by Miranda Lee
‘Do not complain about my being here,’ Ali went on, just as Bandar was about to. ‘I will not be staying long, now that I know you are all right. That infernal coronation starts tomorrow, or I would not leave at all.’
‘You cannot let your brother down,’ Bandar whispered.
‘The royal jet is waiting for me at Heathrow. I will be back in time.’
‘Thank you for coming,’ Bandar said, his friend’s kindness bringing a lump to his throat.
‘My pleasure. But there is someone else here far more suited than I to holding your hand and feeding you ice.’
Bandar sighed. ‘You have not hired me a private nurse, have you?’ It was the sort of thing Ali would do.
‘No. I was speaking of your fiancée.’
‘Myfiancée ?’
‘Fiancée gets Samantha more rights than calling her your Australian girlfriend.’
‘Samantha is here?’
‘She was here when I arrived; she’d fainted dead away on the floor in the hospital foyer.’
This time Bandar’s bandaged head shot up from the bed. ‘She is all right?’
‘Apparently she fainted when she found out you were already in Theatre. Now she is worried sick that your cynicism will make you think things that are not true. She keeps talking about your obsession with secret agendas.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Outside, pacing up and down the corridor. Shall I go and send her in?’
Bandar could not believe it. She was here. She had come after him.
‘How did she find out about my operation?’
‘Do not ask foolish questions like that. She is a woman. All you need to know is that she loves you, Bandar. Never doubt that.’
‘It is hard not to doubt when you have spent a lifetime doubting. But I decided if I came through this operation I would put doubt aside where Samantha is concerned. I am going to marry her, Ali. If she will have me.’
‘But you have only known each other a week,’ Ali said, frowning.
‘Some weeks are longer than others. Besides, when you have been to the brink of death, you realise there is no time to waste. I have made up my mind. Send her in. Then get yourself to Dubar.’
Ali nodded. ‘You always were a stubborn boy. And often unwise in your choice of lady-friends. But you have picked well this time. You must come visit us in Australia when you feel up to the trip.’
‘I will.’
‘I presume I will have to hire myself another vet?’ Ali said drily.
‘I hope so.’
‘You will owe me another favour.’
‘When you get home you will see I have repaid you well already. There are five excellent broodmares in your stables which have not cost you a single cent.’
‘Ahh, yes, I heard about them from Cleo. But I presumedI was up for the two million, since I was the one who told you to be generous to the Widow Higgins.’
‘They are gifts, my friend.’
‘In that case, I am in your debt. Till next time, Bandar…’A quick bow, a sweeping wave of his hand, and he was gone.
With Ali’s departure, Bandar’s heartbeat quickened, his eyes fixed on the door through which Samantha would come.
And suddenly there she was, looking terribly nervous as she came into the room and walked slowly towards his bed. She was wearing a skirt, a long flowery thing which showed off her slender figure. The top was pink, and rather low cut, definitely enhancing her natural beauty. Her face showed traces of recent weeping: her eyes were puffy and still glistening. Her hair was down, though a little messy—as it had looked that last morning, after they’d spent many hours in bed together.
‘Please don’t be angry at me for coming,’ she choked out before he could say a word.
Bandar’s heart flipped over.
Angry? He could never be angry with her. She was his life now. His future. His reason for living.
Nothing else mattered.
He reached out his hand and she came closer.
‘Sit,’ he said, and patted the side of his bed.
She sat.
He reached up and laid his palm against her cheek. She tilted her head into it, her eyes closing on a sigh.
‘You will marry me, won’t you?’ he said softly.
Her head jerked up, her eyes flying open.
‘No arguments now, little Love-slave. You must do as your lord and master commands.’
Samantha took his hand in hers, then shook her head at him. ‘Australian girls never promise to obey their husbands, Bandar. Marriage is a partnership, made with love and respect for each other.’
Bandar smiled. She was not going to fall in with his wishes easily. But then, would he want her to?
‘I don’t like it when you smile like that,’ she said stiffly.
‘Smile like what?’
‘Like you’re keeping secrets from me. There are to be no more secrets between us. I will never marry a man who keeps secrets.’
‘Very well. I love you, Samantha Nelson. I love everything about you, but mostly your contrariness and your courage and your character. But if you want the total truth, I did not always love you. I set out to seduce you because you were the ultimate challenge to my male ego. Plus the perfect distraction for my state of mind. Your secret agenda gave me the opportunity to have my wicked way with you without complications or consequences. I did not mean to fall in love with you. But I did.’
‘I didn’t mean to fall in love with you, either. You were to be just a fantasy lover. But sometimes, what is written is written.’
Bandar frowned at her. ‘You have been talking to Ali.’
Her smile was slightly sheepish. ‘He told me quite a lot about you while we were waiting for your operation to be over.’
He scowled. ‘I will kill him.’
Samantha laughed. ‘No, you won’t. You owe him your life. You cannot kill him. Besides, you love him.’
‘I loveyou ,’ he said passionately, pulling her hand over to his mouth to kiss it.
Tears rushed back into Samantha’s eyes. Tears not just of happiness but wonder. He loved her. And he wanted to marry her. Which meant he trusted her.
Samantha knew it had to be incredibly hard for Bandar to trust a woman. He must truly love her.
But no more than she loved him.
She put her head down onto his chest and sighed. ‘You must never leave me again,’ she whispered. ‘Not for a single minute.’
‘Nor you me,’ he returned, his hand stroking her hair. ‘We will have another bed put in here till I am allowed home. And we will be married as soon as it can be arranged. Do I have to ask your father for your hand in marriage? Is that not your custom in Australia?’
The thought rather amused Samantha. She lifted her head and smiled at him. ‘Yes, indeed. That is the custom in Australia.’
‘Then it will be done.’
And so it was done.
Samantha would never forget the look on her father’s face when Bandar asked him for her hand in marriage. The looks on her brothers’ faces at their wedding were just as priceless. Ali refused to let them have some small civil service in the city. They were married at the Royal Dubar stud—the ceremony taking place in the magnificent pavilion by the pool, the reception held in a marquee which only a billionaire sheikh could afford.
Samantha listed that day as one of the happiest days of her life. Though none could really compare with the day Bandar asked her to marry him in that London hospital room. Or the day, less than two months after their wedding, that she told Ali she was pregnant. Amazingly, when she stopped taking the Pill, Samantha had no trouble conceiving at all.
Bandar had been in awe of his child growing in her belly right from the start, becoming impatient towards the end of her pregnancy to see his son. They’d known it was a boy from the ultrasound.
The joy and wonder which lit up Bandar’s face when she handed him little Ali straight after the birth would remain imprinted on Samantha’s memory for ever.
The look of total love he’d given her was pretty memorable as well.
Oh, yes, that was the happiest day of all. For with the beginning of their family, Samantha realised that neither of them would ever be lonely again.
ISBN: 1-55254-542-3
LOVE-SLAVE TO THE SHEIKH
First North American Publication 2006.
Copyright © 2006 by Miranda Lee.
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