Czytaj książkę: «The Sheikh's Bartered Bride»
“Duty is not always pleasant.” Hakim smiled in a way that increased Catherine’s heart rate. “But it sometimes has unforeseen benefits.”
The warmth in his eyes mesmerized her. “It does?”
“Were it not for my duty, I would not have the great honor of joining my life with yours in two weeks’ time.”
Questions surrounding her suitability to be his bride because of her virginity faded from her mind as white-hot desire scorched through her. Hakim leaned down and kissed her quite forcefully, then set her away from him.
“Two weeks.”
“Two weeks,” she repeated, her voice breathless.
The Sheikh’s Bartered Bride
Lucy Monroe
MILLS & BOON
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To Isabelle…You are more precious to me than words can ever express and I thank God daily for giving you to me as a very special gift. With love, Lucy
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
“MISS BENNING.”
She wasn’t Miss Benning. She was Catherine Marie, captive of The Hawk, a sheikh who still lived by the code of the desert, where only the strongest survived.
He was coming now. She could hear his deep, masculine voice as he spoke in a tongue she did not understand to someone outside her tent. She struggled against the cords that bound her hands, but it was useless. The silk scarves were soft, but strong and she could not get her hands free.
If she did, what would she do? Run?
Where?
She was in the middle of the desert. The sun beat against the tent, heating up the cavernous interior. She wouldn’t last a day in the vast wasteland on her own.
Then he was there, standing in the entrance to the room in which she was held. His features were cast in shadow. All she could see was his big body encased in the white pants and tunic typical of his people. A black robe, his abaya, fell from his massive shoulders to mid-calf and his head was covered with the red and white smagh that denoted his position as sheikh. The headband holding it in place was made of twisted black leather.
He was less than fifteen feet away, but still his face was hidden from her by the shadows. Only the strong line of his jaw denoting his arrogance was discernable.
“Miss Benning!”
Catherine Marie Benning’s head snapped up from where it had been resting against her fist and her eyes slowly focused on her surroundings. Tent walls hung with faded silks, to be replaced by cool gray cement, relieved only by the posters advertising the upcoming book drive and literacy event. They were the walls of the break room in the Whitehaven Public Library, much closer to a cold and wet Seattle, Washington than the blistering hot deserts of the Sahara.
Fluorescent light cast a harsh glow over the pointed features of the woman standing in front of her.
“Yes, Mrs. Camden?”
Straightening her double-knit polyester blazer, almost identical in color to the library’s walls, Mrs. Camden, Catherine’s superior, sniffed. “Your head was off in the clouds again, Miss Benning.”
The disapproval in the older woman’s voice grated against Catherine’s usually limitless patience. Perhaps if the man in her fantasies would ever show his face, she wouldn’t be feeling so frustrated, but he did not. This time had been no different. The Hawk was as elusive to her imagination as he was in it.
“I’m still on break,” she gently reminded the older woman.
“Yes, well, we all do what we must.”
Recognizing the beginnings of a familiar lecture, Catherine stifled a sigh at the knowledge her lunch break was to be cut short. Again.
Hakim bin Omar al Kadar walked into the library and scanned the reference area for sight of Catherine Marie Benning. Her picture was indelibly printed on his mind. His future wife. While arranged marriages were not uncommon in the royal family of Jawhar, his was unique.
Catherine Marie Benning was unaware that she was to become his wife. Her father wanted it that way.
One of the stipulations of the deal between Hakim’s uncle and Harold Benning was that Hakim convince Catherine to become his wife without telling her about the arrangement between her father and the King of Jawhar. Hakim had not asked why. Having been educated in the West, Hakim knew that American women did not view arranged marriages with the same equanimity the women of his family did.
He would have to court Catherine, but that would be no hardship. Even in an arranged marriage, a royal prince of Jawhar was expected to court his intended bride. This marriage would be no different. He would give her a month.
Ten weeks ago, his uncle had been apprised by Harold Benning of the probable deposits of a rare mineral in the mountains of Jawhar. The American had suggested a partnership between Benning Excavations and the royal family of Jawhar.
The two men had still been negotiating terms when Hakim had been attacked while out riding in the desert in the early hours of the morning. Investigations had revealed that the assassination attempt had been made by the same group of dissidents responsible for his parents’ deaths twenty years before.
Hakim was unclear how marriage for Catherine had become part of the deal. He knew only that his uncle considered it convenient. Should the need for long-term living visas arise for the royal family, Hakim would be in a position to sponsor them as the spouse of an American. There would be no need to go through regular diplomatic channels, thus preserving the privacy and pride of his family.
The royal family of Jawhar had not sought political asylum from another country in the three centuries of its reign and they never would. Already overseeing the family’s interests in America, Hakim had been the logical choice for the alliance.
Harold Benning also saw the marriage as beneficial. His concern over the continued single state of his twenty-four-year old daughter had been obvious. According to him, she never even dated.
The result of the older men’s negations had been a Royal Decree: Hakim was to marry Catherine Benning.
He spotted his quarry helping a small boy on the other side of the room. She stretched to pull a book from the shelf and the button-up black sweater she wore above a long, straight skirt caught his attention. Molding her breasts, it revealed a surprisingly lush feminine form and he felt himself stir.
This was unexpected. Her picture had revealed a pretty woman, but nothing like the exotic beauties he had bedded in the past. That he should react so readily to such an innocent sight made him stop in his journey toward her.
What had so aroused him? Her skin was pale, but not alabaster. Her hair was blond, but a dark blond and twisted up on the back of her head as it was, it looked drab. Her eyes were a shock, a gentian-blue that had startled him with their intensity in the picture and were even more unusual in person.
Aside from the eyes, nothing about her stood out and yet his body’s response could not be denied. He wanted her. While he had experienced this sort of instant physical attraction before, it had been with a lot more provocation. A certain way of walking, dressing or an alluring look. Catherine Benning exhibited none of these.
It was a puzzling, but not unpleasant surprise. A genuine physical attraction on his part would make the job of her seduction that much easier. He had been prepared to do his duty regardless of personal attraction. Country came first. Family came second. His own needs and desires last of all.
He walked forward, stopping a little to her left. As the boy walked away, her dark sapphire gaze did a quick survey of the room, skimming over him, and then settled back on a man who had come to stand in front of the desk.
But even as she pointed to something on her computer monitor, her gaze flicked back to Hakim. And stayed. He met her eyes, noting peripherally the man she had been helping walk away. The next person in line went unnoticed as her attention remained on him.
She appeared poleaxed and he smiled.
Her entire body went taut and her cheeks pinkened, but she did not look away.
His smile went up a notch. Fulfilling his duty would be a simple matter of turning that attraction into a desire to wed.
“Miss Benning! Pay attention. You have patrons to serve.”
The martinet haranguing Catherine was no doubt the dragon of a boss Harold Benning had mentioned when briefing Hakim on his daughter.
Catherine’s head snapped around and her blush intensified, but she did not stammer as she answered the older woman. “I’m sorry. My mind wandered.” She turned to the next person in line, repeated her apology and asked how she could help them, effectively dismissing her superior.
The older woman harrumphed and marched away like a petty general deprived of his battle spoils.
He waited until the last of the line had walked away before greeting Catherine. “Good afternoon.”
She smiled, her eyes even more startling up close. The blush was back. “Hi. What can I do for you?”
“I am interested in antique telescopes and the history of stargazing. Perhaps you can direct me to a good reference.”
Her eyes lit with interest. “Is this a new hobby for you?”
“Fairly new.” As recent as the discussion Hakim had had with her father. Although Hakim’s own father had shared Catherine’s passionate interest in ancient stargazing, since his death, his books had remained unused in the observatory in the Kadar Palace.
“It’s one of my personal interests. If you’ve got a few minutes I’ll show you the right section and point out a few books that I think are particularly good.”
“I would like that very much.”
Catherine sucked in air, trying to calm her racing heart as she led the handsome and rather imposing man to the proper nonfiction area of her library. The aura of barely leashed power surrounding him was enough to send her pulse rocketing, but the fact that he physically embodied every characteristic of her ideal fantasy tipped her senses into dangerous territory.
At least a couple of inches over six feet, his muscle-honed body towered above her own five foot seven in a way that made her feel small beside him. Even knowing she was not. The silky black hair on his head was only a shade darker than the color of his eyes and if he didn’t speak with such impeccable English, she would think he was the sheikh of her fantasies.
A wave of totally unfamiliar desire swept over her, leaving her even more breathless and confused.
He hadn’t touched her and somehow she had always believed this level of sexual awareness could only accompany touch. She’d been wrong.
They stopped in front of a row of books. She pulled one off the shelf and handed it to him. “This is my favorite. I have my own first-edition copy at home.”
He took the book and his fingers briefly brushed hers. She jumped back, shocked by the contact. Her body throbbed in a way she hadn’t experienced before, but she desperately tried to look unaffected by his nearness.
“I am sorry.” His black gaze probed her own, leaving her even more unsettled.
She shook her head, but could feel that infernal blush crawling along her skin again. “It’s nothing.” Less than nothing. Or at least it should have been.
He flipped open the book and looked at it. She knew she should go, but she couldn’t make her legs move in the direction of the reference desk.
The book shut with a snap and his dark gaze settled on her again. “Do you recommend anything else?”
“Yes.” She spent another ten minutes pointing out different books and suggesting a couple of periodicals he might be interested in ordering.
“Thank you very much, Miss…”
“Benning, but please call me Catherine.”
“I am Hakim.”
“That’s an Arabic name.”
His mouth twitched. “Yes.”
“But your English is perfect.” What an inane thing to say. Lots of Arabic people lived in the Seattle area, many of them second or third generation Americans.
“So it should be,” he drawled in a voice programmed to melt her insides. “The royal tutor would be most displeased if one of his pupils should speak with anything less than complete mastery.”
“Royal?” The word came out sounding choked.
“Forgive me. I am Hakim bin Omar al Kadar, prince in the royal family of Jawhar.”
She was breathing, but her lungs felt starved of oxygen. A prince? She’d been talking to a prince for more than ten minutes. Lusting after him! Heavens. Her half-formed idea of inviting him to attend the next meeting of the Antique Telescope Society died a swift death. Unfortunately the attraction he held for her did not.
She swallowed. “Can I help you with anything else?”
“I have taken up enough of your time.”
“There’s a society for people interested in antique telescopes in Seattle,” she found herself blurting out, unable to let it go at that. She wouldn’t invite him to meet her there, but she could tell him about the meeting.
“Yes?”
“They meet tonight.” She named the time and place.
“Will I see you there?” he asked.
“Probably not.” She would be there, but she sat in the back of the room and he was not the sort of man content to enjoy anything from the sidelines.
She wasn’t wholly content, either, but she didn’t know how to break a lifetime of conditioning.
“You will not attend?” He actually looked disappointed.
“I always go.”
“Then I shall see you.”
She shrugged. “It’s a big group.”
“I will look for you, Catherine.”
She barely stopped herself from blurting out the question, “Why?” Instead she smiled. “Then maybe we will run into each other.”
“I do not leave such matters to fate.”
No doubt. He was much too decisive. “Until tonight then.”
She turned to go and was only marginally disappointed he did not call her back. After all, he’d said he would look for her.
He checked the books out she had recommended and left the library a few minutes later.
Catherine watched him go, certain of one thing. The sheikh of her fantasies would no longer be faceless.
He would have the features of Hakim.
CHAPTER TWO
CATHERINE walked into the meeting room in one of Seattle’s posh downtown hotels. Though she was early, over half of the seats were already taken. She scanned the crowd for Hakim while butterflies with hobnail boots danced an Irish jig on the inside of her stomach.
Would he be here?
Would he really be looking for her?
It was hard to believe. Even harder to accept the sensations she felt at the mere thought of his presence.
A scar-riddled face and subsequent laser treatments had meant she’d missed out on dating in both high school and college. Her shyness had been so ingrained by then that the late blooming her parents had expected never materialized. She thought she’d come to terms with the fact she would most likely die a maiden aunt in the best tradition of little old ladies with white hair and homes filled with other people’s memories. She was too shy to pursue men and too ordinary to be pursued. Yet something about Hakim compelled her to step outside her comfort zone.
And that scared her.
No way would a guy like that return her interest.
“Catherine. You have arrived.”
She knew the owner of the deeply masculine voice, even as she turned. “Good evening, Hakim.”
“Will you sit with me?”
She nodded, unable to immediately voice her acceptance.
He led her to a chair in the middle of the room, much closer to the front than she usually sat. Taking her arm, he helped her into the seat with a courtesy that was both captivating and alarming. Alarming because it meant he touched her and the feel of his warm fingers on her arm was enough to send her senses reeling.
Several pairs of eyes turned to watch them take their seats, the curiosity of the onlookers palpable. She smiled slightly at an elderly woman whose stare was filled with avid interest. Catherine remembered talking to her at the last meeting. She was nice, but a bit nosy.
Catherine moved her own gaze to the front of the room where tonight’s speaker stood talking to the president of the society.
The speaker was the leading authority on George Lee and Sons telescopes. He was supposed to bring along one from his collection for the society members to look at up close. She couldn’t wait to see it and thought the red silk covered shape in the front of the room must be it.
She was proved right forty minutes later when the silk cover was removed and the general assembly was invited to come forward and take a look.
“You wish to see it?” Hakim asked her.
She shrugged.
“What does this shrug mean?”
She turned her head, allowing herself the luxury of a full-on look. The impact was that of a bomb exploding in her brain and she almost gasped, but held back the revealing sound.
She smiled wryly, knowing herself. “The shrug means I’ll probably forego the pleasure.”
“I will accompany you.”
Like a security blanket? “It’s not that,” she denied, even though it was exactly that. “I’d just rather not wait in line. Do you see how many people are already waiting to look at it?”
Hakim looked toward the line of society members and then back at her. “Are you quite certain you do not wish to see it?”
Even a George Lee and Sons telescope could not compete with Hakim for her interest, she admitted to herself. “Very sure.”
“Then, perhaps you would consent to dinner with me this evening and we could discuss my new hobby. You appear highly knowledgeable in the subject.”
“Dinner?” she parroted.
“Are you concerned about sharing a meal with a stranger?”
The quite justifiable concern had never entered her mind, but then she’d never been in a sheikh’s company before, nor had she ever experienced the debilitating cocktail of feelings being near him elicited in her body.
“No,” she said, shocking herself and making his eyes widen fractionally.
“Then you will allow me to buy you dinner this evening?”
“I don’t know…”
“Please.” The word sounded much more like a command than any sort of pleading, yet it affected her just the same.
“I suppose I could follow you to the restaurant in my car.” She should show at least a rudimentary level of self-protection.
“Very well. Is seafood to your liking?”
Her mouth watered at the thought. “I adore it.”
“There is a beautiful restaurant not a block from here. We could walk.”
“I think it’s just starting to rain,” she said.
His lips tilted in a sardonic smile. “If so, I will lend you my raincoat.”
She laughed at the instant picture she had of herself in a raincoat several sizes too big. “That won’t be necessary. I just thought you probably wouldn’t like to walk if it was wet out.”
“I would not have suggested it otherwise.”
“Of course.”
It was a short walk and though the gray clouds were heavy with moisture, it did not rain.
They spent dinner discussing her favorite hobby. She was surprised at his knowledge and said so.
“I read the books you gave me this afternoon.”
“Already?”
It was his turn to shrug. “Most of them.”
“Wow. I guess you didn’t have to go back to work.”
“We all must have our priorities,” he said with a smile.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you as someone who put his hobbies above his work.”
“There are times when the unexpected takes precedence in our lives.”
She wondered at the mysterious statement, but did not know him well enough to ask about it.
They both declined dessert and he walked her back to her car. He took her keys from her and unlocked it. Opening the door, he indicated she should get inside.
She stopped before bending down to get into the driver’s seat. “Thank you for dinner.”
“It was my pleasure, Catherine.”
Two days later, Hakim invited her to attend a Saturday showing of a journey among the stars at the theater. It required spending the whole day together as well as a three-hour drive to Portland. The prospect of all that time with just her and Hakim in the enclosed space of a car had her nerves completely on edge. She jumped when the security buzzer rang to announce his arrival.
She pressed the button on the small black communications box. “I’ll be right down.”
“I’ll be waiting.” His short reply came; his voice even sounded exotic and sexy over the apartment building’s tinny intercom system. She was still finding it difficult to believe that such a gorgeous man had a serious interest in her. Grabbing her hold-all and purse, she left the apartment.
When she got downstairs, she found him waiting in the lobby.
“Good morning, Catherine. Are you ready to go?”
She nodded, while her eyes devoured the sight of him. Wearing a snug-fitting black sweater and tan trousers that managed to emphasize his well-developed muscles, he made her mouth go dry with desire.
She licked her lips and swallowed. “I’ve got everything I need.”
“Then, let’s go.” He took her arm and led her outside where a long, black limousine waited.
“I thought you were driving.”
“I wanted to be able to focus my attention on you. There is a privacy window. We will be as secluded as we desire.”
The way he said it made totally inappropriate images swirl through her head and her nipples tightened almost painfully. It was such an unexpected sensation, she gasped.
“Are you well?”
“F-fine,” she stuttered before practically diving into the backseat of the limousine.
As a tactic to hide her discomposure from him, it was no doubt a dismal failure. Most of his escorts probably waited for him to help them into the car. Of course, these same escorts most likely had a love life outside of their fantasies and could handle the close proximity of such a sexy man with equanimity.
Not so her.
She was in over her head and the man had never even kissed her. When he took the seat opposite her, her breasts swelled at his nearness.
And his smile was positively lethal to her self-control.
“Would you like some refreshments?” He flipped open a small door in the side console of the car to reveal a fully stocked fridge.
“Some juice would be nice.” She was really proud of herself when her voice came out fairly normal.
He poured her a glass of cranberry juice and handed it to her. “So, are antique telescopes your only hobby?”
“Oh, no. I’m an avid reader. I guess that makes sense, me working in a library.”
“I think I expected that, yes.”
She returned the droll smile. “Right, but I also love hiking nature trails.”
His brows rose at that and she couldn’t help a rueful shrug of acknowledgment to his surprise.
“Maybe I should have said ambling through the woods.”
“Ah.” He sipped at his mineral water. “And do you daydream as you walk, I wonder.”
She could not hide her own surprise that he had guessed something so private about her quite accurately. “Yes. Being outside and away from people is sort of magical.”
“I too like the outdoors, but prefer the desert to the woods.”
“Please tell me about it.”
And he did, but he deftly directed the conversation back to her on several occasions and they spent the long drive talking about subjects she rarely discussed with anyone but her sister. Hakim seemed to understand her shyness and was not bothered by it, which made it easier for her to be open with him.
He also never dismissed her views as her father was so adept at doing. Hakim listened and as he listened, Catherine found herself falling under the spell of his personality.
He took her to lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the Willamette River. The food was superb, the view of the river amazing and his company overwhelming to her heart and her senses. She was very much afraid that she was falling deeply and irrevocably in love with a man that was far out of her league.
When they’d settled into their seats at the theater, Hakim slipped his arm over Catherine’s shoulders, smiling to himself when she stiffened, but did not pull away. She was not used to a man’s touch, but her body gave all the signals of being ready for a sexual awakening. The latent and untapped passion he sensed in her would play to his advantage, making it easy for him to seduce her into marriage and fulfill his duty.
His specialized training had made it possible to save himself from the recent assassination attempt, but his parents had not been so lucky. He had been unable to save them and the knowledge still haunted him.
The fact that he had been ten years old at the time did nothing to assuage his need to protect his family now, whatever the cost.
He could still remember the sound of his mother’s scream as she watched her husband shot before her eyes, a scream cut short by another gunshot. His little sister had whimpered beside him and he’d taken her hand, leading her out of the palace via the secret passage known only to members of the royal family and their most trusted servants.
Days of grueling heat in the desert sun had followed as Hakim had used the knowledge taught him by his Bedouin grandfather to seek shelter in the wild for him and his small sister. He had eventually found his grandfather’s tribe. He and his sister had survived, but Hakim would never forget the cost.
A small sound from Catherine brought him back to the present. He realized he had been caressing her neck with his thumb. Her eyes were fixed on the huge screen, but her body was wholly attuned to him and hummed with sexual excitement.
A month of seducing her toward marriage might very well be overkill.
Catherine reveled in the feel of Hakim’s arms around her and pretended it meant more than it did. It was only natural that he ask her to dance with him. After all, he was her escort for the evening and everyone else was dancing.
The black-tie charity ball was to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. She’d invited Hakim to be her escort, half expecting him to say no, but he hadn’t. He’d agreed to bring her and even to have dinner with her family beforehand.
Her mother and sister were completely charmed by his exotic charisma and enigmatic presence. Even in a business suit and tie, the man exuded sheikhness.
“Your sister is very kind.”
She let her body move infinitesimally closer to his and fought the urge to lay her head on his shoulder and just breathe in his essence. “Yes. She and I are very close.”
“This is good.”
“I think so.” She smiled up at him.
His expression remained serious. “Family is very important.”
“Yes, it is.”
She wasn’t sure where this was headed.
“Having children, passing one’s heritage from one generation to the next is also important.”
“I agree. I can’t imagine a married couple not wanting children.”
Finally he smiled. “Perhaps there are those that have their reasons, but you would never be one of them.”
She thought longingly of marriage and family, specifically with this man and it was all she could do to keep her smile pasted in place. “No, I’d never be one of them.”
She was unlikely ever to be married at all, but why bring up that depressing thought?
His thumb started a caressing rotation in the small of her back and her thoughts scattered, even the depressing ones.
Closing her eyes, she gave into the urge to let her cheek rest against his chest. He’d probably never ask her to dance again, but she just couldn’t help herself.
Instead of acting offended by her forwardness, Hakim settled her more fully against him and danced with her until the music changed to a faster beat.
He didn’t ask her to dance again that evening, but he didn’t neglect her, either. Using his easy sophistication to deflect the interest of other women who approached them with the intention of flirting with him, he kept his interest fixed firmly on her and her heart gave up the battle.
She was in love.
Hopelessly.
Helplessly.
Completely.
Catherine opened the card attached to the flowers. It read, “For a woman whose inner beauty blooms with more loveliness than a rose.”
Tears filled her eyes and it was all she could do not to cry. She and Hakim had spent the night before at a benefit concert. Catherine had gotten up and spoken on behalf of the children and their hopes and dreams. She’d been shaking with nerves, but she’d felt compelled to make a plea on the foundation’s behalf.
Afterward, Hakim had told her that her obvious love of children and compassion for them had shown through even her nervousness. She’d been warmed by the compliment, but the long-stemmed red roses totally overwhelmed her.
She put the vase on the corner of her desk where both she and the rest of the librarians could see them easily.
Picking up a pile of papers that needed filing, she contemplated the crimson blooms. He made her feel so special, even if they were just friends. Sometimes it felt like more than friendship and her hopes would soar, but what else could it be when he never so much as kissed her?
They spent a lot of time together and her attraction for him grew with each occasion, but he appeared unaffected on a physical level by her.
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