To Touch a Sheikh (Pride of Zohayd 3)

“Still too generous…” He tugged a lock in gentle scolding. “Too gullible. All I gave you was ‘some persistence, a few well-placed touches and a couple of strategically timed tears.’” Hearing her exact taunt surprised her so much, a laugh coughed through the sobs. “All I was here to ask for was a chance. But you again do the unexpected and drown me in undeserved and unreserved pardon. You made it too easy for me for too long, Maram. I had hopes you could develop the grit needed to keep me in line when you put me through the wringer. Don’t go soft on me now.”

“I want to.” She flung her arms around him. The emotions in his eyes were undeniable anymore, fierce and profound, releasing the reserves of love and longing she’d been suppressing. “I’m dying to revert to my natural state and go soft all over you.”

Two more unbelievable tears spilled from his eyes.

Before she could beg him not to punish her with the sight of his suffering, a smile quivered on his lips as he stepped away, brooking no clinging. “Hold that thought.”

He was at the door before she squeaked, “Just what is this incontrovertible proof you intend to provide?”

He looked over his shoulder, and she gasped.

Her Amjad, bedeviling and beloved, looked back at her. “As if I’d tell you and have you meddle with it.”

Her legs gave out at his sudden wink.

She collapsed on the sofa, heard him say before he disappeared, “Stand back and watch the Mad Prince work.”

“What the hell did you do to Amjad, Maram?”

Maram almost dropped the phone. A lion had roared in her ear.

“Harres, is that you?”

“I’m not sure.” His sarcasm almost hurt. “I woke up this morning as me, Zohayd’s minister of interior. An hour ago I found myself its Crown Prince.”

Confusion hit her. “What?” Then alarm rose. “How?” Then dread detonated. “Amjad! Where is he?”

“You tell me,” Harres growled. “He said something about proving to you that only you matter, dragged me to a general assembly council meeting, announced that he was abdicating his title to me effective immediately and irreversibly, terrorized everyone, starting with our father, into supplying their tribal seals on his petition, then disappeared off the face of the earth.”

Maram stared down at the papers clutched in her hands.

She’d gotten them minutes ago. Her mind had already been stalled by the enormity of their contents. Amjad, proclaiming his paternity of their baby, his responsibility, yet forfeiting any rights, giving them to her, also irrevocably. Now this.

“So again…” Harres’s bark jogged her out of her stupor. “How did you drive him out of his mind, for real this time?”

“I—I didn’t…”

She stopped. Because she had. When she’d accused him of using her to secure his throne and heir. Relinquishing both was his incontrovertible proof that, to him, only she mattered.

“Don’t give me any bull, Maram. I’m worried about him for the first time since his ex almost killed him. You may not have hurt him physically, but you did an even worse number on him in every other way. He said he wasn’t coming back, and it scares the hell out of me that I believe him. So whatever you did, Maram, undo it, or I’ll be your enemy for—”

“Harres!” She shouted to stem his ferocity. “Be whatever you wish after we find hi…” Words petered out. She knew where Amjad was. Urgency bludgeoned her heart. “Do you know where he took me?”

A beat of silence. “I’ll look for him there.”

“Not without me, you won’t.”

“Why do you want to see him? To hurt him some more?”

“To undo what I did.”

“Undo it when I bring him back. If he wants to see you.”

“I swear, Harres, I’ll hurt you if you’re not here as fast as one of your state-of-the-art fighter helicopters can bring you!”

And she terminated the call.

An hour and ten minutes later, the sound of a military helicopter interrupted Maram’s feverish plans to hurt Harres.

The second the chopper touched ground, she streaked toward it, uncaring of the maelstrom almost blowing her off her feet.

In two interminable hours they landed outside the cabin that had seen her life’s most ecstatic and devastating times. Where she’d given everything that she was to Amjad.

She now knew he had given her all that he was, too. He was now giving up everything that he was for her.

And she had to stop him.

Amjad wasn’t inside. The stable was empty. And so was the cave. There was no sign of a car.

Had she only made believe she could read him as she’d always thought she could?

No. He was here. And she knew why he wasn’t showing himself.

She swung around to Harres. “Get out of here.”

He gaped at her. “What?”

“Hop on your metal monster and leave,” she hissed. “This is between me and Amjad. He won’t come out until you’re gone.”

“You’ll risk staying here alone on a hunch? I might not be able to come back for you for…a while.”

“Sure. Take your time. Now get.”

He gave her a considering look. “You’re as intractable as he is, aren’t you? You might be exactly what he needs. If you don’t kill him first.”

“I am what he needs, as he is what I need. And I intend to see him to a healthy, happy hundred.”

Harres suddenly guffawed. “Happy idiot hundred.”

She blinked. “What?”

“An inside joke. Ask him to explain it. After you unscramble him.” Harres patted her phone. “If you don’t call, I’ll assume my shuttle services aren’t needed.” He turned, tossed over his endless back. “Salam, ya marat akhi.”

Her knees almost buckled.

He’d called her “my brother’s wife.”

The drone of the helicopter had just faded when she felt…him.

She swung around. And like the magician she’d always thought him, he was there.

Amjad.

He was wearing the same white on white he had when he’d kidnapped her. He hadn’t shaved since she’d last seen him. Shadows darkened his jaw, accentuating his beauty, his eyes, resonating with the emotions roiling through her.

She flew to him, charged him, seared him with longing and scolding. “You overacting, overreacting, over-everything madman!”