They sat there for another hour, chatting about many different things. Emily explained the Kyrian wedding procedure to Sheridan, who found it comfortingly sterile. Oh, she’d always wanted the big emotional wedding, but signing her name on a document and then watching Rashid do the same would be quite enough for her. It was like signing loan papers at the bank. She could handle that.
But when the time came to do just that later the same day, Sheridan found herself more emotional than she’d thought she would be. The signing took place in Rashid’s office with Kadir and Emily for witnesses, along with the lawyers who presided over the entire thing. It lasted all of a few minutes as they sat on one side of a conference table with the lawyers on the other and Kadir and Emily at either end.
There was a translator who read the documents to Sheridan, and then she was directed to sign her name on a line. She could feel Rashid beside her, his gaze intent on her as if he expected her to refuse. She almost did. She almost stood and ran from the room, but in the end she knew it would merely be a stalling tactic.
She signed and put the pen down, then stared at her fingers clenched in her lap. Rashid scratched his signature across the document in a hasty scrawl, and then shoved the whole thing across the table.
He was angry, she realized, but she didn’t know why. She glanced over at Emily, who gave her a smile of encouragement and a firm nod, as if to say, “You can do this.”
Another few moments and the men on the other side of the table were filing the documents into briefcases and rising. They left the room, and then Emily went to Kadir, who took her hand in his and gave her a look that could only be called hot. He was very handsome, of course. The al-Hassan brothers had been designed by God to make female hearts beat a little harder when they walked into a room.
“Congratulations, Rashid,” Kadir said, shaking his brother’s hand. “And Sheridan, welcome to the family.”
He kissed her on both cheeks. Emily did the same while Kadir took his brother aside for a quick conversation at the other end of the room. Sheridan’s heart was beating hard and her stomach fluttered.
“It’ll be fine,” Emily said. “He’s a good man. He’s just a little lost, I think. Kadir was, too, but we found our way.” She squeezed Sheridan’s shoulders. “You will, too. I’m certain of it.”
Sheridan wished she shared Emily’s confidence, but all she could do was smile wanly and thank the other woman for being there.
Kadir joined his wife then, his arm going around her shoulders. He couldn’t seem to be near her without touching her. It made Sheridan wistful. Rashid touched her, but only to initiate sex. After he’d found his release, he was finished with the touching.
“We should leave them alone now, habibti,” Kadir said.
And then Kadir and Emily were gone and Sheridan was left standing in Rashid’s private office—where they’d had mad sex against the wall—with the beautiful view of the sandstone cliffs in the distance on one side and the ocean on another. The room was quiet. Too quiet.
She turned to look at Rashid and found him watching her. He did not look pleased. She thought of him shoving the papers across the table and her belly tightened. He wanted to be married even less than she did, it would seem.
She thought of him last night, telling her about his wife. He’d said it plainly, unfeelingly, but she knew he must have been deeply affected by the death of the woman he’d loved.
And he must have loved her, since he’d married her willingly and not because she was pregnant with an heir to the throne.