The Sheikh's Secret Princess (The Quabeca Sheiks 3)

The King returned to his office promptly. He had a meeting that he had completely forgotten about. Time flew whilst he was talking to Zara. His only regret was that he had spoken about his marital issues most of the time. He wished he had gotten to know more about Zara. However, she seemed like a closed person. She was not going to open up easily.

Oo00oO

Tiana was having the worst day of her life. First, the queen had forbid her from leaving the palace. When she attempted to leave without the queen’s knowledge to go into town, she found that the drivers had been forbidden from taking her anywhere. She was palace bound and furious. Amira had stopped her from getting her dresses made and now she was not allowed to leave the palace.

Second, since news travelled fast in the palace, she had heard that the King had spent his afternoon with a palace maid. Even though it sounded innocent, there was no reason for him to speak to a maid unless he was issuing an order. Tiana was unsettled. She did not like this idea of him spending so much time with a lowly maid.

“It could have been a one off occasion, my lady,” Miriam said to Tiana.

“One too many!” Tiana cried out.

“It is probably nothing.”

“Fine. But I am never wrong about these things. If they ever meet again, I want to know about it.”

“Yes, my lady. I will keep an ear out,” Miriam bowed her head.

Tiana sighed deeply. It was bad enough that she had to deal with the queen; she did not want to have another woman to deal with. She was done being merciful. The King belonged to her and she was prepared to take any steps necessary to assure that remained true.

Oo00oO

The queen was enjoying her power trip. It brought her joy to make Tiana miserable. She had stopped her chauffeur services. She knew how much Tiana loved to be out and about. That definitely would have infuriated her. However, the queen was only getting warmed up. She was not going to stop until Tiana knew her place, until she understood that she had no power that she was only a mistress. Perhaps, if she made her miserable enough, she would leave.

The queen made a trip to the King's office later that day where he found her waiting for him outside his office. When he asked her why she waited for him; she could have simply sent a maid to summon him to her quarters, she told him that she wanted to spend more time with him.

They returned to Amira's quarters together. She had the maids prepare a special supper for the King consisting of his favourite foods. Her plan was to feed him his favourite foods and then have him spend the night in her quarters. She had to win the King back and she knew that Tiana would be angry about it. It was perfect.

The King enjoyed the dinner. The food and wine were great. The conversation was perfect. It had been a while since the King had enjoyed the queen's company. After dinner, they retired to her bedroom. The queen was pleased that everything was going according to plan. She slipped into an appealing nightdress and got into bed with the King. She leaned in to kiss him, but instead of responding with passion, the King gave her a chaste kiss, but refused to go further. He simply wanted to go to sleep. The queen had not anticipated that at all.

The next morning, the queen had breakfast with the King and acted as if nothing had happened. She did not want to show him that it had bothered her. Her mission was to keep him happy and annoy Tiana. It was a well-kept secret that the King refused any sexual liaisons with her. Tiana w

ould have no way of knowing that the King did not touch her unless he told her, so it was still a winning situation, but Amira knew that if she was going to produce an heir things would have to change soon. She made sure to kiss the King goodbye as he left for the office. She knew that kiss was going to be the talk of the palace. News always travelled fast.

And indeed, it travelled fast. Tiana threw her breakfast plate on the floor as she sat there huffing with anger. Her maids asked her to calm down but she couldn't. She was too angry. She knew the queen was doing all of this to get under her skin. The queen was flaunting her power and humiliating Tiana. The whole palace was talking about the kiss and how the queen walked with the King from his office. They were saying that the queen was back as his favourite.

“She will never win back the King's heart; she never had it,” Tiana said to Miriam.

“The King is very smart, he will see through her. Do not worry about her winning him over,” Miriam said to Tiana.

Miriam was Tiana's friend long before she became the King's mistress. When she was brought to the palace and became the King's official mistress, she brought Miriam with her as her head maid. They were very close and Tiana routinely confided in and plotted with her.

“Fine, I will sit back and see how far she goes, but I will be prepared to hit back.”

“Yes, my lady, allow the queen to play all her cards.”

“I have to get pregnant before her,” Tiana said with a tight smile. That shouldn't be too hard for her to achieve, so long as she could prevent the King from copulating with the queen instead of with her. If she was with child, then Amira could do nothing to her. The queen may have drawn first blood, but she was going to make sure she drew the last.

Chapter 6

The King sat with his queen and mistress for their weekly breakfast. The air was thick with tension. The King ate his breakfast silently; he expected them to fight about something. He simply wanted to finish his breakfast and leave as quickly as possible. While he could tolerate them individually, collectively they had grown intolerable. It was now worse for them to be together because of the past week. Despite appealing to Tiana to behave, he knew that she was going to hit back any time soon. There was no way that she would let the queen do what she wanted with her. She was not that type of woman.

“You look nice today,” the queen said to Tiana. The King almost choked on his drink when he heard her. Was Amira really complimenting Tiana? Never in his relationship with them both had he witnessed that. Tiana looked up and gave her a forced smile. She could hear the sarcasm in that statement. She was saying that she looked nice in her old clothes, rubbing it in that she had prevented Tiana from getting new clothes made for her.

“Don't I always?” Tiana asked. She knew the queen wanted a reaction out of her. The King saw Tiana smiling at the queen and frowned. Obviously, something was happening. He sighed and shook his head.

“Hmm,” Amira sounded and sipped her tea.

Tiana picked up a knife and looked at the queen. “Shall I cut you...,” she paused for a second. The King whipped his head in her direction. “A slice of melon, my queen?” she finished her sentence with a smirk. The queen narrowed her gaze. She wanted to grab the knife and cut her instead.