Keeping her away from the horses was a mistake—but letting her go would be an even bigger one.
Daud came to the stall door. “She’s doing well.”
“Riah or Emily?”
“Both.” Daud’s jaw was tight, the only sign that he was worried for Riah. “I think we’re nearly through the worst of it.”
A sudden fear gripped Zaman around his spine. “Is she in danger, do you think?”
“Riah or Emily?” A sly smile flickered up onto Daud’s face and disappeared. “Emily is in no danger at all. Riah…I think she will be all right in Emily’s hands.”
The horse whinnied on the ground, clearly straining, and for the first time in his life, Zaman felt a total lack of control. All he could do was stand outside the stall and offer his silent support.
And…it wasn’t so bad. He wasn’t in the thick of it, but at least he was here if they needed him.
He could learn to be this way for Emily. He had to be this way for Emily. Because he loved her.
He loved her now more than ever. She was the woman he’d first seen back in Kentucky, only somehow more powerful in this time of stress. Wasn’t that exactly who he wanted by his side?
She was.
“Got it,” Emily cried. “You’ve got it, Riah.”
The foal slipped out, and Zaman held his breath. The vet leaned forward, stethoscope out, and the only sound in the room was Riah’s tired breathing. They were all there, Zaman saw now. All the stablehands had gathered in the middle of the night to witness this.
“She’s all right!” called the vet, and the stables broke into soft cheers. “I think she’ll be up and about soon.” Daud shushed the crowd, but Zaman didn’t notice—he was too caught up in the happy, tired smile on Emily’s face. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
18
The message came early in the morning, delivered by a maid on a silver tray. Emily was still up, coming down from the high of the foaling. She’d come back to shower, but her heart still raced even after she got out. She’d spent an inordinate amount of time drying her hair and climbed into bed, but…nothing. Maybe she’d dozed off a few times, but she’d been staring at the ceiling when the knock sounded at the door.
Emily held the note in her hands. It was on heavy paper with the royal seal at the top, but the seal didn’t matter nearly as much as the words scrawled in ink did.
“Please come meet me in my quarters. There’s something I’d like to discuss. —Z”
It was different from the way he usually summoned her. Emily didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one, but what else was there to do but go? She’d been clear with him about her plans.
Her skin felt raw with exhaustion and excitement. She wanted to go check on the foal, too, and she would…as soon as she was finished with Zaman. A little voice inside told her they would never be finished—not now that she was pregnant with his baby—but she shut it down.
Was it wrong to go to his rooms now that she’d drawn that line in the sand? It was not professional to visit the sheikh in his private quarters, but…he’d asked her. And deep down she missed spending personal time with him. She missed it more than she could say.
She walked in without knocking, afraid that if she stopped she’d lose her nerve. Zaman stood by the window, hands folded behind his back. He turned around, and she saw the same tiredness etched on his face. She wanted to trace the lines of his cheeks and take his head into her lap, but that was over now.
It was over, she insisted to herself.
“Good morning.”
“Hi.”
“You did a wonderful job last night,” said Zaman. “I was…very proud.”
Emily cleared her throat. “Thank you. Riah was the real star of the show, though.”
“I disagree.” A twinkle came to his eyes, and an answering heat bloomed in her chest.
“Agree to disagree,” she said.
He came toward her, stopping on the way to pick up a slim folio. “I’d rather agree on something else.”
“What is it?” Emily could smell the scent of his cologne in the air—something moody and manly with a hint of sunshine and open air. She was hit with the same feeling she’d had when she first saw him back in Kentucky—wow. A big, full-body wow. She took a deep breath to steady herself.
“The details are here.” He handed her the folio.
It was a new contract.
She forced the words into order in front of her eyes as he talked her through it. “I’m offering you exclusive decision making when it comes to breeding Riah. Your family farm in Kentucky will have first right of refusal for her foals, up to three claimed. My personal jet will be at your disposal to take you home whenever you’re ready, or to bring your sister to Qadir, or to take you anywhere else you want.”
The words in the contract backed him up, but his saying it made her feel like she was witnessing something truly momentous.
She was, wasn’t she?
She looked up at Zaman with shaking hands and tears clouding her vision. “Zaman, why all this? The terms of our original agreement—”
“The terms of our original agreement don’t do you justice.” He looked down at her with love shining in his eyes—it was unmistakable. “I hope you’ll stay. I…need you in my life to lead me onto unexpected paths. But all this is for you, whether you stay or not.”
“To lead you?” Emily could hardly breathe.
Zaman smiled, and everything in her soul reached toward him.
“I want to be your partner,” he said. “Not your boss. I want to take this journey with you, not lead you on it. In the last few weeks…” He ran a hand over his hair, his expression going solemn. “Watching you with the horses and seeing you deliver Riah’s foal was a wonder. I was crazy to think I should ever take that away from you.”
“But you…how could you live like that? You need that kind of control.” Maybe it wasn’t particularly kind, but Emily had no filter in this moment.
Zaman laughed. “Committing to you and giving up control does make me vulnerable, yes. But isn’t there a strength in that as well? Knowing you, and letting you know me, and working alongside you, can bring us closer together.”
“It’s a little like working with horses,” Emily said softly. “It takes trust. And willingness. The endurance race…”
“It’s quite like life, isn’t it?” Zaman said, and then he offered her his hand.
“I think I need to sit down,” Emily said. It was all coming down with a whoosh. It was a risk for Zaman to offer this for her—a huge risk. He was giving her all she’d ever asked for or needed without any strings attached. He was doing it with the full knowledge that she might say no.
He had heard her, after all. He’d heard the truth that she couldn’t live under his thumb. Under anyone’s thumb.
A joy like a pillar of pure light, like the light that came through her mother’s panel of stained glass and fractured into the most beautiful colors on the opposite wall, filled her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She would have what she needed. The farm would have what it needed. She’d be fulfilling her duty to her family and making her own way for herself, all at the same time.
The resolve she’d built up over the past days melted under the heat of Zaman’s gaze, and she took his hand, dropping the folio to the floor.
“Kiss me,” she ordered.
He did.
At first, the kiss was tender, an apology there on her lips. I’m sorry for what I thought, she felt him say. And when she kissed him back, everything in her cried out that he was forgiven. He was more than forgiven. She loved him, even when he screwed up royally.
The joke made her laugh, and he pulled back, his hands on her face. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Are you sure you can handle a lifetime with a country girl living in your palace?”
“I’m sure I can’t handle it if you leave,” Zaman said. “I love you.”
&
nbsp; “I love you, too.” It was a massive relief to say it out loud. It was like the release of tension when the starting gun at a race finally cracked and everyone was set loose to chase the win. Emily’s own heart trotted, then galloped, then leaped when Zaman put his arms around her waist and twirled her in the air.
“I’ve never been so happy in all my life.” He put her back on her feet and looked down at her as if he only had a few seconds to memorize her—his gaze was that pointed and strong. “I’m so relieved. I—I didn’t know what I would do if you said no.”
“You would have been fine.” An image of him, riding hard across the foothills, sprang into her mind. Zaman was strong enough to handle whatever life threw at him. But people were always stronger when they had other people to love, weren’t they?
“Agree to disagree,” said Zaman. “Agree to heartily disagree. You would have left a hole in my life the size of the palace.”
“Only as big as the palace?” Emily gave him a faux pout. “That’s all I’m worth to you?”
He pulled her in close, slipping his hand down to her belly. It was still flat, but as soon as his palm made contact, she felt it—the life growing there. It had been hard to think of the baby head-on while everything was still so fraught with Zaman, but now her imagination turned on at full force. A babbling baby, out at the stables, reaching for Daud’s wrinkled face. A baby taking her first steps across the pasture as Emily walked Majalun out behind them. Zaman, cradling his child. Their child.
Oh, and her sister would be part of it too. She could see Charlotte rocking with the baby all bundled in a quilt made by her grandmother, the vision as clear as if she were actually seeing it. My personal jet. Zaman’s words echoed in her ears, and the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. She could see her family whenever she wanted—it would only take a word from her, and they’d be off.
What could be wrong about that? Charlotte would take the reins at the farm—pun intended, she guessed—and Emily could try something new for the first time in her life. The work she did at the palace didn’t sit so heavily on her shoulders. It was joyful. It was all joyful.
“Will you do me one kindness?” Zaman said against her hair.
“What’s that?”
“Sign my contract,” he said sheepishly. “I want to make this official.”
“Is that gorgeous ring of your mother’s still part of the deal? Because—” Her own mother, so proud, popped into Emily’s head. “I’d be honored to wear it, if it is.”
“I’ve had it with me all along,” Zaman said.
He took a slim box from his pocket and slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.
Emily signed the contract and handed it back to Zaman. “I believe the matter is settled,” she said, chin in the air.
“Not quite yet,” Zaman answered, and he picked her up in his arms and took her to bed.
Epilogue
Majalun surged underneath Zaman, their muscles working in perfect sync. It had been a long three days under the Qadiri sun, and Zaman’s own muscles ached with every movement. The ride had been harder than he remembered it from previous races, and everything in his body strained toward the finish line. He wanted to be done, wanted to be back in Emily’s arms, wanted Majalun to win. He wanted it for her as much as he wanted it for himself. If he won this race, she’d be lauded as an incredible trainer by the entire country.
They were so close.
He could see the finish line up ahead, and his ears were filled with the hoofbeats of other horses behind him. They weren’t far behind, storming across the flat dirt road that was the final miles of the race. This had been an ancient trade route, and Zaman could picture all the horses who had come in the years before, carrying wealthy merchants or pulling the owners’ livelihoods behind them. In some cases, the horses had been the owners’ livelihoods. History seemed to glitter close by, hovering in the air, an invisible presence.
Or maybe he was losing it. He’d never felt a pressure this intense in all his life. There were at least three competitors within spitting distance—hearing distance, at least—and Zaman had a momentary flash of doubt. Had he made any mistakes out there on the trail? He couldn’t remember, but perhaps he had and they’d come back to bite him in this crucial moment.
Baqir was one of the ones hot on his trail, and that made him want to win even more. At the last checkpoint, Zaman’s brother had only been behind by a matter of minutes, along with two others.
Zaman didn’t dare turn around to see if Baqir was closes. Even the slightest motion could disrupt Majalun’s forward flow, and he wasn’t going to do that, not now at the end—even as he held the horse back from his full speed. That was the plan, and he would follow it. Slow and steady, even as the rest of the racers bore down on him.
Faintly, over the sound of the hoofbeats, he could hear the crowd cheering. Emily was in that crowd. He wanted to get to her as much as he wanted to win. More than he wanted to win. Being apart from her for three days had been agonizing. But still he held Majalun back.
Those three days had been an eternity, compared to the months they’d worked together leading up to the race. They’d trained Maj for four more months, the rides getting more and more focused. Emily had been a stickler for slow and steady, and as much as it set Zaman’s teeth on edge to hold his horse back, it had worked in the endurance race.
The huge field had been winnowed to just a few now. Those who’d started fast had faded fast. If he’d been in charge, he’d have been one of them.
His breath came hard and fast, and he tried to keep it under control, adrenaline surging. So close, so close, so close.
He caught a glimpse of her in the crowd near the finish, or at least he thought he did—that was the color of her hair, that was the way she stood, and that was the rest of his life. All wrapped up in one perfect woman.
He could not hold back anymore.
Zaman urged Majalun into the final sprint.
It had taken so long to get here, and now the finish line seemed to rush forward to meet him. The rest of the hoofbeats faded away—far away. Emily’s plan worked. Nobody else had the speed left to catch him.
Zaman burst across the finish line, turning his head at the last second to see that Baqir was a few lengths behind. But he was behind, and that was all that mattered.
It mattered for a split second, and then Zaman dismounted into the cheering crowd. Daud was there with Korah, waiting to take his horse and Baqir’s, and Zaman passed over the reins gratefully. He accepted the pats on the back, he accepted the cheers, but all of them paled in comparison to the goal he had now—to get to Emily.
“Zaman!” She waved from the edge of the crowd.
He scooped her into his arms. “Thank you,” he said. “For being my bride and for training Majalun. Thank you, thank you.”
“It was down to you in the end,” she said into his ear. “You did a fantastic job.”
“It took both of us.” Then he became aware of the cameras flashing. Let them put this on the cover of every newspaper tomorrow. Zaman wouldn’t have won at all if it weren’t for Emily. “And now…”
“Now what?” she teased. “Your arms must be getting sore, holding the both of us.” Emily was showing now, her bump a beautiful curve.
“Not at all,” said Zaman, then pretended to strain against gritted teeth.
She laughed, her delight echoing through her. “My husband is funny, everyone,” she said, even though nobody else was close enough to hear.
Husband. They had been married in a small ceremony a few days before the race, neither of them wanting to wait any longer.
“I’m serious about our honeymoon,” he answered. “Are you ready to go? I can have the jet in the air in an hour.”
“I’m ready.” Her eyes shone. “I’ve been so ready.”
“You know I would have skipped the race for you.”
She shook her head. “I would never have asked you to give that up. After all that work I did
? Please. Majalun deserved a chance to shine. But next time…”
“At next year’s race, you mean?”
“Yes. Next time, I’ll meet you on the circuit. I can do nights once the baby is born. Maybe one day I’ll even compete. I have an eye on a mare in the stables that just might beat Majalun.”
He hugged her to him and gave her a long kiss. “I look forward to the challenge. Clearly, Baqir isn’t challenging enough for me.”
Emily hooked her hand into the front of his shirt. “How about a wager?”
“Oh? Do you have something in mind?”
Emily gave him a very meaningful look. “Many things come to mind.”
He held her close and dipped his head to hers again. She tasted so sweet—sweeter, even, than his recent victory. “Maybe we should go practice some of those things you’re thinking about.”
“I agree,” said, and pulled him down for another kiss. “I love you,” she whispered into his ear.
“I love you more.”
“Prove it,” she whispered back, and he took her to bed and did just that.
End of The Sheikh’s Stubborn Employee
The Sheikh’s Surprise Twins, 27 February 2020
The Sheikh’s American Assistant, 5 March 2020
The Sheikh’s Stubborn Employee, 12 March 2020
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