The Sheikh's Impatient Virgin

by Kim Lawrence

  His eyes narrowed. ‘I think I know who it was.’ Layla would wait, he decided, turning his attention to his wife. He bent his head towards her, brushing aside a hank of dark hair that fell into his eyes as he laid a hand on her shoulder and rubbed his thumb over the elegant angle of her delicate collarbone, and felt a shiver run through her body.

  Karim felt a sharp, sweet, heart-piercing stab of tenderness. She looked so incredibly fragile, but he knew that the fragility concealed a strong, fiery woman with passions to match his own.

  A woman who was so responsive to his touch that the brush of his breath on her neck could elicit a wild reaction—his cousin had recently called him a lucky man; he was not wrong.

  As she tilted her head and their eyes connected her body swayed towards him as though drawn by an invisible thread. His eyes darkened as for a heartbeat he was totally submerged by a wave of mingled tenderness, lust and wonderment.

  ‘Sit down and let me explain, ma belle.’

  His mesmerising voice flowed over her like honey.

  ‘Let me explain…?’

  And I’ll believe him because I want to…With a self-derisive grimace Eva shook her head to clear the sensual fog that clouded her brain.

  ‘You mean lie down!’ she snarled. ‘Because you think all you have to do is get me in bed and I’ll swallow any garbage you dish up.’ And so far she had, she had let him make her feel as though she were beautiful and desirable. ‘I’m not beautiful and I don’t need anything explained. I understand perfectly.’

  ‘I doubt that.’

  The odd inflection in his voice brought her frowning regard to his face.

  ‘Beautiful…?’ Head tilted a little to one side, he studied her face. Several strands of hair had fallen across her smooth brow, the rest was tied back in a utilitarian plait he had noticed she confined it in when she intended to be taken seriously.

  The silence stretched until, unable to bear his critical appraisal another second, she snapped, ‘My mouth is too big, my nose is too small, my eyes are—’

  ‘Incredible.’ The eyes in question widened to their fullest extent at the throaty insertion.

  Eva pressed a hand to her fluttering heart; she was such a pushover.

  ‘Beauty,’ he continued, ‘is a word. I just know that I like waking up looking at your face.’ Like was too mild a word for the life-affirming jolt he got when he woke up and found her beside him.

  A little thrown off balance, not just by his comment, but his intense tone, she gave a disgruntled sniff and drawled, ‘Sure, I’m utterly perfect.’

  Karim gave a twisted smile and, planting both hands firmly on her shoulders, steered her firmly away from the wroughtiron rail.

  Eva kept up a flat-toned narrative while he steered her to a chair—it was either that or an unseemly tussle. It was hard to occupy the moral high ground when you were kicking a person’s shins.

  ‘Perfect but not the wife you would have chosen, but you needed one at some point anyway because you need an heir.’

  ‘Is that a direct quote from Layla?’ Karim wondered, thinking that he had been a fool to allow that woman the run of the place just because of who her father was.

  Eva looked startled and gave a little grunt as, in response to the weight of his hands on her shoulders, she sat down heavily on the chair.

  ‘If I don’t give you a baby,’ she pressed a hand to her stomach and struggled to control the wobble in her voice as she finished gruffly, ‘nobody, not even my grandfather, would blame you if you put me aside for someone who could. I knew all this…’

  I just chose not to think too much about it, she thought, ashamed of her inability to face the truth. ‘But what I didn’t know, what makes me feel…’ She shuddered and buried her face in her hands. Exhaling and lifting her pale face to his, she backtracked, forming the words slowly as if each syllable hurt as she continued, ‘What I didn’t know is that I would be a topic on an agenda and you would discuss me like any other piece of business with those men…’

  ‘So you thought you would anticipate matters and run away? Were you going to leave a note?’

  Eva winced at the bitter irony in his voice.

  ‘You are right—I would not have chosen you.’ It was hard now to credit that he had ever been that stupid.

  He saw her flinch and dropped down into a squatting position by her chair. ‘But I have you.’ And he intended to keep her. He would not, could not contemplate life without her.

  The emotional throb in his deep voice brought Eva’s head up.

  She looked at him warily as he framed her face in his big hands and blotted a tear that slid down her cheek with his thumb. ‘I do not question this and lie awake wondering about the chain of events that made this happen, I do not speculate on whether cosmic fate, luck, or sheer chance played a part. I accept it and never ever stop being grateful for it.’ The impassioned declaration made Eva’s heart stop.

  Did eyes, the window of the soul, lie? Karim’s were saying things that she hardly dared believe, things that contradicted everything.

  ‘Grateful?’ Then she shook her head and told herself she was just seeing what she wanted to. ‘You made arrangements, drew up contracts, to get rid of me…How long have I got? Six months…a year…?’ She shook her head and tried to pull his hands from her face; somehow her fingers got tangled in his and ended up pressed to his heart.

  She could feel the thud through the thin cotton robe he wore over riding breeches. The need to press herself into the warmth of his body was so overwhelming that not doing so made her shake like someone with a fever.

  ‘I am expected to provide an heir. This is not an unreasonable expectation,’ he conceded. ‘You want children…?’

  Her eyes fell from his. ‘Yes!’ she admitted, her voice thick with the emotion that clogged her throat.

  ‘Then where is the problem?’

  She tipped her head to him, incredulous that he seemed unable to understand why she was upset.

  He dragged a hand across the morning growth of stubble on his chin and shook his dark head. ‘I found you packing your bags and looking at me as though I was your enemy. I’m not, Eva, you’re my lover, my wife…’

  ‘Not a popular choice.’

  He arched a brow and did not deny it. ‘This meeting was not what you think. Forget what Layla told you and listen to me!’

  The antagonistic glitter faded from Eva’s eyes. She slanted him a guarded look through her lashes and nodded. ‘All right, tell me.’

  He watched with a half-smile as she folded her arms across her chest and adopted an unimpressed expression.

  ‘You look like a tough audience,’ he observed.

  Eva fought back an answering smile. ‘I’m an objective audience,’ she lied.

  ‘There are some, fewer than you might think, in high positions who consider you an unsuitable bride.’ Those in short who had personal interests to preserve and blamed his new wife’s influence for some recently introduced reforms that had impacted on their pockets—those changes had been planned for some time.

  Political manoeuvring was a fact of life, but when Karim had learnt of the whispering campaigns targeting Eva that had been set in motion his first response had been to make the worthless, avaricious scum eat their lies and hopefully choke on them.

  But when he had been able to consider the situation in a slightly cooler frame of mind—it had taken a half-day gallop across the desert on a hot-blooded stallion that had been badly in need of exercise to achieve this—he had realised that they had unwittingly done him a favour.

  They had forced him to take the initiative.

  And he had done so with relish.

  It hadn’t actually been so difficult; his opponents had always been on shaky ground. It spoke volumes of how well his inexperienced princess bride was fulfilling her role that their grievances were so easy to demolish.

  Of course, the suggestion that Eva not being pregnant after a few months was a problem—or, for that matte
r, any of their business—was total nonsense, and he had summarily disposed of it as such.

  ‘I knew they were planning to present me with an ultimatum.’ His lips curved into a smile that contained a degree of wolfish relish as he recalled their faces when he had turned the tables. ‘I beat them to it.’

  Eva felt her body turn to ice and stared at him, unable to credit the casual callousness. ‘So you told them you’d already decided to divorce me.’ Amazing—there was nothing in her composed voice to suggest someone had just broken her heart and stamped all over it.

  Above her bowed head she heard his sharp intake of breath and angry curse. ‘If you carry on speaking of divorce, ma belle, I will begin to think that is what you wish…’ With a finger under her chin, he angled Eva’s face up to his. ‘I told them there would be no divorce.’

  The smile that began to curve Eva’s lips faded abruptly when she saw how it must have been.

  Those men were not bright. She had only known Karim for a few months, but it had taken her about five minutes to work out her proud husband was not a man you gave ultimatums.

  He was a man who would dig his feet in and if possible go in the opposite direction, even if that direction was not in his best interests.

  ‘But why did you say that?’ she wailed.

  This had been the point where, in his mind at least, she had thrown herself in his arms…He inhaled and stifled his frustration. ‘This was not the response I was hoping for, ma belle.’ Though he spoke lightly there was a steely glint in his eyes as he added, ‘You still wish to pack your bags and escape me?’

  She gave a twisted smile that just about broke his heart and said huskily, ‘Well, that would simplify matters all around.’

  ‘There has been nothing simple about our relationship from day one.’ He ran a finger down her damp cheek. ‘You said you wanted a child, our child…children?’

  There had been no of course before she fell in love with Karim, but now she responded without thinking. ‘Of course I do, but what if I can’t have them? You’ll have no choice but to divorce me, Karim.’

  ‘There is always a choice.’

  ‘Look, I know it’s the worst-case scenario, but—’

  He pressed a finger to her lips and said, ‘Fine worst-case scenario—if I could not give you the child you crave would you send me away?’

  Her eyes widened indignantly. ‘Of course not!’

  ‘Do you not see the inconsistency here?’

  Eva flung him a look of teary reproach. ‘It’s different.’

  ‘Where is the difference?’ He took her chin in his hand and tipped her face up to his. ‘Look at me, Eva, and tell me where the difference is in these two scenarios. Never losing sight of the fact we are discussing something that will never happen.’

  ‘You can’t know that—’ she began.

  Only to be cut off by his terse direction to, ‘Tell me, why do you have one set of rules for yourself and another for me, Princess?’

  The warmth in his eyes made Eva’s heart tremble in her breast. As he reached out to stroke her cheek she knew she should pull away, but she couldn’t. She turned her face into his palm and closed her eyes.

  ‘The thought of people talking about me makes me feel so…’ She gave a shudder.

  His eyes darkened and his voice was soothing as he replied, ‘I know.’

  ‘What would you know about how it feels? Everyone knows you can have a child—you already do. You have Amira.’

  ‘Ah!’ He exhaled a deep breath and pressed her face into his chest as he rested his chin on her sweet-smelling hair and inhaled.

  Eva sighed as his arms closed around her. She wanted to stay there for ever but she knew this couldn’t happen. She experienced a swell of sadness that took her breath away, then abruptly the sadness morphed into anger. She was so mad she couldn’t breathe as she pulled away from him and, knocking the chair over, shot to her feet.

  She was angry with Karim for making him love her, but most of all she was mad with herself for falling in love and for pretending that this marriage was anything but a convenient contract.

  Stormy eyes shining with suppressed emotion that threatened like the tears standing out in them to spill over, she stood there vibrating so much emotion that Karim, standing feet away, felt it hit him like a wave.

  ‘I have Amira,’ he agreed. ‘We have Amira.’

  Eva’s face crumpled. If she had to go away she would miss the little girl she had grown to love.

  ‘It would have been better if we’d never met!’

  Eva bit her lip, retaining an air of defiance, but feeling regret when the skin stretched tight across the strong symmetrical bones of his face paled dramatically.

  Despite the visible effect of her bitter claim, his expression appeared to be utterly confident as he shook his head and said, ‘No, it wouldn’t. You love me, Eva.’

  If it had been a taunt she would have been able to cling to her anger, but it wasn’t. It was just a quiet statement of fact, and instead it sliced through her defences.

  Her lip quivered. ‘Yes, I love you, Karim…I didn’t mean to…’ Her expression one of stunned bewilderment, she shook her head and admitted, ‘I tried not to.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  KARIM let his head fall back as he expelled a long shuddering sigh and murmured something in his own tongue.

  Appalled that she had allowed him to goad her into the admission, Eva adopted a shaky air of belligerence as she waited for his response. So far it wasn’t easy to predict.

  He lifted his head. There was an air of satisfaction bordering on smugness in his manner as he smiled; the indefinable but dangerous quality to that smile made Eva’s stomach flutter nervously.

  ‘If it is any comfort I also tried not to…I didn’t want to love you, I tried not to love you, but I stopped trying.’

  For a long moment they just stared at one another, then with a sob she walked into the arms he held open. His lips on hers, Karim lifted her off her feet and twirled her around.

  His exuberant cry of triumph sent an answering wild, joyful thrill through Eva. She wrapped her legs around his waist and, holding his face between her hands, kissed him back with enthusiasm.

  His deep husky laugh rang out as he kissed her back. Still kissing, they fell onto the bed together. The kissing continued, punctuated by gasps, murmurs and moans, until they both paused to catch their breath.

  Lying side by side, heart to heart, Eva smiled; the exhilaration singing through her blood was more intoxicating than champagne.

  ‘You love me, I’m irresistible, so are you,’ she crooned, her eyes darkening as she slid her hand across the exposed golden skin of his throat, her fingertips lingering on his pulse. She slid him a smoky look from under the sweep of her lashes and said with mock innocence, ‘Don’t you feel a little overdressed?’

  ‘No, Eva,’ he said, catching her hand and pressing it to his lips to lessen the impact of his rejection. ‘First I must tell you something that I should have told you before now.’

  The sombreness of his expression brought an apprehensive frown to Eva’s face. ‘So tell me,’ she suggested, propping herself up on her elbow. She could deal with anything he threw at her so long as he loved her.

  And he did.

  Karim loved her.

  ‘It is something that nobody knows with the exception,’ he said quietly, ‘of possibly Hakim.’ Hakim was no fool and he had asked some pretty searching medical questions after the failure to find a bone-marrow donor for Amira. ‘It is important that the secret stays with us, mon coeur.’

  ‘Of course,’ Eva said, beginning to feel both impatient and seriously worried after this build-up. She reached across and stroked the side of his lean face. ‘Tell me,’ she urged, thinking, Please let me have my happy ending, please. ‘It doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll still love you, but tell me soon because I have to tell you, Karim, you’re scaring me,’ she admitted.

  ‘Amira is not my child.’
r />   Eva’s face went blank. Of all the things she had been bracing herself to hear, this had not been one of them.

  Thoughts racing, she rolled closer, looping her thigh over his hip and tucking herself into his side as she asked with genuine mystification, ‘How is that possible?’

  ‘You know that my first marriage was arranged.’

  She nodded. ‘She was very beautiful.’

  He did not appear to notice the wistful comment. ‘Zara told me on our wedding night.’

  Still not understanding, Eva shook her head. ‘She told you what?’

  ‘That she was carrying another man’s child.’

  ‘Oh, no, Karim! On your…you must have been devastated!’ Eva gasped, still struggling to get her head around the information.

  It required a seismic mental shift. The perfect marriage she had always imagined she was competing with, the one that made her feel woefully inadequate, had been based on a lie, and what a lie!

  She felt her astonishment give way to anger—how could any woman do that to a man, callously trap him that way? Force him to bring up another man’s child as his own?

  She supposed that there must be many men out there bringing up children who were not genetically theirs, but the difference was that Karim had known it—always known it.

  Her eyes glowed with admiration as she looked at Karim through an emotional mist of tears. Some men might have punished the child for the sins of the mother, rejected them, but never by one word or action had he ever treated Amira as anything but his own. How many men were that generous, that bighearted?

  ‘Devastated, no…’ he conceded after a moment’s silent consideration of the suggestion. ‘Humiliated and furious—yes. My pride was hurt. No man likes to feel a woman has made a fool of him. Since then I have been inclined to think guilty until proved innocent…as you, ma belle, learnt to your cost,’ he observed with a rueful grimace of self-reproach.

  ‘That night when I realised you were an innocent,’ he recalled huskily, ‘I think was the first time I realised what I had become, what I had let one bad experience make me,’ he admitted soberly. ‘A man who only sees the bad and not the good…’ His loving gaze swept her face. ‘You have re-educated me.’