The Sheik's Jealous Princess(48)

“That’s horrible!” Shantra gasped.

“Exactly. And she didn’t die of cancer as the reporters said. She died of a drug overdose. Her guards found her with a needle between her toes. It was an undignified, pathetic loss of life. Angela wasn’t sensitive. She was contemptible. I offered to send her to drug rehab several times, but she only laughed in my face and had an affair with another of her guards.”

“No!” she gasped. Shantra threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry! Linda and Julia told me...” she shook her head. “Never mind what they told me. All lies,” she said and hugged him closer. “I’m really sorry about the commotion though.”

“Tell me you love me again, and I’ll pretend this morning never happened.”

Shantra pulled away and looked down at her hands. “You don’t have to pretend that you care, Laithir.”

“I shouldn’t care that my wife finally loves me?” he asked gently.

She laughed. “Finally? I think I’ve loved you from the first time I told you that we wouldn’t work as a couple.”

His bark of laughter soothed her soul. “I think that’s about the time that I fell in love with you as well.”

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t!” she said, denying the happy bubble that was about to burst inside of her chest.

“I did and I do. I tried to fight it. My experience with Angela wasn’t good. I didn’t want another catastrophe. But when you stood there, trembling, and telling me that we wouldn’t work together, when all I could do was keep my eyes from moving all over your delectable body, well, I was lost from that moment.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s just lust, Laithir. And I am fine with that, if that’s all you feel for me.” She wasn’t, but she would learn to be happy with what he could give her.

His hand slid down her thigh, resting gently on her knee. “That’s exactly what I told myself the whole time. I didn’t want to fall in love with you. I told myself that I didn’t know you any better than I knew Angela when I first met her. But you were different. Everything about you was different. You were perfect in every way, even when I kept trying to find things wrong with you.”

She squirmed on his lap, causing him to groan. “Sorry,” she whispered. “But I’m not perfect.”

He laughed and pulled her hips closer. “That’s what I kept telling myself. Which is why I had you investigated so carefully before the wedding.”

“And how you knew that I was the designer for Jesek?” she laughed.

“Exactly. I wasn’t going to get into another nightmare like what Angela put me and the staff through.”

Her heart was starting to melt at his words. “But you don’t have to say you love me.”

“I do love you, Shantra. I love your smile and your warm heart; I love the way you dress and your enthusiasm. I love that you like the gift of a kitten instead of diamonds or cash. You’re everything I want in a wife and a companion.” His hand moved over her hips. “And a lover.”

She smiled shyly. “Really?” she whispered.

“Really,” he told her.

“Any chance you could prove that last part?” she asked then blushed when she realized what she’d just said. “I mean…tonight…”

Laithir threw back his head and laughed. “Oh no, you’re not backing out of that comment. And yes,” he said as he pulled her closer, his hands diving under the silk shirt. “I would be more than happy to prove to you how much I love you.” And for the next several hours, he did exactly that!

“I love you,” Shantra sighed, when she couldn’t move several hours later.

She smiled when she felt Laithir’s arm pull her closer against him.





Epilogue




Six months later, Shantra sobbed and clenched the stick closer. “Laithir!” She ran down the hallway to his office, coming to a skidding halt right outside his doorway. “Is he in?” she asked, trying to catch her breath, and push her hair out of her eyes.

Laithir’s chief of staff practically stumbled to his feet, even jerking backwards when a large cat jumped up onto his desk.

“Yes, Your Highness!” he said, and cringed when he realized that the enormous cat was about to pounce on his pens. Again.

Shantra lifted Janus off of the desk before the pens went scattering across the floor. “I’ll only take a moment,” she said and raced through Laithir’s doorway.

She plopped Janus down onto Laithir’s desk, and looked around for him when she didn’t see him in the large, leather chair. “Shantra don’t…!” Laithir stopped. “Too late,” he said when Janus flicked his giant paw at the expensive pen laying on Laithir’s desk. The pen went flying across the room, and the tabby cat chased after it, causing the pen to fly under another piece of furniture.