A pang dug deeply into her heart. Surely he had to be kidding. This couldn’t be why he was visiting. Unbidden, both her hands came to her belly and cupped it protectively. “You better not be implying what I think you’re implying.”
“Is it the sheikh’s child?”
“I…”
He grinned, looking like he just won the lottery. “It is, isn’t it? Kiddo!” he exclaimed, hugging Bridget for the first time in years. “Do you know what this means?! That’s a billion-dollar brat in your stomach. No, it’s better than that. That kid in there is worth billions, plural. Do you know how much oil money is in Dubai? I mean, that guy buys van Goghs and everything else like it was nothing and…”
“Stop!”
“What? Come on, tell me you’re not a little like your old man. That was so smart of you, leaving off your pills or whatever. Now we’re set up for life.”
She shoved him off of her. “No, there’s no ‘us,’ and there really hasn’t been since long before Mom died. You know that, and there certainly never will be again after you sold me! What happened between Ravi and me was complicated.”
Her dad smirked. “Ravi, see? You do know how to be like your old man. You got the mark to really care for you.”
“Ravi isn’t a ‘mark’ or a part of a plot or anything else. He’s the father of my child, and I do love him, Dean, but he doesn’t love me. So you just need to get out of my life because I swear to God, if you come near me or my son again, I will call the cops and you will rot in jail like you should have long ago.”
“Baby, don’t be like that.”
“Get out!” she said, before ducking back into her apartment and slamming the door in his face.
***
It ached.
It ached so badly to be in D.C., to be less than an hour from where his habibi—his true beloved—lived and not to be able to see her or hold her. He knew what her own refusal to talk to him had told him, what Cindi had told him, what logic and decency even indicated, but he was still tempted after this museum visit and publicity event to go to see her. In fact, he’d probably have Adil bring his limo around early. He respected her autonomy, and he never wanted to be his father, to arrange marriages or force relationships, but he couldn’t be in the same damn area she was and not try in person.
She was worth fighting for, and if Bridget truly didn’t want him anymore, then he would live with that. But still, he needed to see it in her emerald eyes and hear it from her own lips.
He was surveying the latest exhibit for the National Museum. Ravi had donated a few rare Monet’s for the event, and it was in his best interest, PR-wise, to make an appearance. As he rounded the corner, he came face-to-face with someone he never expected to see again: Dean Callahan.
The man cleaned up well overall, but he still had patches of stubble on his face, indicating he’d shaved in a hurry and his rental tux was obviously a few years or more out of fashion. An illusion, like always with a thief.
“What are you doing here?” Ravi asked, his voice a low growl.
Dean smiled with a knowing expression that irked the sheikh even more. “I called in the last of my favors.”
“You may regret wasting those if you’re here casing the exhibit.”
“I’m not because I have a better lead. I don’t know what happened between you and my little girl.”
“She’s hardly a daughter you care about.”
He shrugged and sipped his flute of champagne before grabbing a second quickly from a passing waiter. “No, but I bet I know something about her that you don’t.”
“I highly doubt that,” he said, trying to force his bravado. Actually, if Dean had even talked to her in the last almost five months then that would put him ahead of Ravi. “What do you want, Callahan?”
“Is that anyway to treat family?”
Ravi gritted his teeth at such a poor joke. “We’re not family. I can’t even get Bridget to talk to me.”
“Then you must be losing your billionaire playboy touch,” Callahan noted.
“You have sixty seconds before I have you kicked out of here. I’m a very powerful donor to the Smithsonian so I’m sure they’ll be happy to oblige and remove the vermin for me.”
“Well, Dad, I’d hate to do that. I mean, now that Bridget’s pregnant, we really are family, aren’t we?”
“She’s what?” Ravi asked, his head spinning. There was no way that he was hearing what he was. If Callahan were telling the truth that meant that she was carrying his child and hadn’t even told him. “You either lie, or she lied to you. It can’t be mine.”
“She tried to hide it, at least at first, but congratulations, sheikh; you’re part of the Callahan Clan now. So, seeing as how we’re related now, and we both care about Bridget, maybe you could spot me a loan?”
Blood boiled in Ravi’s veins. “No. You get nothing from me, and you get nothing—ever—from Bridget. You leave her alone. You’ve caused her nothing but pain.”
Callahan laughed. “Then that makes two of us, Ravi. I saw her just yesterday. She was wrecked, clearly been crying a lot, and it wasn’t about me this time. So, you need to ask yourself: are we really that different?”
“Yes, because I’m going to go see her now, and I will be there for my child, no matter what. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
He tried turned to leave but Dean grabbed his arm. “What about the tabloids? Is this something you want the rest of your sheikh buddies to know about? I’ll talk to The Enquirer!”
Ravi rounded on him, snarling and pinning the man to the nearest wall. “You’ll do nothing of the sort. You leave my child alone, and you leave Bridget alone. I already love them both, and they’re not dirty secrets. You get the hell out of my life.”
“Sir,” one of the guards from his staff strode toward them. “Do you need help?”
“Yes, Nabeel. Please detain Mr. Callahan here, and then call the cops. I’m sure there’s something to detain him for.”
“With pleasure, my sheikh.”
Ravi pulled out his phone and dialed Adil. “Bring the car around, old friend; we have a stop to make.”
Adil chuckled on the other end. “I think I can guess where we’re headed, and can I just say, sir… it’s about time.”
***
There was probably a finite amount of time that someone should spend curled up in their pajamas, eating cookies, and watching Netflix on an endless loop. Cindi had a date that night, and Bridget was facing a long, lonely Friday night as a hermit with no one to hang out with. Maybe one day she would join a Mommy and Me group and have mom-friends or something, but for right now, Bridget was embracing her solitary lifestyle with the finest Canadian reality TV that Netflix had to offer her.
Seriously, who knew there were nine seasons of a show based around finding Canada’s worst driver? Weird…
When there was a knock on her door, she was reluctant to answer it. There was every chance it was her father again, seeking easy money or about to offer some other get-rich-quick scheme. This time, once she waddled off the couch, she was sure to look through the peephole. It was then that her heart lurched. Ravi was there, standing behind the door and looking as gorgeous as ever in a dark tux.
The roses in his hand and the teddy bear were a nice touch.
She frowned and considered pretending she wasn’t home, except the bear was a tipoff that he knew more than she thought he did. It was powder blue and made for a toddler, not some cutesy gift from a flower shop for a girlfriend.
How?
Curiosity and her aching heart got the better of her. She flung open the door and, despite all her resolve of the last few months, threw herself into Ravi’s embrace. The bear and bouquet pressed awkwardly against her back, but she didn’t care. It was home.
She had been back in the States for months, but only by being in Ravi’s arms could she finally feel at home.
“I missed you,” she said, in between choked sobs.
“May I come in?”
<
br /> She nodded against his shoulder. “You have so much explaining to do. I just… I don’t have the strength to fight it anymore.”
Ravi patted her back the best he could before leading her into the apartment. He surveyed the surroundings and offered her a kind smile. “You have a nice place.”
“It’s kind of a wreck. My life’s been a mess ever since I realized…”
“That you were pregnant,” he supplied as he sat down next to her on the sofa after setting the gifts on the table. “How long have you known?”
“Not as long as you’d think. At first I thought morning sickness was a parasite from the Middle East. It took Cindi to figure it out and get me to a doctor to confirm it about three months ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“First: are you here because she let the cat out of the bag?” Bridget asked, not sure if she was glad her friend had done what she didn’t have the strength to, or upset at the betrayal of her secret. Maybe she was both. “And second: you need to tell me so much about you and Sabella that it’s not even funny.”
Jade eyes widened in what she thought was genuine confusion, but Ravi had been a gifted actor and liar back in Dubai. Even if he had roses and a bear, she couldn’t let her loneliness and hormone fluxes get the better of her. He’d broken her heart.
But he’s the baby’s father. Now that he knows, at least hear him out. How can you explain anything less to your son?
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s rich. You were kissing Sabella at the gala. That’s why I left. I saw you in the hallway and there was no way I could face you after that. It made me feel like some private joke between you, that American girl you were duping and laughing at the whole time in secret.”
Ravi grabbed both her hands in his own. “You don’t understand… You got it wrong. Sabella dragged me out there on pretense and then kissed me out of nowhere. It lasted about a split second and then I shoved her off of me. She’s been exiled from the palace and my life since then.”
“What?”
“Yes! She manipulated me to meet with her out there, and she was waiting for that moment to pounce.”
“The weird text from you. It was a number I didn’t recognize as yours but it said your caller ID on my cell so I assumed it was a spare phone. She set us up,” Bridget said, her voice wavering. “All this time, I was here punishing myself, feeling I was totally crazy for trusting you at all, and she set the whole thing up to break us apart.”
Ravi gathered her up into his arms, even if it took a bit longer to acclimate himself to her changed body, and kissed her lips. She missed this—that taste of cinnamon on his breath, that slight scrape of his five-o’clock-shadow against her chin, and the strength of his tongue in her mouth, dominating her own. The happier dreams she’d had, the memories of their intimate times, were pale projections next to the real thing. Only her sheikh could satiate her.
When they broke apart, she was panting. “I missed you.”
“You didn’t answer my calls.”
“Can you blame me? Sabella really set us up, and I just thought you went back to her. Found someone better.”
He held her chin between his fingers. “There’s no one better than you. You’re all I want, my swan. You’re the only one I ever want.” Reaching out, he placed his hand over her belly. “And I’m so glad to know we have a son together. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, a family.”
“I love you,” she said. “But I still don’t know how you knew. Did Cindi tell you?”
“I did Skype her, but she told me in so many words to drop dead. You have a fierce friend. I think that she would have pulled out a shovel and offered to bury me, too.”
“Nothing says ‘you’re my best friend’ like threats of bodily harm,” she said, sniffing and rubbing at her nose. “Then how?”
“Your father.”
“Oh God,” she said, feeling the baby flutter and kick. Yeesh, even her son knew that grandpa was bad news. “You can’t be serious.”
“He snuck his way into a museum event and wanted to make a deal.”
“Over his own grandson?” She blushed and looked away, too disgusted with her family to even look at him. With how messed up everything was, how could Ravi even want her again? “I’m so sorry. That must have been humiliating.”
“Actually, it let me know about my son, and then it helped me to do something I should have done months ago.”
“What?”
“I had my guards detain him until we could call the authorities. He had a warrant out for him in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for racketeering.”
She had to laugh at that as she snuggled back in Ravi’s embrace. “Then we think alike. When he came by here, he tried to get me to call you, to use the baby against you. I told him to go to hell and I’d get him arrested.”
“I didn’t want it to come to that. I know you—”
“I don’t love my father, not the man he is now. Maybe actually paying some penalty for his crimes will make him get better? I hope someday he can actually improve, but I can’t have him in my life or our son’s life until then.” Ravi grinned, and she wasn’t sure why during such a bleak topic. “What?”
“You said our son.”
“Of course, he’s ours. I was wrong not to tell you. I was just so scared you were with Sabella and you wouldn’t want him.”
He brought his hands to her belly. “I’ll always want him. You and he are all I’ve ever wanted. So, say it again.”
“He’s your son and mine… ours,” she said, her giggles muffled as he kissed her again.
Then he carried her to the bedroom to do so much more.
Epilogue
Three Years Later…
Ravi Shamon II was a beautiful child. Now, Ravi knew he was probably biased, that every father assumed his child was the most brilliant, most talented, and cutest toddler to ever walk the Earth. However, as he watched Ravi’s mop of dark curls fall into his eyes, ones as verdant as his mother’s, the sheikh knew his assumptions were right. There were few children on the planet as cute as his son.
It was probably genetic—as was his interest in art.
He sighed and looked over at Kamala, who came to join him at the arts and craft table. Ravi II recently discovered finger paints and favored an almost exclusively primary color palette. Unfortunately, quite a bit of it had drifted to the table’s surface as well.
He knelt before his son and looked at the picture. “It’s good, kiddo, what is it?”
“A puppy. I asked Mom but she said I had to ask you. Can I have a puppy?”
“We’ll talk about it,” he said, patting his son’s head. The little guy’s hands were too dirty to hug him, not if he didn’t want to ruin his ceremonial robes. “We have to wait a little bit before we make a big change like that.”
“But I’ll walk him lots and lots.”
Ravi laughed and then kissed his son’s temple before standing back up. “Somehow, I think I’ll be the one walking him lots and lots.”
“I would! But maybe also Adil.”
Kamala chuckled as well and took Ravi’s little hand. “Let me get you cleaned up before bed. Your mother and father deserve a bit of rest.” Before she left, she leaned over to whisper in little Ravi’s ear. “I do agree, though, Adil could use the exercise.” Then she stood and led his son off to a much needed bath.
The sheikh looked down at the bright blue dog running through a field of purple flowers. His son might have a while to go before the Sorbonne. “Perfect for the fridge.”
A familiar laugh, so like the tinkling of bells, rang out behind him. “We’re not buying a fourth fridge for all his art.”
He spun around and swept his wife up into a close hug. “You look lovely, my swan. Was the nap helpful?”
She sighed and rubbed at her lower back. “I swear I’m never doing this again. One girl and one boy is good, right?”
“I don’t know. I was thinking about having a houseful of
children.”
“You would. You don’t have to have the backaches and the swollen ankles and the weird pickle cravings.”
He nodded and kissed her, his tongue probing hers. After all this time, she still smelled of freesia and strawberries. She was like a bit of fresh, ripe fruit in his life. “Not all the side effects are terrible. Kamala is helping Ravi get cleaned up for the park later. He’s talking about a puppy again.”
She shook her head. “Not until this baby is at least a toddler. Dogs and babies don’t always mix, and who’s going to walk him?”
“Kamala and Ravi both agreed on Adil,” the sheikh replied.
Bridget laughed and swatted at his shoulder. “All of you need to stop ganging up on such a nice old man! Anyway, which side effects are good? Because the indigestion is killing me, especially with all the hummus and chick peas around here!”
He drew her as close to him as he could and pressed his hardening length against her. “You’ve been so enthusiastic lately. Would you care to relax a bit? Help deal with the some of the cramps without Advil?”
She grinned, a lascivious smile lighting up his swan’s face that made the blood flow faster to his groin. “Why, Sheikh Shamon, are you trying to seduce me?”
“I think I already have, many times over,” he said, looking down at her stomach. “I love you, Bridget, and I hope I show you that every day.”
She nodded and kissed him, a bit of gravitas having seeped into her expression. “I know, and I have no idea what your father was like. I mean I can guess and piece together a not great picture from what you’ve told me.”
“Indeed.”
“But I see how you are with our son, and I see how excited you are every day about our daughter, and she’s not even here yet. There’s no better father I know, and I’m so lucky to have you.”
He kissed her again, his tongue tangling long and lovingly with her own. When Ravi pulled back he reached out with a free hand to stroke her hair back from face. Always like spun wheat, always so enticing. “No, my princess, my sheikha—I’m the lucky one.”
“And you always will be.”
THE END
Sheikh's Virgin Love-Slave Page 9