Pregnant With the Sheik's Heir (The Abbot Sisters Book 2)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  It was after nine o’clock that evening when she finally left the building. But as she drove back to her tiny apartment, her mind was whirling with all she’d read through today, as well as ideas to build on what the team had already done.

  As she washed her face and brushed her teeth for bed, Rayne was relieved that she finally had something else to think about besides Kular. Unfortunately, as she drifted off to sleep, Kular invaded her dreams.

  Chapter 9

  Kular watched his head of security step into his office with a grim expression. Muttering a curse, he turned away, wanting to hit something.

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but so far, we haven’t turned up anyone by the name of Rayne. But we have made some progress,” he explained.

  It had been two months. Two long, miserable months of waiting and searching for Rayne. He’d even made a personal call to Josh Starke, asking him if the man knew anything about a woman named Rayne with red hair. Starke had told Kular that he didn’t know her, but Kular didn’t believe him. There was something in his voice, something off that told Kular that he was protecting the woman.

  So, he’d had his men watch Starke’s offices and home. There was a pretty brunette that had been to the man’s penthouse several times, and it looked as if they were a couple. But there’d been no sign of his Rayne.

  Where was she? Was she okay? Was she eating well and using sunscreen? Was she getting enough sleep? Was she safe? She’d mentioned starting a new job. But was she doing anything other than working? Was she pushing herself too hard?

  Too many questions and no answers. He was livid! And he ached to hold her in his arms again.

  “What’s your progress?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck with frustration. Never had he been so obsessed about a woman. About anything! Hell, he ruled the country, so he was in control of everything!

  Everything but a sweet, determined, too serious redhead that smiled shyly, then asked him if he was a con man. Just thinking about that conversation had him smiling again.

  Although, not for long. Because he hadn’t held her in his arms for two damn months!

  His Chief of Security broke into his thoughts.

  “You mentioned that she was starting work with a company that is experimenting with a new type of material that would make planes lighter and stronger.”

  He blinked, thinking back to that conversation, remembering the sparkle of excitement in her eyes. “Right. She was starting a new job. She’d been in Monaco celebrating her graduation.”

  The guard nodded, his eyes serious. “We’ve narrowed down a list of companies within the United States that are working on this type of project. We currently have a list of approximately thirty companies, although there may be more but they haven’t applied for a federal grant.”

  Kular’s heart began to pound. “What have you found?”

  The man’s look was grim. “We’ve only just started our search in this area, Your Highness. We’ll get back to you as soon as we have more information. But Your Highness, I have to warn you that this is a long shot. This kind of a project is very competitive and extremely secretive. Any company working on something like this will have intense security measures.”

  Some might consider Kular’s expression evil. He preferred to think of it as determined. “But you can get around those security measures, right?”

  The man’s smile was just as determined. “So far, there isn’t a security system that I haven’t been able to get around, except for a couple government systems. So yes, I can get around them,” he promised.

  “Excellent!” Kular replied.

  Hashim stepped into the office and Kular knew that his presence, plus his grim expression meant that Kular was late for another meeting. That had happened too often lately, but until he found Rayne and knew that she was safe, until he spoke to her and understood why she’d left him in the middle of the night, then he couldn’t rest. He needed to see her, to hold her and talk to her. Kular needed to understand.

  Because deep down inside, he felt as if something was very wrong with his Rayne. Something wounded and troubled. He couldn’t figure out how he knew it. He just did. And until he could find her and make it right again, he couldn’t rest.

  Chapter 10

  “You have to go home.”

  Rayne looked up from the notes, blinking. “I’m sorry?”

  David chuckled, moving closer to her desk. “You’ve been here since six o’clock this morning, Rayne,” he teased. “Look at the clock.”

  Rayne tried to focus on the analog clock over the doorway, but she’d been staring at a test tube for too many hours and her eyes simply couldn’t focus on a faraway object. “Um…well, take a look at this,” she said, ignoring the time because she didn’t want to go home. Work was her salvation right now. Going home meant that she would start thinking about Kular and she simply couldn’t handle another night of that. “I read an article about origami and….”

  “Origami?” David interrupted. “Why in the world were you reading about origami?” He laughed. “Isn’t that the hobby of folding pieces of paper into animals and other objects?”

  She blinked, her mind a bit numb after…she wasn’t sure how long she’d been here since her eyes couldn’t focus on the clock. “Yes, but see right here…?”

  “Rayne,” he interrupted again, waving his hands into the air to stop her.

  He looked at her and she deflated. “Right,” she sighed, bowing her head. “Go home. Re-energize.”

  “Exactly. You’ve brought some amazing ideas to the project and we’ve made huge strides towards our goal. But you have to pace yourself. You’re going to burn out if you don’t take care of yourself.” He smiled gently as he looked at her. “You look exhausted. Are you sleeping well?”

  Rayne wasn’t sure how to answer him since she didn’t sleep. So sleeping “well” wasn’t the problem. “Oh, yeah. When I sleep, I’m completely out,” she lied. The reality was that she did everything she could do avoid sleeping because as soon as she closed her eyes, Kular appeared. They hadn’t spent a great deal of time together, so her reaction seemed completely out of proportion. Her continuous thoughts of the man just seemed…illogical!

  But he’d made her laugh. He’d made her feel good about herself. And he’d shown her what a night of passion could be like…and then his friend had shown her the depths of humiliation.

  “I’m leaving,” she vowed, even though she wouldn’t go home to sleep.

  Taking off her lab coat, she shut down her workstation and grabbed her purse. She wanted to bring home some of the documentation the other team members had worked on to get up to speed, but the files couldn’t be taken out of the building. She understood, which was why she spent so much time here in the lab, either working on her experiments or reading up on others’ work.

  Walking out of the parking lot, she pressed the button on her car, smiling at the happy beep. Gone were her public transportation days. A new car. A brand new car! She loved her tiny little compact car. It was the bottom of the line in vehicles, had absolutely no bells and whistles, but it started on command and got her from point A to point B and that was a wonderful thing. Rayne hadn’t planned on buying a new car, preferring to save her money. But the long hours she needed to work had pushed a new car higher up on her list of necessities. Hence, her tiny car!

  She still remembered her mother’s beat up old jalopy that she and her sisters had used after the funeral. If it started in the morning, it was a miracle.

  Of course, that was before Sloane started working for Josh. Almost immediately after she’d started her job as assistant to that wonderful man, everything had changed. They’d moved into the cottage on Jefferson’s property, they had enough money to buy food instead of standing in line at the city’s shelter, and, because of Pepper’s creative genius, they’d had beautiful clothes. Pepper’s knack was buying two or three dollar pieces of clothing at the charity stores and changing them into something beautiful and amazing.
Pepper could change just about any piece of used clothing into an outfit that looked like a famous designer created it. She’d take a man’s jacket and tailor it so that it looked like a fitted woman’s jacket. She’d add a few additional details and, voila! It was transformed.

  After being evicted from their apartment eight years ago, all three sisters had contributed to their survival in some way. Sloane had dropped out of high school to get a full time job. Pepper had transformed clothes and sold them online or to her friends. And Rayne had tutored in math, science, and history every afternoon, then babysat for neighbors in the evening. That tutoring had propelled her to the top of her class. Even throughout her college years, she’d continued to tutor, both college and high school students, and her grades had earned her scholarships that helped pay for her education.

  Driving out of the parking lot, Rayne wondered how Pepper was doing at her new job. It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t spoken to either of her sisters in a while now. They’d been chatting at least once a week, but…thinking back, it had been over two weeks since she’d checked in with either Sloane or Pepper.

  “Oh, that’s gotta change,” she whispered as she drove through the dark city streets. Her office was about thirty minutes outside of San Diego, in the suburbs where land and taxes weren’t so brutal. Because of the terrifying years after her mother’s murder, and the almost constant fear of being evicted and homeless, Rayne was a bit of a miser when it came to money. So her apartment was another thirty minutes away. The rent was much more reasonable out in the exurbs, and she didn’t care if she had to live so far away from the city that she couldn’t really enjoy everything San Diego had to offer. Her happiness derived more from a sense of security, of knowing that she had money in the bank for emergencies. So many people spent money on things that they thought would make them happy. And if that worked for them, more power to them.

  For Rayne, she lived frugally, enjoying the growth of her bank balance. She also sent half of her salary to Josh’s firm every month for investing, knowing that her money would be safe and would grow in his competent hands.

  Pulling into the parking lot of her apartment building, she was startled by the sight of a tall, powerfully built man leaving her building. “Kular!” she gasped, her body instantly coming alive. “But…how?” And was it really him?

  Why would he be here? She was exhausted and her eyes ached from staring at test tubes. So, maybe she wasn’t seeing the person properly. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her?

  Unfortunately, it was too dark for her to get a good look at the man before he ducked into a car. By the time she stepped out of her own little vehicle, the black SUV was long gone and she stood staring into the darkness, feeling foolish.

  “It wasn’t him,” she told herself firmly and hitched her purse higher onto her shoulder. “I’m just seeing things because I miss him so much.”

  With that, she turned and walked into her apartment. She showered and changed into a soft, well-worn tee shirt, then pulled her computer higher on her lap as she snuggled into the warm blankets of her bed. She didn’t have a bed frame or even a headboard. Her nightstand was simply two plastic crates stacked on top of each other with a cheap lamp that she’d salvaged from a consignment shop and paid only two dollars for. She’d sanded off the old finish and repainted it and now it looked as good as new!

  Before she could begin surfing the internet for new ideas, she sifted through her mail, her fingers coming to a stop on a small envelope. “What is this?” she gasped, shoving her laptop to the side as she sat up straighter.

  Tearing the envelope open, she read the words, then read them again. “Married?” she whispered in stunned surprise.

  Jumping out of bed, she grabbed her phone and dialed her sister. When Sloane’s sleepy voice came over the line, Rayne was too excited to care that it was about two o’clock in the morning on the east coast.

  “You’re getting married?!” she yelled.

  Sloane’s soft laugh came through the lines. There was a deeper voice in the background and Rayne realized that her older sister was in bed with Josh!

  “Yes,” Sloane came back. “Josh and I are getting married.”

  “Oh, Sloane!” she sighed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “It’s about time!” But she ruined her admonishment by sniffling.

  Sloane laughed. “Yeah, he agrees.” There was a grunt and Rayne pictured Josh half listening to the conversation. “So, are you going to make it to the wedding?” she asked.

  Rayne looked down at the invitation again. “Of course! I wouldn’t miss your wedding for anything! But…” she looked at the date. “Good grief, next weekend? Why so soon?”

  Sloane chuckled again. “Remember how I warned you and Pepper to always use two forms of birth control because we have freakish levels of fertility?”

  Rayne’s heart pounded with those words. “Yes. So…?”

  “I’m pregnant,” Sloane supplied with a tone of exasperation.

  “But…?”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Sloane interrupted, obviously reading Rayne’s mind. “I’m completely, madly in love with Josh. But the reason we’re getting married so soon is because I’m pregnant.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful!” Rayne sighed, her body relaxing. “And I know that you’re in love with Josh. You have been for years.”

  Sloane groaned. “That’s what Pepper said when I called a few days ago to give her the news.”’

  “You called Pepper, but sent me an invitation? What gives there? Why didn’t I get a call?”

  “Oh, don’t you dare,” Sloane admonished with a laugh. “You got a call. You’ve gotten so many calls over the past couple of weeks that I’m ready to fly out there and find out what’s wrong! Why aren’t you calling me back? You only text me when you get one of my voice mails, missy. So what gives? What’s wrong?”

  That was all true, Rayne knew. “I just…” she sighed and leaned back against the pillow propped up against the wall of her apartment. “According to my boss, I’m pushing myself too hard,” she said, not bothering to mention that she was working as many hours as possible just so she didn’t have to think about Kular. Wouldn’t that be a humiliating admission! “Oh, I fell madly in love with a man I’d known for only a few hours, gave myself to him, and then discovered he frequents prostitutes and his staff thought I was just one of the same.” Nope! Not going down that road! That was a secret Rayne vowed to take to her grave.

  “You aren’t sleeping well, are you?”

  Rayne rolled her eyes, but smiled softly at the concern in her sister’s voice. “I’m fine, Sloane.”

  “You’re not fine,” she countered. “I can hear it in your voice. Why don’t you come home for the weekend?”

  She’d love to come home to see Sloane and…well, she really missed Josh as well. She’d love to see Wilma and Jefferson and play chess with the kind, elderly man. But Rayne couldn’t do that. Not right now. “I’m fine. I’ll be home for your wedding.”

  Sloane sighed. “Fine. But call me more often, okay?”

  “I will. I love you, Sloane,” she said, feeling the need to say that to her sister. “And I’m so happy for you.”

  “I love you too, hon. And I’m really happy for me too.” There was a giggle on the other end of the line, which was odd, because normally, Sloane was too serious to giggle. That was a good sign, Rayne thought as she hung up the phone and got back into bed.

  Married! Sloane and Josh were finally getting married! Rayne remembered sharing a room with Pepper all those years ago, both of them whispering to each other that they suspected Sloane had feelings for her boss. And over the years, those feelings had grown so that their attraction for each other was so obvious that it was almost embarrassing at times. So it was great that her sister had finally admitted that she loved him, and that Josh told her that he felt the same way. Wow!

  And then the contrast to what she’d had with Kular hit her. While her sister had spent years getting
to know Josh, She’d had one weekend with Kular. How could she be so obsessed with a man she barely knew? It seemed impossible. And for someone who prided herself on being calm and logical, her feelings for Kular just didn’t make any sense!

  So, why was she seeing him in the darkness? He didn’t live anywhere...!

  Wait, Rayne just realized that she had absolutely no idea where Kular lived. She didn’t know if he had family anywhere. She didn’t know if he had siblings or…anything! She knew that he was a wonderful lover, if a bit promiscuous in his dealings if he preferred prostitutes for his sexual partners.

  Even after that thought, something else occurred to her and she gasped in horror. “No!” Rayne stared blankly at the far wall in the darkness and shuddered with horror. She’d been so wrapped up in her anger and humiliation that she hadn’t even considered the health ramifications of Kular and his past sexual partners. Sexually transmitted diseases were a very real issue!

  Falling back against the pillow, she stared up at the ceiling, laughing slightly at the idea of getting any sleep tonight. After her mind had played tricks on her earlier and now the idea of a health issue, Rayne felt as if she were balancing on a razor edge.

  “What have I done?!” she groaned.

  Around four o’clock in the morning, she gave up on sleep and decided to just get ready for work. At this time of the morning, no one else would be in the lab to know that she’d gotten in before her normal arrival time of seven o’clock. She’d just drive into the office, avoiding traffic, then finish reading through her team members’ progress.

  As she pushed the blankets off of her legs and headed towards the shower, Rayne realized that she’d have to find a doctor and make an appointment to get her heath checked, but she couldn’t do any of that right now. She had to get Kular out of her mind and the only way she’d figured out that worked was diving into her tests and working towards a solution to the team’s challenges.