The Sheik's Virgin Lover (The Sisterhood) (15 page)

The banging on the door terrified her and she sat up, wondering what time it was. There were no lights on in her apartment and the sun had long since faded behind the horizon. Pushing her dark curls out of her eyes, she sat up and looked around, wondering if she’d simply imagined the knocking at her door, or maybe it had been someone knocking at an apartment further down the hallway.

But the banging came once again, this time more insistent. Looking around, she glanced at the clock, noting that it was almost three o’clock in the morning. She was surprised to realize that she’d been asleep for almost nine hours but the banging came again before she could figure out where the evening had gone.

“Emma, open this door or I’ll break it down,” Dharran’s voice came through the door.

She released the air that had been clogging up her lungs with fear that a stranger was trying to break in, she stood up and walked quickly to the door, releasing the chains and dead bolts as fast as she could. When all the locks had been released, the door swung open as Dharran pushed his way into her apartment.

“You’re here?” she said with a squeaky voice, stepping back into the tiny apartment. His height and breadth intimidated her, even though she thought she was used to him. Obviously she wasn’t. The first sight of him after so many weeks and her body started quivering in both fear and something much, much more basic.

“Of course I’m here. I told you to call me when you were ready to continue this relationship in a more formal manner.”

Emma swallowed painfully. She’d actually forgotten that conversation in her current predicament.

He eyed her features, noting the fear that entered her eyes. “You are ready to marry me, are you not?” he demanded, moving closer, looking down into her eyes. “I will not ask again, Emma. You belong to me and it’s time we finished this silliness.”

She took a deep breath and moved around him, grateful that he’d given her the space. “Dharran, we really need to talk.”

“We shall talk on the flight. A press release is already being drafted and will only require my approval once it is finished. We must be on our way, for I’m on a very tight schedule.”

Emma shivered. “Wait! This is all moving too fast! I need…”

“You need me,” he grated out, his hand capturing hers and bringing to his chest. “I need you. And I don’t have the time to worry about trivialities.”

She tried to pull her hand away but he kept it there, even pulling her closer. “Am I a triviality to you Dharran?”

“Would I be here if you were?”

She thought about it for a moment. “I might be.”

“How can you say that?”

Emma realized that she needed to be completely honest with him, for the sake of their future and the child they’d created. Taking a deep breath, she let it all out in a rush, hoping desperately that he would understand why she’d held back so much over the past several months. “Because you haven’t given me any indication that I might be more than a politically beneficial asset to your life.”

His eyes sharpened and he stepped even closer, his body pressing her against his own and the wall behind her. “Is that what you think?” he demanded.

Her body was trembling and she almost closed her eyes, but she couldn’t do that, it would cause her to lose focus and only feel instead of thinking and working through this with him. She’d done that before and the results had been….not disastrous. She couldn’t say that about the child she was carrying. Difficult, she thought. Yes, that was the best term to use for the situation they were now in.

“Dharran…” she started to say, but then his hand moved against her side and her breath caught in her throat.

“I’m right here,” he said, his voice husky and his body already reacting to being close to her. “Tell me what you want.”

To encourage her in the right direction, his mouth came down and nuzzled her neck.

“I want…” she started to say but was distracted when his teeth gently bit the side of her neck.

“Tell me,” he coached, his hand moving higher, his thumb rubbing against her already taught nipple.

Emma’s hands moved from his chest to his shoulders, gripping the muscles underneath his jacket. Frustrated with the thick material, she slid her hands underneath the fabric, ecstatic when she felt the muscles flex under her fingers. She loved knowing she wasn’t the only one that was affected when they touched.

“You,” she groaned, finally finishing her thought. A part of her mind realized that the one word wasn’t the ending to the sentence she’d originally been intending to say but when his arms pulled her up against him, she couldn’t argue any longer. Her body crushed against him, thrilled when he lifted her into his arms and carried her into her bedroom.

When he laid her down on her bed, she couldn’t talk any longer. She took him into his arms, reveling in the amazing glory she always felt when he touched her. Screaming out his name when he kissed her in the ways only he had ever done.

Several hours later as he stretched out beside her, pulling her close as his hand moved against her naked, satisfied body, Dharran said, “I think you have the smallest bed known to humanity.”

His body was pressed against her back, one arm acting as her pillow while the other hand was trailing against her but her only reaction was amusement.

Emma laughed and wiggled as his hand reached a sensitive part of her leg. “Don’t you just think you’re a bit bigger than normal.”

“No. You’re bed is small.”

Emma lifted her head and looked at her bed. The sheets and quilt were tangled at the bottom but what really caught her attention was that his feet and calves were hanging off the end. She giggled at the sight, which earned her a smack on the bottom, which was immediately soothed with the palm of his hand.

She settled her head back against his arm, feeling drowsy and content, until his hand moved from her leg around to her stomach.

“You’ve gained a bit of much needed weight.” His hand covered her stomach, slightly rounded with the child he still didn’t know about. “I like it. It makes you look incredibly sexy,” he said, his mouth nibbling her shoulder.

She held her breath, the time of reckoning now upon her and she was terrified once again. “Wasn’t I always sexy?” she asked, procrastinating just a bit longer.

His hand moved higher, cupping her breast and Emma couldn’t help it when her body arched against him. “I think you know the answer to that,” he chuckled, two fingers gently pressing her nipple, increasing the pressure slightly and making her cry out.

From experience, Emma knew where this was going and she quickly covered his hand with her own, stopping the pressure, refusing to give way to the desire that was already starting to cloud her thoughts once again. “We need to talk,” she said and sat up, sliding as far away from him as she could in the small bed, which wasn’t very far. Grabbing the sheet, she pulled it up to cover her nakedness, feeling vulnerable all of a sudden.

Dharran sighed and rolled over. “I thought we were talking.” He started to pull the sheet down, not wanting to stop his exploration of her body.

She gripped the sheet, refusing to let go and shaking her head. “No, we need to talk seriously.”

Dharran looked at her face and noted the tension. Reacting to that silent message, he stopped and turned to face her more completely, propping himself up against her headboard with her pillows. “Okay, talk.”

Emma looked at him, saw the closed expression and wished she knew what he was thinking. But this man was too adept at hiding his emotions, his thoughts. He’d been taught from childhood that letting anyone know, and therefore anticipate, his thoughts, would be dangerous.

Not able to talk to him about this when he was this close, she slipped out of bed and grabbed her robe which was still draped over the chair where she’d left it this morning. “Do you remember when I got sick last month?”

“Yes,” he said and sat up slightly in the bed, watching her like a tiger would stalk his next meal, the intensity incredible.

“Well, actually, I had to go on antibiotics,” she explained, turning her back on him, talking while she tied her robe and pulled her hair out from underneath. Her hands were fiddling in her nervousness but she couldn’t stop them. “Antibiotics and birth control don’t work well together. In fact, one stops the other from becoming one hundred percent effective,” she went on to explain.

There was silence behind her and she took a deep breath, but in the next moment, she heard the movement and the blur of his body as he shot out of the bed, still completely naked and unashamed of it. His hands grabbed her arm, spinning her around, he whipped open the robe she’d just tied a moment before, his eyes looking at her body.

Before Emma could protest, his hands smoothed over her body but this wasn’t sexual. He moved his palm against her stomach, then both hands cupped her breasts, making her gasp with both pleasure as well as fright as his eyes looked into hers. Immediately, she knew that he’d guessed what she was about to say.

“You’re pregnant,” he said fiercely, his eyes on fire as he took in her newly lush figure.

Emma’s hands had been holding his wrists, intending to push his hands away but his words stopped her. There was nothing else to say but admit the truth. “Yes.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw and he re-tied the robe. “How long have you known?”

She leaned against the dresser, feeling both relieved that he now knew, but also drained, exhausted. “I suspected last week but it was confirmed a few days ago.”

Dharran spun around and pulled on his boxers and pants, dressing quickly. “Get dressed,” he commanded, completely in “Sheik Mode” now. “We must leave immediately.

“Leave?” she asked, completely bewildered at his reaction. Wasn’t he happy? Surprised? Anything? This businesslike attitude definitely wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “Where are we going?”

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he found his jacket in the small den and searched through one of the pockets, pulling out a cell phone. He dialed a number and spoke rapidly in Arabic to someone who had answered almost immediately.

In just his slacks, unbuckled at the waist, he looked extraordinary. Even though he was in “Sheik Mode”, he still tempted her like no other man had ever done. Not even close. He could have been a male model with his chiseled stomach and arms bulging with muscles. There wasn’t a lot of hair, but just enough to tempt a woman to run her fingers across his chest. She’d done that often enough, reveling in the amazing feel of his skin and muscles.

She loved this man. With her whole heart. Even in this kind of mood, she loved him knowing that he had switched off his emotions to get things accomplished. He still scared her, but more because of what he made her feel rather than what he might do to her. He’d never hurt her, at least not intentionally. And definitely not physically. She knew with every fiber of her being that he would protect her from physical harm. But he couldn’t protect her heart. Since she’d been doing that for so many years, she knew that was what scared her about him the most. He could break her heart.

“Emma, get dressed,” he urged with a hiss, snapping off the phone and moving through the apartment to collect his clothes, shaking his head as he found his shirt behind a chair and his tie draped over the lamp. Since it was right next to her bra, she had no doubt how it had gotten there.

As she watched him, acknowledging the point where her fears clouded her thinking, she faced him calmly for the first time. “Not until you explain where we’re going and why this is so urgent.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, letting him know that she was serious.

Dharran came to stand close to her, towering over her smaller height but she continued to stand firm, her eyes calm and serious, not letting him get to her as he normally did. She had to, otherwise, he would run right over her and she’d be crushed.

“We’re going to my home. The announcement of our marriage must be made so the legitimacy of my son won’t be questioned.”

Although his words made her heart flutter and her stomach tighten with terror, she remained outwardly calm. “First of all, it’s going to be a girl. Secondly, I haven’t agreed to marry you so there won’t be any announcement.”

He was pulling on his shirt when she spoke but her words spun him around in anger. “What the hell do you mean? We must marry. This is no longer a choice, this is political.”

She refused to let him know how much his words hurt her. Squaring her shoulders, she faced him with as much confidence as she could dredge up while standing in a bath robe in the early hours of the morning. “This is not political to me. And if you want me to marry you, then you’d better turn it around and make it something more than political for you.”

They stood there, her arms crossed over her chest, his fists on his hips, both of them glaring at the other. “You’re being ridiculous Emma.”

She mimicked his posture and leaned forward. “No, I’m not being ridiculous. You’re being stupid!” she almost shouted back at him.

Dharran couldn’t believe his ears. This tiny little woman had no idea what the ramifications of her announcement created but here she stood, throwing words at him that made absolutely no sense. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down and understand what he could do to make her grasp the issues here, but that deep breath only brought her scent into his nostrils, flaring his senses and filling him up with the essence of her femininity. Instantly, he was hard and aching to possess her soft body once again, to hear her cry out his name as she found satisfaction in his arms, clinging to him and making him feel more powerful than he’d ever thought possible, just because she was wrapped around him.