The Sheik's Son (34 page)

“Yes. Things are getting bad here,” he agreed. “I plan to take Leila on an extended holiday through the continent.” Etienne smiled at Leila across the room.

Sebastian nodded in approval of the plan. Leila and Etienne journeying away from France eased his mind.

Sophie moved near the punch bowl as Leila came to stand beside her.

“My mother mentioned being a grandmother again. I think it will be sooner than she thinks.” Leila patted her stomach and almost giggled.

Sophie widened her eyes but understood. She knew that Leila and Etienne had been lovers before their marriage and a child was a natural occurrence.

“Does anyone know?” Sophie smiled.

She shook her head. “Etienne, of course, but no one else.”

Sophie kissed her sister-in-law on the cheek and smiled. “I am to be an aunt.”

“Yes.”

Leila moved away and Sebastian replaced her. “You are smiling,” he told his wife.

“Yes. Apparently I am to be an aunt soon.” She smiled widely.

Sebastian was at first confused, then it dawned on him. “The little minx!”

“It is natural, Bash,” she replied.

“It is indeed, Sophie. In fact, I think I should remind you how natural it is.”

Sophie playfully pulled away from him. “You are insatiable!”

“I am!” he agreed.

She shook her head and joined Katharine and the other women in conversation. However, on the carriage ride home, Sebastian had his revenge.

“I have been desiring you all day, wife.”

Sophie looked at him from across the carriage. “We’ll be home soon enough.”

He shook his head and kneeled at her feet. “Not soon enough.”

His hands moved up the lilac colored skirts and petticoats and saw the silk stockings and garters upon her delectable legs. The silk stockings were smooth under his hands but he preferred her naked flesh.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “Bash.”

He remained kneeling at her feet and easily pressed her legs apart as she lay back in the carriage. He saw the tight curls decorating her delicate pussy and admired the most feminine part of her.

“Sophie, my love.”

He rubbed his finger against the lips and the dewy moisture between her legs saturated his finger. He almost lost himself. She looked down at him as he raised himself up and unbuttoned his breeches. She watched his beautiful hands as he moved his fingers down his thick shaft.

He pulled her body into his, impaling her upon his thickness.

She cried out as he filled her completely, setting a pace of moving in and out of her. They rocked together, mimicking the swaying of the carriage.

She remained like this with her legs splayed open as her husband pumped between her white thighs. She pushed her hips back to meet his thrusts.

“Yes, Sophie.”

Together they both climaxed as the carriage slowed to a stop. Sebastian pressed her skirts down and buttoned his breeches just as the driver opened the door.

She had to hide her wide smile as Sebastian helped her out of the carriage. A simple carriage would never seem the same to her, she thought.

Chapter 26

Sophie was enjoying the ball immensely. Katharine had introduced her to several people she didn’t know and her father and grandmother were mingling happily. She noticed Madame Necker, Lizette and several of her other friends socializing while the orchestra played splendidly.

It was a damp night with rain in the air, and several people shivered as they joined the queue in the foyer.

Katharine and Mohammed greeted their guests and Sophie watched the ease with which they handled themselves. They were a royal couple indeed.

She noticed that for all of Mohammed’s masculinity, he was entranced by his wife. His hand often lingered on Katharine’s hip, which was draped in the finest silver silk.

Katharine held a wine glass in one hand while her other hand was on her husband’s shoulder. Sophie smiled at their closeness.

Sebastian watched Sophie watch his parents and he asked her about it.

“They seem so at ease and so in love,” she remarked.

“They are. My father went through much to safeguard my mother. He never stopped until she was his. It is a true love,” he replied.

Sophie nodded.

“As ours is,” he whispered in her ear seductively and then turned to circulate.

She saw her father speaking with several gentlemen, and her grandmother speaking with Katharine.

As this was their first public ball as a married couple, people who had not attended the wedding ceremony took the opportunity to congratulate her now.

The rented house was quite large, with several rooms being used for food and to gather while others remained empty. Along the foyer, a carved staircase swirled up onto the second floor, which held several more rooms.

It was not unlike her father’s home and the house she shared with Sebastian in its layout and design. She passed a library and small salon and rested her hand along the staircase railing. She moved upstairs and passed several bedrooms and a long corridor filled with paintings. The last door was closed and she opened it and stepped inside.

It was a charming nursery decorated with cheerful wallpaper of a frolicking baby boy and puppy. The owner must have recently had a child before they rented the home to her in-laws. Her hand went unconsciously to her own flat belly and wondered how long it would be before she conceived a child with Sebastian.

The infant’s wooden cradle was empty and painted white with small yellow flowers. A chair with a blanket thrown over it was near the cradle. She could imagine a young mother nursing her baby in this room.

She shook her head. She was being rude. A party was being thrown in her honor and she was upstairs in the nursery. She must rejoin the party.

She turned slightly at the sound of the door opening and closing and her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the red-haired man.

“What are you doing here?” Sophie whispered.

“Why,
madame
, the same as everyone else. I came to congratulate the young couple on their wedded bliss.”

Sophie stood rooted to the spot.

“I assume it is bliss, is it not?” he mocked.

“Your insinuation being—”

“My insinuation being that when you first married, your husband slept apart from you,” the inspector sneered.

“That is no longer the case,” she said breathlessly.

“Oh, excellent. I thought perhaps I would have to step in and do the deed myself. We can’t have a married virgin,” Alain sneered.

Sophie winced at his coarse words. “What do you want, inspector?”

He looked at her in the darkened nursery and licked his lips. “I want what I assume your husband stole from me.”

“I know nothing of that,” she lied.

He advanced upon her. “Do you remember when I told you that you were just a pretty stepping stone?”

She nodded, looking into his cold blue eyes.

He pressed her into the wall, his hands upon her forearms.

“I have plans and dreams that will not be discarded because some silly little slut uses her charms to get what she wants,” Alain said.

Sophie was shocked at his words.

“I have need of you yet,” he said.

“You hold nothing over me,” she flung back at him.

Alain smiled, his hands squeezing her arms and pressing her into the wall. “I don’t need your revolutionary writings. All I need is to tell you this: If you don’t help me gain access to your father’s office again, there might be an accident.”

Sophie’s eyes widened. “What kind of accident?”

Alain tsk-tsked her. “The kind that happens all the time in Paris. Yes. It might be a carriage wheel that falls off, sending its inhabitants to an early grave. Or it might be a savage attack to steal one’s purse. So unfortunate.”

Sophie shook her head against his words. “No.”

“And then, my dear
madame
, you will go back to wearing that mourning dress, as befits a widow.” He pressed against her and then released her.

She could feel the bruises on her arms. “So you threaten my husband’s life to make me help you steal again?”

“I will do whatever it takes to achieve what I want,” he said with cold reserve.

Sophie bowed her head. “Very well, inspector.”

“Good.” Alain nodded.

She left the room, with the inspector following close behind her. She must find Sebastian and explain to him what had just happened. She must find a way to have the inspector removed from duty and from their lives. She trembled as she placed her hand on the staircase railing.

Sebastian had been looking for Sophie for close to ten minutes. He had asked several people but no one had seen her. She was nowhere to be found. It was at this moment that he looked up and saw Sophie exiting an upstairs room. Her face was pale and she looked distraught.

She was at the staircase when he saw the inspector walking behind her. He took in his wife’s pale face and the inspector’s gloating one and knew instinctively that something had happened. The man had done something to her. He knew it.

He moved quickly to the staircase and positioned Sophie safely behind him. Then, without thinking he slammed his fist against Alain’s face, causing the man to fall backwards against the marble steps.

“What did you do to her?” he looked quickly from Alain to Sophie.

As he looked over Sophie’s body and dress, he noticed her pale face but also the red marks on her upper arms.

“Bastard!” he yelled while the entire assembly gathered below in the foyer turned deathly quiet.

“Did he touch you?” he asked Sophie.

“Bash please!” She didn’t want her husband hurt. She wanted the inspector stopped, but not at his expense.

“No! What did he do?” Bash asked again, but louder.

Alain pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and almost smirked. “You’ll regret laying hands on me.”

Sophie pulled at Sebastian. “He told me he would hurt you if I didn’t help him gain access to my father’s papers.”

“My God! When will you stop? When?!” Sebastian yelled.

“I think I can safely say your wife will be in jail before the night’s end, and you as well for assaulting an inspector.” Alain touched his lip.

Sebastian ground his teeth and then turned down the stairs, searching for something. Two men stood nearby, each with a saber on their person. He nodded to them and asked for the sabers, which they relinquished.

Alain was standing near the top of the stairs as Sebastian rejoined him, mounting the staircase and throwing a saber at his feet.

“I demand satisfaction!” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “You have laid hands upon my wife.”

A murmur went through the crowd and even Etienne was shocked. Mohammed and Katharine watched quietly, but no one moved forward to stop what was happening.

Alain hated Sebastian and everything his class stood for. Without thinking, he picked up the saber and slashed into the air, clashing his sword with Sebastian’s. The slash was close to Sophie, who remained on the staircase with the men, and several people gasped.

Sophie inched her way down the staircase away from the two men, coming to rest next to Katharine and Leila at the bottom of the stairs.

“How dare you touch her? Your greed for power will be your undoing,” Sebastian yelled.

The entire foyer was filled to the brim with people as they watched the two men duel. The orchestra had stopped playing and even those guests who came for the food and drink paused what they were doing to watch the fight.

Sebastian countered the attack, smashing his saber into Alain again and again, sending the man up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Sebastian had misjudged the distance and Alain came toward him, kicking him with all his might and sending him flying down the steps into several casual observers. The spectators moved back as the duel was gaining momentum and ground.

Sebastian had the wind knocked out of him but recovered quickly, just in time to defend himself as Alain came towards him and slashed into the air again. He blocked it, but not before Alain’s saber pierced his arm.

Sebastian gasped out loud, as did the people watching. The blood seeped into his coat and Sophie covered her mouth with her hand. Alain sliced into the air, meeting Sebastian’s saber and then hitting him in the face with his elbow.

Sebastian countered the attack with a quick punch to the inspector’s stomach.

When Alain doubled over, Sebastian stood with the saber held under the other man’s chin.

“It’s over, Vennard,” he said calmly.

Sebastian made eye contact with Etienne and his father, who nodded. They would have the inspector arrested for threatening Sophie and for threatening to kill Sebastian.

Slowly, Alain straightened and was seemingly defeated and apologetic. His sword hung at his side. As soon as he moved almost next to Sebastian, he whirled around and grabbed Sophie by the waist.

“Bash!” she cried out.

Alain held her tightly while his saber was underneath Sebastian’s chin, keeping him at a distance.

“Let her go, Vennard. You hurt her and you’ll spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder. I promise you,” Sebastian swore.

Holding Sophie close to him and using her as a shield, Alain moved through the crowd, trying to find an opening. He slashed at the people in front of him and watched as Sebastian moved just out of reach but still close enough to pounce.

Sophie felt the grip of Alain on her waist, her eyes on her husband, who kept her in his sight.

Suddenly Alain saw his chance. He threw Sophie at Sebastian and muttered, “This isn’t over.”

Sophie made contact with Sebastian but then stepped out of the way. Sebastian sliced the air and his saber hit home across Alain’s back. The inspector turned, crying out and tried to retaliate but his saber met with only air not hitting its intended target.

The crowd had parted behind him just as Sebastian’s saber found home again, this time in the inspector’s arm. Alain clutched his arm in pain and yelped. He was swinging wildly and made a hasty exit using the saber as a weapon so people would move away.

Sebastian tried to chase Alain, but it was dark outside and once the inspector left the house, he blended into the Paris night.