Prince's Triplet Babies

by Sophia Lynn

  "However, one cruel review from a lover who hardly seems worthy of the name is not what I am going to call a legitimate reason for anything. Unless, I suppose, you would like me to go and make his life a little more difficult?"

  He looked so hopeful that Erin couldn't resist a soft laugh.

  "No, I lost track of him years ago. This was way back right after high school."

  She saw his eyebrows rise, and she realized that she had revealed that she had not had a lover since the very beginning of her adulthood. She winced in advance of what he was going to say, but then he continued without missing a beat.

  "As I said, I am not taking that man's advice for a damned thing. What I know is that you are liquid fire with me. When I touch you, I burn, and I have reason to believe that you do the same..."

  Without stopping herself, she nodded. It felt like an incredible admission to make, but she couldn't stop herself. It was the truth, and it was amazing that he felt the same way.

  "Good. Then there is no reason to think that you are frigid. Perhaps, most charitably, you were only frigid with that single man. Perhaps not. But it is something that we are going to find out together."

  There was such strength and resolve in his voice that she couldn't stop herself from leaning in to kiss him again.

  She could still feel the sting of that long-ago boyfriend's pronouncement, but when Askari looked at her, it felt very faded indeed.

  "Are... are we going to test that right now?" she asked. She wondered if she felt nervous or hopeful. Some part of her, the one that always jumped in head first and the part that had sent her running after a man who had dangled adventure in front of her, wanted to test Askari's theories right away.

  Askari shook her head, and she realized that she had been hopeful.

  "I think that we could both benefit from a little rest," he said with a wry grin. "If you want to get on Hazn time, this wouldn't be a bad time to get some sleep. It's going to be a long flight, even for my jet. I know exactly where we are going to be staying when we get back to my country, and after that, there will be plenty of time to test my proposal."

  His words were simple enough, but there was something heated right below that, something that made her feel as if she should be running... or perhaps throwing herself right under his claws.

  Nervously, she swallowed and nodded, and with a slight sigh, he pulled her closer.

  "Have a little trust and faith in me," he said quietly. "I promise that it will be justified, all right? Believe in me."

  Somehow, this felt like something bigger than getting first in a car and then a plane with someone who was nearly a complete stranger. Erin took a deep breath, searched her soul, was surprised at the answer, and finally nodded.

  "I do. I will."

  Chapter Five

  Sleeping on the plane helped a little, but by the time that they arrived in Hazn, Erin realized that her sleep was completely jumbled. She was tired and ready for bed when they arrived at the airport in the early afternoon, and even a stop to pick up bread and slices of delicious soft cheese and fruit couldn't wake her up any more than she already was.

  "You can sleep if you want," said Askari, who looked damnably well-rested. How had he done it? The bastard had not slept any more than she had, but now he was as bright-eyed as he had been in the streets of New York. "There's nothing wrong with taking a few days to get settled. As long as you start lying in bed at the right time, you'll adjust soon enough."

  "No, no, I can stay awake," she argued. "I want to see it all..."

  He gave up on arguing with her on the matter and simply watched in amusement as she stared out the limousine window, watching the city go by. The city of Haz, which gave Hazn its name, was a wonder, a perfect combination of modern and traditional. There were women who chose to go about in full head coverings and tunics, and others who were dressed in extremely modern street fashion that would not have been out of place in New York. There were Middle Eastern men, men from China, men from Europe, and they all mingled companionably, intent upon their own business, living in a world that was both foreign and alien to her.

  "What do you think of my home?"

  "It's beautiful," she responded readily, never taking her eyes from the bustle of the world as it went past. "There's such life here, such a perfect mix of the past and the future. I think any child of ours would be happy to be born here."

  The silence that followed her statement was oddly heavy, and she turned towards him. Erin had thought that Askari would never be a truly easy person to read, but right now, there was something opaque about him.

  "Did I say something wrong?" she asked, and he shook his head.

  "Let us say that not everyone appreciates Haz as it is, and that those people typically do not do very well here."

  Erin frowned at him.

  "Did I pass some kind of test? I will warn you, I don't do very well with tests that I do not know about. I'm not sure that anyone does."

  "No test, I promise," he said, but she was not sure that she believed him.

  "So where are we staying?" she asked to change the subject. "I suppose this is something that I should know, after all..."

  "Well, I had some thoughts of putting you in one of the vacation villas in the oases, but given how used to the large cities you are, I thought that it might be preferable for you to try staying in the city. I have a townhouse here, but perhaps the penthouse would be more your speed. What do you think?"

  She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head.

  "Well, I don't know very much about things like traffic or the various parts of town. I have to assume that Haz is a lot like New York, where each of the different boroughs is good for its own thing. Which one is best for you?"

  "For... me?" he asked, his face blank and confused, and Erin frowned at him.

  "Yes. So that it will be easy for you to get to work or to do whatever it is that a sheikh must..."

  "Ah, I see what you mean. Well, then, the best and most convenient choice for me will be the townhouse. It is both accessible and private, and there is a wonderful life to the area that I am sure that you will enjoy."

  Askari was smiling, but there was something behind it that made her hair stand up on end, and after a moment, she realized what it was. He hadn't been startled until she implied that he was living with her, and she turned to him.

  "So you were just planning to put me away in my own apartment or somewhere in the desert?" she asked, her tone neutral. To his credit, he flinched a little at her words.

  "When it is said like that, it seems cruel...."

  "I think that it is best if we go into this with no illusions about each other or the situation," Erin said, keeping her voice as blunt as she could. "The truth is that as good a time as we have with one another, as funny as you are or no matter how much I love to touch you... this is a very businesslike arrangement. Money exchanged hands."

  The words hurt more than she had thought that they would to say. Still, they were true, and as she had learned, it was always a bad thing, even a dangerous thing, to flinch from the truth.

  "Erin..."

  "Listen to me, please. I want you to make the decision that works for this arrangement. Sure, I got excited about the idea of living with you. I think it would be enjoyable to say the least. We have a good time together, and I think that that is something special to both of us. However, let us not get carried away, and I will start as I should have started."

  She took a deep breath. She wondered why this was so hard, and then she realized that it was because she knew what she wanted the answer to be.

  "Where am I going to be staying?" she asked. "Just curious, I'm sure wherever you have arranged, it's going to be good."

  Askari studied her for a moment, and Erin strove to make her face as impassive as his. It wasn't easy. She had spent most of her life as someone who had always worn her heart on her sleeve. Right now, though, she needed to betray no weakness. She needed to show him that
she understood the arrangement that they were in, and she needed to prove to herself that she could handle it. If she couldn't handle being shunted off to an undoubtedly beautiful vacation home, then Erin knew that she might have problems with everything else that was coming up.

  "I was thinking that it would be most enjoyable for both of us if you were to stay in the townhouse," he said, his dark eyes locking with her green ones.

  "Oh?"

  "Yes. That location is the closest to the work I do as an entrepreneur and as a politician, albeit one with very specialized responsibilities. I can tend to my duties on both fronts, and then I can be with you most if not all nights."

  "That sounds like it will be a great deal of fun," she said, smiling, and to her surprise, he returned her smile as well.

  "I know it will be," he said, and there was both heat and promise in his voice.

  ***

  As Erin roamed the townhouse, exclaiming at every new luxury that she found, Askari asked himself if he knew what was doing.

  He had had vague plans of sending her out to one of his family's vacation houses. It had been a good plan. She would have been well away from the public eye, she would have had plenty of space, and he had assumed that perhaps for a week or two out of the month, he could go to visit her to enact their bargain.

  However, when she had turned to him to ask him once and for all where she was staying, he found that he could not go through with it. She had asked the question levelly enough, even with a certain degree of quiet reserve and strength that had been admirable. However, Erin had been unable to keep that flash of sadness and betrayal out of her eyes, and he knew that there was only one right answer.

  If he were honest with himself, he needed to admit that the idea of putting her in one of the vacation homes had gotten less and less palatable with every moment that passed. He told himself that the vacation houses, for all their beauty, would be dead boring for her. If she was going to be carrying his child, then without a doubt she needed to be in a place that was more engaging, more exciting. That meant being in the city, and if she was in Hazn, then that meant that she would have more ready access to the world and to him.

  It was really a matter of safety as much as it was a matter of anything else, he told himself firmly. She was closer to hospitals and to emergency services, to...

  "Oh my god, a claw-foot tub!"

  And to claw-foot tubs, he thought with a slight smile. Those were apparently important.

  He came up the stairs to see her peering into the main bathroom upstairs. It was tiled all in pellucid white and deep emerald, and the way the light was slanting in from a round high window, the room glowed and gave her hair a sheen of fire. All unaware of her beauty, Erin was peering around in obvious pleasure, and Askari couldn't help chuckling.

  "Should I be worried that you seem just about as impressed with the bathroom as you were with my city?"

  She laughed, but she met his eyes with that forthright charm that had captured him so effectively in New York.

  "Not worried at all," she promised him. "It's just that I've been living in crappy apartments with a lot of roommates for years. The idea of having a bathroom that I didn't really have to share with a half-dozen people, let alone one as beautiful as this, is just amazing. I think I want to spend some time soaking in that tub just as soon as I can..."

  "Why not now?" he asked. "You seem as if you are up, but if you want to get over onto Hazn time, we should be going to sleep soon. Your body likely thinks it’s time for breakfast, and a warm bath might be just the thing."

  He thought he had made the insinuation in his voice perfectly plain, but Erin only perked up.

  "Oh, that sounds fantastic. You don't mind me taking the first bath?"

  "Not at all," he assured her. "There are towels here, and I believe a few robes hanging over the door in the bedroom through that door there."

  She smiled at him, grabbing her single pathetic little bag and tripping off to find a robe.

  What a strange mix this young woman was, he mused. One moment, she was a siren in his arms, her charms calling him and luring him to some dangerous place. The next she was as shy and innocent as a virgin. He couldn't tell which he liked better; all he knew was that he wanted to know all of her.

  As he sank the plug into the claw-foot tub, he turned on the hot water tap and grinned. Soon enough, he thought, they would get to know each other very well.

  ***

  The townhouse was like a castle to her. She supposed when he said townhouse, she had imagined something modern and sleek, perhaps a little cold. Instead, the townhouse had shown traces of French and Swiss design along with a sensibility that was totally traditional Hazn. It seemed more like a museum than a home at first, but when she saw the faintly scarred dining room table, the eclectic collection of books on the shelves, and the family portraits on the mantle, she knew that this was a place where people truly lived.

  That made her happy, and with a shiver of premonition, she knew that this would be a place where she could be happy herself. Right now, it was easier to put aside her concerns for the future. Surely she could take some time to enjoy a simple bath?

  The robes were where Askari had told her that they would be, and she pulled the black silk robe down curiously. It slithered against her skin like water, and stripping down to nothing at all, she threw it around her shoulders with a grin. Gone were the days when she would have to carry her bath products to the bathroom like a college student, not that she had ever been to college, of course.

  She was still belting the robe around her waist when she entered the bathroom and found Askari still in there, filling the tub with steaming water and inspecting a cabinet set into the wall over the tub.

  "What are you doing here?" she squeaked, and he glanced at her in amusement.

  "Drawing you a bath," he said calmly. "I thought that you might like it if I took a little care with you."

  "What... what does that mean?" she asked nervously, clutching at the throat of her robe. There was very little between the two of the right now, and if she let go of the robe, there would be even less.

  "That means that you are going to be the mother of my child," Askari said firmly, "and that means that I should do everything in my power to make sure that you are well-rested and comfortable. That was a very long flight, and a hot bath is just the thing to relax you."

  "But it was a long flight for you too," Erin protested weakly, and he raised his eyebrow at her.

  "I think you have forgotten that you are not in New York. I am Sheikh Askari here, and my word is the next thing to law. Are you going to defy me over this?"

  His tone was playful, but there was something menacing underneath it as well. For some reason, instead of making her nervous, it made her heart beat faster instead. That would be something that she had to take a good long look at later on, but right now, she decided that she wasn't going to question it, not when the water looked so very hot and delicious.

  "No," she said softly. "I am not."

  "Good."

  As she watched, he selected a cut-glass bottle from the cabinet and liberally poured some of the contents into the steaming water. Immediately the air was scented with orange flower and almond blossom, and she sighed at the luxury of it.

  "Come here," he said, his tone one of easy command. "We don't want it to get cold on you."

  From the way the water was steaming slightly, there was no fear of that, but Erin obediently approached him.

  She wondered for a moment what she was going to do with her robe, but he provided her with an answer for that. Like the most diligent bath attendant, he lifted the robe from her shoulders, and for a moment, she was shocked to be so naked in front of him. In a panic, she lurched into the water, causing it to slosh over the sides, and then she yelped.

  "It's hot!" she said, shooting up and standing naked before him.

  "Yes, it is," Askari said with amusement, and she realized that his eyes were roving her naked c
urves with a kind of needy appreciation she had never seen on a man looking at her before.

  "Come on, it's not too bad," he said, offering her a hand. "Slowly..."

  She did as he said, and he was right. The water was hot, but not intensely so, and in just a moment or so, she was up to her chin in the deep tub, leaning back against the porcelain. The water was murky and lightly topped with bubbles from whatever it was he had poured into it, and she relaxed a little as she realized he could not see her.

  He's probably right, I'm more tired than I thought I would be, she thought to herself. I really did need this.

  Her eyes started to drift close, but then they flew open again when she felt his hands. He had dampened them in the water, and now he was massaging her neck and shoulders gently, finding just the spot where the muscles were sore. For a moment, Erin only groaned with pleasure as he worked out the deep knots there, but then she forced her eyes open to look at him.

  "You don't have to do that," she said softly. "I'm not made of glass."

  "My beautiful one, I think it is time that you learn that I only do what I want to do," he said, never pausing in his task. "Once you understand that, I suspect that many things are going to be much easier..."

  There was nothing she could say to that, and with a tiny sigh, she leaned back into the bath to find out what the sheikh of Hazn wanted to do.

  He moved slowly and easily as if he hadn't been trapped on a flight for more than ten hours with her, and he found a stool tucked behind the tub to sit on, and a cup as well.

  "This seems a bit gentler than simply dunking you," Askari said with amusement, and she had to giggle a little at that.

  "I assume that at some point you will want to," she murmured, and then she purred as hot water sluiced down over her head through her thick hair. The water had already cooled slightly to where it was more than bearable, and the pleasure of his hands working a fresh-scented shampoo into her hair was a languorous pleasure.