by Marian Tee
I blinked. "So...you're not angry?"
"Why should I be?"
There was something I was missing, I thought. Something about him...
"After what I heard..."
Ah.
It was the sheikh.
For the first time since we met, he was wearing a mask...while with me.
And it hurt.
"Raj—-"
"I think it's time we speak of the truth," the sheikh said gently.
My blood kept getting colder as I listened to him speak, and I couldn't understand why.
"The only reason I had indulged your romantic whims and let you believe that I have feelings for you was for the sake of my heir—-"
I shook my head. "You're lying."
But the sheikh went on as if he no longer...he no longer cared about me. "It is always better for a child to grow up in a stable home, with both parents present. Better but not necessary, and now that I know about the boy—-"
"Will you please stop fucking talking about Johnny," I choked out, "and just tell me what the fuck's going on? You love me—-" A pained expression flitted over the sheikh's handsome face, and I could no longer speak.
"Have I ever said it?"
"N-No, but it's because—-"
"Because I don't," he said softly.
I stared at him.
"And to tell you the truth, habibti...it had been getting a little exhausting, pretending to be a devoted lover when all I truly wanted from this contract was a heir to put an end to my father's nagging."
I just kept staring at him.
"Admittedly, it had been fun at first, and when I found out about Dahlia, I confess it made me feel rather protective towards you. But after a while..." The sheikh's shoulders lifted in a careless shrug. "In any case, I do believe the boy will soon leave your sister, and once you give me my heir..." He made a rather vague gesture of dismissal, and it almost felt as if he was symbolically throwing me out of his life. "You shall be free to do whoever you want."
Asshole, I thought. He was such a fucking asshole, and I should never have let myself forget that.
Dark eyes touched mine, probably for the last time, and all I could do...all I could do was just fucking stare at him.
Because this time, I knew I was crying.
This time, I needed it to be like before, needed him to wipe my tears away the way he always did.
But nothing happened, and that was when I knew.
It's different now, I thought dully.
I used to think that only Dahlia could fuck me over, but I was wrong.
I watched the sheikh leave, and I was glad.
Even as the tears continued to fall, I was glad to see him gone.
It hurt less, you see, not seeing the man who was the cause of the agonizing shame that was ripping me apart.
I really believed he was in love with me, too, and yet all that time...
God.
For hours I simply sat there, unable to think. It hurt. It just hurt too much to do anything else but let the tears fall silently, and it was only when I absently ran my fingers over my tummy...
Ah.
A laugh escaped me, but this quickly turned into a sob. I had actually forgotten for a moment that I was pregnant.
Sorry, little bun.
I thought, so foolishly thought the three of us could be happy.
Now, it was just the two of us.
But I would make it work.
I'd keep my little bun safe and loved, no matter what, and that could never happen if I was still here, surrounded by so many memories that were no longer beautiful. If I let myself stay here a second longer, I might end up endangering my little one, and the thought was enough to get me off my ass. Before I knew it, I was already in the airport and paying for a one-way ticket to Kivr. Once there, I took a cab straight to the royal palace, and after introducing myself to the guards as the mother of Sheikh Raj's unborn child, I asked them if they could please ask Princess Ella if she was willing to meet me.
I was shown to a grand-looking drawing room, and barely a minute had passed when a woman about my age came, and I found myself thinking—-the sheikh was right.
She did have a rebellious look to her, and just like that...
Just thinking about him—-
My face started to crumple.
"Oh no," I heard Ella whisper.
A moment later, and she was quickly pulling me into her arms, and I found myself bawling like a kid.
"What's that jerk done to you?"
Your wife's here.
But don't think of visiting just yet. The mood Ella is in, she might just have you banned from entering our kingdom.
Message received at 0102h from Khal
Chapter Nineteen
It was midnight when the sheikh called, and I forced myself to answer, not wanting him to think that I was so hurt I could no longer bear the sound of his voice.
"How very clever of you to choose that place to run away from me."
"I'm not running away from you," I said quietly. "I just need some time and space on my own."
"But how long will you be on your own, I wonder? Dahlia was at the apartment earlier, sobbing her heart out."
"I supposed you wiped her tears?"
"Of course."
I sucked my breath. "I see."
There was a pause, and when the sheikh spoke again, I could practically hear him frowning through his voice. "Is that supposed to mean something?"
"I was just thinking about how you used to wipe my tears, too...until last night."
"I didn't see any point doing so," the sheikh murmured, "now that I know someone else can do it just as well. You have probably heard from Johnny?"
"No."
"Mm. Playing hard to get? I suppose it makes sense. Will he be joining you there soon, now that he and your twin have broken up?"
"I don't really care what either of them - what any of you are up to. So..." I suddenly couldn't speak, couldn't do anything else but just let the tears start falling again. It hurt, dammit. It hurt to hear him speak and know that he had never...
"It is not like you to keep playing the victim, habibti."
I squeezed my eyes shut. "I'm not playing the victim. I am one," I choked out with a painful laugh, "because guess what, asshole? I was in love with you. Johnny was a crush, but you...you were fucking everything."
There was a long moment of silence...
And then I heard him swear.
Heard him say my name.
But it was just too much, just fucking hurt too, too much, and I hung up.
The sheikh called again and again after that, but no more. I was wiser now, and the less I had to do with him, the better.
Or so I told myself.
But night after night, I would end up crying myself to sleep. And it wasn't like I never tried, dammit. I swear to God I was doing my best to forget him, to just think of the baby, but God...I just couldn't. Couldn't make myself stop loving him. Just couldn't stop thinking about him that when one night, I woke up to find the sheikh sitting next to my bed, his handsome face taut, I couldn't help it.
I reached up to touch him, thinking I had finally snapped, and that in my insanity I had finally managed to conjure an illusion of—-
What the fuck?
This was the sheikh, in the fucking flesh!
I shot up to a sitting position, my heart banging away as I stared at him in shock. "H-How did you..."
"Come here without getting arrested?" I could only nod, and a smile twisted over the sheikh's lips. "Ella," he said rather dryly, "got sick of hearing you weep every night."
Fuck.
"It's been a rough couple of days," I said finally, "but I'm getting better—-"
"I'm getting worse," he cut in. "I have been missing you like crazy—-"
"Stop lying," I bit out.
"Because you were right. I love you—-"
I didn't even think about what I was doing, it just happened, and the cracking
sound as my hand struck the side of his face made me whiten.
"I'm s-sorry—-"
"It is the least I deserve," the sheikh said bleakly, "for hurting you the way I did."
There were so many things I wished I could say, but I couldn't.
Because I was crying again.
"I'm sorry, habibti."
I saw him reach one hand out and shook my head. "N-No."
I saw him flinch, but I didn't care.
"Just go, please—-"
"I can't. I love you—-"
"Stop lying, please—-"
"The only time I lied," the sheikh said rawly, "was when I told you I didn't love you. I was just out of my mind with jealousy, habibti. If you had told me about the boy, I would have been more prepared, and I know it is no excuse—-"
"I don't care," I said dully. "I just don't care anymore—-" I saw him flinch again, and my own heart broke. I hated seeing him like this, but I just couldn't...just couldn't trust myself with him anymore.
"I have a gift for you."
I could only stare at him, capable of only crying. I didn't even have the energy to ask what the fuck he was up to. Did he really think a gift could fix things between us?
"I bought your dad's former company..." The sheikh forced my fingers to curl around the edges of a document envelope. "I also made the previous owner sign the necessary contracts so that your father would never have to worry about being sued for what he did."
I could only shake my head. "Please let's just stop this—-"
"I also had a story published in your old hometown, exposing the truth about your twin. Everyone now knows the truth about what truly happened in your former high school...as well as the fact that Dahlia's original name is Automated Teller."
A choked laugh escaped me despite everything.
"Another thing that envelope contains is photographic evidence of Portia's affair with the pool boy. She knows you have it, and with this she'll know how you felt all those years she had threatened you about throwing your father to jail."
I watched his jaw clench, and I couldn't remember ever seeing him this vulnerable.
Almost as if he was terrified.
"Lastly..." His tone became hoarse. "I've included our contracts, both the old and new one, they've been...voided. You can no longer be held liable for not following through with any of it, and with this, habibti..." Dark eyes captured mine in fierce appeal. "You are completely free to leave me, but I am hoping...you will choose not to. I am hoping and counting on the fact that even though I have hurt and made you cry, you are still a sucker for assholes—-"
Asshole, I thought again, but at the same time I could feel my heart start racing even as I also found myself crying even harder.
And when the sheikh tried to reach for me again, I let him.
Felt his fingers shake as he wiped my tears away...just like before.
Because he loved me.
Epilogue
And so here we are again, and I'm about to start with the same premise.
I wish I could say...
That the sheikh was no longer an asshole after that, but if I did, I would be lying.
I also wish I could say that Dahlia and Portia had changed for the better after having a dose of their own medicine, but nah, that didn't happen either.
The one thing that did change was my baby's name. If it turned out to be a girl, Raj had agreed that her first name would be Ella, because if not for the latter, God knew where I'd have ended up, that day I had run out on my marriage.
The thought made me smile, and I couldn't help lifting my glass of grapefruit juice to make another toast to my new best friend. "To Ella."
"To Ella." The two sheikhs were swift to raise their glasses as well, and Ella wrinkled her nose at us, embarrassed but tickled pink at the same time.
It was our last night in Kivr, and tomorrow we would be flying straight to Wyoming, where my dad was already waiting to meet his future son-in-law. Obviously, Gerry was not going to move to Miami anymore, and my dad was instead going to live right next door to Raj's place in Hartland.
Once dinner was over, Raj told Ella and me that he and Khal had a surprise for us.
"It is something that we have always wished to experience," Raj went on rather mysteriously, "but never had the opportunity to explore...until now."
Raj slid an arm around my waist, and I saw Khal do the same with Ella as the four of us walked down the hallway leading to the palace's private wing.
"Isn't this were you had that new bunk bed installed?" I heard Ella ask.
Bunk bed?
Instead of answering his wife, Khal glanced at his best friend, asking, "Shall we flip a coin?"
A smirk formed over Raj's lips. "Heads for upper."
The Crown Prince of Kivr tossed a coin in the air. "Tails," he said.
"Upper bunk's mine then," Raj murmured.
Ella and I stared at each other in confusion. What the fuck were they talking about?
"Is this some kind of sleepover?" I finally asked.
Khal laughed. "Something like that."
"What do you mean something like that?" Ella asked suspiciously.
But the sheikhs were already urging us to enter the bedroom, and just as Ella said earlier, there was a newly installed bunk bed inside it.
"This is going to be fun," Raj whispered into my ear.
"Can you please just get to the point?" I burst out.
The sheikhs glanced at each other.
A moment later, Raj murmured something else to my ear and Khal did the same with Ella.
He's got to be fucking kidding...
He's got to be...
But then I saw Raj's expression, and I saw how Ella paled when she looked at Khal...
SHIT!
Both of us tried making a run for it, but of course, the assholes were much too fast for us, and before I knew it, Raj had already dragged me to the upper bunk with him while I heard clothes ripping below.
Oh my God.
Were they serious?
They wanted the four of us to have sex at the same time...just because they knew it would embarrass the hell out of us?
ASSHOLES!
I did my best to push Raj off, and from below I could hear the other couple struggling similarly. But then Raj finally managed to flip me on my stomach, and I screamed when I felt him rip my panties off.
"Don't you fucking—-aaah!"
He had entered me from behind, just as I heard Ella moan, and the bed started shaking.
Oh God.
A helpless shudder of desire rocked my body, and Raj laughed.
"Admit it, habibti," he crooned. "It turns you on, doesn't it?"
"Fuck you."
"As you wish, my Story."
And so he did, and as both sheikhs had hoped, that night had become one of our most excruciatingly unforgettable memories, with the way Ella and I couldn't help whimpering almost in synchrony as our sheikhs teased our ears with these exquisitely harsh panting sounds while fucking us hard and good...oh dear God, they just wouldn't stop fucking us, just wouldn't stop until Ella and I were forced to beg and moan for a moment's rest...
But since these guys were assholes...
Yeah.
Not happening.
The End
Author's Note
12 August 2020 Wednesday 0506h
Manila, Philippines
Hello to new and old readers alike! Thank you for reading My Insatiable Sheikh, and I hope you enjoyed your time with Raj and Story.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I wanted this book to be really hot and dirty. > . < Since my last books were rather action-packed (You Had Me At Boo) and angsty (Billionaire Rancher Heartbreaker), I just thought it would be nice and relaxing to simply focus on a couple who fell in love at first sight and proceeded to have lots of steamy fun after that.
As for my next book...I'm thinking I can finally write a sequel for Zari and Alexandru, which means it will be another vampi
re romance. But nothing's set in stone yet, so we'll see.
Anyway, that's it for now. Let's all keep helping each other during this extraordinary time. Stay safe and healthy, and above all else, stay kind. :)
Until our next journey,
Marian Tee
P.S. Please consider writing a review for My Insatiable Sheikh if you enjoyed it. I'd love to know if you enjoy reading stories like this.
P.P.S. "Professor L" and Damen have their own book, and so do Khal and Ella. Blurbs in the next pages, in case you're interested.
P.P.S. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter if you want to enjoy exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming releases! No spamming involved, and your email addresses are not shared with any other party whatsoever.
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