The Sheikh's Secret Child - A Single Dad Romance (The Sheikh's New Bride Book 7)

by Holly Rayner

  “She is a great kid,” Alex said with a grin. “I’m not surprised he was happy.”

  “Yes,” Zaiman chuckled. He paused for a moment, absently tracing a drop of water around the table with his finger. “This whole thing has had some rather…surprising effects on the unwritten rules of the family government.”

  “I’m not sure I follow,” Alex told him.

  “Well you see, traditionally, we are all to marry within our class and discipline, regardless of where we fall in the birth order.”

  “Most royal families have had that rule at some point,” Alex pointed out. “The Brits are still pretty uptight about who marries whom. Well, in the media court anyway. Officially, I think they’ve all given up trying to orchestrate it.”

  Zaiman chuckled at that. “Traditions evolve slowly,” he said. “The more rules a tradition dictates, the more difficult it is to change it. The longer it goes unchanged, the more difficult it is to confront it. I suppose an explosion like this was necessary to inspire change.”

  “What change, exactly?” Alex asked.

  “This past month, my father and brother have rewritten the royal code of conduct in regards to marriage and lovers,” Zaiman told her. “As of the parliamentary vote this week, all that is required for an official blessing is that the partner in question learn everything that a royal is expected to know. Children heretofore regarded as illegitimate have been officially recognized, pending DNA tests. Marriage as a means of tracking bloodlines is outdated at best, and never was foolproof in the first place.”

  “Guess you work with what you have,” Alex said with a small smile.

  Her heart was racing, and she didn’t quite know why. She pressed a hand to her chest and rubbed her throat, attempting to bring her brain and body onto the same page.

  Zaiman was watching her closely.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I want you to understand how great a change that really is,” he said quietly. “The freedom to choose one’s mate is a right rarely bestowed upon those of my station.”

  “Trailblazing,” Alex said weakly.

  She felt as though the breath had been sucked from her chest, and then, she realized why. The whole time he had been talking about marriage, he had been holding her hand, stroking her fingers. Finger. Just the one, on her left hand.

  Dizzy, she slid her hand back and took a sip of coffee.

  “But, these changes and the repairs to the family will not come without a price,” Zaiman continued in a more casual tone. “I am expected to take full responsibility for this uproar—a consequence which is fair and just. I must confess everything to the media and the public, and restore the family name in the process. It is the only way to end the scrutiny on all members of the family. My poor sister has been fending off reporters since this happened, all demanding to see her children’s credentials.”

  “Oh, no,” Alex said, her eyes wide as she thought about how Kate would react to that situation. “She must be furious.”

  “She is more furious that the vultures are circling her perfectly legitimate, upright family,” Zaiman said wryly. “She has nothing to hide—she married within her station and all of her children are his—but she is offended that they want her to prove it. She has always managed to thrive within the rules somehow, Zabid as well. Ironically, Zaahir and I have had the worst trouble with rules, yet he has always been their enforcer.”

  “He was dating a reporter,” Alex pointed out with a grin.

  “Precisely,” Zaiman answered, smiling. “Trouble with the rules.”

  Alex blushed, remembering the night Zaiman kissed her. His momentary panic afterward made more sense to her now, but she couldn’t help but wish that he would try again.

  Zaiman leaned forward, recapturing her hand in his.

  “I would very much like for you to come back with me,” he said, his eyes shining earnestly. “Now that the storm has blown over. You give me strength. Amia has missed you terribly. I…I have missed you terribly.”

  She wanted to tell him that she’d missed him too, but missing him was an understatement. His absence had devastated her.

  “I would not ask you to stay against your wishes,” he said, releasing her hands. “And if you tell me ‘no’, I will not demand it. You are a free woman—that is why you are so very important to me, and to Amia. But if you agree to come back with me, at least through the press conference, then…”

  He trailed off, and she realized that he hadn’t prepared an argument. He hadn’t expected that he would have to convince her. The realization that she might say no was clear on his face, a combination of fear and uncertainty which reflected her own. She couldn’t bear to leave him feeling that way, in spite of what he had put her through.

  “I will come back with you,” she told him. “At least long enough to help Amia get acclimated to her newfound freedom.”

  Reserved relief replaced the fear on his face.

  “I understand,” he told her. “It has not been easy.”

  “I don’t like that word,” she interrupted. “It’s virtually meaningless. Easy isn’t important. Compatible is important. I need to know that the things you need from me are compatible with the things that I am willing to do. I thought that I could talk myself around that, in the beginning, but now I know. You can give me the easiest kid in the world, but if my job is to keep them in a kennel, I won’t be able to do that.”

  “I understand,” Zaiman said, his face flushing with shame.

  “I don’t mean that you were…the palace is hardly a kennel,” she said, blushing with her own misstep. “I just mean—if, after I am confident that Amia is content and safe, you want me to stay—I’m going to need to know everything.”

  Zaiman pursed his lips in thought. “Everything,” he repeated with a nod.

  “Well,” she said after a moment of silence. “When do we leave?”

  Chapter 19

  Alex

  “You’re going back with him?” Kate asked as she leaned on the doorframe watching Alex pack.

  “Yes,” Alex replied defensively. “Why, don’t you think I should?”

  “Not at all—I absolutely think you should,” Kate clarified. “But I am concerned.”

  “About what?” Alex asked as she carefully placed a pair of folded jeans into her colorful luggage.

  “You,” Kate said softly. “You’re in love with him.”

  Alex froze with a tank top in her hands. Without a word, she folded it violently and shoved it in her suitcase.

  “Does he feel the same way?” Kate asked.

  “I don’t know,” Alex confessed. “I don’t even know how I feel.”

  Kate squinted at her. “I don’t buy it. And don’t tell me to shelve it. You know how you feel; you just don’t want to examine it.”

  “What’s to examine?” Alex asked with a huff.

  “Oh, those eyes, that hair, that body… Man, I bet under those fancy clothes he’s got the abs of a god.”

  Alex blushed furiously, remembering the night of the storm.

  “Oh my God, he does,” Kate said, her hawk-like eyes glued on Alex’s face. “You’ve seen them!”

  “Well, we were living in the same house for a while,” Alex said defensively. “And it’s hot in Al-Jerrain, and there’s the pool, and the night I went into his room—”

  “You went into his room?”

  “Well, Amia was having a really bad night, with a fever and everything, and I went in there and he was sleeping, and he doesn’t sleep in a shirt, you know…”

  “Does he sleep in pants?” Kate asked wickedly.

  “Yes,” Alex shot back defensively. “Thin…clingy pants.”

  Kate howled with laughter and Alex threw a tissue box at her. Kate slapped it away before it hit her.

  “Hey! You almost hit your new niece!”

  “Like a tissue box could get through that force field,” Alex teased.

  “Was that a fat joke?!”

  “No!
Never,” Alex said too quickly.

  Kate threw the tissue box back at her, hitting her head.

  “Man, your aim gets better when you’re building babies,” Alex said, rubbing her head. “What’s up with that?”

  “Mommy magic,” Kate joked. “Now, stop distracting me. You’re obviously in love with this guy. Does he feel the same way about you?”

  “I don’t know,” Alex repeated. “Honestly, Kate, I don’t know. He kissed me once, but it was at the end of a really long day, and he had just had a really rough moment with Amia, and I told him exactly what he needed to hear…you know, there were extenuating circumstances. Sometimes people just do things impulsively, and it doesn’t always reflect what they really feel.”

  “Kisses aside, the dude followed you to the other side of the world,” Kate pointed out. “I mean, he could have just called.”

  Alex smiled and blushed. “He could have,” she agreed. “But that wouldn’t have been very dramatic.”

  “He does look like the dramatic type,” Kate agreed ruefully. “Does he like movies?”

  “Total Bollywood addict.”

  “Ugh, I was afraid of that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if he’s constantly filling his mind with all of that over-the-top romantic drama, then he’s going to do things like fly around the globe, and you aren’t going to know whether he’s playing the star or if he’s actually in love with you.”

  “It doesn’t really matter,” Alex said slowly.

  “What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?”

  “I mean, my focus can’t be on him and his feelings right now,” Alex said firmly. “My job is Amia, period. She’s about to have some really huge changes happen in her life, and she’s going to need someone there to walk her through it. Zaiman will try, but he can’t be there every step of the way; he has work to do. Amia needs me.

  “That’s why I’m going back. If it was just about me and Zaiman, I would make him sit down and work all of that intangible stuff out with me first, before I made any decisions at all. But Amia needs me, and that’s all I need to know.”

  Kate sighed and shrugged.

  “You’re right,” she said. “If one of my kids was in trouble and Charlie and I were in the middle of a kerfuffle, I’d do whatever the kids needed me to do. Just promise me something.” Kate crossed the room and took Alex’s face in her hands. “Promise me that somewhere in the middle of taking care of the whole world, you’ll find the time to take care of yourself.”

  “I promise,” Alex said, hugging her sister. “And if I ever forget, I’ll call you and let you yell at me until I remember.”

  “Good,” Kate said fiercely. “I don’t care which corner of the world you’re in—if a man breaks your heart, you tell me.”

  “And you’ll beat him up?” Alex asked with a giggle.

  “Worse,” Kate said as one of the babies shrieked from the other room. “I’ll force him to babysit.”

  They both laughed and hugged before Kate walked away to get started on dinner. She was throwing a mini going-away party for Alex, and had invited Zaiman and Amia to join them. Alex suspected it was her sister’s way of hinting that Zaiman and Amia should be part of the family, but Alex had decided to play dumb for the time being.

  The party was delightfully emotional. Both generations of siblings managed to avoid getting into any fights, and Alex’s parents took to Amia and Zaiman right away. The end of the night was filled with tearful goodbyes, as the three of them would be flying out late that night.

  Kate drove them to the airport, getting out of the car to cover them all in kisses as she dropped them off. Amia giggled, Zaiman was taken aback but not entirely displeased, and Alex kissed her sister back. Her family had always been excessively expressive, positive or negative, and Alex realized with a twist of heartache that she was going to miss them all terribly.

  “Which gate?” Alex asked, whisking tears away after Kate drove off.

  “No gate,” Zaiman told her with a twinkle in his eye. “I only travel commercial for unimportant tasks.”

  Confused, Alex followed him through the airport, holding Amia’s hand. He took them to an unmarked gate, guarded by a single man in the royal colors of Al-Jerrain. He opened the door for them and bowed as they passed, then followed them into the hallway.

  “I like Papa’s jet,” Amia told her. “It goes super fast first, but then, the sky just goes fast past it.”

  “Papa’s jet?” Alex repeated.

  Zaiman winked at her, and she blushed. They stepped through the door onto the plane and were greeted by an energetic flight attendant.

  “Sheikh Zaiman, Ms. O’Hare, Amia, hi! Your seats are all ready for you.”

  “Is Amia’s ready for her to sleep?” Zaiman asked.

  “It is—it’s upright now, of course, because we’re going to be taking off in just a few minutes, but her pillows and blankets are already in place; all it needs now is the girl herself!”

  The flight attendant moved a little too fast and gestured a little too broadly, talking a little too loud. Alex began to realize that Zaiman was professionally attracted to a very specific type of employee, and was somewhere between amused and chagrined to realize that she fell in that category.

  The cabin was the height of luxury. It was a step or three above first class, with suede seats which folded out into comfortable beds, every kind of media a person could want, and bedding to spare. Down the hallway, she could see a roomy bathroom and kitchen area, with a comfortable flight attendant’s room beyond.

  “This is amazing,” Alex told him, her eyes shining.

  “It’s all right,” he said with false modesty as pride twinkled in his eyes.

  She helped Amia get settled in her seat, then took a seat herself. They were in the air quickly, and as soon as the seatbelt light turned off, the flight attendant was back to fold down Amia’s seat. She dimmed the lights over Amia, then hurried to ask Alex and Zaiman if they needed anything. They declined, full from the party and too excited to sleep.

  Alex pressed her forehead against the window, staring out at the reflection of the jet’s lights against the clouds. The endless darkness beyond the wing reminded her that they would soon be flying over the ocean, a tiny metal bullet arrogantly splitting the elements.

  “Are you all right?” Zaiman asked. “Surely you can’t be afraid of flying after years of traveling?”

  “Oh, no, I’m not afraid,” Alex giggled. “I just have a healthy respect for the insanity of flying. It gives me a rush, really. Or, maybe I get a rush from the promise of new adventure. Either way, I love to fly.”

  “Then we will fly whenever we choose,” Zaiman said with a smile.

  “Will we?” Alex asked, raising a brow at the many layers of implications his simple remark contained.

  “If you wish,” Zaiman confirmed. “If you stay.”

  “You aren’t bribing me, are you?”

  “Of course not!” He looked offended for a moment, then softened. “That did sound like a bribe,” he admitted. “And perhaps it was. A little bit.”

  “Bribes work best when the terms are clear,” she pointed out. “Just what is it you’re bribing me to do?”

  Zaiman didn’t answer for a moment, but took her hand in his.

  “Just stay,” he said softly. “This press conference could go well, or badly, or anything in between. You could be singled out for criticism, simply because you are a single woman living in my house, caring for my child. The rumors have already spread and died and spread again, which is another reason why this conference is so important; I need to clear your name along with everyone else’s.”

  “I sort of figured that would happen,” Alex admitted. “That day they all came to the house, they were asking me if I was Amia’s mother.”

  Zaiman nodded. “I want you to know something, Alex.” He looked up at her, his face open and honest, his eyes warm and soft. “No matter what happens with this press conference or thes
e rumors or any of it, there will always be a place for you in my home.”

  Alex swallowed hard. Amia slept nearby, reminding her of her duty. Zaiman’s fingers played with hers, reminding her of her humanity. She needed to know.

  “A place in your house…as your nanny?” She asked it breathlessly, meeting his gaze. “Or something else?”

  That cocky little smile brushed his lips for only half a second before his lips touched hers.

  Better prepared this time, Alex kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck to tangle her fingers in his hair.

  He pulled her close, stroking her face and neck with his fingertips, tracing her spine, smoothing her hair. He was everywhere, sending warm chills and soothing excitement swirling through her body, captivating her heart, thrilling her mind.

  She pulled away, holding Zaiman’s face in her hands.

  “Well, that answers that question,” she said breathlessly. “Unless you kiss all your employees like that.”

  “Only Bassam,” Zaiman teased. “And only on Thursdays.”

  “I’ll give him Thursdays,” she said playfully. “As long as I can have the rest of the days.”

  “All the days,” he said, touching his forehead to hers. “As many as you please.”

  She kissed him once more, memorizing his taste and the way his skin felt beneath her fingers.

  “Nightcap?” The flight attendant’s bubbly voice sliced through the heat of the moment, and the two of them broke apart.

  “Please,” Zaiman said, accepting two glasses of wine from the attendant. He handed one to Alex, and she thanked him.

  “A toast,” he said. “To a whole new future.”

  Chapter 20

  Zaiman

  Zaiman paced backstage as the talk-show host chatted away about something he couldn’t seem to pay attention to. His mind swirled with apprehension bordering on fear, and he rehearsed fragments of his speech again and again in his mind.

  Alex appeared before him as he made another turn, and took his hands.