At The Sheikh's Bidding
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
October 2008
ISBN: 0263864677
Harlequin Presents
September 2008
ISBN: 037312760X
Forced to marry – a sheikh!
Erin Maguire’s life changes overnight when she discovers her adopted son is heir to the throne of a desert kingdom! One minute she’s looking after little Kazim in her Yorkshire home, and the next they’re en route to Qubbah with the boy’s uncle, powerfully sexy Zahir bin Kahlid al Muntassir!
Zahir insists that Kazim remains in Qubbah. But Erin won’t leave her son, so Zahir demands that she must marry him! The chemistry between them is red-hot, but how will Erin – a virgin and a commoner – cope with being wife to a sheikh!
Erin’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re expecting me to camp out in the desert for a week – or maybe longer?’ She stared at him in horror. ‘And without Kazim?’ The thought of spending so long in Zahir’s exclusive company was frankly terrifying. ‘What will we do all day?’
At that Zahir threw back his head and gave shout of laughter. Erin had only ever heard him laughing with Kazim and she loved the warm, rich sound; the way his eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement. But his next words made her heart thump painfully in her chest.
‘Sleep I imagine,’ he drawled, the gleam in his eyes turning from humour to something altogether more nerve-racking. ‘We will be on our honeymoon and we’ll use the days to recuperate our strength from the night before and prepare ourselves for the night ahead. I may allow you out of bed long enough to swim in the pool,’ he added lazily. ‘But you will spend most of your time beneath me, or on top of me.’
His voice lowered to a husky growl that sent a quiver of reaction along Erin’s spine. ‘You can drop the act of maidenly virtue now,’ he told her bluntly as he suddenly swept her into his arms and placed her in the four-by-four. ‘Qubbah may be rooted in tradition, but I’m a modern guy and I’m happy to accept that you may have had lovers before you married my brother.’
Erin could swear she actually felt her heart plummet down to her toes, and she turned to stare at him with huge, troubled eyes when he jumped in next to her and fired the engine. She should never have lied to him, she thought frantically. ‘Zahir…I have to tell you…’
‘It’s alright; I don’t want a detailed list of your boyfriends,’ Zahir swiftly cut her off.
Sure he had a modern outlook, he assured himself. Women were equal to men, and they had just as much right to experiment with a variety of sex partners. He didn’t understand why the idea of Erin making love with any other man filled him with such savage fury. He should be pleased that she was sexually experienced, but tonight he would use every ounce of his own skill and passion to make love to her. He would teach her things that would no doubt shock her, and he would give her more pleasure than she had ever experienced - until he had driven all memories of her previous lovers from her mind for good and she thought only of him.
‘But Zahir…’
‘Leave it Erin. I have no wish to rake over your past, or list all the women who’ve shared my bed. It would take most of the night,’ he added with a self-satisfied grin, ‘and I have other plans for us tonight.’
After that they drove through the desert in a silence that stretched Erin’s nerves to snapping point, until eventually they reached an oasis. A distinctive Bedouin tent loomed out of the darkness, pitched beneath several palm trees and illuminated by flickering oil lamps. Moonlight dappled the inky surface of large natural pool, and more stars than Erin had ever imagined existed studded the sky like pins in a velvet pincushion.
Some distance away she could see more tents and, following her gaze, Zahir explained, ‘Servants’ quarters. But I don’t have many staff here, and they are under strict orders not to disturb us.’
He held out his arms to assist her down from the four-by-four, and despite her misgivings the brief contact with his body was enough to send heat coursing through Erin’s veins. The feel of his silk shirt beneath her fingertips and the sensual musk of his cologne captivated her senses, and her legs felt weak. When he opened the tent flap she stared around at the jumbled array of brightly coloured cushions and patterned rugs, and the vast, low bed set beneath a billowing canopy and draped with a satin coverlet.
It was like something out of an Arabian fantasy, and if this had been a real marriage, born of love rather than convenience, she would have adored the romantic setting. But Zahir had married her out of duty and because he wanted to have sex with her, and the knowledge that he was expecting her to join him on that huge bed made her feel as though she had turned into her mother. She was no better than a whore - for what difference did it make that she had agreed to barter her body in return for remaining with Kazim rather than hard cash?
The panic that had been building inside her since the wedding ceremony had increased tenfold on the drive from the palace, and now threatened to overwhelm her. Her voice was sharp and high-pitched when she cried, ‘I’m not sleeping with you.’
‘Sleeping was not what I had in mind either,’ Zahir drawled lazily. He strolled over to a table and lifted a bottle of champagne from an ice-bucket. ‘I can think of many, infinitely more enjoyable ways of spending my wedding night.’
He filled two glasses and offered one to Erin, but she shook her head and wrapped her arms tightly around her body. It was warm inside the tent, but her teeth were chattering and she felt horribly sick. She had only picked at the wedding feast, so her nausea was not likely to be caused by something she’d eaten. It was fear, plain and simple, she acknowledged, her eyes fixed on Zahir, and her breath caught in her throat when he began to unfasten his shirt buttons. The sight of his golden skin, overlaid with a covering of fine black hairs, and the visible ridges of his abdominal muscles shattered the last remnants of her self-control.
‘I mean it. This whole charade was a mistake.’
‘Charade?’ He frowned slightly but was not detracted from shrugging his shirt over his shoulders and allowing it to drop to the floor.
‘Our marriage,’ Erin said wildly. ‘It was a mistake and I should never have agreed to it. You used Kazim to blackmail me and that was a despicable thing to do.’
Even to he own ears she sounded close to hysteria, but she couldn’t help it. Stripped to his waist, Zahir was a demi-god who made her mouth run dry - but he was expecting a night of tempestuous passion with a woman he believed was an expert in the art of seduction. He would probably laugh if she asked him to be gentle, and think it was all part of a game she was playing. But her ‘maidenly virtue’ wasn’t an act, and wild horses would not force her into his bed.
‘I’ll sleep over at the servants’ quarters,’ she told him, hastily dropping her gaze when she caught the gleam of anger in his eyes.
To her surprise Zahir made no attempt to stop her when she wrenched the tent flap open, but his murmured, ‘Watch out for snakes,’ stopped her in her tracks.
‘What snakes?’
‘Cobras mainly, and the odd horned viper – their venom is deadly, of course, but I’m sure you’ll be fine as long as you look where you are putting your feet.’
‘But it’s dark. I won’t be able to see them.’ Erin cast a nervous glance out at the inky blackness of the desert and wondered what lurked in its mysterious shadows. Did snakes move around at night?
A faint rustling sound from a nearby bush caused her heart to practically leap from her chest, and she shrieked and jumped back inside the tent, her overwrought emotions boiling over into explosive temper when she caught sight of Zahir’s smirk.‘I’m glad you find the situation so funny!’ Suddenly she was incandescent with rage. She was tired of being manipulated, tired of being backed into a corner, and with a cry of fury she snatched up the nearest object to hand - a small glazed bowl set on a low table - and flung it at him. ‘I must have been temporarily insane when I agreed to be your wife, but my sanity has returned and I want a divorce.’
With lightening reactions Zahir caught the bowl and set it down before striding towards her, his expression darkening from amusement to anger and his eyes glittering with a primitive hunger that caused Erin’s heart to pound. ‘Oh no,’ he growled as he reached her and tangled his fingers in her hair when she turned to run. ‘This is what you want, my little wildcat - you just don’t have the guts to admit it.’
He jerked her against his chest and bent her backwards until she was sure her spine would snap. Her eyes widened in fearful anticipation when he lowered his head to hers.
‘I saw the furtive glances you gave me during the wedding feast, the hungry longing in your gaze that you thought I hadn’t noticed,’ he said harshly, his warm breath whispering across her lips. ‘I know you were imagining us together, our naked bodies pressed skin against skin, your limbs entwined with mine. And tonight it is time to turn the fantasy into reality. I will make you mine,’ he promised; his voice thick with a sexual promise that caused a mixture of apprehension and undeniable excitement to run through her. ‘I don’t know what’s caused this sudden change of heart. Maybe the wedding brought back memories of my brother. But you agreed to marry me of your own free will, and after tonight you will be in no doubt that you are my wife now, not Faisal’s.’
Erin’s cry of protest was lost beneath the fierce pressure of Zahir’s kiss. His tongue forced access into the moist warmth of her mouth, parting her lips with barely controlled savagery and exploring her with such skilled eroticism that she was powerless to fight him or the tumultuous emotions he aroused in her. He was her prince, the man of her dreams, powerful, formidable, a man who would sweep away the barriers she had built around herself and discover the intensely sensual part of her that she had tried so hard to suppress...