Rachael Thomas - Claimed by the Sheikh

‘We have done our duty. Now you will return to your family.’

* * *

Kazim breathed a sigh of relief, thankful his bride was a level-headed woman not prone to hysteria. It must be the Western influence she’d had in her life. The same influence that had corrupted her. Rumours of her secret assignations with men in hotel rooms whilst at boarding school had only just reached his ears. She was not the innocent bride he had been expecting. He had done his duty, married the woman his father had selected. He would do no more.

‘So what must I do?’ She looked panicked for a moment and he wondered if his assumptions had been premature.

‘Whatever it was you were doing before you arrived here. You will, of course, have my full financial support.’ As far as he was concerned, after what he’d just learnt he had every right to send his new wife home and then one day call into question her suitability.

‘So I just go back to my life?’

‘There is one problem.’ He hesitated. ‘It will be expected for the marriage to be consummated.’

‘That’s easily sorted.’ She jumped up impetuously and tugged at her abaya , pulling the long lengths of silk. ‘We can make it look as if it has.’

Kazim couldn’t believe what he was hearing and seeing. As each piece of silk was removed and tossed aside lust thudded through his veins. This woman was his wife, an innocent virgin, but she was performing some kind of striptease. What had she learnt in England?

With each movement she became bolder, seducing him with her curves, her sexy pout. Anger mixed with disbelief was making a heady cocktail. This woman was no innocent. But still he watched as lust thundered in his blood.

The silk ripped as her movements became faster and she gasped, her face full of genuine shock. Then she smiled. The smile of a woman who knew how to tease a man. ‘That will make it look all the more real.’

Then the last piece of silk slipped to the floor, leaving her almost naked, and their eyes met. She stood and looked at him, as if daring him to resist her now. He was hardly able to, but taking her now was out of the question. His rage was so strong he knew what could happen and he couldn’t risk that.

‘Put some clothes on,’ he growled, hardly able to contain the anger he felt. In just a few minutes she’d proved herself completely unsuitable as his bride.

A short while later she emerged from the bathroom, her lush body covered by the soft towelling robe. She sat on the bed, her rich coffee eyes meeting his in challenge. ‘The bed will need to look as if we’ve slept together in it.’

‘What?’

She calmly sat there, her breasts rising and falling with each breath, making it harder than ever to resist the call of his lust.

‘The bed,’ she said coldly. ‘If you want this marriage to look as if it has been consummated, it needs to be a mess.’

* * *

Amber watched the man she’d married toss the sheets into disarray and self-preservation kicked in. She wasn’t about to be sent home a disgraced bride, one who was still a virgin. It had to look as if the marriage had been consummated. She couldn’t face her parents otherwise.

If her husband could be as cold and calculating about the marriage they’d entered into out of duty, then so could she. The deal struck by their fathers would be honoured, as long as it looked as if they’d spent the night in the same bed.

Just a few more hours and she could leave. Go as far away as she could. Maybe go places and do things her position as her father’s only daughter and Princess of Quarazmir had never enabled her to do.

CHAPTER ONE Contents Cover Introduction ‘You must come back to Barazbin. I am the sole heir.’ He resisted the urge to tell her that their marriage must provide heirs for the country. That was a given fact. She shook her head. ‘No, Kazim, that’s never going to happen.’ He sighed impatiently. ‘I am concerned for our people. Your absence has brought my ability to rule into doubt. You will come back with me. Do you understand?’ Irritation surged through Amber, instantly replacing the softer emotion she’d felt for Kazim as he’d told her about his father. ‘Oh, I understand, Kazim. You think you can send me away and order me back at your whim. I don’t feel like your wife, Kazim. It has been ten months since we married and this is the first time I have seen you.’ All the hurt and anger she’d kept inside her since that night bubbled up, giving her the confidence to face this man who had broken her heart and shattered her foolish dreams. ‘We married out of duty, Amber—never forget that.’ His calm voice was full of authority, his expression harsh and forbidding. ‘And now my duty is to return to Barazbin—with you.’ About the Author RACHAEL THOMAS has always loved reading romance and is thrilled to be a Modern Romance™ author. She lives and works on a farm in Wales—a far cry from the glamour of a Modern story—but that makes slipping into her characters’ world all the more appealing. When she’s not writing or working on the farm she enjoys photography and visiting historic castles and grand houses. Visit her at www.rachaelthomas.co.uk Title Page Claimed by the Sheikh Rachael Thomas www.millsandboon.co.uk Dedication For Kate Walker and Sharon Kendrick, whose inspiring and encouraging courses have helped me enormously. PROLOGUE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE EPILOGUE Extract Copyright

Ten months later

HE’D FOUND HER.

Prince Kazim Al Amed of Barazbin had found her.

Amber watched as he made his way across the Parisian club, striding between the tables, scanning the dancers. Even in the dim light she could see the contempt on his face and the seductive beat of the music hardly slowed his pace. If anything, it increased it.

Rooted to the spot, she couldn’t move. She didn’t want to watch him but couldn’t stop herself. Every step he took radiated command, accentuating the raw masculine power that served only to highlight his untamed nature. His tanned complexion, glossy black hair and expensive suit made him stand out against the club’s regular clientele, and she certainly wasn’t the only person to have noticed him.

A tremor of nerves, mixing with the same attraction she’d felt when they’d first met, raced through her. She clutched the tray of glasses she’d been collecting even tighter, desperate to stop them clinking together. For almost a year she’d dreamt he’d seek her out and declare his love but, from the look on his face, she knew such hopes were futile.

He had never loved her and she dreaded his reason for being here. She wasn’t sure she could take another brutal rejection from the man she’d loved once with such adoration. He had been her dream come true. The only man she had ever loved.

Thankful the sultry lighting in the club would enable her to slip away virtually unnoticed, she put down the tray and, without taking her eyes from his tall body, moved backwards into the shadows. The music thumped as wildly as her heart when she saw him pause, his brow furrowed into a suspicious frown as he stood rigid and tall. His eyes rested briefly on her and she couldn’t help but hold his gaze.

Kazim took one step towards her and she thought the game was up. Then he looked around the club once more and relief washed over her. He hadn’t recognised her. She should be glad, but a dart of pain stabbed at her.

Just when she thought she could breathe again, his gaze returned once more to her, this time with unnerving accuracy. He took another step towards her, oblivious to the customers and waitresses trying to pass him, his piercing gaze not leaving her face. Judging by the tight line of his lips and the firmness of his jaw, he knew it was her and wasn’t pleased.