The Sheikh's Secret

by Knight, Kylie

  She rubbed her eyes. “What am I going to do?”

  He smiled. “You’re going to go soak in the tub while I make some coffee. Or would you prefer tea? Cocoa?”

  Impulsively, Amanda reached up and kissed him. “Whatever you’re having is fine. I like them all. Is the bathroom through there?” she asked, pointing.

  He nodded. “Here, I brought you a robe.”

  He handed her a huge, fluffy, white terrycloth robe and a pair of terrycloth slippers still in their wrapper. “I get samples from all the resorts, and toss them in the closet in case I have house guests who forget things.”

  “Where’s this one from?”

  He checked the robe’s lapel. “Waikiki.”

  “Perfect. Thank you.” She kissed him again and slipped out of bed.

  The master bath took her breath away. What she hadn’t seen the night before was that the fireplace in the bedroom opened onto the big bathtub on the other side. There was framed art on the walls and a chandelier over the bath.

  Just beyond the big, jetted tub was the shower enclosure. It was the size of her apartment’s bathroom, and clad in marble. There was a long bench along one wall, and a dozen shower heads. She dropped the robe into a chair and stepped into the shower, adjusting the thermostat to a bit above body temperature. Water hit her from all sides and she laughed from the sheer pleasure of it. She’d never experienced anything like this, not even on vacation. She washed her hair with expensive shampoo, and scrubbed herself with soap that smelled warm and woodsy. It smelled like Bill.

  As she was rinsing herself, she turned and saw Bill standing outside, watching her. He was smiling broadly, so she took her time and made a show of finishing, letting the water sluice down her body, running her hands down her wet skin, bending to show off her backside, stretching to show the pert lift of her breasts. She loved it that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

  She opened the door and said, “I thought I’d clean off before our soak. You should too,” she told him, inviting him into the luxury of the warm spray where she scrubbed him down and followed the roughness of the sisal brush with the softness of her lips.

  The tub was nearly full when they stepped out of the shower and sank into the hot water with contented sighs. “This is the sort of morning I dreamed of when I designed this bathroom. Cold and snowy outside, inside, soaking in hot water and sipping tea with someone I—” He hesitated, then said, “like very much.”

  “Who likes you very much,” Amanda said, smoothing over that moment of hesitation. Whatever he’d meant to say, he wasn’t ready to say. If it was what she thought it was, she wasn’t ready to hear it either. This was so good in the here and now that she didn’t want to think about the future, about the possibility of this ending badly because he was her employer. Or the possibility of continuing and word getting around so that her co-workers would look at her in that knowing way and tell people that Amanda got her job because she was screwing the big boss.

  “You look pensive,” Bill said.

  “The future always intrudes.”

  He nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  “Let’s not let it, not today. Not until we can leave here again.”

  “We’ll be the only two people in a world covered in snow.”

  “Yes.” She touched her mug to his with a dull clank, and sipped the spicy, fruity tea he’d made for her. The fire blazed in front of them, the hot water swirled, and outside, everything but the snow ceased to matter.

  Finally they stepped out of the bath. Bill wrapped her in a warm towel. “Oh that’s nice,” she whispered.

  “I have a towel warming drawer in the vanity.”

  “You thought of everything, didn’t you?”

  “Almost. Let’s go have something to eat.”

  He cooked pancakes and bacon, and they listened to the local classical radio station as he cooked.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked as he set her plate in front of her.

  “That I love it that we both like classical music. That we listen to the same station. That you could afford a fancy sound system, but we’re just listening to the radio in the kitchen and watching it snow.”

  “That really makes you happy?” He sat down across from her.

  “It really makes me happy.”

  “Me too.” He passed the syrup to her.

  It was a ridiculously wonderful day. The world was so silent under its blanket of snow. They went outside to shovel the walks, then came back in, drank cocoa, played cards, made love, danced, and talked for hours. Bill made some soup for dinner and they ate it while they watched Fred Astaire movies.

  It was the most wonderful day Amanda had ever spent.

  By early Sunday afternoon, even the side streets had been plowed, and Amanda knew she’d have to go home. She didn’t want to; she’d hoped it would never stop snowing, that they’d be alone together forever. But it had to end eventually, all things did.

  On the way home, she said, “Bill, I have to say this, okay? I don’t know how this has to play out. It’s an awkward situation. I’d like us to be together, but if we can’t be then let’s just say good-bye right away and remember this as a wonderful moment.”

  He looked troubled, but he was also nodding. “You’re right. It is awkward. I’ve never…”

  “Let’s take some time to think about it.”

  “Okay, yes. You’re right. I know you’re right.”

  Before she got out of the car, she kissed his cheek. “I had a wonderful weekend. Thank you.”

  “I did too.”

  No promises to see each other at work, to call, to text or email. No promises. That’s the way it had to be until they worked out what all this meant.

  Monday was a slow day. There’d been snow over half the country, and people were having a hard time getting to work. Unfortunately it gave Amanda too much time to think so she spent some of her down time studying the information on the Waikiki resort, imagining what it would be like to go there with Bill.

  It was silly, she thought, even to imagine. Their situation was impossible. If she wasn’t his employee, she’d stand a better chance, but she wasn’t giving up a good job for the sake of what might have turned out to be a fling.

  Except it wouldn’t have been a fling for her. She’d tried not to admit it, but she knew that she was in love with Bill. She probably had been since before they met. Their chats before and after conference calls had won her heart. If he’d been anyone but the CEO of Forlanie she’d have told him flat out that she loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

  She thought about almost nothing else for three days. Concentrating on work was nightmarish, and she was distracted enough that Sandy noticed and asked if there was something wrong.

  “I’m just… I’m gnawing on a problem, Sandy.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to gnaw on your own time,” she said. Amanda apologized. This was bad, it was affecting her work. She decided that she had to call it off.

  After work, she went up to thirty-seven where the executive offices were, and asked to see Bill, but was told that he’d just left. She took the elevator back down to her floor, trying hard to breathe deeply and shake off the anxiety and sadness she was feeling. She didn’t want to end this, but she had to, and now she had to do it fast before she changed her mind.

  She stepped off the elevator and ran smack into Bill.

  “What? What are you doing down here?” she said. To her shock, he went down on one knee and caught hold of her hand.

  “I’m losing my mind, Amanda. I’ve never felt more alone than when I went back home after I dropped you off. Everything in my home reminds me of you and my heart feels so empty without you there by my side.” He produced a ring box. “I love you. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you and I need you to love me.”

  He snapped open the box and people in the hallway gasped. She gasped. It was a huge diamond ring. “Bill… How can we?”

  He
stood and put the ring on her finger. “Mandy, this is my company. I can’t force you to love me but I can make the rules that will allow us to love each other.”

  There were tears running down her face. “I guess I’ll have to trust that this can work because I love you too. I have been so miserable without you,” she told him as he pulled her into the fiercest hug she had ever been given. It felt as if he was trying to make them one person, and she found herself wanting that more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

  She didn’t even hear the applause that erupted around them.

  The wedding was quiet, just for family and a few friends. The honeymoon was at one of the Forlanie resorts in Switzerland, because Bill said that snow would always remind him of how much he loved her.

  She looked out of the window and down into the town where the lights from every home and shop spread a warm glow in the snowy darkness. Snow would always make her happy, would always be a reminder for her as well.

  Bill came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I have you,” he told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And whatever you want in this life, if I can give it, it’s yours. If you want to go on working, I’m good, if you don’t, I’m happy too.”

  She turned in the circle of his arms. “I want to help you. I want to be part of every aspect of your life if I can. Tell me how and I will do it.”

  “We’ll find a way,” he promised, and then he picked her up and carried her to the bed. “But first we have a time-honored honeymoon tradition to uphold.”

  “Champagne?” she asked. “A toast? A snack?” She loved teasing him.

  “Wife, I am going to undress.”

  “Good. I love to watch.” And she did. She loved seeing him strip off his clothing, shedding the facade of the businessman. She loved the play of his muscles and his smooth chest, flat belly, and the dark golden curls where his sex rose at the sight of her. At that, the teasing stopped, and she grew hungry to feel him beside her, inside her, flesh-to-flesh, moving in concert, becoming one with the deep, hungry thrusts, the shivering pleasure, and at last the feel of him filling her with his seed.

  There was so much to share, she realized. There was the quicksilver passion that kept them locked in a heated embrace for much of the night, but there was also the animal warmth of sleep in the arms of your love. There was sharing thoughts and ideas, new discoveries and old dreams, there was work and play, and there would be a family soon enough. Perhaps a large one, perhaps a small one. That didn’t matter so much as that they would be together, they could create a life in which everything they needed would fit like pieces of a puzzle.

  Amanda cradled Bill’s head on her shoulder as he slept, one hand cupping her breast, one leg thrown across hers. He was sated for a time, but he’d wake and take her again, and she would revel in it, in the way they belonged each to the other, in the drive to express love and passion, and the ancient need to make new life.

  Whatever happened, they would see it through together, this most unlikely couple for whom the snow would always be a blessing and a reminder to follow their hearts.

  THE END

  Loving My Bad Boy

  Part One

  The memory was still fresh in her mind. They were seated at the kitchen table, two darkened cups of tea steaming before them. The snow hadn't yet melted; it had been a hard winter that had crept its way through to early spring, and frost still clung to the kitchen window. Shawna's mother had wrapped her hands around her cup to warm them, and had fixed Shawna with her placid gaze.

  Where do you see yourself in five years? She'd asked. Shawna had returned the smile and let her ideas linger, like she was running her fingertips slowly through silk. Graduating top of her department meant that she'd land a fantastic marketing job at almost any company she wanted, and her relationship with Ben had been going strong for almost five years now. The answer had been simple.

  Ben and I just got married, and I'm working a good paying job I love, and so is he. We have a house we're paying off in a good neighborhood, and maybe we've got a dog. We travel when we want to, and we see the world. We have fun and have friends, and maybe we take a language class together to help with our traveling. Do you think I'm dreaming too little? That's all I really want, but I'm afraid it's not ambitious enough.

  Her mother had shaken her head, the knowing smile still on her face.

  I think you've got it just right, sweetheart. Ambition is good, but sometimes the best lives are the simplest ones. Just listen to your heart and it won't steer you wrong.

  And yet here she was, five years later and no better off for it. The dreams that had seemed so simple in her college days had proved much more complicated to achieve in real life. Ben hadn't proposed, although they'd been talking about getting married for the last three years seriously enough that she knew it would only be a matter of time. They hadn't left the United States, not even to visit Canada, and the traveling they did in-country was mostly for business. When Ben got back to their tiny apartment around six, he locked himself in the spare room he used as an office to network and spread his name. Shawna had been snatched up by a company that paid her a fair salary, and that she enjoyed working for, but she was making nowhere near what she'd thought she would. One night she'd asked Ben about finally applying for a mortgage and moving into a house, but he'd been quick to dismiss her.

  We need more money set aside to make a sizable down payment. The more we pay up front will save us thousands of dollars in the long run, and when we're old and grey you'll appreciate that we waited. We're still young; we can still make an apartment work.

  But an apartment wasn't working for Shawna. Not anymore. Ben was still in her life, and one day they would get married, but the rest of her vision of the future had crumbled to dust. All she could do was run to escape it, and most nights after work, that was exactly what she found herself doing. When Ben clocked in those three extra hours in his home office, Shawna found shelter from her disappointments at the gym near their apartment.

  Every evening she ran on the same treadmill for at least an hour, the miles disappearing behind her. Shawna had always been slender and willowy, but had never enjoyed running before it had become an escape. Now she found herself craving the release that only a run could give her, and longed for the rush of endorphins that accompanied a hard run. Sometimes she ran to music from her MP3 player, but sometimes she ran in silence, listening to the conversations of others around her. The times when she listened, sometimes she felt better about her own situation. There had been stories of fortunes lost, of friendships destroyed, and of promises broken. In comparison to the tales she heard every now and then, Shawna considered herself lucky. Crushed dreams weren't all that big a deal when they were padding their bank account to afford the things they wanted later in life, after all. In those times she felt grateful.

  But tonight, sweat beading her brow and throat dry, the story Shawna heard did not leave her with a sense of peace — but not even the gentle scraping of the track against the treadmill or the pounding of her sneakers could distract her enough to lose sense of what was being said.

  "I rode down to Vegas last week," the man said. His face was new around here, but he was talking with the regular Shawna had labeled as Mr. Muscles as though they were old buddies. "I stayed for three days, but I got bored. Not enough money left to gamble and make my way home, and definitely not enough money to afford any high quality snatch. Girls there, they're crazy. You can't find a girl for free if you try — not even the tourists. I mean, the city of sin, and yet no one's looking to indulge a little? What horseshit. So I left. Took off to Cali and drove along the coast, did some work under the table at a shop to pay my passage back home, then got the hell out and came back here. Girls in Cali, you don't have to buy them, but they're air headed and they all want commitment. So I think I'm going to take off again in a fe
w months and head to Canada or something. I hear the girls there get really cold and lonely during the fall, and they'll do just about anything. Worth checking out, right?"

  Mr. Muscles had laughed hard and clapped the newcomer on the back. Although the regular was ready for a run, his new friend hadn't changed into anything gym appropriate just yet, as though he'd just come in to talk. Shawna couldn't help but stare. No one came into the workout room wearing a thick leather jacket and combat boots; the newbie stuck out amongst all the other fitness junkies she was so used to looking at.

  "So you came back from Cali and came right from the gym to share your stories, is that it? Sometimes I don't believe you, Clark. Don't you have to get things settled with your new apartment?"

  The man in leather, Clark, ran his thumb over his lips and grinned a wolfish grin. Shawna caught the glint of something mischievously playful in his eyes, and found she couldn't look away. It did look like he'd come in from a long travel — his stubble was turning into whiskers, unkempt and unruly, there was a sun kissed gleam to his skin that suggested long hours on the road, and the leather he wore was much more evocative of the road than it was a gym. A pair of dark jeans, dipped at the knee and dirty with grease around the inner calves, hinted that it hadn't been a car he'd taken down to California.

  "I got it all handled. One of my old buds from school owns a shitty little low rent complex and he's got me a space for cheap. There's no mold and no mushrooms growing in the bathtub, so it's good enough for me. Still got a position at the shop waitin' for me, so I'm not stressed about money. I've got enough to make ends meet, and that's all I really need."