The Sheikh's Christmas Present (Shadid Sheikhs 2)

Feeling almost queasy, she stumbled from the bed and grabbed her laptop. Pulling up the shared documents from the charity, she did a quick search to find the newest donations that had prompted Sebastian to send new toys.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unless the two crates that she’d just picked up were filled with cash, there was no way that it contained hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of toys, and yet the inventory list claimed that the new donations were already spent.

“This is not happening,” she whispered. “Sebastian, what are you doing?”

The door to the bathroom opened, and Maria immediately closed the laptop. The last thing that she wanted to do was alert Jarik to her new problems. He had enough of his own, and she didn’t want him to feel like he had to help her any more.

“Wow,” Jarik whispered as he stared at her. “I was all set to get back in the air again, but seeing you naked, kneeling on the floor, is making me want to stick around a little longer.”

Forcing a laugh, she stood. “Don’t get any ideas. We need to get to Syria. Now.”

“Sure.” He ran a towel through his wet hair and studied her. “You look tense. Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine. The snow has stopped, and today I’ll get to see the faces of all the children who are so excited for Christmas.”

And she’d be able to get her hands on Sebastian. If he kept going the way that he was, she would have to choose between the charity and her brother.

Assuming there was any charity left to protect.

11

The flight to Syria was uneventful, but there was a knot in the pit of Maria’s stomach when there were no trucks to pick up the crates. Thanks to Jarik’s money and her temper, the airport organized a few trucks to unload the crates, but it took way too long. By the time they got to the camp, it was dusk.

And Sebastian was nowhere to be found.

“You made it!” Tessa shrieked as she ran to them. “I can’t believe you made it on time.”

Maria hugged her friend and laughed when she looked around. Despite the dire circumstances of the camp, Tessa had managed to make it look like a Christmas wonderland. “Tessa, you are seriously talented!” she sighed as she smiled. “This is beautiful!”

“Thanks, but I didn’t do it on my own. The kids here adored decorating. They did most of it. I gave them the decorations, and they went to town!”

“That’s fantastic. Okay, I have to unload the crates and organize the packages. Do you have a wish list from the parents? I want to make sure that everyone gets at least one thing from their list. Then we can dole out the rest based on need. Where is Sebastian?”

“Sebastian?” A strange look crossed Tessa’s face. “I assumed that he was with you.”

“Are you kidding me? He should have been here hours ago!” Maria raked her fingers through her hair and looked frantically around. What the hell was he doing if he wasn’t here?

“You talked to your brother?” Jarik asked softly. “You didn’t tell me that.”

Damn. She’d completely forgotten that he was standing there. “Yeah, he called me this morning while you were in the shower. He should have gotten here long before I did.”

She could tell that Jarik didn’t love that she hadn’t told him, but he didn’t push the situation. “Tessa, if you get me to the people in charge, I’ll make sure the crates are unloaded before dark.”

“Please don’t throw your money around, Jarik. Not here.”

He stilled and stared at her. “What do you mean not here?”

“This is a place for people who have nothing. It would be embarrassing if we just flung money around like it was nothing,” The words were out of her mouth before she thought them through, and she saw the hurt that flashed across his face. “Jarik, I didn’t mean it like that.”

He held up his hand. “It’s fine, Maria. I’ll see if I can get things done without flinging money around,” he growled. As he turned and stalked away, Maria closed her eyes and moaned.

Tessa grabbed her arm. “Sweetheart, what’s going on?”

“The world hates me,” she muttered. “Come on. I’ll tell you tonight.”

Jarik was tense while they worked to get the crates off the truck. She wanted to reach over and touch him, but being out in the open like this stopped her. And the one time that he touched her, she pulled away.

“Maria,” he muttered. “Don’t do this.”