Sheikh's Unexpected Triplets

by Sophia Lynn

  “I did not know that's how you felt about things,” he said, frowning.

  She shrugged, looking down at the food in front of her. He had ordered them up a bag of breakfast pastries, something that had delighted her when she saw them.

  “Practically, I think that's how we have to feel about things,” she said. “I...I wasn't joking when I told you about what I want. The fairytale, the romance, all of that. If we keep this up...well, I think that will go badly for both of us. Or at least for me.”

  She slid him a grin that was only slightly crooked. “I don't think you can really fault me for wanting to protect myself, can you?”

  He couldn't, but his mind was working furiously. There were words that were on the tip of his tongue...about how he had never known the kind of passion she had given him, how they had something special that should not be denied. But he pushed them away. She would think they were manipulations, or worse, perhaps she would think they were sincere but mock him for them. He did not think he could bear that.

  “I want you to protect yourself,” he said, his voice level. “But I think you are forgetting something.”

  She looked at him, suddenly wary. “And what am I forgetting, Jahin?”

  Even his name in her mouth sent a sensual shiver through him. Before, it had given him a thrill and made him want to sweep her up into his arms. Now he wondered whether she would take advantage of it, whether she would find him contemptuous or laughable. What did one say to a one night stand that had gotten too clingy, after all?

  When he spoke again, his voice was short and clipped. “You are forgetting that I am the sheikh of Muneazil, and the fact that you stand in this emirate is because of my grace and my grace alone. If I wished, I could have you barred from my borders, and if I spoke to the right people, from the UAE as well.”

  He felt no pride or justification when her face went pale. There was not even a whisper of satisfaction there, but he went on anyway.

  “And I think you have also forgotten how easy I could make it for you.”

  “Easy?” she asked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “Last night, you went to the citadel with me, and you saw it as few ever do. It is an amazing place, isn't it? Valuable for your work and for your job? I hazard that you found it quite enjoyable and exciting as well, what we did all aside.”

  She still looked a little taken aback as she nodded slowly. The look she was giving him was cautious, but there was definitely something curious about it as well. “Yes, and I have to say that what we did was quite enjoyable and exciting, too. What are you getting at?”

  “I think I am in a place to make your job much easier and much more interesting than it might be. If I wish, I could show you all of the odd and beautiful corners of this country, and believe me, I know them all. You will never have a better guide or a better opportunity to see the ancient and modern beauty of this place.”

  She nodded. There was a hint of suspicion in her eyes still, but he could also see the longing there. He might not have known Bedelia long, but he knew very well that there was a curious streak in her a mile wide. Still, though, she was cautious.

  “And what exactly would I have to give you for this amazing experience?”

  “Your body,” he said, and he took a certain amount of satisfaction in the way her green eyes widened.

  “I...beg your pardon?”

  “Don't play innocent,” he said casually. “You may be new to what a man and woman's bodies can do together, but that doesn't mean that you are ignorant of what happened between us last night. And this morning.”

  “It was amazing,” she admitted, and he nodded.

  “Exactly so. That pleasure is something that few people ever really experience, and it is not one that I am willing to let go of so easily. So. Here is my proposal. You stay with me for as long as you want, giving me...giving both of us what we had last night. As long as you are with me, I will show you Muneazil as very few locals even get to see it. Your client will be pleased, you will have the adventure that you have been craving, and we will both have our fill of this thing between us.”

  “This thing between us... It sounds so cold when you say it like that,” she murmured softly, and he shrugged, even if it sounded cold to him as well. This was the way things had to be, and he did not regret it, not if it would put her into his arms one more time.

  “You can think about this if you want to,” he offered. “I do not want you to make a decision that you might later regret.”

  Even as he said it, however, she was shaking her head and rising from the table. For a moment, he thought he had offended her so badly that now she was going to leave. For some reason, his heart was pounding as she approached him.

  “No, I don't need a few moments to think about this,” she said, sounding soft and almost shy as she came to stand in front of him.

  He was suddenly aware, in a way he hadn't been before, that she was standing in front of him wearing nothing but a thin white silk robe. Jahin's mouth was suddenly dry, and he couldn't take his eyes away from the deep V of the robe where it stopped between her breasts.

  “Then you have your decision?” he asked, and he might have wondered why his voice sounded so hushed when she came close to him.

  “I do,” she said. “I accept.”

  He started to say that this was very wise of her, but then she bent down, her small hands on his shoulders, her glorious brown hair falling around her face. When she reached down to brush her lips against his, he could feel fireworks go off in his brain, and then, instinctively, he pulled her onto his body so that she was straddling his lap.

  “I don't want to make you do anything that you don't want to do,” he said, his voice strained, and the look she gave him was frankly impish.

  “You won't,” she said softly. “I don't know you that well, but I know that you wouldn't do something like that. However, I want to make sure that you will give me what I want...”

  There was something so sensual, so womanly about her response, that he thought he would die if he could not kiss her right then. When her mouth came down over his, when he slid his tongue into her mouth for her to suckle on it, he felt as if he were flying, or falling, or perhaps with this fairytale girl, there was no difference between the two.

  ***

  AS MUCH AS they might have wished to do so, there was no way that they could simply stay in the townhouse and do as they pleased. The festival was still going on, and would continue going on for the next few days, but Jahin needed to get back to the capital, and of course that meant Bedelia would go with him.

  He promised her that he would take her to see the sights in just a few days, and with a regretful kiss, sent her back to her hostel to gather her things.

  The man who drove her over to the hostel, carefully maneuvering through the streets full of revelers, was pointedly polite and discreet about it, and of course that gave her far too much time to think about what was happening to her.

  Is this it? Bedelia found herself wondering. Is this how I utterly lose my mind?

  She knew how insane this all was. Not an hour before she had made the decision that this man, this situation, and perhaps even Muneazil, were dangerous to her. There was already too much of her heart invested here, too much of herself that she had given over. She was still spinning from what they had done on the citadel’s terrace, and if she was going to be any kind of logical human being, she would stop and think about things. She would consider what her feelings were, and then, most likely, she would lock them away, because this was too much.

  And yet.

  She couldn't stop herself. When Jahin had looked into her eyes and made his offer, it had become astonishingly clear that she was going to go with him. She was going to follow him, and she was absolutely, beyond a doubt, going to give him what they both craved.

  Was this what a fairytale really felt like, she wondered. Did girls get dumped into strange and foreign situations, ending up overwhelmed and in
over their heads? Were they swept along at what felt like the speed of light, barely able to keep on top of things? If she thought about the fairytales she knew, things weren't really happy and safe until the end, and right now, she did not have any idea at all how this was going to end, not even a little bit.

  Back at the hostel, she quickly packed up her meager belongings, aware of the fact that the chauffeur was waiting on her. She knew that a truly cultured and wealthy woman would be aware that he was getting paid the same either way. She was herself, however, and never wanted to make people wait.

  Even in her hurry, however, she was stopped by the little wooden figurine with red and white flowers in her hands. The figurine looked up at her with its hopeful, secret smile as if telling her that it was not all so bad, that if she simply took heart, things would be sure to work out. Red and white flowers, that meant that her lover had returned to her.

  For a moment, Bedelia looked at the little figurine, and then she closed her hands over it, feeling the smooth surface tight between her palms.

  “I hope you know what you are doing,” she murmured, but she didn't even know who she was speaking to.

  Chapter Nine

  “I really hope you know what you are doing,” Bedelia murmured as Jahin kicked the black into a canter, and he laughed softly in her ear, his breath warm. It sent a delicious shiver down her back, but that was decidedly the last thing she wanted to be focused on when she was this high off of the ground.

  “Of course I know what I am doing,” he said with utmost confidence. “Trust me. You are going to love this.”

  Bedelia supposed that her mistake had been telling Jahin that she had never been on a horse. For a man who had been riding since he could walk, this was apparently criminal, and the very next day, they’d taken a small plane to the very north of the emirate, where the horses of the Abdul Kattan family had historically been reared.

  When Jahin had talked about the stables, she had imagined something like what she had seen once in Kentucky, a place of rolling green hills and white fences. However, when the plane landed and Jahin came out to greet the stable master, she was struck by the barren nature of the place. There was a desolate beauty to all of it, but it was still Muneazil, with desert scrub land all about, and to the north, dark mountains that bit into the darkening sky.

  She had thought they were going to spend the night at the small manor house that Jahin kept here for the nights he wanted to stay close to his herds. He led her up towards the house and showed her a closet full of clothes that she recognized immediately as women's clothing.

  “No need to worry about a headscarf out here, but there are clothes here that will help you do a little better when it comes to riding. The long sleeves and split skirts will protect you, and there should be something in your size.”

  “Where did these clothes come from?” she asked, and she knew that she had not been successful at hiding the hint of jealousy in her voice because Jahin smiled at her slightly.

  “They are remnants from my mother and grandmother and some of my female cousins. They are certainly not going to begrudge you as they have traded these clothes back and forth for years. Don't worry about it.”

  That comforted her a little, though she could not imagine him telling her baldly that the clothes had been left by previous lovers. Sometimes, she caught hints of thoughts like that sliding into her mind, but right now, the prospect of an adventure was too much for her to resist.

  Alone in the small room, she went through the clothing, looking for ones that would fit. A set of loose trousers with legs so wide that they looked like a skirt was easy enough, but she seemed to be bustier on top than the women who had stayed at the manor previously. Finally, she found a loose shirt that laced up the front, giving her both coverage and a surprisingly curvy shape in the mirror. She made a face. Well, he had said that there was no need to stand on formality while they were out in the country, so she was going to take him at his word.

  She walked back down to the door with him, but before she could say anything to him at all, she caught his shocked expression.

  “Um, should I go back and change? Did I do anything wrong?”

  He blinked at her a few times as if he needed to figure out what she was actually saying, and then shook his head.

  “No...nothing wrong at all. It is only... My god, woman. You have no idea how you look, do you?”

  She felt a dull, hot blush rise up on her cheeks, and she crossed her arms in front of her, frowning at him.

  “You told me I was fine and that there wasn't going to be a problem,” she said. “If there was actually going to be an issue, you should have told me--”

  To her surprise, however, he swept her up into his arms, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

  “Jahin!”

  “You look amazing,” he said softly. “I wish I could keep you like this all the time, or perhaps even a little more bare. Unfortunately, that's not something I can do, so I am simply going to enjoy this while I can.”

  She felt the heat rush to her face again, but this time, it was for an entirely different reason. “Oh...”

  “Oh indeed,” he said with a grin. “But come on, there's someone that's been waiting for us.”

  Instead of leading her over to the stables, Jahin took her over to a fence, which seemed to border a wide open area so large that she couldn't see the end of it. When she remarked on the barrenness of the space, Jahin gave her a grin.

  “We do not really believe in coddling our horses here,” he said. “They get the best treatment, but my family has always found that giving them the most freedom creates the bravest and most spectacular mounts.”

  She knew that Miller would be thrilled to learn this about Muneazil and the way they reared their horses, but in that moment, she also knew she could not share it with him. This felt like something special, something that existed between her and Jahin.

  As she watched, he stepped up to the fence and whistled, a high and piercing sound that slid up and down on a scale she couldn't quite pin down. For a moment, nothing happened, and then with a rumble, a small herd of horses thundered towards them across the twilight plain. They were gorgeous animals, tall and deep-chested, all with an intelligence in their dark eyes that took Bedelia's breath away. In that moment, she truly believed what Jahin said, and understood it in a way that she hadn't before. She could see where the freedom made them better, stronger, smarter, and in that moment, she adored Jahin a little more for it, too.

  It only took a moment before the black pushed himself forward, shouldering the other horses aside to receive his share of treats and pets.

  “Do you remember this one?” Jahin asked. “It looks like he remembers you.”

  The horse that she had seen Jahin wrestle under control at the horse fair seemed even larger as it swung its head towards her. Instead of the fear and pain it had been showing that day, there was nothing but calm curiosity in its eyes now as it nuzzled Bedelia's hesitant hand.

  “Are we really going to go riding?” she asked. “I thought it was dangerous to go riding at night, and it's getting dark so fast.”

  “It's dangerous to go at a full-out gallop,” Jahin said dismissively. “But we're simply taking a little night ride, nothing dangerous about it.”

  He had pulled the black through the gate and saddled it rapidly as Bedelia watched in fascination. This was another task she had always imagined the rich would delegate, but Jahin seemed content and comfortable with it. The more she watched him, the more of a sense she seemed to get for the kind of man that he was. He was a man who would calm a frightened horse rather than dismiss it out of hand. Of course he would see to his own horses and his own tack.

  After the black was saddled, he boosted Bedelia up onto a horse that seemed suddenly even taller than it had from the ground. She didn't have a moment to panic, however, because Jahin leaped up behind her, his arms around her to grasp the reins and his thighs settled right behind hers.

 
“This is cozier than I thought it would be,” she murmured, and she heard him laugh softly.

  “Do you dislike it?”

  “Not at all,” she murmured.

  Walking was fine, and she had almost gotten used to the bumpy motion when with a click of his tongue and squeeze of his knees, Jahin urged the black forward into a trot, and then a canter.

  He was right, though...she did love this. She had never been on a horse before, but very quickly, she learned to move her body with his, to anticipate the horse's movements as well as the man's, and to work with both.

  She was lost in the motion of the black and the feel of Jahin behind her, and she almost didn't notice the way the sky was shading to blue and then to black. Soon enough, though, the moon rose, full and bright, and there was plenty of light to see by.

  Far above, a riot of stars lit their way, and when Jahin pulled the black to a stop, she settled back in his arms to stare up at them.

  “This is amazing,” she murmured. “I don't know if I've ever seen stars this bright.”

  “Once upon a time,” Jahin said, “these were the stars that everyone saw. You could look up into the sky at night and realize that you were seeing more or less the same thing as people all over the world.”

  He slid off the black and pulled her down with him. As Bedelia watched, mystified, he pulled a thick blanket from the saddle bag. He hobbled the black and left it grazing contentedly on a patch of scrub grass, then led Bedelia a short distance away.

  She helped him spread the blanket on the ground, and then she went to join him on top of it.

  “Stargazing,” she said with a smile. “I love this, but I hadn't thought that it would be a thing you would enjoy at all.”

  “And why is that?” he asked, amused. “Did you think I was too busy?”

  “Too busy, too rich, used to rarer pleasures, I don't know. All I know is that I am so happy to be here with you. To be close to you. To see this sky with you.”