Bound to the Sheikh: An ancient debt. A deathbed promise. A marriage of duty and obligation. Desire too strong to control.

by Clare Connelly

  Afida was very still. Though he had known much of David’s circumstances, this information was private; only the two remaining Angove’s would have any knowledge of this. “Your mother didn’t suspect …?”

  “No.” Laurie’s smile was cynical. “By design, she didn’t suspect. I discovered a program she could enter that included accommodation. Mum lived the last two years of her life in a facility in the South of London. When we visited, we made sure to keep news of dad’s worries from her.”

  “Go on,” he urged, after a long moment had stretched irritatingly between them.

  “The treatment was experimental. She died.”

  Her factual recounting of that time was hard for him to hear, because he understood what she didn’t say. He understood the depth of her feelings; the breaking of her soul that had occurred along the way.

  “This is why I worked two jobs.”

  It was a red herring. He didn’t immediately follow. “That was after you’d lost your mother. Was it for distraction?”

  “No,” she murmured with obvious frustration. “My mother’s treatment was expensive. I enrolled her in it. I signed all the paperwork. I took on the debt, to save my dad from thinking about it.”

  Comprehension began to dawn, but Afida wasn’t sure he believed her. “Your father is a smart man. Surely he didn’t believe her treatment came without cost?”

  Her smile was ghostly. “No, of course not. That was by design, also. I told him mum had been selected as a trial patient. I told him there’d be no cost.”

  Afida wasn’t expecting the charge of emotion that rung through him. “You did what?”

  He sounded angry. She eyed him warily. “I needed to do it. I wanted mum to have the best possible chance, and it would have killed my dad to think that he could no longer provide it for her.”

  “You … you …” he closed his mouth, and his eyes followed suit.

  “That’s not all.” She winced. “I told Elon that I didn’t need all that money.”

  “What money?” The mention of his friend, and the comfortable way she spoke his name, did not please him.

  “Wedding money,” she raised her voice sharply. “I needed twenty seven thousand pounds. I was explicit. That’s the amount that remained on my mum’s bills.”

  “You have this now.”

  “Yes.” She shook her head and lifted a finger to his lips to silence him. “Don’t interrupt. Please.”

  Unused to being dictated to, he found himself nodding with silent encouragement. His dark eyes were focussed completely on her face.

  “You – or I guess someone who works for you – transferred far more money than I could ever want or need. I paid off the bills immediately, but there was still so much in my account.”

  “It is fitting that you should have it at your disposal. You are my wife.”

  She lifted her finger again, and this time she kept it there. Her expression was unknowingly sad. “We both know that’s just a cruel joke.” She shook her head. “But that’s not what I’m saying. After talking to Elena, I guess I started thinking about other people who can’t afford treatment. Not just experimental stuff, but basic, entry-level hospital services.”

  “Our health care system is excellent,” he assured her.

  “Perhaps. But Elena spoke to me of Mashana State, a hospital in the old town.”

  “I have heard of it,” he said, frowning so that a small crease formed on his forehead.

  “It’s not excellent. It’s badly out of date.”

  “Elena told you this?”

  “Yes, but I went there to see for myself as well.”

  “You did what?” He stared into her face with consternation. “You had better tell me you at least took security.”

  “Yes. I would have no idea how to get out of this palace, and certainly not into the city.”

  The unpleasant sense of having her captive unfurled in his mind.

  “The hospital is as she’d described. And so I gave them money. I gave them almost everything you gave me.”

  “Laurie,” he murmured, shaking his head slowly, a smile on his lips. “You did not need to do that.”

  “Trust me, Afida, the hospital needs funds.”

  He waved a hand dismissively in the air. “And if you’d come to me, I would have arranged it. That money was for you.”

  “Yes. Good. I was hoping you’d say that. Because the hospital will need ten times what I donated. Possibly more. It’s overcrowded, with beds in the corridors. The nurses are harried, the walls are peeling, the equipment makes strange buzzing and lurching noises.”

  “And you want to fix it,” he suggested, a slightly teasing tone in his gruff voice.

  “Yes. In my mother’s name, I want to fix it.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine?” Her eyebrows shot up, and her smile was possibly the most beautiful thing Afida had ever seen. He swallowed his own smile, keeping his countenance reserved.

  “Yes, fine. I presume you will want to have input in its development.”

  “Yes.” Her smile turned into a laugh. “Oh, yes!” She threw her arms around his neck, engulfing him in her. Her fragrance, her happiness and her soul. “I’m so grateful. If you could see this place …”

  He disentangled himself from her gently. “I trust you.”

  Out of nowhere, it occurred to her that she was, quite literally, throwing herself at him. “I’m sorry,” she shuffled backwards, putting some space between them. “I’m just so relieved. I’ll go back this evening and tell Fatima.”

  “Stop.” He held up a hand, causing her breath to snatch in her throat. “I have one condition.”

  “You do?” Her heart began to thump against her rib cage. “What is it?”

  “Swim with me now.”

  “Here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Afida,” she bit down on her lip. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

  “No.” He answered honesty. “I think it is stupid and I will regret suggesting it, but also that it is hot, and I will regret even more if you leave me here.”

  She moaned softly. “It’s crazy.”

  “It is simply a swim.”

  Neither of them believed that. The silence hummed with the promise of what might happen if she succumbed to his suggestion.

  She exhaled a sigh. “I …”

  “Come. It is very warm. You will feel better.”

  He held his hands out to her and pulled her to standing with him. With his eyes on her face, he reached around with the intention of unzipping her dress. But the shame she’d felt on their wedding night was a difficult sensation to shake. “You were angry with me.”

  “Angry? When?”

  Her cheeks glowed pink and she dropped her gaze. “The night we married.”

  “I was surprised,” he replied, his face dark.

  “I wanted to tell you.”

  “But I didn’t listen,” he supplied with genuine remorse.

  “What happened here?” She lifted a finger to his cheek, tracing the scar.

  “Swim with me and I’ll tell you.”

  “I’m sorry.” Her eyes were bleak. “The other night, I was caught off guard. As you now know, I’m not very experienced at all. I can’t lie to you. I find this overwhelming. You just have to look at me and I go weak at the knees.”

  “Weak at the knees?” He was teasing her, his lips twitching with a masked smile.

  “Yes,” she ploughed on regardless. “I wish I didn’t. I wish I didn’t feel this way. Because I can’t be with you again. I can’t flirt with you and let you make love to me. I can’t let you kiss me. I don’t want you to touch me.”

  “You don’t?” He pushed, already wanting to wrap his arms around her and kiss some sense into her.

  “No. I know this isn’t a real marriage. I’m no one to you. An inconvenience.”

  “Laurie –,”

  “I heard you, remember? I know it to be true. And that’s okay. Like I’ve
said, I’ll always be grateful to you for what you’ve done for dad. But this marriage is just … Even though it’s a sham, I still don’t condone infidelity. You have a lover. Maybe more than one, I don’t know. But I’m definitely not the kind of woman who can share a man.”

  “I am not asking you to.”

  “No. You’re expecting me to do so without the courtesy of asking. And I won’t do it. Do you have any idea how awful I’ve felt after our wedding? I swore to May that I wouldn’t get in the middle of what you two have, and then I begged you to make love to me.” She spun away from him, her anguish obvious. “I don’t really know her, but I know what I would expect her to do if our positions were reversed. I can’t let that happen again.” She squared her shoulders and stepped away from him with steely determination. At the entrance to the stairwell, she turned back to him. Without meeting his eyes, she said firmly, “I presume I’m safe to relay your financial support to Fatima?”

  He stared at her in complete silence.

  This woman had a dangerous skill when it came to surprising him. He nodded finally, a slow movement that was, apparently, all she was waiting for. She was gone, and yet the sticky question of their marriage remained.

  His impressions of her had been formed from very impartial information. He had garnered the most basic facts and made his own snap judgements about her worthiness and character. He’d used their marriage to punish her, because he’d thought her to be a cheap, sexually loose, morally questionable woman who didn’t give a damn about the man who’d raised her.

  And now?

  She was, evidently, a saint.

  A woman who’d buried herself in debt to provide her mother with the best possible care; a woman who’d lied to her father to save him the mortification of realising he could no longer help; and a woman who’d agreed to marry a stranger out of love for her father. She was a woman who was brimming with compassion for everyone she met, even his mistress.

  Yes, he’d erred, and there was no easy way to set it to rights.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “I need to speak with you,” Laurie’s face was as white as a sheet, and her hair, usually perfect these days, was loosely braided down her back. It was like the first time he’d met her. He stared at her with a sense of nostalgia.

  “Did you go to the hospital?”

  “Yes. Last night.” She frowned. “Fatima was thrilled. Of course.”

  “I am pleased. What is it I can help you with now? A school you want to save?”

  She smiled at him tartly and stepped closer, her hands wringing in front of her. “No.”

  Something in her tone conveyed to him that this was a serious matter.

  “Laurie, what has happened? Has someone upset you?”

  She shot him a furious look. “Yes, frankly.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Your lover,” she spat.

  Afida froze. It was not possible for Laurie to be jealous. He’d seen for himself how relaxed she was at the very idea of his relationship with May. A lesser man would have been offended by her lack of interest in him.

  “Yes?” He prompted warily.

  “I can accept her place in your life …”

  “So long as I don’t touch you again?” He interjected softly.

  “Yes.” She lifted her fingers to her temples and rubbed as though she could physically relieve her swimming head. “But I don’t want her speaking to my father.”

  Afida froze. “To David? May is speaking to David?”

  “In the garden. I was just jogging,” he looked down and noticed her outfit for the first time.

  “You know we have a gym,” he interrupted, distracted momentarily by the way the lycra hugged her legs. “An excellent one.”

  She waved a hand through the air, dismissing his comment. “And I saw them in the quince grove. May was laughing at something he’d said. I watched them for ten minutes. They looked like old friends.” Her eyes flashed with anger. “I know you don’t intend to give her up. I heard you say as much, and I know I don’t have the right to ask you to. But this is too much.”

  He was tempted to point out how unusual it was that May’s interactions with David should upset her more than an affair with Afida, only he didn’t. It just served to underscore that she didn’t consider herself to have any claim on him. Her husband.

  “Why does it upset you?” He said quietly.

  “It’s disrespectful.”

  “To you? This I find hard to believe. You’ve all but begged me to continue having an affair with the woman without batting an eyelid …”

  “Yes. That’s between you and me, and you and her. My father cannot find out about us. He can’t know that this marriage is fake. I won’t have her make a fool of him the way she is of me.”

  She had said way too much. In truth, she hadn’t even known she felt that way.

  Afida’s face was dark. “I have had enough of this.” He spoke harshly. “Come with me.”

  “Where are we…?” He paused at the door and fired a series of instructions in his own language to a servant. Laurie was picking up more and more of the language, yet she couldn’t catch even the gist of what he’d said.

  He kept a hand on her elbow as he moved her through the palace and then up another flight of ornately carved stairs, onto yet a rooftop. There was a shimmering black helicopter a little way in the distance; it glowed in the afternoon light. “Get in.”

  “Excuse me,” she stopped walking, her eyes round in her face. “Stop bossing me around.”

  “Get in the damned helicopter, Laurena.”

  “No. Not until you tell me where we’re going.”

  He made a grunt of anger. “You drive me crazy, do you know this? No one in my life has ever spoken back to me the way you do.”

  “You’re the one who believes I’m too British to be egalitarian, and so it might surprise you to learn that I consider myself to be your equal. I do not feel like I can’t speak back to you. Especially when you’re behaving like an idiot.”

  A muscle in his jaw flecked.

  “May is in my past.”

  She didn’t dare believe his words. “I don’t care.”

  He compressed his lips. “We were together a long time. I didn’t realise, immediately, that I could not have her and you at the same time. I didn’t realise that I would even want you.”

  Laurie’s breath caught in her throat. “She told me…”

  “She told you what a jealous woman would tell her ex-lover’s new wife. And you bought it, hook line and sinker. In fact, you all but invited her to continue in my life.”

  “I … thought it to be what you wanted.”

  “Do I strike you as a man who would find it hard to express his desires?”

  Her cheeks flushed. “I don’t know. I don’t really know you.”

  “Then know this.” He gripped her elbow and leaned his face close to hers. “I want only you. I want to make your body mine. I fantasise about bringing you back to life in my arms. So get in the helicopter and let me take you somewhere private. Somewhere distant from this madness.”

  “You don’t want me,” she denied angrily, unable to fathom why he would lie to her, but certain that he was indeed dissembling.

  “Your experience is limited, zivzel, but believe me, you are the flame of my being. I want you and I have no hesitation in telling you that I will want you for a long time to come.”

  She wrapped her arms around her chest, her mind lurching from reality to confusion. “It’s not true.”

  “Get in.”

  She shook her head, and he made a guttural sound of annoyance before scooping her over his shoulder and walking with her to the Airbus. He pulled the door open and settled her onto the beige leather seat, then stalked around to his side.

  It was Laurie’s first time in a helicopter, and she was momentarily thrown off-kilter by the surprising luxury of the fit out. Far from utilitarian, it felt like she was sitting in a top of the line Rolls Royce. Elegant
wood panelling met the pale interior, and she noticed – before he moved his frame into the pilot’s seat – that there were golden royal emblems on the seat backs. She tossed a quick look over her shoulder and saw more hallmarks of unimaginable wealth. Pale leather seats, these like four arm chairs all facing one another, with phones in each arm rest, and a small fridge between two of them. She could see it was stocked full, but could only make out the label of a famous French champagne.

  Her attention was called back to the windows in front of her, which stretched from the very top of the helicopter down to where her running shoes met the floor. Her view was unimpeded, except by Afida, who was lifting the straps over her shoulders and latching them into the port between her legs.

  His eyes glowed as they met hers. “You should not fight me all the time. Occasionally, allow me to be right.”

  She glared at him mutinously. “I heard you tell Elon …”

  His face was so close she could see the detail of his scar up close, and the thickness of his long, black lashes that seemed to form a line around his eyes. “You heard the ramblings of a man swinging from one disastrous statement to another. I did not know how to justify my behaviour to him – Elon knows me better than anyone, and he knew that my plan was insanity brought to life. I said what I needed to in order to explain my actions.”

  Laurie settled back into the chair, but she was far from convinced.

  “My father and May …”

  Afida pulled large black earphones over his head, his expression grim. “Elon will go to them.”

  “Why is she even here?”

  He flicked several of the buttons and switches and then sent her a simmering look. “Later.”

  The rota blades were too loud to allow any further conversation. The helicopter lifted with a small shudder, up high in to the sky and away from the palace. The deserts stretched without a visible break for miles and miles.

  Laurie stared down at the crisp white sand, her hands clasped in her lap. But when Afida veered the chopper sharply to the right, and the white sand began to ripple, giving way to hundreds of turquoise water formations, she gasped audibly and fumbled for her own earphones. She pulled them on with a sense of wonder and fascination. “What is this place?”