Sheikh's Pregnant Princess

by Sophia Lynn

  The woman, English from the passport she carried in her hand, glanced at her.

  "Haven't you seen the news?" she demanded.

  "I've been a little occupied," Elise said, beginning to get alarmed. "What is it?"

  "A storm," was the response. "One of the largest ones that have ever been seen. Everyone's trying to get out while the getting's good."

  Elise blinked. The weather had been so fair that she had never thought that it could go badly, but from how dark the sky was, she could very well believe that something awful was going to happen.

  "Are there going to be enough ferries to get the people back to the mainland in time?" she asked, and the woman smiled at her grimly.

  "I'm not waiting around to find out."

  Elise bit her lip. She knew that right now was the time to fight to a seat, to walk up to the ticketing official and to trade on whatever pull she had to get off of the island. Given the fact that she had been living with the man who owned half the island, it would likely have worked.

  Then she glanced around at the families with children, and she knew that she would never be able to live with herself if she did that. The children were scared, but their parents were terrified, and she could not take a seat from them.

  Instead, she walked back out into the square, where the wind was picking up.

  All right, she said to herself. There is going to be a storm. Not everyone on the island is in there trying to get on a ferry, so that must mean that there's a way to last it out. All right. Time to get under cover.

  Despite the panic around her, Elise felt oddly relieved. She needed to figure out what to do, and the next day or two might be full of danger, but at least it meant that she didn't have to think about Nadim and whether he would return. Whether he thought about her at all.

  She took a last look at the ferry where people were beginning to shout, and she started to walk.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Traveling as the sheikh of Hadara meant many privileges, but Nadim often thought that the most important one was privacy. He entered Morocco without needing to worry about borders and customs, and as soon as he landed, he got into a car that took him directly to the hospital where Malaya was being treated.

  The hospital itself was a fine place, with more in common with a luxury hotel than a place that dealt with sick people. Nadim had a moment to think with wry amusement that Malaya always managed to land on her feet. Of course she would find a way to get the best care. Of course she would think that she would get away with running away with her lover.

  He wondered what she would do now that her luck had run out, but then he decided abruptly that he did not care. A nurse stopped to ask him his name and business, but Ahmed intercepted her, and after a brief talk, she looked away and moved on.

  He entered her room without knocking, leaving Ahmed to watch the door, and he stilled for a moment.

  Even though she knew that he had been hit by a car, he was unprepared for the reality of his wife lying on the white bed, looking nearly as pale as her own sheets. Malaya had always been a woman who was vibrant and lively, even if she was full of a pointless rage that was impossible to understand.

  Almost as if she could feel his eyes on her, Malaya stirred, her dark eyes fluttering open. He had always thought that her eyes were her best feature, but now he found that after gazing into eyes as green as spring that hers were lacking somewhat.

  "Husband," she whispered, and her voice was so weak that it would have made the hardest heart feel sorry for her.

  Even Nadim, who had known exactly what he was going to say, faltered a little. Or, at least he did until she reached a hand for him, trembling slightly.

  He could feel himself sway, and then Nadim looked a little more closely at her fingers.

  "That is a very nice attempt at buying my sympathy, Malaya, but you need to be a little more careful with your makeup."

  She jerked her hand back, glancing at the pale powder stains there with dismay, but then she was back to looking weak and sick.

  "I am so sorry," she murmured. "I...I have been coming in and out of consciousness ever since I awoke, it is difficult to..."

  "To come up with a convincing story where you are the victim?" Nadim asked casually. "I can imagine."

  He came close to the bed, and quickly, before she could stop him, he rubbed his fingertips over her cheek. As he suspected, his fingertips came away stained with powder, and he knew that no matter how helpless she looked right now, no matter how sad and forlorn, it was a sham.

  "I am going to ask some questions," he said, "and I want them answered."

  "But, husband, I am so weak..."

  "And if I do not get answers, and if for some reason, you think it is a good idea to defy me, I will call for the reports and make sure that they know exactly the circumstances that came about for you to be in an accident in Morocco."

  Suddenly, Malaya sat up much straighter, her eyes little more than glittering slits. She looked a great deal less ill, and he knew that though she might claw and scratch, she was at least taking him more seriously than she had been before.

  "What questions?" she asked, her voice hard, and he nodded.

  "First, do I know the man that was with you?"

  "No," she said with a shrug. "He is a man I met last year, when you were traveling to China for that ridiculous trade agreement."

  Nadim told himself to stay calm. One of Malaya's favorite games was to make him angry and then to ride out the wave. It was shockingly efficient as a distraction, and he did not want to get distracted now.

  "And how long have you been lovers?"

  She smiled slightly, nothing but cruelty there.

  "Since last year."

  Nadim laughed without humor.

  "It might please you to know that he has not been found, nor has he attempted to enter the hospital here. Good taste, Malaya."

  Malaya hissed at him, but he ignored her.

  "Thank you for telling me the truth," he said. "At this point, with that information in mind, you should consider us separated. My lawyer has drawn up our divorce agreement here. It is fair, even generous I would say. The only exceptional cause is that you will never return to Hadara."

  She scowled at him.

  "What foolishness is this? My parents are in Hadara, as are all my friends..."

  "Your parents can visit you wherever you decide to settle down, and your friends are little more than vipers who are more afraid of your poison than you are of theirs. In other words, Malaya, I don't care."

  "What makes you think I will sign this? What makes you think that I will not simply be the poor cast-off sheikha who the sheikh has given up in exchange for a modern lifestyle? Sheikhs have been brought low for less."

  "Perhaps, but not when their wives were meeting with their lovers. Malaya, at this point, you should stop embarrassing yourself. You know it is over. This, between us, is over. I am giving you the chance to get out of it without humiliating yourself. I suggest you take it."

  For a moment, he thought that she was so intent on getting her way that she would turn it down. Then she nodded, every inch the calculating, cold woman he had expected her to be.

  "All right. I keep my holdings, you don't breathe a word of this..."

  "And you leave forever. I never want to see you again."

  "Agreed."

  Feeling as if an enormous weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, Nadim dropped the divorce papers on her lap and started to walk out of the room.

  "I thought you were going to ask if I ever loved you," Malaya called from her bed.

  He half-turned to her, but he was already picturing a different woman, curvy, fair, and with a smile that could bring the summertime.

  "Frankly, I no longer care about that, Malaya. Goodbye."

  ***

  Once outside of the hospital, Nadim found the car again, and for a moment, he simply sat and breathed. The world was lighter, the possibilities were endless, and he knew tha
t he needed to get back to Elise.

  "To the airport at once," he said, and then he turned to Ahmed, who definitely deserved a bonus and a real vacation.

  "I need the plane refueled and a course set for Omorphia by the time we get there."

  Ahmed nodded, and Nadim wondered if there was a little bit of satisfaction there. Then his assistant frowned, and Nadim felt a trickle of cold water run down his spine.

  "What? What is it?"

  "I am sorry, sir, but that might not be possible for a short while. It looks like there is a storm blowing in."

  "A storm?" Nadim understood the word, but he didn't understand what it meant here. Omorphia was his retreat, the place that he and Elise had turned into their own personal paradise. Something like a storm couldn't keep him from it.

  "Yes sir. It looked like a very intense one. Some of the islanders have already evacuated, and the weather services are predicting something that may be just shy of a hurricane."

  The alarm bells were ringing in his head, and Nadim had to clench his teeth or he might have ended up screaming. No, this couldn't be happening, not when he was so close to getting Elise, not when there was nothing in the way of their being together...

  "Find Elise Marten," he said. "I don't care what you have do or what has to be paid. I need you to find her."

  Ahmed nodded and started getting his information network into order. Nadim picked up his phone and dialed the woman he loved. He waited as the phone rang...and rang...and rang...

  ***

  Two days later, Nadim had not slept, and the only nourishment that he could be convinced to consume was coffee. There were dark bags under his eyes, and when he spoke, he was more inclined to growl than anything else.

  He stalked into the conference room that he had commandeered at the Athens airport, and time after time, he picked up the phone with Elise's picture simply to stare it.

  The reports had come in one after another, leaving him cold. She hadn't gotten on the ferry. She hadn't shown up in the town after the storm blew itself out. She hadn't stayed with the staff that he had left on the island. In fact, it was as if she had disappeared completely.

  A day ago, someone had delivered the signed divorce papers from Malaya, and after a cursory look, he had asked Ahmed to file them. Malaya was like a distant country that he no longer cared about, and there was nothing to be done there. Instead, his heart and mind were with Elise, no matter where she was, and with every moment that went by, it felt somehow as if she were getting farther and farther away.

  Finally, finally, Ahmed approached him with a report from the air control tower.

  "They say that it is now safe to resume travel to Omorphia, sir," he said. "The ferry will be operational in another day, but we are clear to fly if you wish."

  "I damn well do wish," he said, and he started to brush by his assistant, but then he glanced at him again.

  "There's something you aren't telling me," he said flatly, and Ahmed nodded.

  "Yes. Sir, the report has come in. The house was struck by falling trees. It is not inhabitable at this time."

  Nadim felt a cold wash of terror flow over him. The idea of the house in shambles was certainly bad, but then he thought of Elise in that house, staying as he had told her to. Surely she was wiser than that? Surely she would have found a way, some way, any way off the island when the storm was blowing in?

  He remembered her restless sleep, her tortured declaration of love, and he felt sick.

  Ahmed gasped as his sheikh grabbed him by the front of his shirt, his eyes blazing.

  "Get me to Omorphia," he said, and he let his assistant fall.

  ***

  Nadim could see the damage that had been done to the island from the air. It was as if some enormous buffalo had struck the land, flattening tree and house alike with its unheeded foot. One tree might have stood entirely clear and undamaged while its neighbor was flattened. He could already see people looking to rebuild, people looking for treasures in the remnants of his life, and his heart squeezed.

  It can't be too late. It cannot. It would be too cruel, too cruel by far...

  He shook his head, because he knew that that wasn't right. He had seen firsthand how cruel life could be. He knew that life could play all sorts of terrible jokes, and that at the end of the day, the only sure thing about life was that it ended.

  But not hers. Not yet. I don't care if she is with me, or not with me, or living her life as she was before we met, just not her. Not yet.

  The words repeated in his mind like some kind of chant, and before they got to the house on the other side of the island, he thought that he would go mad

  When he got there, it was worse than he feared. Nadim stumbled out of the car, staring at the wreckage of what had once been a gorgeous house. There were beams pointing up towards the sky, somehow unaware that the walls they supported were gone. There was a scatter of broken furniture and fabric and appliances leading towards the sea. There was the bathtub, looking strangely denuded as it sat in the sun.

  There was no sign of Elise, but a creeping certainty crept over him. There had been no sign of her anywhere, and the terrible thought that had occurred to the entire search team as they scoured the world was that perhaps she had never left the island.

  Perhaps she had never left the house.

  Nadim felt the grief that had been his uncomfortable companion for the last two days well up, unwilling and unable to be denied. With a roar of pain, he fell into the wreckage of the house, digging frantically. Behind him, he could feel the stare of the driver, but his staff had learned to tread lightly over the past few days. He was in a dangerous mood, and no one dared approach.

  He tore through the wreckage, tears in his eyes. At any moment, he was afraid he might see a flash of gold hair, a bit of pale skin. He would see her, but would he even recognize her? Would he even see her when she was so still, when she was so silent?

  The idea that he would never hear her sing again tore his heart in two, but he could not stop digging. He could not stop searching for her, and perhaps he never would.

  "Oh my god, Nadim!"

  For a moment, the voice couldn't penetrate his thoughts, he couldn't understand, and then there was a pair of hands dragging at his arm, a flash of gold in his peripheral vision.

  He refused to hope, because that only brought more pain, but then he could see her, smell her, touch her, and it truly was her, not some cruel illusion.

  She stood there in shorts and a T-shirt, her face bruised, but whole and so healthy he grabbed her up in his arms.

  "What happened to you? I thought you were dead, we all thought you were dead..."

  "The du Champs, they took me in," she said in confusion. "I...I didn't think you would come back..."

  "I am a fool," he informed her. "The most terrible kind of fool, and now that I have you here, I will not waste more time. Elise, I love you, and the moment I can, I want you to marry me. I want every day with you, I want every night with you, and I will not bear to be parted from you ever again."

  She stared at him, wonder shimmering in her green eyes.

  "What are you saying? You can't. You're married!"

  "Not in any way that matters," he said, looking at her. A sudden doubt crept over him. "Elise. Please. Answer me if you can. If you cannot...I will live with it, but please. Marry me."

  Tears welled up in her green eyes, making them sparkle like gems.

  "I do," she whispered. "I do. I will. I love you, and I will marry you."

  Epilogue

  Eighteen months later…

  The house was coming along beautifully, and as Nadim spoke with the contractor, Elise pushed her twin daughters in their stroller around the property. The entire island was rebuilding, and soon enough the house in Omorphia would be finished, the shining jewel in the Mediterranean Sea.

  "This is such a beautiful place, and you are going to love it," she promised them. "When you are big enough, your papa will teach you to swim, and
I'll teach you to sing, and we'll go walking along the beach together, seeing everything the world has to offer, all new in your eyes."

  Aliyah yawned, unimpressed, but Myrrha looked around with alert eyes. Though twins, the girls were not identical. They both had Nadim's dark hair, but while Myrrha had his dark eyes, Aliyah's gaze was a sweet, sparkling green.

  "Are they hungry yet? Should we head to the beach for our picnic?"

  Elise smiled as she turned to Nadim. The last year had worn the weariness and darkness from his gaze. The sun glinted off the red sea glass pebble that hung around his neck. It was a surprisingly humble piece of jewelry for a man as rich and powerful as the sheikh of Hadara was, but so long as his wife had made it, so long as his infant daughters reached for it with bright baby giggles, it didn't matter to him at all.

  "I think we could be ready for our picnic," she said with a grin, and he led them down to the water.

  Elise rested as her husband laid out the food that they had brought with them from town.

  "I am going to write a song about this, I think," she said presently. "Something about love and the water, and coming full circle back to a place that was rebuilt after a storm."

  "Oh, will you?" he asked, a slightly teasing tone in his voice. "I would like very much to hear it."

  "I'll sing it to you and the girls first," she decided, and Elise started to hum.

  THE END

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