Christmas Bride For The Sheikh

‘Last night I asked Maggie to marry me.’

Hazin suddenly felt caught.

Nothing at all had happened between Maggie and himself. It had been a set-up and the cameras watching had hoped something would.

It hadn’t.

But Hazin had asked the Palace to pay the ransom demand because of the conversation that had taken place between them. Thankfully, though, their voices had not been recorded and so no one other than Maggie knew what had been said.

He had spoken openly, perhaps far too openly, but he had felt safe in the knowledge he would never see Maggie again.

Yet now he was being told she was to marry his brother!

Had she told Ilyas what he had said?

‘Maggie is pregnant,’ Ilyas told him. ‘The baby is due in three months.’

‘So while you were nailing me to the wall for something Maggie and I didn’t do, all the time you were—’

‘Hazin,’ Ilyas interrupted, ‘I had Maggie brought to the desert to find out what was going on, because I assumed she was blackmailing you. She wasn’t. We fell in love.’

And that silenced Hazin, for it was something he’d never thought he would hear from Ilyas’s mouth.

His brother had always seemed cold and aloof and yet he was sitting in a café, telling him there would be changes in the Palace and that he had fallen in love.

And, yes, Maggie had spoken.

The content of the conversation had been private. Words had been said to a stranger with confidence they would never meet again.

Instead, Ilyas relayed what he had said that day.

‘Maggie told me you said on the yacht that you hoped to be disinherited.’

‘Well, she shouldn’t have repeated what was clearly a private conversation,’

‘It remains just between us. I shall not be taking what was said to the elders.’

Oh, Ilyas was so controlled and formal, Hazin thought, and shot him a look as he spoke on.

‘I understand too that you don’t want to speak at Petra’s anniversary...’

‘Maggie’s been busy!’ Hazin sneered.

‘I had to drag the conversation from her.’

Hazin felt as if his most private thoughts were being raked over by a stranger.

‘I know this must be difficult for you,’ Ilyas attempted. ‘You must miss Petra—’

He knew nothing.

Ilyas, who had always been so distant, suddenly reaching out did not sit right with Hazin.

‘We don’t talk, Ilyas. We never have, unless it was you telling me to raise my game. You know nothing of my life yet ten years after Petra’s death you sit here and tell me you know how I feel?’ Hazin shook his head. ‘Too late.’

‘No.’ Ilyas said. ‘I want—’

‘You can keep wanting, then,’ Hazin said. ‘But I have no desire to come back home, and certainly not for a wedding.’

The last one he had been to had been his own.

They had all assumed he had been blinded with grief since Petra’s death and that was why he had gone off the rails.

They didn’t know him at all and it was too late now to try.

‘Why didn’t you show up last night?’ Hazin asked.

He saw Ilyas’s slight eyebrow rise at the odd question, given the rather vital news, but Hazin was starting to realise what might have occurred.

‘I went to see Maggie,’ he said. ‘She was actually on her way to try and meet you, so you could have me contact her.’

Hazin pressed his fingers into his forehead and closed his eyes. He could see now what had happened. Worse, he could see himself tossing Flo her clothes and shouting at her to get out.

He had to get back and try to explain somehow, and now had no desire to play catch-up with his brother.

‘Good luck with the wedding,’ Hazin said, and stood.

Ilyas did not try to dissuade him from leaving. They may not have been close, but he knew his younger brother would take time later to think it through.

And Hazin would.

Right now there was somewhere else he needed to be.

He walked briskly back to the hotel and took the elevator up to his floor. He pulled out his card and swiped the door open.

Too late.

Flo was gone.

He had known that she would be.

Hazin really hadn’t imagined he’d find her sitting there, tucking into breakfast. Instead it had been set up on the table and remained untouched.

He walked through to the bedroom and the unmade bed.

There was the towel he had dropped on the floor and there was another so he guessed she must have showered and left.

Hazin walked back to the untouched breakfast and felt a curl of guilt when he saw a box of tissues by the window and a little pile of knotted ones.

She’d been crying.

Hazin was very used to being a deliberate bastard.

This morning he’d been an inadvertent one.

CHAPTER FOUR

IF EVER THERE was a walk of shame, this was one. Not only was Flo clearly wearing last night’s clothes, she’d also had to go down to the bar to retrieve her phone.

When she stepped out onto the street it was raining.

Of course it was, Flo thought as she trudged in high heels towards the underground.

What on earth had she been thinking last night?

Only she hadn’t been thinking—one look into those smoky eyes and she’d forgotten why she was even at Dion’s. How the hell was she going to tell Maggie the mess she had made of things?

And where the hell was Maggie?

Flo turned on her phone and on a cold, miserable wet morning there was suddenly a reason to smile.

Ilyas had proposed.

Oh, she was going to start crying again and hadn’t thought to stuff her purse with tissues from the hotel.

So she used the back of her hand and read on and saw that Maggie wanted her to come straight over.

Er, that would be a no.

Flo first went back to her tiny flat and pulled on something a bit less last night!

Then she did what she could with foundation because her chin was a little red and her mouth was all swollen from his delicious kisses and soft nips with his teeth.

She was going to start crying again, but that would not do.

So, instead of weeping, Flo headed over to her friend’s and bought a bunch of flowers on the way.

‘What happened?’ Flo smiled, putting her own woes aside to celebrate the wonderful news with her friend, though there were rather too many stars in Maggie’s eyes to see the threat of tears in Flo’s.

‘A lot,’ Maggie said. ‘I was just on my way to meet you when Ilyas came to the door. I’m so sorry I left you waiting...’

‘Of course you did!’ Flo said, for she totally understood the wonderful surprise that it must have been. ‘What did he say about the baby?’

‘He’s thrilled,’ Maggie said, but then her face became worried. ‘I don’t know how the people will react, though, or his family. Flo, there is so much going on back in Zayrinia—Ilyas has challenged his father, the King.’

‘What does that even mean?’

‘That Ilyas is to be the silent leader. From now on nothing is to get passed without his approval. He has told his father that if he doesn’t comply then he will take it to the people.’

‘What does that mean for you?’

‘I’m not sure. I know that there’s unrest amongst the people and that there has been a lot of unhappiness at the Palace. Ilyas wants change. He’s gone to speak with his brother to see if he has his backing.’

Flo held her breath. She doubted she’d be at the forefront of Hazin’s thoughts when he found out his brother was challenging the King, yet there was a tiny dart of hope that Hazin would maybe understand that she hadn’t been at Dion’s last night to seduce him.

Maggie had more news as well. ‘After Ilyas has spoken with Hazin he’s heading back to Zayrinia. Now that I’ve accepted his proposal I’m not allowed to see him until we marry.’

‘At all?’ Flo checked, and Maggie nodded. ‘So when will you marry?’

‘Two weeks’ time!’

‘Oh, my!’ Flo looked at her friend and asked, perhaps, a stupid question, but it was all too much to take in. ‘You’ll live in Zayrinia?’

Maggie nodded. ‘I’ll still see you, though.’

Yes, Flo thought, but it won’t be the same. She looked around Maggie’s room within a flat, which she had helped her move into not long ago. She was thrilled for her friend but at the same time Flo was daunted by the distance. Maggie felt more like a sister than a friend. Flo stopped by the café where Maggie worked most days for a catch-up. She had a drawer full of clothes and necessities that she’d been buying for the baby.

And now both Maggie and the baby were moving away—in two weeks’ time!

‘I’m going to miss you,’ Flo admitted.

‘I won’t give you a chance to. But, Flo, I’m so scared it will all go wrong. What if his father doesn’t accept his choice of bride? This challenge to the King is so new and it was made before he knew about the baby. Ilyas knows that nothing happened between Hazin and me on the yacht but what if his parents don’t believe us?’

‘Maggie...’ Flo attempted to calm her friend but Maggie was a touch frantic.

‘I just don’t want anything to go wrong.’

‘It won’t,’ Flo said assuredly, deciding that now possibly wasn’t the best time to tell Maggie she had just come from Hazin’s bed! Maybe once the wedding was over and done with she would tell her friend what had happened last night.

But maybe not!

‘You will come to the wedding?’ Maggie checked.

‘Of course I’ll be there,’ Flo said as she mentally stared down the eye of the off-duty roster. She had fought hard to have three weeks off at Christmas. It would be her first Christmas off since she had started nursing, but she would forfeit it if meant she could be there for her friend. ‘I’ll call work now.’ Flo said. ‘I’ll see if I can swap some annual leave.’

Yet she didn’t have to!

She and Maggie would arrive two days before the wedding and, Flo was delighted to find out, they would be flying in on Ilyas’s plane.

And, given Maggie and Ilyas would be off to the desert straight afterwards, she didn’t need much time off work.

It just meant a jiggle of the roster and Flo got to keep her Christmas leave.

Of course, while organising her leave there was a coil of hope rising that she would get to see Hazin!

* * *

It was the busiest run-up to a wedding and was beyond exciting.

Maggie sorted out her life and planned her big move, and Flo worked right up to the last minute.

‘I am so tired,’ she admitted, as she and Maggie, along with a couple of other good friends—Paul the café manager and his wife Kelly—all collapsed on the sumptuous leather seats on Ilyas’s private jet. ‘But not too tired for champagne!’

It was brilliant.

A whirlwind.

The take-off was abrupt and then they were served a sumptuous lunch of dips and then a delectable kuku sabzi—a Persian herb frittata with walnuts, decorated with crushed rose petals and berberis leaves, all washed down with a sweet hibiscus tea.

Paul and Kelly went for a rest in one of the guest cabins but Flo refused hers; instead, she and Maggie went into the Royal suite.

‘Oh, my gosh!’ Flo said. ‘You and Ilyas get to have sex here!’

There was a huge bed draped in furs, and the lighting was demure. It was just a sexy man cave miles in the sky. ‘Is this just for Ilyas?’ Flo asked, fishing a little.

‘It is.’ Maggie nodded.

‘What about his parents?’

‘They have their own plane.’

‘And the brother?’ Flo, oh, so casually asked.

‘Hazin has his own, I believe,’ Maggie said. ‘They do their own thing.’

They lay on the bed together and marvelled at the journey ahead, as well as the one that had brought them here.

It was so nice to take some time out, for they simply had not had a chance to just relax and talk.

‘What will happen about your antenatal care?’ Flo asked.

‘I’ll have the Palace doctor apparently.’

‘What about scans and things?’

‘Anything I need shall be brought to the Palace but if there’s a problem in labour and I need to go to the hospital there’ll be a helicopter on standby.’ She must have seen the dart of concern in Flo’s eyes for Maggie spoke on. ‘It’s a ten-minute flight away. I don’t think they’ll be taking any chances with the future King.’

‘Of course not.’ Flo agreed, and then sighed. ‘I’d have loved to deliver you.’

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