However, the couches were pleasant places to sit and nap, and the bookshelves were filled with modern works of literature as well as the classics. And when she opened a cabinet, she found a cunningly hidden flat screen television. There was no shortage of things for her to do or to entertain herself with, but there was also no escaping the fact that she was a prisoner.
She learned the first day that while she could surf the Internet to her heart's content on the new phone someone had left in the townhouse, she couldn't send out any information. When she wanted to go for a walk, one of the guards at the front door went with her, and from time to time, she could see them patrolling the walled courtyard around the house. Whether she liked it or not, she was someone who was being kept away from the rest of the world, and for that alone she could have cried.
She did cry for most of the first morning she was there. She woke up in the violet bedroom, a lovely space with soft lavender walls and a charming purple rug, thought about where she was, and simply started to weep. It was all too much, and if she didn't let off the steam somehow, she was going to die.
Then, after a while, she cried herself out, and she felt better. Bedelia got up, put some cold water on her face to bring down the swelling, then went to see what food had been left for her in the refrigerator.
This is my new reality, she thought grimly. If I just mope and cry, that can't be good for the kiddos in my belly. I need to be productive. I need to do something.
Before this had all started, she had been a researcher, after all. So she started to research her pregnancy. She was startled to realize that she knew so little about it, and by the end of three hours of reading, she was firmly impressed by what her own body could do. A single birth alone was fascinating. The fact that she was going to be giving birth to three sounded beyond fascinating.
She realized that the doctor had been right, that things would likely go well enough as long as she was carefully monitored. There was a good chance that she would deliver early, and she might get symptoms more strongly than women carrying one child at a time, but beyond that, it was not so terrible.
"I wish you were here," she said quietly to empty air.
At odd moments, she found herself missing Jahin. When she learned something new about multiple births, when she wondered what her pregnancy was going to be like, she looked to one side as if a part of her expected him to respond.
She thought about him a great deal, but the man himself didn't show up for another two days.
That morning, she received a call as she sat down to eat something made of bran, more than a little bland but apparently very good for pregnant women. She was just dubiously poking the dish--it looked a bit like oatmeal--when the house phone rang. Despite their situation, she found her heart leaping when she saw that it was Jahin.
"Yes?" she asked, barely able to keep the excitement out of her voice.
There was a pause, and then a slight chuckle.
"So eager to get out?" he asked, but before she could respond, he continued speaking. "I'm going to be coming by in a few hours. I am ready to tell you what is going to happen. Be ready."
She started to make a tart retort about his overbearing tone, but then he hung up on her. She stared at the phone in disbelief, and for the first time in what felt like a long time, she felt something more than the quiet despair that had been hanging over her. Previously, she’d had to fight to feel anything at all, but right now, it was easy.
She was furious.
All right, she thought. You know what's going to happen? Well, maybe I do as well.
***
Bedelia's clothes had been brought to the townhouse, not only what she had in her luggage but also the sumptuous clothes from the penthouse. She thought about shunning the clothes he had bought for her and wearing only her own, but why should she? Jahin was already paying for her imprisonment, he might as well pay for her clothing as well.
She went to her closet like a warrior choosing her armor, and she found a severe, dark red dress that felt right. It was cut to accentuate her curves, and it was just barely on the decent side of risqué. She had not had a chance to wear it for Jahin before their relationship went up in flames, and now he was in for a surprise. She left her hair loose, applied a bit of lipstick and blush to accommodate her rather pale skin at the moment, and when he came to the townhouse, she was ready.
She waited for him, standing at the parlor’s mantle place every inch as if she owned the property they were in. She saw his eyebrows go up at the figure she cut in the long red dress, saw his mouth open slightly. She felt his gaze on her figure as if it were hands, and when he closed his mouth with a click and a glare, they both knew where his mind had been.
When Jahin took his seat in one of the wing chairs, she took a seat as well, and after taking another glance at her form in the close-fitting dress, he began to speak.
"I have made a decision about what is to come," he said, and she narrowed her eyes.
"I can't wait to hear it," she said acidly, and he glared at her.
"You are going to stay here. If for some reason the townhouse is not to your liking, you are welcome to try any of the other properties that I own until you find something that suits. The only prohibition is that you cannot leave Muneazil. Other than that, you may go where you please."
"Thank you so very much," she murmured sarcastically, but he wasn't done yet.
"You will stay in Muneazil, receiving the finest care, until the children are born. Believe me when I say that I will make that as easy on you as possible. I understand that you have been doing your research, and that means you know that multiple births can be complicated. It is certainly in your best interests to stay."
She stared at him for a moment as what he had said sunk in.
"You saw where I went on the Internet!" she said indignantly. "You knew what I was searching for!"
He shot her a grim look. She could see the fire in his eyes was banked, not quenched. That meant it could flare up whenever she trod a little too carelessly, but right now, that was the last thing she cared about.
"I am taking no chances," he said. "You already tried to deprive me of my children once. I am not going to let it happen again.
"Moving on to what will happen after the children are born... I want you to stay in Muneazil."
Despite herself, Bedelia perked up at that. He still wanted her close by at least, perhaps that meant there was some hope for them...
"I will set you up on a property that is some distance out of town where you will be provided for. As long as you maintain a good semblance of being a good mother to the children, all of your whims will be met. For the first year or so, they will stay with you, but after that, I assume that they will be healthy and stable enough to begin merely visiting you, say, every other weekend."
"No!" The word that was surprised out of Bedelia's mouth was so sharp that it made Jahin look up, shocked.
"No?" he asked, and she ignored the dangerous note in his voice.
"No," she repeated. "You are not going to take my children away like that! I refuse to live like some...some mistress on duty while my children are only allowed to visit me! No! That is completely unacceptable."
The look he gave her was as hard as a diamond. "I beg your pardon, Bedelia, but you are absolutely in no position to tell me what is and is not completely unacceptable. You gave up that right when you tried to steal my children--"
"So then it's right for you to steal my children from me?" Her voice broke slightly, but she made herself keep going. This was far too important for any kind of failure at all.
"You cannot do this, Jahin. You can't. You know that children belong with the mothers who love them. I have loved them so, so much since the moment I realized I was carrying them. Right now, even the idea of being without them makes me want to break down and cry. If you let me love them for a year...and then you take them away from me..."
To her relief, his face softened a little. He crossed the flo
or to where she sat, kneeling down in front of her and taking her hand. It felt as if it had been years since they had been this close. It was painful to think that it had been less than a week since they had made love, that they might never do so again.
"I am trying hard to find the solution that will save us, that will save all five of us," he said softly. "I...am doing what I need to do. I want our children safe and happy. Believe it or not, I want you safe and happy as well."
"Jahin..."
"You are a threat to me," he said, his words bitter. "Don't you understand that? I am a man who must have control. The world I live in is a cruel one sometimes, and more than simply defending myself, I need to defend my people as well who depend on me, who cannot have me at less than my best."
"I'm...a threat to you?" she asked, barely able to understand what he meant. "Are you serious?"
It made no sense at all. He was the man with all the power. He was the one who’d had her virtually imprisoned.
"I am," he said, slightly ruefully. "If you could have read my mind while I was frantic and looking for you... A sheikh should not think such things. He should not be so frantic for someone he...for a situation like this one that he cannot think. It is not proper. It is not safe."
He shook his head and stood up, stepping away from her. Now, though, Bedelia wondered if she saw something else in his eyes besides disdain. She realized with a start that there was still a great deal of desire there, a great deal of need. The thing that existed between them was still there, powerfully drawing them to each other, and he was doing everything he could to resist it.
And he was failing.
That realization rendered Bedelia silent as Jahin got up and started to pace.
"I do not want to hurt you, Bedelia. I swear to you that is the last thing I want, now and forever. However, I need to protect my country and my legacy, and that is what lies in your belly right now."
"I see," she said softly, her mind racing. "I understand. Or at least I think I do."
"Good," he said, and this time she could see he was relieved. If she allowed him to, he would pull away from her as much as he could, until the bond between them was worn tight and thin from distance. It might still be there, but it would be something that he could ignore for at least a little while, and maybe that would be enough to make him feel safe.
"This isn't a fairytale," he said, shaking his head. "The sooner we both realize that, the sooner we can figure out what comes next. We can do the best thing for ourselves, and for our children."
"Are you still intent on taking them from me after they turn one year old?"
He hesitated, and she thought then that she could see the Jahin she knew in his eyes, the man who wanted her, who’d saved her, and who never wanted to hurt her.
"I don't know," he said quietly. "Let us simply move forward for now."
"Yes," she said softly, never taking her gaze off of him. "Yes, we shall."
After he left, her mind replayed their interaction over and over again. Instead of despairing, though, she came away with three realizations.
He had stopped once while speaking. He had almost said something else, and she would have given a great deal to know what he’d almost said instead.
The second realization was that he thought he had stripped away her power, but somehow he had overlooked something very important. He had said she was allowed to stay wherever she wanted, and she fully intended to take advantage of that.
The third realization was that he still wanted her. The look of astonishment on his face when he saw her in her dress had been followed by a moment of what looked like pure possessiveness. He wanted her, and he wanted to make sure that no one else got to see what he saw.
It wasn't much, but it was more than she’d thought she had before.
He had told her that she wasn't living in a fairytale, and she knew it was true.
But she also knew that no fairytale heroine ever gave up until she had saved the day and gotten what was rightfully hers.
***
JAHIN MADE IT back to the car, and then he simply sat behind the wheel for several long moments, taking deep, deep breaths. He felt as if he had left a piece of himself in the townhouse, and it took every bit of his considerable willpower not to run back there and get it.
It was that damnable red dress, he thought resentfully. She had appeared there, and he had forgotten almost everything that had happened. All that mattered was that she was there, she was beautiful, and she was his. Even now, thinking of her lush body, he shivered. Her pregnancy was growing slightly more obvious. There was a curve to her belly and a ripeness to her body that hadn't been there before, but it only made her all the more desirable.
He’d had to stop himself from going to her then, and he had to stop himself from going up the stairs to her now. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that it would have broken something in him to make love to a woman who had shut him out.
He clung to his pride, to the fact that she had left him, rejected him in one of the most brutal ways possible, but it was still barely enough.
Jahin made himself take several deep breaths before he thought it was safe to drive in traffic again. He couldn't spend all his time fretting about Bedelia and the children she carried. She was under the care of one of the best obstetric wards in the world. She would be safe. All he had to do was keep his distance, and hopefully by the time she gave birth, he would be levelheaded enough to make calm arrangements for what happened next, whatever that was going to be.
It had seemed so simple when he was planning last night, but now by the cold light of day, Jahin could tell that the plan was ridiculous. He knew Bedelia, and there would be no way that she would allow him to take her children away. It had been the gesture of a desperate man, and if he were painfully honest with himself, he had wanted to hurt her.
When he realized that, Jahin felt a deep pain and shame inside him.
There was nothing in him that could hurt Bedelia. It would only be hurting himself, and he knew it.
No, he simply had to wait for time to fix some of this. He would wait, and things would get better.
As he drove, however, Jahin felt the deep hole in his heart, and he wondered if that was the way he would feel forever.
Chapter Fifteen
Bedelia spent the remainder of the day resting. She did some of the light exercises that the doctor had passed on literature about to her, she ate the green and mostly palatable food in the fridge, she slept when she was tired, and she got up the next morning bright and early. She washed in the small private bathroom, and for a moment, she felt a slight twinge of wistfulness.
The townhouse was beautiful, and if things were anything other than what they were, she would have liked nothing better than to stay there to enjoy it. It was a place that called to her soul, and she had never been in a house she liked better.
She shook her head. She loved the townhouse, and perhaps in the future she would be returning to it, but right now, she had a mission.
She went to get her suitcase, and she dumped out the clothes she had packed what felt like a lifetime ago. A part of her was startled that she had ever gotten Jahin's attention wearing such dowdy things, but she decided quickly that it was to Jahin's credit. He was a man who saw beyond the surface of things.
But if yesterday was to be believed, he was also a man who liked...some surface things.
She tidied her old clothes away, and then she turned to her new closet. Her criteria for the clothes that she was going to be wearing was simple, and it took only a half hour before she zipped her suitcase shut and dragged it to the front of the house.
The two men in dark suits who had been stationed to guard her looked at her warily. With some slight amusement, she wondered if they thought she was going to make a break for it. She could have told them that it was quite the opposite. She was through running, and now Jahin was going to have to deal with her.
She smiled at them politely.
"I take it that the sheikh has given you some standing orders?" she asked warmly.
The men glanced at each other, clearly expecting some kind of trick, but then one of them nodded.
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "We're to escort you wherever you want to go, but we're not to let you wander about on your own."
Her smile grew a little sweeter. "And I believe he also said that I could stay wherever I liked. Whatever property of his I cared to be at, if this one did not suit me."
The other man nodded. "Yes, ma'am, he did tell us that."
"Well, good. I am glad we are all on the same page. Will you take my suitcase, please?"
The one who had spoken first took the suitcase from her, while the other directed her towards their car.
"Where are you interested in going, ma'am?" he asked, and she smiled at him.
"Well, wherever the sheikh is currently in residence will do for a start, I am sure," she said brightly.
***
JAHIN HADN’T HAD a day as bad as this one in quite some time. He had tossed and turned all night after leaving the townhouse, and when he had finally slept, his dreams had all been about Bedelia...Bedelia lost, Bedelia hurt, Bedelia crying somewhere that he couldn't reach her.
After that terrible night, he had spent all day on conference calls with investors from Argentina who seemed very interested in developing Muneazil with resorts in mind and yet somehow completely unwilling to commit to the idea of having actual citizens working at those resorts. The discussion had gone around and around until he was certain that his brain had turned to mush, and then they’d had the gall to threaten him with a complete abandonment of the issue.
Finally telling them that abandonment was just fine by him felt good, but it was only a momentary relief. When he had walked out of the office where he conducted business, he felt as if a hundred bricks had suddenly settled on his shoulders.
I want Bedelia, his mind whispered, and he’d had to remind himself that it wasn't going to happen. It wasn't something he could allow himself, even if he knew exactly where she was, exactly how she would smile and speak....
Sheikh's Virgin Love-Slave Page 22