The Sheik's Jealous Princess(43)

So she had to come up with a plan that would allow her to move freely about the palace and not run into Linda or Julia.

Shantra tapped her pencil against her desk but that wasn’t a good idea. Janus had been napping on the corner of her desk, but the tapping woke him up. His tiny, fluffy body uncurled and…pounced! Janus loved pens and pencils, Shantra thought with a smile as she played with the kitten that wanted to attack the bouncing pencil. It got her mind off of the issue for a long moment, which helped enormously.

Unfortunately, Janus was only a distraction. He wasn’t the solution. Especially when those horrible women thought that her little ball of fluff was “dirty”. Oh, that comment made her angry just thinking about it! How many people brought their dogs into their dining room but dogs weren’t too dirty to eat with?

It didn’t matter. And it was beside the point anyway. She suspected that Linda and Julia were simply trying to find ways to undermine her. That had to stop. Shantra wasn’t confident enough with Laithir and her new home to stand up to the women. So until she could figure things out, the best possible course of action was to avoid the women whenever possible.

It was the coward’s way out, but she didn’t care. She’d figure this out, step by step.

Opening her doors, she looked to her right and left. Sure enough, her guards were standing sentry outside of the doors. “I need your help. Actually, the help of the entire team.”

Bruno stepped forward and bowed slightly. “Anything you ask, Your Highness,” he replied.

She smiled up at the big, burly men. “Could you all come in here?”

The men filed in. She knew that this wasn’t the whole team. They worked in shifts, so she’d have to talk to the next shift when they came on in a few hours.

She took a deep breath, then started off. “My husband’s former mother-in-law and sister-in-law, I need you to keep tabs on them. Know where they are at all times. If I am heading in their direction, let me know and I’ll alter my course. I don’t want to be around them if at all possible.”

Bruno looked at the other men, and Shantra got the impression that they all recognized what was going on. They shared a look, and she felt a huge surge of gratitude. “Understood. I’ll relay the orders to the other members of your guard team.”

Shantra sighed with relief. “Thank you,” she gushed out. “And I apologize for adding this to your responsibilities.”

Bruno bowed and the others gestured as well. “We are here to serve you, Your Highness,” he told her with another bow.

Shantra smiled in thanks as she backed up into her room again, but she knew that their primary role was to protect her from threats, not to protect her from maliciousness. She should be able to handle that on her own but over the past several days, she’d discovered that she wasn’t as good at ignoring them as she’d thought.

It took her a while to pull herself out of her self-pity funk and get back to work. And around mid-morning, she took one of her pencils and twisted it around in her hair, pulling it high off of her neck. When she glanced in the mirror, she suspected that the change in style really did highlight her eyes more, she almost pulled the pencil out, not wanting to give the horrible woman any credit.

But in the end, she simply wasn’t sure enough about herself to completely banish the words from her mind.



Laithir walked into her studio and stopped, instantly sensing that something was wrong. And despite that, his body still reacted to the sight of her beauty. Her head was bowed slightly, as if she were contemplating something deep and heavy. Her hair had been pulled up off of her neck and the elegant curve enticed him closer. He wished that he had more control when it came to this woman, but he couldn’t seem to stay away from her. The knowledge that she was here, close by and so enticing, distracted him during the day. He found himself thinking about her when he should be paying attention during meetings, meetings that required his full concentration.

Maybe he should take her away for a couple of weeks. He’d only had three days alone with her. Perhaps if they went off for a real honeymoon, he could work her out of his system and regain his focus.

No. First of all, he was starting to understand that he was never going to work her out of his system. And secondly, he didn’t want a repeat of his first marriage. He would not let Shantra think that she could manipulate him.

Not that she ever had, he thought and his shoulders relaxed slightly. She wasn’t anything like Angela, he reminded himself. She was sweet and kind, generous and brilliant. Shantra spent her time trying to make women feel better about themselves. Already the staff loved her, and she lit up whenever she saw him.