Christmas Bride for the Sheikh

by Carol Marinelli

His flirtation was very direct and it swept through her like relief, even if she didn’t believe him. ‘You didn’t come back here for me.’

  ‘But I did.’

  He should not be here, Hazin knew, for he couldn’t help himself when he was around her, and he had to fight to resist reaching out for Flo with each and every breath he took.

  No, he should not be here, yet here was exactly where he wanted to be. Hazin looked down at the presents she was wrapping and the little mint-green suit with an odd face embroidered on the front.

  ‘Is that a dog?’ Hazin asked.

  ‘It’s a dog with rabbit tendencies, I think. I just thought it was so cute that I had to buy it.’

  ‘You like babies a lot.’

  ‘Far, far too much.’ Flo sighed. ‘You’d think I’d get my fill at work...’ She shook her head. Really! She was hardly going to tell Hazin just how much she would love her own baby—Flo had learned many times over that it wasn’t the best flirting technique!

  Yet Hazin seemed unfazed.

  ‘The carpenter’s door is broken,’ he concluded, and when she gaped at his odd choice of words Hazin better explained. ‘It is an Arabic saying. It means that you rush around taking care of others while neglecting your own needs.’

  ‘I don’t neglect them,’ Flo said. ‘I just...well, you don’t just go out to the shops to get one.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But, yes, the carpenter’s door, while not broken, is very squeaky.’ She started to laugh as she decided she liked his saying better than thinking of her ovaries as some ticking clock.

  ‘I thought you would be with Maggie today,’ Hazin said, but Flo shook her head.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Aren’t you supposed to be watching her?’

  ‘She’s not going to suddenly pop!’ Flo laughed, although Maggie’s water could break at any minute! She very much hoped not, though she chose not to air that concern with Hazin. ‘I’m sure if anything starts to happen then Ilyas will get her back home. First babies usually take ages.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘And she’s not ready yet.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Hazin asked.

  ‘You don’t want to know.’

  He pulled a face. ‘I like how babies get in there, not how they come out.’

  ‘I had rather worked that out, Hazin.’

  She just had not worked him out for, despite the thrumming between them, he made not a single move and Flo was too wary to make one of her own.

  ‘So, what are you going to do with your day?’ he asked.

  ‘I thought I might wander,’ Flo said. ‘I have to speak to Kumu and work out where I can go, but I wouldn’t mind a day exploring. What about you?’

  ‘I have to work on my speech.’

  ‘Can I help?’

  He gave a wry laugh that Flo could not interpret. She could not possibly know that she was, in fact, the problem, and yet, here, with her, was where he wanted to be.

  A day with just them was completely irresistible. Like wagging school instead of buckling down to work on his speech.

  And as he sat there, he remembered something, a long-ago day when no one had shown up in the nursery and his brother had come to the door.

  He had been so surprised to see him. Hazin could absolutely recall the feel of the smile that had split his face at the unexpected sight of Ilyas unaccompanied by an elder.

  But then the memory faded and he shook his head, trying to recapture it. They had gone exploring together.

  ‘Come on,’ Hazin said suddenly.

  ‘Where?’

  He didn’t tell her.

  Hazin didn’t have to.

  Like an eager Labrador, when he stood up so too did she.

  Had there been a lead she’d have rushed off to grab it! She reminded herself she had to be more aloof, more restrained, less available.

  Except her heart was already utterly available to him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  THEY WALKED ALONG a corridor she had not been down before. It was dark and, unlike most of the palace, dimly lit. In fact, the only light came from a small arched window at the end of it.

  ‘This was the nursery,’ Hazin explained, and pushed open a huge unguarded door. ‘Of course, it is not used now.’

  Flo rather hoped it wouldn’t be used anytime soon! Unlike the rest of the palace, which was lush and oozed luxury, this room was incredibly dour.

  ‘Is this where you and Ilyas were...?’ She didn’t know what word to use. Housed? Kept? It was just so drab and gloomy.

  ‘No, Ilyas was raised in the leaders’ wing, but one day the elder did not come to school him...’ He could remember it just a little clearer now. ‘Ilyas came and fetched me.’

  He pushed open a heavy wooden door and, having experienced the trip from Maggie’s suite before, when she saw the steps leading downwards Flo knew that it led to the hammam beneath the palace.

  ‘Are we going swimming?’ Flo asked.

  ‘No, we’re going exploring,’ Hazin said as he led the way, determined that they would not be getting naked.

  They passed under a low archway and through decorated tunnels but he took her beyond anywhere that Flo had been with Maggie.

  ‘Down there is Ilyas’s private area...’ Hazin pointed, but as Flo went to head down he called her back. ‘We can’t go there.’

  ‘Why? He’ll never know, he’s not here today.’

  ‘We just can’t.’ Hazin said and then smiled at her ease at breaking the rules.

  ‘Do you have your own area?’

  ‘Not really.’ He shook his head. ‘I declined.’

  Flo frowned, unsure what he meant, but Hazin was already heading in a different direction.

  ‘We came down here.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Ilyas and I.’

  He was starting to remember a time so long ago and so buried that Hazin had until now completely forgotten its existence.

  ‘Come on,’ he said as they walked further down natural stairways until they came to a low tunnel that they had to stoop to go through.

  It was worth it, though.

  They came out to a huge cave pool surrounded by the soft sounds of fountains. They were no longer plunged in darkness for it was dimly lit by a natural window in the cave that looked to the desert sky.

  ‘I can remember coming here...’ Hazin said, looking up. ‘Ilyas and I, we were children...’

  There hadn’t been a single good memory of his childhood, not one.

  Yet as he looked at the huge cave he remembered them as children. ‘We came exploring.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘I’m sure it was here.’ Hazin nodded. ‘But it was far lighter. It seemed to glow. We swam and then we sat over there.’ Hazin pointed. It was all coming back to him. ‘And I told Ilyas that I wished he was King.’

  Hazin could remember that feeling exactly—the absolute assuredness and trust that he’d had in his older brother then.

  ‘He was always sensible. That day, even before we headed off, he stopped and got food and drinks. I was annoyed at the time because I wanted to head straight off...’

  ‘Then you were hungry after your swim.’ Flo laughed.

  ‘Yes.’ Hazin nodded. ‘It was such a good day.’

  ‘How old were you?’

  ‘I don’t know. Little. We had an amazing day but when we got back to the Palace it went back to being the same. I hardly saw him.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘He lived in a different part of the Palace. I have my own area. I was a lot of work for the nannies and it was soon decided I should be schooled overseas.’

  ‘Why not here?’

  ‘I was too rebellious,�
� Hazin said. ‘They didn’t want the people to know that.’

  ‘So they sent you away?’

  ‘Yes, and now they complain that I stay away. I cannot stand the way my father rules. He has no compassion for his people.’

  ‘Ilyas is changing that,’ Flo said. ‘He’s the real leader now.’

  She knew everything, Hazin realised.

  He was not used to outsiders knowing Palace business, but he found that Flo knowing it did not unsettle him.

  The world felt more open than the closed one he had grown up in.

  ‘Could you give Ilyas a chance?’ Flo asked. ‘You trusted him once.’

  ‘I trust him still,’ Hazin said. ‘I know he will do the right thing by the people. He wants me to have a more prominent role.’

  ‘Do you want one?’

  It was refreshing to be asked, but he could not answer yet.

  ‘I’ll tell you what I want, Flo. I want to get past tomorrow. I want the speech made and to get it right for Petra’s family.’

  ‘It will be,’ Flo said. She looked at his taut features and wished she could melt the strain away. She wished, how she wished, that he would reach for her, that he would suggest they swim, so she might wrap herself naked around him.

  Yet he made no move.

  Hazin, the Playboy Prince, had, since their one torrid night, been a complete gentleman.

  Flo just wished it wasn’t so.

  And then something lovely happened. Fingers of light that had been streaming into the cave spread as the sun became aligned with the window and they were bathed in light.

  It was how he had experienced it all those years ago, when he’d come here with Ilyas.

  ‘Shall we swim?’ Flo said, oh-so-casually.

  Hazin stared out at the pool and his memory recalled the perfect temperature of the water. He longed to shed his robe and take her in; for their legs to tangle beneath the water; to kiss her wet as he took her deep; to lose themselves in each other for a while.

  ‘No,’ Hazin said and stood. ‘We ought to get back.’

  He knew he had confused her, for he could feel the signals his body gave out. He was as turned on as she, yet he had sworn he would wait.

  That he would do this right.

  She walked ahead of him this time and he tried not to notice the single blonde curl that coiled on the nape of her neck.

  And when she stooped to make her way back through the tunnel, he did all he could to ignore a bottom dressed in velvet waving inches from his face.

  What the hell had he been thinking, bringing Flo down here?

  And they were not out of the caves yet.

  Flo did not wait for Hazin to follow her out. Instead, she walked ahead and tried to sort her head out, which was rather an impossible ask with his footsteps behind her in this intimate, magical space.

  ‘Not that way...’ he called out to her when she turned to the right, but Flo ignored him, for she was intrigued.

  There were huge white pillar candles lighting a passage and she saw that the tunnel was lined with red mosaic tiles.

  ‘We’re not allowed here,’ Hazin told her.

  ‘Since when did you care for the rules?’ Flo said, and she looked at the softly lit tunnel. ‘Who lights the candles?’

  ‘The hammam maids do. Each candle burns for seven days and seven nights.’

  ‘Is this Ilyas’s area?’

  ‘No,’ Hazin said. ‘Well, sort of. This leads to where his harem used to be housed.’

  She was right, he did not care for the rules, so he took Flo by the hand and they walked down a long red tunnel until they reached a boudoir.

  ‘This was his harem,’ Hazin explained. ‘That tunnel over there leads to Ilyas’s area of the hammam.’

  ‘We came in through the back door?’

  ‘So to speak.’ Hazin nodded. ‘Only those summoned by Ilyas can go through there.’

  Flo felt her cheeks go pink.

  There wasn’t much that made her blush, but for some reason that this had once been a harem did.

  She looked around at the plump velvet cushions where they must have lain, awaiting his summons. There were many mirrors and glass bottles. Flo took the stopper off one and inhaled.

  It was the most sensual space she had ever been in.

  ‘Would Ilyas come in here and choose?’

  ‘No,’ Hazin said. ‘This space was for them.’

  Hazin watched as Flo pulled out silk scarves and tassels from the chests that lined the walls. Her curiosity had been aroused and he ached in his groin.

  ‘The harem was disbanded when Ilyas announced he was to marry...’

  ‘I would hope so!’ Flo said, and she draped a scarf over her shoulders as if playing dress-up. ‘Was yours disbanded too?’

  ‘I never had one.’

  ‘Oh, I guess you were too young,’ Flo said as she draped herself over some cushions.

  He frowned. ‘I told you, I declined.’

  She looked at him. Hazin fascinated her, he truly did. ‘Why?’

  He gave her a smile as he answered, a smile that simultaneously warmed her as it sent a little shiver of energy through her. ‘I like the thrill of the chase, Flo—or at least I used to.’

  ‘Used to?’

  ‘People know who I am now so they tend to chase me.’

  No wonder he had been so upset when he had thought she had been targeting him simply because she’d known his title. ‘Hazin, I came over and spoke to you so that you’d stay long enough for Maggie to arrive. I didn’t really think it was my place to break the news of her pregnancy to you.’

  ‘I know that now.’

  He stood looking around the luxurious space where Ilyas’s harem had awaited his summons, then smiled at Flo, who was draping the scarf over her face.

  ‘It’s sexy isn’t it?’ she said.

  ‘I guess, but there would certainly be no chasing required here. The only thing you need to pull is this.’ He reached up and pulled a thick velvet rope and the bells in the centre rang out.

  ‘Ooh,’ Flo said, and got up and danced towards him. ‘How do you want me, master?’

  He laughed, but then the mood changed all of a sudden. He wanted her so much, and as she shimmied over to him he felt the pull of his eyes but then, when she neared him, he gave her a slight push of his hands instead of an embrace.

  ‘Let’s go back,’ Hazin said, wishing she would leave it there.

  Flo could not, though.

  ‘I couldn’t make more of a fool of myself if I tried,’ she said, stinging at his rejection of her all over again.

  ‘It’s not that, Flo. I didn’t bring anything.’

  But she just stared back at him through narrowed, hurt eyes. ‘Excuses, excuses,’ she said. ‘A simple no will suffice.’ She turned to walk off, embarrassed and cross with herself, for she had sworn that he would make the first move. And confused too, so confused, for she had been so certain of their mutual want.

  ‘Flo.’ He caught her wrist and turned her around. He loathed the look of shame he had caused on her face. ‘It is not that I don’t want you...’ He could not explain, because Hazin had promised himself that he would not speak of his feelings for her until Petra’s memory had been laid to rest. His rejection of her had been unintentionally cruel, and he didn’t know how to make it right without breaking his promise.

  How did he explain that if he touched her he might crack and reveal all that was on his mind? ‘I do want you but...’ He could not reveal himself fully, but he tried to a little. ‘I would not be a considerate lover. I have a lot on my mind...’

  ‘I don’t need cartwheels!’ Flo cried. As her anger dimmed she could see the utter wretchedness in his eyes and the desire between them was almost p
alpable. She guessed he must feel guilt, yet she could not really fathom why. ‘I know tomorrow is huge but it’s not as if you’ve been celibate these past ten years.’

  ‘No,’ Hazin said. ‘But I can’t have sex with feeling today.’

  For if he did, he might break apart.

  ‘Then don’t,’ Flo said. She looked at his mouth and the set of his jaw and she felt his hand hot on her wrist. For him she would risk rejection again.

  ‘As I said...’ Flo smiled seductively. ‘How do you want me, master?’

  She saw the stretch of his lips and watched his Adam’s apple dip and then rise. She dragged her eyes down to the buttons on his robe. Flo removed her hand from his grip and he did not reclaim it, as one by one she undid the buttons.

  There was no question he wanted her, as she could see how hard he was through his sunnah trousers, and she felt a little dizzy with lust herself.

  So she tasted his neck again—just the light brush of her lips and the tip of her tongue this time. It shot her back to the night when they had made love. Not at first, but later, when their eyes had locked and her soul had leapt and met his.

  But this was just sex, she reminded herself. Yet as she moved her mouth lower and tongued his flat nipple, she heard his ragged breathing and knew she was just kidding herself, for this was more than pure need because there might never be a them again.

  She kissed and licked across his flat, taut stomach and she nipped the dark snake of hair with her teeth before slipping him out to her full view.

  On that morning when they had woken up together, just before it had all gone wrong, she remembered how it had been between them as she slid her tongue around his head and wetted him as she had wanted to then. Her hands slid up his thighs and she cupped his balls. She felt her knees press into the velvet cushion on which she knelt, and he moaned with craving as with her other hand she circled the base of his shaft and applied light pressure, her lips dusting the delicate skin in pure torture. Then she licked his long delicious length over and over as he fought not to guide her head, but then came the bliss of her lips closing over his heated tip.

  Hazin sucked in his breath as she took him all the way in and his mind went blank.

  He moaned with relief for she was not gentle or tender, her mouth was as hot and hungry as he needed it to be.