time Natalie looks at her beautiful daughter, Iris, she can’t help but think about the passionate night she spent with a prince—and for good reason: Prince Iman Karawi is Iris’s father. Though Natalie longed to tell Iman about their daughter, unknown to her, Iman’s manipulative uncle hid the truth. Even as she goes on with her life, caring for her daughter and her dying mother, she cannot get thoughts of Iman out of her mind. Now, six years later, a chance meeting brings back all the feelings Natalie’s tried to forget. How could one-night haunt her after all this time? It’s clear Iman wants to continue where they left off, and it’s just as clear to Natalie that he might break her heart again. Especially if he ever finds out that little Iris is his.
For Iman, Natalie was always more than a one-night stand. He never understood why she left so abruptly, and even years later during a chance meeting, he’s still drawn to the blonde beauty in a way he can’t explain. Despite being promised to another by his parents, Iman can’t suppress his excitement—or desire—at seeing her again. But this time, Iman is not ready to say good-bye. He makes her a job offer she cannot refuse, and as he and Natalie spend more time together, it’s clear to Iman he cannot marry his fiancé, not when the love he feels for Natalie burns so deep.
As the past threatens to destroy their blossoming romance, it might be too late for either of them to find the happily ever after that has always been just out of reach.
Grab your copy of The Sheikh’s Surprise Heir (Karawi Sheikhs Book One) from
www.LeslieNorthBooks.com
EXCERPT
Chapter One
Six Years Earlier
I need the money. I need the money. I need the money. Natalie chanted the phrase over and over in her head as she readied a pot of water to brew more coffee. It was supposed to be her week off, but her friend Erin had begged Natalie to take the unplanned flight so she could go to some pop icon concert. As much as Natalie had wanted to spend the week with her mom at the hospital, she nee
ded the money to help cover the medical bills.
Although, to be honest, working Prince Iman Karawi’s private flight barely made a dent in the medical bills, and the man was as unpleasant as they come. Natalie had only been working with Kaylana Private Flights for a few months now, and the money was better, but the rich clientele left a lot to be desired.
The plane hit a small patch of turbulence, and Natalie widened her stance and reached for the counter. She’d been a flight attendant for five years now, and a little bouncing didn’t bother her. When the coffee finally started to brew, she sighed in relief and grabbed the coffee cups. His-Highness had complained about the first two cups of coffee she’d served him. He didn’t like the flavor. He thought it was too weak.
If he didn’t like this one, she was going to accidentally slip and pour it in his lap.
The phone on the wall rang. “Yes?” she asked as she picked it up.
“We’re approaching Egypt,” Zane Maroun, the senior pilot, informed her. “We should be reaching the Haamas kingdom in a little over two hours. The spots of turbulence will probably continue. Everything okay back there?”
“I think so. Just trying to make His Highness’s cup of coffee to his liking,” Natalie said through gritted teeth.
The pilot chuckled. “Keep things civil.”
“I’ll try.” Hanging up, she poured out the requisite number of cups and placed them on the beverage cart. The prince was traveling with his ambassador and three security agents.