Caitlin Crews - Protecting the Desert Heir

“What is this? Where are we?”

“This is an airport,” Rihad told her, in the same lecturing way she’d used when she’d ordered him not to use his mobile as he drove out of Manhattan. “And that is a plane. My plane.”

Sterling went so white he thought she might topple over where she sat. Her hands moved at once to the round swell of her belly, as if she was trying to protect the child within from him, and he hated it that there was some part of him that admired her for so futile a gesture.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

He suspected she knew. But he took immense satisfaction in angling closer, so he could see every faint tremor on those sinful lips. Every shiver that moved across her skin. Every dawning moment of horrified recognition in her deep blue gaze.

“I am Rihad al Bakri,” he told her, and felt a harsh surge of victory as her gaze went dark. “If that is truly my brother’s child you carry, it is my heir. And I’m afraid that means you’ll be coming with me.”

Scandalous Sheikh Brides Scandalous Sheikh Brides Title Page About the Author CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN Extract Copyright

And the powerful men who claim them!

In their rival desert kingdoms the word of Rihad al Bakri and Kavian ibn Zayed al Talaas is law.

Nothing and no one stands in the way of these formidable and passionate sheikhs.

Until two exceptional women dare to defy them and turn their carefully controlled worlds upside down.

These men will do whatever it takes to protect their legacies—including claiming these women as their brides before a scandal ensues!

Read Rihad’s story in

Protecting the Desert HeirJune 2015

And look out for Kavian and Princess Amaya’s story, coming soon!

Protecting the Desert Heir

Caitlin Crews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestseller and RITA ®Award-nominated author CAITLIN CREWSloves writing romance. She teaches her favourite romance novels in creative writing classes at places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Programme, where she can finally utilise the MA and PhD in English Literature she received from the University of York in England. She currently lives in California, with her very own hero and too many pets. Visit her at caitlincrews.com

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Contents

Cover

Introduction “What is this? Where are we?” “This is an airport,” Rihad told her, in the same lecturing way she’d used when she’d ordered him not to use his mobile as he drove out of Manhattan. “And that is a plane. My plane.” Sterling went so white he thought she might topple over where she sat. Her hands moved at once to the round swell of her belly, as if she was trying to protect the child within from him, and he hated it that there was some part of him that admired her for so futile a gesture. “Who are you?” she whispered. He suspected she knew. But he took immense satisfaction in angling closer, so he could see every faint tremor on those sinful lips. Every shiver that moved across her skin. Every dawning moment of horrified recognition in her deep blue gaze. “I am Rihad al Bakri,” he told her, and felt a harsh surge of victory as her gaze went dark. “If that is truly my brother’s child you carry, it is my heir. And I’m afraid that means you’ll be coming with me.”

Scandalous Sheikh Brides Scandalous Sheikh Brides Scandalous Sheikh Brides Title Page About the Author CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN Extract Copyright And the powerful men who claim them! In their rival desert kingdoms the word of Rihad al Bakri and Kavian ibn Zayed al Talaas is law. Nothing and no one stands in the way of these formidable and passionate sheikhs. Until two exceptional women dare to defy them and turn their carefully controlled worlds upside down. These men will do whatever it takes to protect their legacies—including claiming these women as their brides before a scandal ensues! Read Rihad’s story in Protecting the Desert Heir June 2015 And look out for Kavian and Princess Amaya’s story, coming soon!

Title Page Protecting the Desert Heir Caitlin Crews www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author USA TODAY bestseller and RITA ® Award-nominated author CAITLIN CREWS loves writing romance. She teaches her favourite romance novels in creative writing classes at places like UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Programme, where she can finally utilise the MA and PhD in English Literature she received from the University of York in England. She currently lives in California, with her very own hero and too many pets. Visit her at caitlincrews.com

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE LAST TIME she’d run for her life, Sterling McRae had been a half-wild teenager with more guts than sense. Today it was more a waddle for her life than anything approaching a run—thanks to the baby she carried and had to protect no matter what, now that Omar was dead—but the principle remained the same.

Get out. Get away. Go somewhere you can never be found.

At least this time, twelve years older and lifetimes wiser than that fifteen-year-old who’d run away from her foster home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she didn’t have to depend on the local Greyhound bus station to make her getaway. This time, she had limitless credit cards and a very nice SUV at her disposal, complete with a driver who would take her wherever she asked to go.

All of which she’d have to ditch once she got out of Manhattan, of course, but at least she’d start her second reinvention of herself with a little more style.

Thank you, Omar, Sterling thought then. The heels she refused to stop wearing even this late into her pregnancy clicked against the floor of the apartment building where she and Omar had shared his penthouse ever since they’d met while he’d been a graduate student. A wave of grief threatened to take her feet right out from under her, but Sterling fought it back with grim determination and clenched her teeth tightly as she kept on walking.

There was no time left for grief or anything else. She’d seen the morning news. Rihad al Bakri, Omar’s fearsome older brother and now the ruler of the tiny little port country on the Persian Gulf that Omar had escaped at eighteen, had arrived in New York City.

Sterling had no doubt whatsoever that he would be coming for her.

There was every chance she was already being watched, she cautioned herself as she hurried from the elevator bank—that the sheikh had sent some kind of advance team to come for her even though the news had broadcast his arrival barely a half hour ago. That unpleasant if realistic thought forced her to slow down, despite the hammering of her heart, so she appeared nothing but calm. It forced her to smile as she moved through the lobby, the way she might have on any other day. There would be no honoring Omar if she let herself—and more important, her baby—fall into the clutches of the very people he’d worked so hard to escape. And she knew a little bit about the way predators reacted when they saw prey act like prey.