Tariq remained beside Roji’s bed, taking his blood pressure every fifteen minutes.
“It has stabilized.” He put the cuff back on the rack.
“That’s good news,” Laurel said, going to the side of the bed.
Tariq looked at her. “I am sorry our ceremony ended like this.”
“I am not surprised. Our relationship has been a rather interesting one so far.”
His smile flashed, the sincere one. “On that we can agree. Now, to keep my promise. As soon as Zara returns we will visit the lab. Soon my country will learn about the remarkable woman I have married.”
Laurel couldn’t ignore the pleasure that flowered within her at his words.
CHAPTER FOUR
TARIQ TURNED SO that his back was in the corner of the car seat to better watch Laurel as they rode through the streets of Zentar. She had looked beautiful in his mother’s gown, and so fragile as she’d come to him. So much so, his chest had ached. Her hand had been shaking as he’d taken it and he’d pulled her close to support her, something he’d been surprised he’d wanted to do.
He had seen to it that they’d had an official who spoke English well to perform the ceremony. Laurel had made it clear she felt manipulated. He did not want that during the ceremony. Her words had been spoken softly. He’d had to concentrate to hear them, which had centered him.
When it had been time to kiss her he had intended to give her a perfunctory one, but the second his lips had touched hers it had changed. Just the initial timid hint of her soft lips against his had made him want more. Tariq had not missed her sigh, or the way her body had been drawn to his. Her fingers had flexed on his forearms. She had been as stirred as he.
At first he had been shocked that she had returned his kiss, then he had become aroused. The kiss had deepened and he’d had to remind himself where they were. He had received a number of reactions to his kisses but never one that had disturbed him like Laurel’s. She had placed some spell on him. Afterwards her eyes had been bright and shining.
He could have lived in that moment forever but she’d blinked then asked about the lab. Other women’s responses had reassured him he was more than an able lover so why had Laurel acted as if it was no big deal to receive his attention? His ego did not appreciate it. Anger had flashed through him that had soon turned to hurt.
Now he was just confounded. For a moment there he had believed Laurel might be interested in making theirs a real marriage. Instead she had questioned him about her work. Maybe he had misread her and all she wanted was to keep their relationship professional. Well, at least he was going to see that she saw her precious lab. Hopefully someday soon he would have a chance to kiss her again and she would admit to her desire.
At this moment he would concentrate on their business relationship. “When did you become interested in hemophilia?”
She did not look his way. He was not sure if it was because she was interested in the sights outside or because she could not meet his eyes. “I cared for a middle-schooler who was a hemophiliac. His case fascinated me. I’d never known anyone with the disease before that. The boy wasn’t an easy patient. It was summer break and he wished he was anywhere but in the hospital.”
Tariq loved the enthusiasm in her voice. She was passionate about what she did and why. It was just another confirmation that she was the right person for his lab. Where passion existed in one area of her life, surely it did in others too. He needed her to be passionate about her work, nothing more.
“I started asking the attending doctor questions about the boy’s care. He told me if I was that curious I should consider research and that he had a friend who ran a lab in Chicago. So when I finished my residency I contacted him.”
“You were impressive with your IV placement ability. It would not have been a pleasant experience for either Roji or me if I had done it.”
She gave him a small smile. “Don’t tell him I got all my practice on mice.”
He chuckled. That drew an odd look from Laurel so he explained. “For a small boy that might be an exciting thought.”
A smile formed on her lips. It changed her entire face, showing him a hint of the beauty he had seen the moment he’d looked up to observe her dressed in his family heirloom gown and coming to join him. She mysteriously peaked his interest. Quiet, blend-into-the-crowd women had never been his thing. In fact, far too often the King had hauled him on the carpet because Tariq had been in the tabloids with some flashy woman. Laurel was the type of person who had always been his girlfriend’s assistant. Not seen or heard.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a doctor? It seems to me you might lead with that information if you were trying to convince another doctor to work with you,” she said.
“I was meeting you as the Minister of Health.” He liked it when her ire was up. At least she was not dismissing him, like she had earlier.
“Where did you do your training?”
“I studied at Harvard.”
Her eyes widened. “One of the best in the country.”
“Yes, but now I do more administrative and public appearance work than practice medicine.” He wished it was the other way around.
“I’m sure what you do administratively is very important.”
He surveyed her. Her fingers were long and narrow with fingernails neatly trimmed, which would be necessary in her profession. Then he added, “But I do miss caring for people. When I get the clinic and lab open and running, I plan to put in some time actually working there.” Part of his push to help was for selfish reasons. The research would benefit his family.
“The other day you didn’t strike me as being a particularly humble man.”
He gave her a narrow-eyed look. No one, other than the King, had dared speak that freely to him since he’d been at school. Her shocked look and pink cheeks made him chuckle. He laughed more often since she had arrived.
“I’m so sorry. Sometimes things just come out of my mouth without me thinking. The downside of working in a lab all day by myself.”
“Apology accepted.” Had he come on so strongly she had been intimidated by him? Maybe he had. He’d been so focused on getting the best person to lead his clinic it had never occurred to him that Laurel might not want the job. After all, she had not been looking for the position. He had just assumed she would never refuse his offer since she had no other funding. Then he had made it worse by insisting she marry him.
A few minutes later he escorted her through the automatic sliding doors into the coolness of the building. Pride flowed anew through him. It was like being a new parent, showing off his baby for the first time to somebody he wished to impress.
“To the left is the clinic. There is an additional entrance on that side where the majority of the patients enter. This section...” he pointed to the hallway running down the center of the building “...is the administrative offices. You will have an office there. This way to the lab.”
They stopped before a solid door on the right side of the building. Tariq pulled a plastic card out of his pocket and swiped it. The door clicked open. He allowed Laurel to enter ahead of him then led her down a short hall to a glass door. There he put his forefinger on a reader, then swiped his card again.
Tariq’s attention returned to her lab. A far more comfortable subject. “There is three-step entrance security to your lab. To get into it will require a retinal scan. The security is state of the art. A guard also patrols twenty-four hours a day. You will be issued a card tomorrow.” The door slid sideways.
“Impressive.” She sounded as if she meant it. There was far more enthusiasm in her tone than there had been when they had been reciting wedding vows.
His chest swelled a little larger. “Your lab is this way.”
The door closed behind them. They walked down a hall with glass-walled rooms on either side.
“Those work
ing with you will report tomorrow. I wanted them to start under your leadership, not mine.”
Laurel gave him a long inscrutable look.
He returned it. “Is there a problem?”
“No. Just thinking that was considerate of you.”
From her tone he was confident that was not what she had been thinking. “I hope I am most of the time.”
She huffed.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I doubt that’s true.” She observed each room they passed.
“You may be right. My job doesn’t often afford me that pleasure.” He stopped in front of a door to a lab twice the size of the others. “This is yours.” He put his eye next to the retina scanner. The door opened with a swoosh. They stepped into the outer chamber. He was in the process of removing sterile covering when Laurel stopped him.
“Don’t do that. I’ll go inside tomorrow.”
Tariq nodded. “Here you will have to use your card again to enter. Once you are inside no one can enter without you allowing them in. The system will recognize that there are two people coming in at the same time and will not allow that unless you unlock it with a code. This is to be changed daily by you.”
Her attention was less on what he was saying and more on the room in front of her. In fact, she had gone off into her own world and seemed to have completely forgotten he was there. That bothered him, but it was still fascinating to see her in her element. He could imagine the excitement that bubbled in her. Never had he been so alert to a woman’s emotions. Laurel definitely had a curious effect on him.
“This is amazing. It lacks for nothing. You even have a couple of machines that are considered the latest diagnostic equipment.”
“Did I not promise you state of the art?”
She placed her hand on the window. “Yes, but I’ve been made promises before.”
And had been disappointed, Tariq assumed, based on the manner in which she made that statement. How would she react when she learned it had been him who’d stalled her chances of funding in the States?
“There’s even a whiteboard to write on. For some reason, I had to fight to get one of those at the university.” Amazement and pleasure flowed in her words.
Tariq smiled. The simplest things pleased her. “My planners and I tried to think of everything.”
She turned. “All seems in order. I look forward to starting my work. I have a box of books and things that need to be brought here from the palace.”
“I’ll see that Nasser takes care of it tomorrow. Now I think it is time you get some rest. You have had a tiring day.”
He checked his watch. “We must go. I have a meeting at the palace.”
While they were retracing their steps to the front of the building Laurel asked, “When were you going to tell me about Roji and your brother having hemophilia?”
“I thought it would come out. Zara told you about Rasheed, did she not?”
“She did. But why not mention it earlier? Didn’t you think it would be of interest to me?”
He looked at her. “That is the problem. Too many people are interested.”
“The media?”
“Yes. Some things even royalty has the right to privacy about.”
“But you have built a lab to help find a cure. You brought me here. Don’t you think the media might help shine a light on the issue of living with hemophilia? And that I could keep the information about your family confidential? Your words and actions are contradictory.”
“I do not mean them to be. Some people react negatively to my family’s disease.” A couple of times Tariq had shared with close friends about his family. They had acted as if they were contagious. Even some of his past relationships with women had died because he had stated he never wanted children because of the medical issues in his family.
“And you thought I would?”
He did not like being forced to explain himself. “Truthfully, old habits die hard and I did not want it to look like I was hiring you to come to Zentar just to aid my family. There are too many others in my country who will benefit from your work. I want the focus to be on them. Start with them.”
Laurel walked through the door opening into the lobby. “Okay, I can sort of understand that line of thinking. By the way, I was sorry to hear about your brother. That must have been difficult.”
“Very.” Rasheed had been the middle son and Tariq’s closest friend. Their oldest brother had been busy with duties as the successor to the crown and later as the King. Free of that hereditary load, he and Rasheed had had a chance at a more casual life and had made the most of it. Tariq missed him daily.
“Do others in the family have hemophilia?”
“The King and his son.”
She stared at him. “And you have it as well.” Her words were a thoughtful statement, not a question.
He wanted this conversation to go away yet he was left no choice but to answer. “No. I’m the only male in the family who does not. Apparently my father’s genes were more involved in my creation than my mother’s.”
She pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully. “Your family is an interesting case. I’ve never had an opportunity to study an entire family. I must study yours while I’m in Zentar.”
His jaw tightened. By the look on Laurel’s face he had no chance of talking her out of it.
“Is there a problem? All that would be involved is some blood work and a few minutes of conversation.”
“My family has many obligations.”
“Surely they aren’t so busy they wouldn’t want to help discover a cure. You make it sound as if finding a therapy for hemophilia is important to you yet you barely let me in on your family secret. It doesn’t make sense. What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. I just cannot speak for other members of my family.”
She threw him an irritated look. “Really? After you brought me here to do research on the disorder?”
“It is not something that we discuss outside our family.”
Was he serious? “I guess, based on our show today, I’m family now. So I’d be the perfect person for them to discuss it with. I don’t understand you stonewalling me on this. It seems to me that looking at your family history would be a logical place to begin my study.”
He raised his chin. “The royal family must not show weakness.”
Her mouth dropped in disbelief. “Would the people of your country really see the royal family as doing that? There shouldn’t be a stigma around hemophilia in this day and age.”
“Some do. I am working to change that attitude.”
“As you should. No one has to know I am studying the family. I could start with you.”
“But, as I told you, I don’t have hemophilia.”
Laurel’s eyes narrowed as she considered him a moment. “Could the reason you’re putting up this resistance have something to do with you feeling guilty about not having the disease?”
A pain as if a vice squeezed his chest made him come to an abrupt halt. She saw that.
“I’m sorry.” She stepped up to him, laying a hand on his arm.
Tariq looked away and bit out, “There is nothing to be sorry for. It is a good thing I do not have the disease.”
“It is. It must be difficult to be the outsider.”
“Not as hard as it is to live with the disease.” His retort came out flatly.
“That’s true.” She rubbed his arm.
He took a step back, out of her reach. Her pity he was not interested in.
Laurel’s hand dropped. “We’ll find a cure.”
The tense moments between them ended when his phone buzzed. He answered, “Prince Tariq.”
He listened for a moment and then spoke swiftly in his native language before hanging up. “That was Zara. Roji is well. Running around
as if nothing had happened. The resilience of children is amazing.”
Her fingertips brushed his arm briefly. “I am glad to hear it.”
Tariq appreciated her touch of reassurance this time. Laurel had discovered his secret so easily. He had worked hard to keep his guilt at bay and she had seen right through him. As far as he knew, no one else recognized his burden. Tariq’s gut had clenched to see the fear in his nephew’s eyes when he had been told he would have to go to the hospital. The research that would come out of the new clinic would one day mean that fewer children like Roji would have to be rushed away every time they had a simple fall.
Roji looked so much like Rasheed. The boy was a daily reminder of what Tariq had lost. He had no intention of letting him suffer the same fate as his father, was determined to see advances made in the knowledge of hemophilia. Laurel was right. Their family should be more open about having the disease. He had been protecting them for so long, and in turn himself, it was difficult to let go of that mindset.
Laurel watched him with that same intent expression she had worn when they had been at the lab. The one that made him believe he had gone up in her estimation.
“You really care about your family, don’t you?” She still considered him closely.
“It is the way we were taught. You care for yours. It comes through when you speak of them. We have another thing we can agree on.”
She smiled. One that he would enjoy seeing again. “I would’ve thought it impossible but we do.” Her astonishment rang clear.
“And there is another. We have medicine.” Why did he care if they had anything in common? She was here to work, nothing more. Friendship was not even necessary. Yet he wanted her to like him or, if she did not, at least respect him. “Nasser waits. We should be on our way to the palace.”
Minutes later they were on their way back in the car. As they approached the palace Laurel peered out the window. “It’s so beautiful. And intimidating.”
“You will soon learn your way around.”
“I won’t be here that long,” she said, as much to herself as him.
The Sheikh Doc's Marriage Bargain Page 6