The Sheikh's Convenient Bride

by Sandra Marton

  Megan looked up. Bree grinned.

  “Figured that would get your attention.” Her voice softened. “Come on, sis. Put the paper away and let’s go out for something to eat.”

  “I’m really not—”

  “Hungry. Yes, I know.” Bree plopped down on a chair opposite the sofa. “Well, who would be, considering the choice of yummy things in your refrigerator?”

  “I haven’t been paying much attention to what I buy lately. You want anchovies and bacon? Go ahead. Order it.”

  “Not even I’m that nuts.” Briana sat back. She crossed her legs, bounced one foot up and down, then cleared her throat. “So, how’s the big job hunt going? Anything good today?”

  Megan sighed, tossed her pen aside and looked at Briana. “No.”

  “Nobody wants accountants in L.A.?”

  “They want bookkeepers who think they’re accountants, and accountants willing to be paid like bookkeepers.”

  “Which means?”

  “Which means, I’m overqualified.”

  “How about trying a headhunter? Don’t you need to go through a lot of mumbo-jumbo to find the really good listings?”

  “I’m listed with somebody.”

  “Nothing, huh?”

  “Nope.” Megan stood up. “How about if I phone in the pizza order?”

  “Fine. Just make sure you don’t ask for bacon. Or anchovies. Or—”

  “Sausage,” Megan said, and grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m not nuts, either.”

  Briana smiled back at her. Then she rose, too, unlocked the door for the pizza guy, and followed Megan into the kitchen.

  “How about that economics degree of yours?” she said, after Megan had phoned in their order. “Why not look for a job in that field?”

  “I told you the reason.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Bree said, opening the fridge and taking out a container of orange juice.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “You said the turkey at Tremont, Burnside and Macomb would never give you a decent reference.”

  “See? I did tell you.”

  “You said he wouldn’t. You didn’t said why he wouldn’t.” Bree opened the OJ and took a sniff. “I always thought you were good at your work.”

  “I am.”

  “But?”

  “But…” Megan hesitated. “But, I sort of quit in the middle of an assignment.”

  “Whoa. Doesn’t sound like you.” Bree sniffed the juice again. “This stuff smells funky.”

  Megan rolled her eyes, grabbed the container and dumped the contents into the sink. “You should have told me you were coming, Bree. I’d have had time to shop.”

  “I didn’t know I was coming, remember? I’d have to be psychic to know they were gonna ground all planes west of the Rockies because of bad weather in Colorado.” Briana pushed out her bottom lip. “You want, I’ll go to a hotel…”

  “No!” Megan grabbed her sister and hugged her tight. “Of course I don’t want that, Sis. I’m just—” She drew back. “I’m edgy, that’s all.”

  “Yeah,” Bree said wryly, “I noticed.” She leaned back against the sink and folded her arms. ‘‘So, why’d you quit?’’

  “Huh? Oh. Oh, well, I—I just did.”

  “Try again.”

  “I, um, I wasn’t getting along with the client. And, uh, and I decided it was in everyone’s best interest if I just—’’

  “Remember when we were kids? And I sort of borrowed one of Fallon’s skirts? And she’d told me a zillion times to stay out of her closet?”

  “Bree. Whatever you’re trying to say—”

  “I burned a hole in it. Well, Donny Hucksacker burned a hole in it, trying to show how grown up he was by smoking a cigarette, except he dropped it and…Okay, okay, I’ll get to the point. I was terrified of letting Fallon know what I’d done, and you took pity on me and said you’d take the blame, and you tried to but it didn’t work because she took one look at your face and—’

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake! Where are you going with this?”

  “I’m just pointing out that you are the world’s worst liar. Whatever happened with you and that client was a lot more than not getting along.”

  Megan stared at her sister. “Aren’t you supposed to phone the airline every hour?”

  “I called them twenty minutes ago.”

  “Right. Well—well, I just remembered, I have an appointment with that headhunter.”

  “On Sunday?” Bree smiled sweetly. “I don’t think so.”

  “Look here, Briana—”

  “Look here, yourself, Megan Nicole O’Connell! When are you going to tell me what’s going on, huh? A month ago, you left this cryptic message on my answering machine—”

  “There was nothing cryptic about it.”

  “Oh, give me a break.” Bree raised her eyebrows as well as her voice. ‘“Hi, this is Megan. I’m leaving for a place you never heard of and coming back who knows when, and, be still my heart, I’ll be working with a guy who’s absolutely D and D…’”

  “I never said that!”

  Briana flashed a triumphant smile. “You didn’t have to. You went to Suliyam, and your client was Sheikh Qasim Something-or-Other, and me oh my, if he isn’t Dark and Dangerous, nobody is.”

  Megan slapped her hands on her hips. “How do you know all that?”

  “It was in one of those business magazines, an article about him working with a consultant from T, B and M. And there was a picture of the guy and after I wiped the drool off my chin I said to myself, ‘Self, big sister Megan is off in the wilds with a stud.’” Briana slapped her hands on her hips, too. “And before you say, ‘You? Reading a business magazine,’ the answer is yes, me, reading a business magazine. I was at the dentist’s and all the Cosmos and Elles were gone.”

  “Now who’s the liar?”

  “Don’t try and change the subject. Is he?”

  Megan sighed. The right answer was, “Is he what?” But she’d only be delaying things. Her sister could be as persistent as a dog with a bone.

  “Yes. He is. D and D to the core.”

  “I knew it!”

  “So what? Being dark and dangerous isn’t everything.”

  “Oh.”

  The “oh” was filled with meaning. Megan refused to take the bait. Instead she yanked open a cupboard and took out two plates.

  “Here. Make yourself useful. Set the table so that we can eat as soon as the pizza gets here.”

  “Something happened,” Bree said. “Between you and the sheikh.”

  “I told you what happened,” Megan said, bustling around the kitchen as if it were the size of a skating rink instead of a closet. “We didn’t get along. For heaven’s sake, are you just going to stand there? Take these napkins. Take extras. Take—”

  “You and he had a thing going.”

  Megan looked at her sister. “Give it up,” she said quietly.

  “I’m right! You got it on with the sheikh!”

  “Such an adult turn of phrase,” Megan said coldly.

  Bree batted her lashes. “Was he good?”

  “I am not going to discuss Caz with you.”

  “Caz, huh?”

  “You’re wasting your time.”

  “I am?”

  “Yes. What happened in Suliyam happened. It didn’t mean a thing. I’ve stopped thinking about it, and I’m not interested in talking about it.” Megan’s voice trembled and she glared at her sister. “You hear me, Briana? I am not going to talk about this,” she said, and burst into tears.

  “Oh, baby!” Briana hurried to her sister’s side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Honey, I’m so sorry! I was just teasing, you know? I never expected…”

  “No. Neither did—neither did—”

  Megan buried her face in her hands and wept. She hadn’t cried, not once since she’d left Caz. She’d been all business when she got home, picking up her mail from Mrs. Hansen across the way, going to work the next day, calml
y telling The Worm that she’d be happy to bring someone else up to speed on the Suliyam assignment but that she was sorry, she’d have to sign off.

  The Worm, as she’d anticipated, was overjoyed.

  “In that case,” he’d said, all but rubbing his hands, “you’re fired.”

  She’d anticipated that, too.

  The only thing she hadn’t anticipated was the yawning emptiness in her heart, the questions that raced through her head like a cat chasing its own tail. Was it true? Had Caz been planning on putting her out of his life, or had he only said those terrible things because she’d wounded him? She told herself it didn’t matter, that what counted was that she’d left him, left Suliyam, that he’d be safe…

  But it did matter.

  Hadn’t he loved her at all? Hadn’t she been the world to him, as he’d been to her, and the moon and the stars, all rolled into one until the end of time?

  She could keep those thoughts at abeyance during the day. Interviews, networking, phoning old university classmates and the people she’d worked with over the years kept her busy.

  It was the nights that were brutal.

  She lay awake, remembering Caz with her body, her heart, her mind. The feel of him, in her arms. The taste of his skin. The way he’d sat beside her, holding her close as he talked about his plans for his people.

  She dreamed of him, longed for him, ached for him. But she hadn’t cried for him, until now. No tears. None, until someone who loved her asked a couple of simple questions, and then the tears she’d kept inside burst free.

  Bree led her to the sofa, made soothing noises and patted her back, kept an arm clamped around her while Megan wept until there were no tears left. Then she wiped her eyes with one of the napkins she was still holding and blew her nose.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what happened just now.”

  Bree took her hand and patted it. “You okay?”

  Megan nodded.

  “You sure? Good.” Bree’s voice hardened. “Now tell me what that son of a bitch did to you.”

  “It isn’t his fault. I—we—I thought I’d fallen in love with him, and—” She let out a gusty breath. “I did fall in love with him. And it was a mistake.”

  “Because he didn’t love you?”

  “It’s not that simple. He married me, and—”

  “He what?”

  “He did it because he had to, to save me from…Oh, hell. It’s a long story and it doesn’t matter, because the marriage wasn’t real. It was just for show. You know.”

  “No,” Bree said, staring at Megan, “I do not know!”

  “Don’t look like that, Bree! I told you, it wasn’t real. Or—or maybe it was, for a little while, until he dissolved it.”

  “This guy wasn’t just D and D,” Bree said coldly, “he’s Dark, Dangerous and also Despicable.”

  “No. He’s not. You don’t know anything about him.”

  “I know that he talked you into marriage just so he could—”

  “That’s not the way he tells it.”

  Megan and Briana shot to their feet. “Sean?” Bree said.

  Megan didn’t say anything. How could she? It wasn’t the sight of her brother standing in the open doorway that left her speechless, although seeing him suddenly appear was a shock.

  What froze her into immobility was the man standing behind him.

  It was Qasim. Qasim, looking, yes, dark and dangerous. And angry as hell.

  “Qasim?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he growled, and tried moving past Sean. Sean wouldn’t let him.

  “You’re in my way, O’Connell,” Caz said coldly.

  “Damned right I am,” Sean said, just as coldly. “And I will be, until my sister tell me to move.”

  “She won’t have to. I’ll move you myself.”

  “Come on.” Sean swung around and put his fists up. “I’d love you to try.”

  “Listen, you thick-skulled baboon—”

  “Stop it!” The men looked at Megan. She took a step forward. “Just stop it, both of you. Sean? Qasim? What are you doing here?”

  “How come you don’t keep your door locked?”

  “Don’t answer a question with a question, damn it! What are you doing here?”

  Sean folded his arms. “This idiot turned up on my doorstep yesterday. I was at my place in New York, and—”

  “And,” Caz said grimly, “I asked him some questions.”

  “I don’t understand. What questions? What could you possibly want with my brother? How’d you even find him?”

  Caz folded his arms, too. “I have ways.”

  “Bull,” Sean said, rolling his eyes. “He has ways? He looked in the phone book, Meg. That’s how he found me.”

  “But—but what for?” She looked at Caz. “Why did you go to see my brother?”

  “I told you, I had questions.” A muscle knotted in Caz’s jaw. “And he couldn’t answer them.”

  Megan shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, you do.” Caz glared at her. “I asked him what, exactly, he’d told you the night you phoned him.”

  “Oh.” She felt color flood her face. “Well, I—I—I don’t see what business that is of yours.”

  “You don’t, huh? Well, let me spell it out for you, Megan. You said you left me because of what he told you.” Caz’s mouth thinned. “What he supposedly told you.”

  Megan swallowed dryly. “So?”

  “So, why such an elaborate lie? All you had to do was tell me you wanted to end our marriage.”

  “Marriage?” Sean’s voice snapped like a whip. “What marriage? Listen, Qasim or Caz or whatever the hell your name is, you never said anything about—”

  “What’s the difference?” Megan said, her eyes fixed on Caz’s face. “Our marriage is over. You made sure of that. You divorced me, remember? You said—”

  “Is everybody crazy? Bree, what’s she talking about? Our Megan was married?”

  “Your Megan is married,” Caz growled.

  “I’m not. You dissolved our marriage.”

  “Not true.”

  “But you said—”

  “I lied.”

  Megan blinked. “You lied?”

  “Damned right.”

  “Oh.” She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Then—then just saying you divorced me didn’t…”

  Caz snorted.

  “What’s so funny?” Megan said, slapping her hands on her hips and tapping her foot.

  “I admit, Suliyam’s not a lawyer’s paradise but even in my country, divorce isn’t that simple. There have to be witnesses to the declaration, papers signed…”

  She stared at him. “So we’re not…?”

  “No. We’re not. You’re still my wife.”

  “Is that why you came here? To tell me we’re still married, and that you want a real divorce?”

  “You know, kalila, for an intelligent woman, you can be awfully stupid.”

  “Hey! That’s my sister you’re—”

  “She’s my wife,” Caz said. He looked at Megan and his voice softened. “And you’re going to remain my wife, because I won’t let you leave me.”

  “I already left you,” Megan said, and told her heart to stop racing. So what if he wanted her back? So what if, by some miracle, he loved her? She loved him, far too much to let him risk his life, his throne, all he’d worked to achieve for his people. “And why did it take you four weeks to tell me this? Why did you go looking for my brother instead of me?”

  “It took me that long because I let my pride get in the way. And I went looking for your brother because I thought he’d talked you into leaving me.” Caz smiled a little. “I figured I had two choices, kalila. Either I’d change his mind—or I’d beat him into a pulp.”

  Sean started to speak but Caz ignored him.

  “Do you remember that last time we made love?” His eyes darkened. “How we held each other
afterward? How you kissed me?”

  “Oh, man,” Sean said unhappily, “I don’t want to listen to this.”

  “Then don’t,” Bree said. She put an arm around Megan’s shoulders and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Sean and I are leaving.”

  “No,” Sean said, “we are not. I told you, I’m not going anywhere until—”

  “I love you, Megan,” Caz said, his voice cutting across Sean’s. “And you love me.”

  “I don’t. I can’t. Hakim said—”

  “Hakim lied.”

  “No. He told me the truth.” Tears rose in Megan’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “They’ll take revenge,” she whispered. “Alayna’s people.”

  “Nobody wants revenge, sweetheart. The old ways are gone. Hakim just couldn’t accept that.” Caz’s mouth thinned. “When I told Alayna’s father there’d be no marriage, he was relieved. He loves his daughter. He would have reneged on the agreement a long time ago, but he was afraid to defy me.”

  “Oh, Caz. Caz…”

  Caz looked at Sean. “You need to get out of my way,” he said politely. “Decking a brother-in-law I’ve only met eight hours ago isn’t a good start, but so help me, I’ll do it if you try to keep me from my wife a moment longer.”

  Sean opened his mouth, then shut it. He looked at Megan, whose eyes glittered with tears but whose smile spoke of such joy it made his heart ache.

  “You’d better take good care of my sister, pal,” he said gruffly, “or you’re gonna have to deal with me and two other goons who love her as much as I’m starting to think you do.”

  Caz grinned and stuck out his hand. “Deal.”

  “Deal?” Megan said, trying to sound indignant. “You two make like—like a pair of Mr. Machos, then you shake hands and say you’ve got a deal, and nobody even thinks to ask me what I want?”

  Caz moved past Sean and came slowly toward her. “I’m asking you now, wife. What is it you want?”

  Megan looked into her husband’s eyes. “You,” she whispered. “Oh, Caz, I want you. Forever, with all my heart.”

  Sean jerked his head toward the door. Briana wiped her eyes and nodded. The door swung shut behind them, and Megan flew into her husband’s arms.

  Mary O’Connell Coyle wanted to make the wedding at the Desert Song Hotel, in Las Vegas.