Olivia Gates - Claimed by the Desert Sheikh

“The local bazaar. They mostly sell food, but a few times a year they feature work from local craftsmen. I always try to go. I’ve picked up some beautiful jewelry, as well. There’s supposed to be a place in the desert where they make the most exquisite gold. Beautiful woven patterns, like nothing you’ve ever seen. I have a pair of earrings I—”

She started to stand, then sank back onto the sofa. “Sorry. You’re not interested in my earrings.”

“Not even on my best day,” Maggie admitted with a smile. “But I can pretend.”

“No need. I forgot the purpose of our meeting.”

“That’s right. I’m expecting you to fix my life.”

“I’m not sure I’m up to that,” Victoria told her.

“I know. It’s kind of beyond fixing.” Maggie set down her mug and pulled her knees to her chest. “I feel so awful. Not physically,” she added quickly. “I’m fine. In fact if I didn’t know better, I would swear I wasn’t pregnant. Nothing’s different. Shouldn’t I be throwing up or something?”

“That can come later,” her friend told her.

“Something to look forward to.” Maggie sighed. “I just can’t get my mind around the fact that I’m going to have a baby. I’ve been distracted the whole day, thinking about it, but it’s just words. I don’t know how to make it mean anything.”

“You have time.”

“Nine months less six weeks,” Maggie said. “I know the day it happened. The exact day.”

“The last time you were with Jon.”

Maggie nodded.

“So you’re confused,” Victoria said. “That’s not a surprise. You weren’t expecting to end up pregnant. But beyond confusion … is there anything else?”

Maggie tried to probe her heart. What did she feel? “Terror,” she admitted. “I’m not like you. I don’t know how to be a mother.”

Victoria held up both her hands. “Hey, I’m about the least maternal person you know. I can’t keep a plant alive.”

“But you’re so feminine and girly.”

“Knowing how to buy shoes on sale has nothing to do with being maternal. You’re confusing your definitions of feminine. From what you’ve told me about your past, you’ll be a great mother.”

Maggie stared at her. “Why?”

“Because you had a great father. He was totally there for you. He loved you and supported you and only wanted what was best for you. So you know how to do the same. No baby is going to care if you actually knitted the blanket or bought it at a store. What he or she will care about is being loved. And you’re gonna love your baby.”

Maggie felt a twinge of something inside. Something hot and fierce and powerful. A baby. Was it possible?

“Thank you,” she said. “You’ve made me feel better. So that’s one problem down and four thousand left. I’m pregnant.”

Victoria smiled. “I know.”

“This is a huge complication.”

“It usually is.”

“I’m going to have to deal with Jon at some point.”

“True.”

“This isn’t going to make him happy.”

“You’ll figure something out.”

Maggie wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t want to think about Jon just then. “I felt bad about that picture being in the paper. It was incredibly humiliating for me, but I also felt awful about Qadir. That he got dragged into this.”

Victoria sipped her tea. “An interesting way of looking at things. A case could be made that he dragged you into things by offering up the deal in the first place.”

“He didn’t know I was pregnant. He never would have said anything if he had.”

“Agreed. My point is that he started things going by wanting to pretend to date you.”

“Maybe. I just hate that now he has to deal with my problem.”

“Because you like him.”

“Of course I like him. He’s a great guy. He defended me to the king.”

Maggie still couldn’t believe how Qadir had stood up for her. While she hated to cause trouble in the family, she couldn’t help feeling safe and protected, even just for the moment.

“I find it fascinating that he still wants to see you,” Victoria said. “Even after knowing you’re pregnant by another man.”

“I know. I don’t get it, either. I told him we should break things off. That the public would totally understand him dumping me.” She shivered slightly. “I’ll admit I hated the idea of being branded a slut in the press, but I’m responsible for what I did, so it was only fair that I was the one who got stuck. I said I really wanted to finish the car, but nothing else.”

“He didn’t agree.”

“I can’t figure out why. What’s in it for him? There’s going to be speculation about the baby no matter what anyone says. I wonder if I made a mistake in agreeing.”

“Isn’t the bigger question whether or not Qadir made a mistake in asking you to stay.”

Maggie didn’t want to think about that, but she knew her friend was telling the truth. “Probably.”

“But that’s not the most interesting part,” Victoria said. “What I find intriguing is that Prince Qadir of El Deharia, who could admittedly have nearly any woman he wanted, has chosen you.”

Maggie straightened. “What?”

“He picked you to play the game for a lot of reasons. You’re pretty, he thought he could spend time in your company without going crazy, that sort of thing. But it was a deal. A monetary transaction. Yet suddenly, it’s more than that. When faced with trouble, instead of running, he’s standing by you.”

“He’s just that kind of person.”

Victoria laughed. “I promise you, if Nadim and I had the same kind of arrangement and I had turned up pregnant, he would have kicked me to the curb so fast there would be skid marks.”

“Then why would you want to marry a man like that?”

Victoria sighed. “Good question. I had these big plans to marry for money and spend the rest of my life totally secure. But apparently I picked the wrong prince. The more I look at how Qadir is with you, the less I like Nadim. I’ve been working with him for two years and he hasn’t noticed me. What kind of idiot is he?”

“One you should forget about. Do you really need to marry for money? What about love?”

“Love is for fools,” Victoria said firmly. “I will never be a fool for love. But you’re right about me forgetting Nadim. He may be a prince, but he’s a boring twit of a man and I’m so over him.”

Maggie grinned. “That would be a more impressive statement if you’d ever actually cared about him.”

“I know.” Victoria drank more of her tea. “Maybe I can find a nice diplomat in the foreign office. Someone who comes from money.”

“Would you get off the money thing?”

“I can’t. You don’t know what it’s like to be afraid you’re going to lose everything. That’s how I grew up. There were plenty of nights I watched my mother go hungry because there was only food for one. I vowed that I would never be like her—never give my heart to a jerk who walked on it and used her, thinking only of himself.”

Maggie didn’t know about her friend’s past. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“Me, too.” Victoria sighed. “Wow—talk about getting carried away. I didn’t mean to shift the conversation that way. We were talking about you. Have you considered that he defended you because he doesn’t want you to leave?”

Maggie blinked several times. Victoria’s words floated through her brain, forming images, then fading, but never disappearing completely.

“It can’t be that,” she said at last.

“Why not?”

Because … Because …

“He’s just being kind.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose. “He’s a sheik, honey. Kind isn’t one of the descriptors. Arrogant, powerful, determined. Those all work. But kind? No way.”