The Sheik's Angry Bride (8 page)

The next thirty-six hours went by faster than she’d thought possible.  They had their final dinner that night and Layla sat next to Garon, trying to ignore him as she focused all of her energy on his cabinet members, trying to put them at ease.  And she refused to even acknowledge Garon’s grumpiness, not sure what he had to be upset about. 

The morning of her wedding, the sun was shining and the streets were filled with people eager to cheer on the royal bride and groom.  She dressed carefully in her gold and ivory wedding gown, amazed that the veil didn’t slip off because of all the hairspray the stylist used. 

By mid-morning, she was a married woman.  Garon took her hand and she lifted her head for the traditional wedding kiss.  When she looked up at him, he literally took her breath away.  She had avoided looking at him during the ceremony, afraid of what she might say or do.  After yesterday, she knew more about this man than she wanted to know, more about herself as well, and she was actually terrified of their wedding night tonight.  She’d gotten so out of control yesterday afternoon.  As she thought back to those moments, she couldn’t contain the blush every time.  She’d been wanton!  What had happened to all of her lessons on decorum?  They’d certainly gone out the window as soon as he’d touched her like that. 

So when he took her hand to lead her through the crowd, she only allowed her fingertips to touch his sleeve.  Touching is what had started the insanity yesterday afternoon.  Well, and her throwing a challenge in his face which she now understood was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  She certainly wouldn’t do that again! 

Garon didn’t seem to mind her fingertips only approach.  In fact, he seemed to be chuckling about it, or something else.  She was too anxious to even ask him. 

They posed for the official pictures, the family pictures, went through the motions of greeting their guests.  When they finally sat down for the wedding meal, she couldn’t believe how many courses were set down in front of her. She couldn’t eat much of any of them, her stomach in knots as she anticipated the night ahead of her.  She kept glancing out the window to where a large clock tower ticked down the time when Garon would take her away from all of this. 

What made the whole thing worse was that everyone here, every guest as well as all of the people out on the street, would know exactly what he was going to do with her tonight.  It was one thing when a normal person got married.  Sure, everyone would know what was going on.  But an entire country wouldn’t be speculating about their evening’s activities.  Good grief, the entire world would be contemplating what they were going to do. 

And she would not, absolutely would not, let herself get out of control again tonight!  It was the mantra she kept telling herself as the tenth course was placed in front of her.  That was not who she was!  She was a lady!  She was dignified and reserved.  She had been chosen for this role because she was elegant and intelligent.  Layla refused to be that crazy person who had appeared out of nowhere yesterday afternoon in Garon’s bedroom.

Garon could feel the tension that was quickly rising inside of her.  The tension in her shoulders and the stiff way she was sitting made him think that she was going to snap if she didn’t relax somewhat.  “What’s wrong, my love?” he asked, bending down and whispering in her ear. 

His lips brushed against the shell of her ear and she shivered at the unexpected touch.  “Nothing is wrong, Your Highness,” she replied and lowered her head so that the other guests wouldn’t see her cheeks turn the silly, inelegant shade of pink.

Garon chuckled at her reaction as well as her feeble attempt to hide it from him.  “After today,” he started to say, lifting her hand and kissing her fingers, “I don’t want you to wear so much makeup.  I like seeing your cheeks burn from my touch, my lady.”

She took a deep breath but looked out into the crowd of guests happily partaking of the wedding feast.  She couldn’t look at him and it angered her that they’d been married for less than three hours and already he was giving her commands.  “I’ll wear however much makeup is appropriate for the circumstances and event.”

“Ah, we’re back to that, are we?” he asked, lifting her hand once again and nibbling on her fingertips.  He was anticipating her reaction and wouldn’t let her snatch her hand away. 

“Back to what?” she asked, turning her head and smiling to someone who waved to her as if they were old friends.  She had absolutely no idea who the person was, but all the guests here today were either family members or representatives from the world’s countries.  This was not simply a marriage.  This was a political union and everyone who was important wanted to be seen at this wedding.  Not only was this marriage uniting two families but it was also helping to maintain peace between the four countries that had been at war. 

Three men were approaching from the right and Garon stiffened for a moment, then she felt him relax once again.  She looked in that direction, not sure who could get that kind of a reaction from her now-husband.  But as she turned and let her eyes focus, she realized the importance of the next few minutes. 

The three incredibly tall men approaching were all extremely handsome in different ways.  Only one of them had a woman by his side and Layla was charmed by the adorable child in the man’s arms.  Man and child looked too much alike for her to mistake their relationship.  And this man was incredibly proud of his son. 

The four men greeted each other as if they were old friends when, in reality, they had been enemies only a few months ago.  This camaraderie was a welcome relief and everyone in the room had stopped to observe the greetings, eager to see how this meeting progressed.  The importance of their words could not be under represented. These four men controlled a huge portion of the oil in the world, not to mention, had an enormous influence on world economics.  So their friendship was a welcome relief to observers from around the world and would be reported in news analysis for the next few weeks. 

“Looks like I was too slow,” Sheik Dassar bin Sarook of Altair commented as he turned to greet Layla.  He bowed over her hand, kissing her fingertips with polished gallantry.

Layla smiled at the man, startled that she didn’t feel the same thing when this man kissed her fingers as she did when Garon executed the same caress.  “It is indeed a pleasure to meet you as well, Your Highness.” 

He winked down at her, trying to ease her nerves at such an ominously watched greeting and Layla was both enchanted by the man’s insight as well as relieved that he was making the effort to put her at ease.  “We are all excited to have your help in maintaining this peace.  I know with a beauty like you on his arm, he will be too distracted to notice that I’m going to win the oil contracts next month.”

The three other men laughed and Layla smiled up at the man.  “And I will enjoy the challenge of focusing him on his responsibilities,” she replied, subtly telling Garon that she wouldn’t become his distraction. 

The men laughed even harder, even Garon chuckling at her not so subtle jab.  “She loves me,” he told the men, all of whom started punching Garon on the back in their manly way.  Layla turned to the only other woman in their group.  “You must be Calliendra,” she said, taking the woman’s hand.

“Please call me Callie,” she replied back, taking Layla’s hands in both of hers.  “And if you need any advice on how to handle these kinds of unbearably arrogant, insufferable, infuriating men, please don’t hesitate to call me.  I know what you’re going through,” she said with a knowing look at her husband.  Layla wanted to laugh when the man simply raised one of those handsome, dark eyebrows in her direction.  The little boy in his arms tried to mimic his father, but he couldn’t raise just one brow so both of them went up although he did the you’ll-pay-for-that expression extremely well. 

Callie noticed Layla’s startled expression and she glanced over her shoulder at her two males.  Turning back to Layla she said, “Oh, just ignore them.  They always think they’re right.  It is our job to show them the truth.” 

Garon looked back to the man and the boy, then all the men moved a bit closer, trying to intimidate the beautiful blond woman but she simply looked right back at all of them.  Layla was fascinated when the men backed down but her husband simply rolled his eyes and pushed her ahead.  “You will have no contact with Her Highness,” he told his wife. 

Callie only laughed and, before she was pushed out of the way, said quickly to Layla, “I’ll call you after your honeymoon!” and then they were gone, lost in the crowd. 

Dassar moved up and took Layla’s hand next.  “You are lovely and I’m jealous that this old man found you first,” he said and kissed her hand regally.  “We will soon have much to discuss.”

Layla had no idea what he meant by that statement, but she smiled politely.  She was stunned yet again when the last of the men stepped forward.  “If he ever treats you poorly, just come to me and I’ll…”

He didn’t have a chance to finish that statement since Garon growled at the man.  Layla knew that he was only teasing and she took the man’s hand again.  “I appreciate your concern.  I know that it isn’t misplaced.” 

With that, the handsome man threw back his head and laughed, delighted as he moved on as well. 

Garon put his hand around her waist and pulled her against his side.  “You’ve made a couple of new conquests, my lady.”

Layla’s heart felt lighter after that encounter.  “Those are your former enemies?” she asked, just trying to clarify because they all seemed like extremely charming men. 

“Former enemies,” he confirmed.  “They are friends now.  Friends I deeply respect and admire.”

Layla looked over to where the three men, woman and child stood, all of them talking and laughing about something and she was jealous that she couldn’t join them.  They looked like a group of people she could relax and enjoy spending time with. 

“I can see why,” she told Garon.  She was looking forward to getting to know the blond.  Callie seemed like she could be a wonderful friend when Layla had thought not to have any alliances.  She’d anticipated facing a lonely existence as she learned to navigate through the politics of both marriage and administration issues but the idea of being able to confide in a good friend as well as someone also in her position, someone who knew what she was going through, made her feel…relieved.  Happier! 

“We have more people to greet, my lady,” he said and turned Layla back to the other wedding guests. 

Layla knew that it had been an honor bestowed on those leaders to be the first in line to greet the wedding couple.  But looking out into the enormous number of guests, she wasn’t sure how she was going to get through the rest of them. 

“We don’t need to speak with everyone,” Garon told her softly, obviously reading her mind.  “There are just a few important people we should speak with before we can leave.”

Layla heard those words and the prospect of greeting each and every person in this room seemed to be not such a bad idea.  At least while she was here with the guests, she wasn’t liable to throw herself into Garon’s arms.  And her clothes wouldn’t be torn apart.  She blushed, thinking about how she’d had to walk back to her rooms without underwear yesterday afternoon. 

“Come, my lady,” he said.  “Let’s get this over with so we can be alone.”

Layla bit her lower lip, but she moved forward with Garon.  One by one, she stood beside him as he introduced her to the various dignitaries and his family members.  She’d met most of them over the years, but he was introducing her to them as his wife.  It was all symbolic and she might have laughed at the whole situation if she weren’t so terrified of losing herself in Garon’s arms again. 

On one side, she supposed it was a good thing that she was sexually attracted to her husband.  Her life could be so much worse.  Her arranged marriage could have been to a disgusting, smelly, gross man with a long, weird beard and a gut that would make it difficult for him to walk. 

Looking up at Garon, she had to admit that he was shockingly handsome and he treated her kindly and respectfully.  At least when they were in front of others.  It was only when they were alone that he….

She shivered and Garon, so attuned to everything about her, looked down, his eyes silently questioning her.  She shook her head slightly and forced herself to smile.  He squeezed her hand even as he turned back to the prime minister. 

She had less than an hour of introductions before Garon started making noises that they were to leave the celebration.  Layla’s stomach tightened.  She knew what was going to happen!  This was it!  Garon would take her out of this reception and….

“What’s wrong?” he asked, bending lower so that no one else could hear their conversation.

Layla looked up at him, realizing that he was shielding her from the rest of the guests with his body and she appreciated his kindness.  “Nothing is wrong,” she told him, lying even though her trembling increased and she knew that he could feel it. 

“You’re nervous again, aren’t you?”

She bit her lip and shook her head.  “I’m fine,” she replied.

He sighed, blowing the wisps of hair off of her forehead.  “And even our activities yesterday can’t ease your fears of what is to come.”  He wasn’t asking.  He could feel it in the way her body was stiff and unyielding. 

“I’m fine, Garon,” she said, trying to be stoic even when faced with more humiliation at his hands.