The sheikh's chosen wife(17)

'So, how are you going to play it?' she asked him. 'Do you drop me off  on the quay in the clothes I arrived in and wave a poignant farewell as  you sail away. Or have I earned my passage back to San Esteban?'

'What are you talking about?' Hassan frowned. 'You are my wife, yet you speak about yourself as a mistress.'

Which was basically how she had been behaving over the last two weeks, Leona admitted to herself. 'Inshallah,' she

The small sarcasm brought him back to his feet. As he strode towards her  she felt her body quicken, felt her breasts grow tight and despised  herself for being so weak of the flesh that she could be aroused by a  man who was about to carry out his promise to free her. But six feet two  inches of pedigree male to her five feet seven was such a lot to ignore  when she added physical power into the equation, then included mental  power and sexual power. It really was no wonder she was such a weakling  where he was concerned.

And it didn't stop there, because he came to brace his hands on the rail  either side of her, then pushed his dark face close up to hers. Now she  could feel the heat of him, feel his scented breath on her face. She  even responded to the ever-present sexual glow in his eyes though it had  no right to be there-in either of them.

'A mistress knows when to keep her beautiful mouth shut and just listen.  A wife does her husband the honour of hearing him out before she makes  wildly inaccurate claims,' he said.

'You've just told me that our time here is over,' she reminded him with a  small tense shrug of one slender shoulder. 'What else is there left for  you to say?'

'What I said,' he corrected, 'was that our time here alone.

The difference made her frown. Hassan used the moment to shift his  stance, grasp both of her hands and pry them away from the death grip  they had on her arms. Her ringers left marks where they had been  clinging. He frowned at the marks and sighed at her pathetically defiant  face. Then, dropping one of her hands, he turned and pulled her over to  the table, urged her down into the chair he had just vacated and, still  without letting go of her other hand, pulled out a second chair upon  which he sat down himself.

He drew the chair so close to her own that he had to spread his thighs  wide enough to enclose hers. It was a very effective way to trap his  audience, especially when he leaned forward and said, 'Now, listen,  because this is important and I will not have you diverting me by  tossing up insignificant.

It was automatic that she should open her mouth to question that remark.  It was predictable, she supposed, that Hassan should stop her by  placing his free hand across her parted lips. 'Shh,' he commanded, 'for I  refuse to be distracted yet again because the anguish shows in your  eyes each time we reach this moment, and your words are only weapons you  use to try and hide that from me.'

'Omniscient' was the word that came to mind to describe him, she  thought, as her eyes told him she would be quiet. His hand slid away  from her face, leaving its warm imprint on her skin. He smiled a brief  smile at her acquiescence, then went so very serious that she found  herself holding onto her breath.

'You know,' he began, 'that above all things my father has always been  your strongest ally, and it is for him that I am about to speak...'                       
       
           



       

The moment he mentioned Sheikh Khalifa her expressive eyes clouded with concern.

'As his health fails, the more he worries about the future of Rahman,'  he explained. 'He frets about everything. You me, what I will do if the  pressures currently being brought to bear upon me force me to make a  decision which could change the rule of Rahman."

'You mean you have actually considered giving up your right to succession?' Leona gasped out in surprise.

'It is an option,' he confessed. 'And one which became more appealing  after I uncovered the plot involving you, which was aimed to make me do  as other people wish,' he added cynically. 'But for my father's sake I  assured him that I am not about to walk away from my duty. So he decided  to fret about my happiness if I am forced to sacrifice you for the sake  of harmony, which places me in a frustrating no-win situation where his  peace of mind is concerned.'

'I am sorry.' she murmured.

'I don't want your sympathy, I want your help,' he stated with a  shortness that told her how much he disliked having to ask. 'He loves  you, Leona, you know that. He has missed you badly since you left  Rahman.'

'I didn't completely desert him, Hassan.' She felt pushed into defending  herself. 'I've spoken to him every day via the internet.' Even here on  the yacht she had been using Faysal's computer each morning to access  her e-mail. 'I even read the same books he is reading so that we can  discuss them together. I-'

'I know,' Hassan cut in with a wry smile. 'What you say to him he relays  to me, so I am fully aware that I am a bully and a tyrant, a man  without principle and most definitely my father's son.'

'I said those things to tease a laugh out of him,' she defended.

'I know this too,' he assured her. 'But he likes to make me smile with  him.' Reaching up, he stroked a finger along the flush of discomfort  that had mounted her cheeks. 'And let me face it,' he added, removing  the finger, 'your communication with him was far sweeter than your  communication with me.'

He was referring to the letters he'd received from her lawyer. 'It was over between us. You should have left it like that."

'It is not over between us, and I cannot leave it like that.'

'Your father__'

'Needs you,' he grimly inserted. 'I need you to help me ease his most  pressing concerns. So I am asking you for a full and open reconciliation  of our marriage-for my father's sake if not for yours and mine.'

Leona wasn't a fool. She knew what he was not saying here. 'For how long?"

He offered a shrug. 'How long is a piece of string?' he posed  whimsically. Then, because he could see that the answer was not enough,  he dropped the whimsy, sat right back in his seat and told her curtly,  'The doctors give him two months-three at most. In that period we have  been warned to expect a rapid deterioration as the end draws near. So I  ask you to do this one thing for him and help to make his passage out of  this world a gentle one...'

Oh, dear heaven, she thought, putting a hand up to her eyes as the full  weight of what he was asking settled over her. How could she refuse? She  didn't even want to refuse. She loved that old man as much as she loved  her own father. But there were other issues here which had not been  aired yet, and it was those that kept her agreement locked inside.

'The other wife they want for you,' she prompted, 'am I to appear to accept her imminent arrival also?'

His expression darkened. 'Do me the honour of allowing me some  sensitivity,' he came back. 'I have no wish to sacrifice your face for  my own face. And I find it offensive that you could suspect that I would  do.'

Which was very fine and noble of him but- 'She is still there, hovering  in the shadows, Hassan,' Leona said heavily. She could even put a name  to the woman, though he probably didn't know that she could. 'And taking  me back to Rahman does not solve your problems with the other family  leaders unless you take that other wife.'

"The old ones and I have come to an agreement,' he informed her. 'In  respect for my father, they will let the matter ride while he is still  alive.'

'Then what?'

'I will deal with them when I have to, but for the next few months anyway, my father's peace of mind must come first.'

And so, he was therefore saying, should it for her. 'Will you do this?'

The outright challenge. 'Did you really think that I would not?' She  sighed, standing up and pushing her chair away so that she could step  around him.

'You're angry.' His eyes narrowed on her sparkling eyes and set expression.

Anger didn't nearly cover what she was really feeling. 'In principle I  agree to play the doting wife again,' she said. 'But in fact I am now  going to go away and sulk as you like to call it. Because no matter how  well you wrap it all up in words of concern, Hassan, you are as guilty  for using me in much the same way my foiled abductors intended to use me  and that makes you no better than them, does it?'                       
       
           



       

With that she turned and walked away, and Hassan allowed her to, because  he knew she was speaking the truth so had nothing he could offer in his  own defence.

Within seconds Rafiq appeared with a question written into the hard lines of his face.

'Don't ask,' he advised heavily. 'And she does not even know the half of it yet."

'Which half does she not know,' Raflq asked anyway.

'What comes next,' Hassan replied, watching his half-brother's eyes  slide over his left shoulder. He spun to see what he was looking at,  then began cursing when he saw how close they were to reaching their  reserved berth in Port Said. 'How long?' he demanded.