The Sheikh's ASAP Baby

by Holly Rayner

  As soon as the cameras turned off, Kathy sank back into her chair with a sigh of relief, loosening the navy suit jacket she was wearing

  "Great work today, Kathy," Hank said with a friendly nod. "Real insightful stuff in that climate change piece."

  "Thanks," Kathy said with a proud smile. "I wrote and researched it myself. I actually flew to Beijing for those numbers."

  "Wow! Having a prince in the family sure has its perks. I'm sure as hell not flying to Beijing on the weekends."

  Kathy laughed.

  "Yeah, it really does," she admitted. "I wanted to start doing field work again, but I need to stay local for my family. We're figuring out a way to make it work."

  "I feel you there," Hank agreed. "I'd love to get into the field again. Where are you heading next? This was your last show before your vacation, right?"

  "I'm actually heading back to Abu Sadah with the husband to visit his family," Kathy explained. "Although, I am hoping to do a piece on the recent progressive social reform there. It's a totally different country from when I visited the first time. I just have to get the producers on board with it."

  "Well, I for one would love to see that," Hank said encouragingly. "Good luck!"

  "Thanks!" Kathy stood up from the broadcast desk, moving slowly.

  "And be careful," Hank added. "You're in no condition to go jet setting around the world."

  "Are you kidding?" Kathy laughed, putting a hand on her round, heavy stomach. "I've done some of my best work in this condition!"

  She drove home to the house she'd grown up in, feeling the familiar sense of fond nostalgia as soon as it came into view, the dark slate peaks of its roof sharp against the clear winter sky, surrounded by a lacework of bare tree branches.

  Kathy breathed in the chilly winter air with relish. Nothing beat the view from here. The whole world seemed to be spread out at her feet, bright and clear and crisp as the snows of winter began to retreat. She'd been living there for about a year now. It was February, almost Valentine's Day again. Counting the one they'd spent at the office party, this would be her third Valentine's Day with Tehar.

  Amira babbled loudly in the back seat until Kathy came around to let her out. She was a little over a year old now. Her eyes had darkened to a beautiful green-hazel, but she had her father's copper skin and dark hair. She was, in Kathy's opinion, unbearably beautiful. And Kathy had a feeling her brother was going to be just as perfect.

  They'd discussed having a second child a little after Amira was born, but, as it had last time, it happened unexpectedly, the early symptoms catching them both by surprise. Kathy hadn't been planning to have another baby that soon, but once she realized it was happening she couldn't help the excitement she felt.

  Things would be tougher with two kids, but she knew already that it would be more than worth it. The family she was building with Tehar was worth almost anything. She was, truly and perfectly, deliriously happy.

  She carried Amira into the house and saw Tehar coming down the stairs carrying their bags and talking on the phone at the same time, holding it pinned between his ear and his shoulder.

  "I already sent you the documentation for that," he complained into the phone. "You're just going to have to manage. No. We've been planning this vacation for months. My wife could go into labor any second now. The company will not collapse without me at my desk for a few weeks. Goodbye!"

  He hung up with a frustrated sigh, dropping the suitcases he was carrying beside the couch.

  "I swear," he said, coming to hug her and kiss the top of Amira's head. "You would think I was planning to leave forever."

  "Well, you are the CEO," Kathy said, smiling at her husband warmly. Henry Alan had decided to retire shortly after the Mitchell debacle had been sorted out, and he'd passed ownership of the entire QIC Media empire to Tehar.

  He'd been absurdly busy, but he fought to carve out time to spend with his family, both immediate and abroad. Kathy's maternity leave had offered a perfect opportunity for that. One of Tehar's early changes to the company had been paid maternity/paternity leave for all full-time employees, and luckily that applied to him as well.

  "I saw your six o’clock spot today," Tehar said, checking the bags to see if he'd missed anything. "You looked wonderful. That climate change article really turned out well."

  "Thank you, sweetheart," Kathy said, beaming with pride. "I wanted to go out with a bang. Can't have them forgetting who's the best while I'm away. Is everything ready to go?"

  "Almost," Tehar answered. "I think I got everything."

  "Did you get Amira's bag?"

  "Yeah, the diaper bag is right there."

  "Not the diaper bag, the bag with her clothes and toys."

  "No. I knew I forgot something."

  He rolled his eyes and hurried back upstairs for it. Once everything was collected, Kathy helped him load it all into the car as they headed for the airport.

  "I told Tessa we're on our way," Kathy said as they boarded the private plane, looking down at her phone. "She wants to know if we're stopping in Paris?"

  "Of course." Tehar chuckled. "It's practically tradition by now. I'm already craving beignets."

  "She wants us to bring her and Fairuz macaroons," Kathy said a moment later, laughing.

  Tessa and Fairuz, now quite unambiguously a couple, had been living in Massachusetts together while Fairuz pursued a law degree. Kathy had missed having Tessa next door, but they still talked every day.

  The two women had flown out to Abu Sadah for the little get together the day before. They'd wanted a chance to make sure Basira wasn't going to react badly to seeing the two of them together before everyone else got there. Apparently, she'd taken it surprisingly well.

  Tehar and Kathy landed in Abu Sadah many hours later, after their pit-stop for lunch in Paris, by which time Amira was very ready to be off the plane. As soon as they stepped onto the airstrip, Amira fussing and squirming in Tehar's arms, Tessa was there to grab Kathy in a delighted hug.

  Fairuz was a step behind her, greeting her brother and waving to the baby. Shadaf, Khalila, Ihab, and Basira were there to greet them as well, along with a woman Kathy didn't recognize.

  "Kathy," Shadaf said with a fond smile as she separated from Tessa long enough to greet him. "I'd like you to meet my mother, Sheikha Nouha."

  He indicated the woman Kathy hadn't recognized, who shook Kathy's hand.

  "With the changes Shadaf has been making here," Nouha said. "I finally felt ready to come back to visit. I'm so glad to have the chance to meet you all."

  They headed to a restaurant in the city for dinner, and Kathy was surprised to see many women had stopped wearing veils. There were more women in general on the street. She even saw a few working in the restaurant.

  "I'm taking it slowly," Shadaf said as they ate. "Which isn't hard considering what a battle it is to get the government to change anything. But the Sheikh is behind me. He wants to bring Abu Sadah into the modern age. We've loosened the restrictions on women's clothing and started vouchers and initiatives to allow widows and unmarried women to work. There's been a battle over allowing women to drive for years, but we're making progress there. I think as long as we make the change gradual, we can really make this work."

  "There's been some pushback, I assume?" Kathy asked over her wine.

  "Oh, absolutely," Khalila answered for Shadaf with a tired laugh. "The fundamentalists and the political factions that want us to unite with Saudi are outraged. There was an article the other day declaring that I was a blasphemous witch controlling my husband like a puppet."

  "But so far they've kept their complaining to the courts and the papers," Shadaf continued. "I think as long as we don't try to move too fast, let them adjust and see that the world isn't ending just because women can work now, in a decade we'll have caught up with the rest of the world."

  Khalila smiled at him proudly. Kathy wasn't sure what pleased her more, his passion for the work or the fact that he was, a
t last, planning for the future without the fear that he might not be part of it.

  Nouha seemed to be proud of him as well. She gushed about what he'd accomplished all night. Kathy was, in part, annoyed by this for Shadaf's sake. Nouha had been so certain he'd never be anything but a burden because of his condition that she'd never bothered to learn anything about him, and now she was shocked and delighted to discover he was a real person with ambitions and not just a walking tragedy.

  Part of Kathy wanted to shake the woman and tell her that her son had always been amazing, that he'd always been there right in front of her. But she held her tongue. This was progress, in spite of everything, slow and occasionally frustrating as it was. And she could tell Shadaf was happy. They would have a chance for real, honest resolution that she and her father never had. She just hoped they took it.

  "Fairuz has actually been a tremendous help," Shadaf said, gesturing to his cousin. "Her legal advice has been crucial to finding a way to enforce and support the transition through government."

  "I find this aspect of law rather fascinating, honestly," Fairuz said shyly. "The way social policy shapes and changes the legal landscape and vice versa can be really incredible to see."

  "She wants to become a human rights lawyer," Tessa said, looking at her girlfriend with infatuated pride. "She's going to be amazing. She's already top of her class."

  "She will be the first woman in our family with a degree," Basira added, pleased. "She is an inspiration. Little Amira will be looking up to her soon."

  "I couldn't ask for a better role model," Kathy said with a smile while Fairuz turned red with embarrassment at the praise.

  "What about you, Ihab?" Tehar asked. "Do you think you will continue your education?"

  "Oh, I don't know," Ihab said evasively. "I wouldn't want to leave Abu Sadah."

  "She's in love with a gardener," Fairuz revealed, making Ihab squeak and hide her face.

  "He's trained roses to grow by her window," Tessa reported. "And she leaves him homemade sweets every day. It's kind of nauseatingly adorable."

  "That better be all he's doing," Basira warned. "The country may be changing, but you are still a respectable girl."

  Ihab looked ready to crawl into her abaya to hide. Kathy changed the subject hoping to spare the other woman.

  "You could study online," she offered. "If you wanted to keep learning without leaving the country. I bet you would enjoy a literature course."

  "I do think I would like that," Ihab said, still hiding her face.

  "It's something to look into," Kathy said with a smile. "There's no reason to stop doing things you love just because you've met someone."

  After dinner, they all returned to the palace. Kathy put Amira to bed and the adults gathered in the conservatory to talk and enjoy one another's company.

  "I won't be staying too long," Nouha admitted. "I have too many lovers in Brazil waiting for my return."

  Shadaf grimaced at the mental image.

  "And even with the loosened restrictions," she continued. "I am no longer used to wearing so much clothing! Once you've spent a few weeks on a topless beach in paradise, you can never go back."

  They all laughed or groaned, depending on how personally offensive they found the mental image.

  After she and Basira had wandered off to bed, Shadaf confided that he was actually kind of glad she was leaving.

  "I'm glad she came back and for the chance to prove myself to her," he said. "But she's a little overwhelming. I'm not sure what I'd do if she wanted to live here again."

  "Buy me a new house," Khalila answered for him.

  Before long, they headed to bed as well, and Fairuz and Tessa soon followed, leaving together. Ihab lingered only a little longer, mostly for the sake of the three of them making fun of the two lovebirds.

  Once they were alone, Kathy curled up against Tehar's chest, listening to the night birds sing in the flowering trees.

  "I missed this place," she said with a happy sigh. "It was kind of strange, being pregnant and not being here."

  "I missed it too," Tehar agreed, his arm around her shoulders. "But no matter how often I visited, it just wasn't the same without you here with me."

  Kathy flushed with delight and kissed his cheek. He turned to kiss her properly in return. His kiss could still send tremors of heat through her at the drop of a hat. She never got tired of how much he seemed to want her, the way he held her like he was afraid he was dreaming and at any moment he could wake up and she would disappear.

  Their marriage so far had been a blissfully happy one, partially because of just how much they appreciated one another. They had to work hard to be together and it made every moment a reward they treasured. They both had their own lives outside of each other, their own goals and ambitions. But they were united in that the one thing they wanted more than anything else was just to be together.

  "Do you ever think about what would have happened if my father hadn't written that requirement into his will?" Kathy asked as they watched the fireflies float through the flowers.

  "I think we would still be right here, exactly as we are," Tehar said, running his fingers through her hair. "Perhaps the path we took to get here would have been slightly different. But I know it would have happened."

  "What makes you so sure?" Kathy asked, feeling a fluttering warmth in her stomach at his certainty.

  "I was already falling for you before you sent that text," he said. "I was trying to find a way to approach you when you gave me the perfect opening. And then, of course, I was an idiot and panicked and tried to distance myself. But in the end, here we are."

  "I had a pretty big crush on you at that point as well," Kathy admitted. "But I might have turned you down or let you distance yourself. I thought my work was more important then. And I didn't think I deserved you."

  "But I would have followed you," he promised. "And even if I tried to pull away, eventually I would have come back. Or you would have. We saw it that night at the Valentine's party. We were never going to be able to stay away from each other, no matter how much we thought we should."

  "We really were idiots," Kathy said with a small laugh and kissed him. He leaned into her and she lay back against the couch they were lying on so that he could scatter kisses over her throat. "Still, I'm glad it happened the way it did."

  "As am I," Tehar agreed, pressing a kiss between her breasts. "I would not have it any other way."

  He took her hand and kissed it, looking into her eyes.

  "I'm going to love you for the rest of my life, Kathy Burgess," he said. "With every part of me."

  "Me too," Kathy said softly, caught off guard by the declaration. "I think I love you more every day."

  He kissed her again, holding her tightly, running a hand over her baby bump.

  As their kisses became more heated, Kathy's skin tingling under his every touch, she felt a rush of gratitude once again. This was so far from the life she thought she'd wanted two years ago. She almost couldn't imagine the days when she'd been so against marriage and kids, certain they would trap her in a life she could never be happy with.

  But here she was now, not only still doing everything she'd wanted in her career, traveling and learning and working, but she had a family too. It was better than she'd ever hoped for. And now she knew she never wanted it any other way. As night fell on the palace of Abu Sadah, the desert outside silent except for the rush of the wind over sand, Kathy kissed her sheikh again and again and thanked her lucky stars for her fairytale ending.

  The End

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  Secret Triplets

  And now, as promised, here are the first few chapters of my previous novel, Secret Triplets. Enjoy!

  Chapter One

  I had never been unhappier.

  At this point, I would have taken just about any job. Another long, dejected look around my room didn’t do me any favors.
The fluorescent light overhead was flickering, another corner of hideous green and orange wallpaper had come free, and, as I turned, my office chair almost toppled over. In the black of the humming computer screen in front of me, my reflection wasn’t even angry, just sad.

  There was no point in asking myself how I’d gotten here, because I knew all too well. The date was marked on the calendar that was dangling precariously from a nail in the wall. It was back in January, on the page with Sherlock Holmes on his feet and ready for action, his iconic hat set on his head and his pipe at the ready. Below him, on the first square for January 1st, there it was: move-in day.

  It had been a symbolic move-in day for a symbolic feat.

  After six years in the business, I had finally gotten my own office, my own place. I was no longer going to work from home anymore; I’d made it. Sure, the only place I had been able to afford had been a crappy second-floor bathroom of a room, but I had just been starting out, just building my business; it had just been a stepping stone. Who would’ve thought it would have come to this? A stepping stone to bankruptcy? A few months’ worth of no jobs?

  I cast my glare toward the foggy, spider-webbed window, past which, across the street, busy men in nice, clear windows worked unceasingly. “Private Investigations Boulder,” the sign below them read. Maybe in a few months I’d be there in one of those windows, working for the very company whose job offer I had refused a month ago. I took another look around my office and sighed. Sure, working for a company would mean a loss of freedom and independence, but at least I’d have something to do.

  Checking my email on my computer only confirmed what I knew already: no emails, no jobs, nothing. It had been like this since Private Investigations Boulder had set up shop across the street—even getting a sit-down with a potential client didn’t mean much these days.

  My computer screen reflection tucked a piece of hair behind its ear self-consciously.