Susan Mallery: The Sheik's Arranged Marriage

“I don’t care. It’s magic, and that’s all that matters to me.”

He stared at her for a long time, then shoved his hands into his slacks pockets and asked, “Is that why you came back?”

They stood on a stone-paved path. There was a fountain to her left and a lattice covered in vines to her right. She traced one of the leaves.

“I didn’t come for the magic, if that’s what you’re asking. I told you, I want to work. Time and the elements are destroying hundreds of ancient texts each year. I want to preserve history so it isn’t lost.”

“What about your boyfriend? Wasn’t there someone special you left behind?”

He was kidding, right? Boyfriend? Her? She’d been groped a couple of times, but that hardly counted as a meaningful relationship. “Not exactly.”

“Then what…exactly?”

Was it her imagination, or had Jamal moved closer to her? She looked at him. “Let me be completely clear on the subject. I don’t want to get married.”

He was looming, she thought in some distress. Somehow he’d gotten taller, and he now loomed. A dark warrior prince in the night.

“To respond with like clearness,” he said seriously, although she would have sworn she saw a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth, “I don’t recall proposing.”

What was it with the heat on her face? “Yes, well, you might. And I don’t want you to.”

“Because you can’t say no?”

She pressed her fingers to her cheeks. “Exactly. I promise you that King Givon and Fatima are experts at pushing my buttons. They’ve done it before. When I graduated from college, all I wanted was to come here and work.”

“Isn’t that what happened?”

“No. Somehow they talked me into attending finishing school.” She sighed in disgust. “Do you know what year it is? Young women should not be attending finishing school in this day and age. It’s horrible.”

“But you went.”

“Exactly.” She looked at him. “Don’t ask me how it happened. One minute I was telling them I wasn’t interested in the idea and the next I was boarding a plane.” She paused, remembering those conversations two years ago. “I think of myself as a strong person, but maybe I don’t have any backbone. Maybe…”

She pressed her lips together as a sudden and unpleasant thought occurred to her. Fatima and the king had been very insistent about her going to finishing school. Before that, they’d both encouraged her to study Middle Eastern politics and history with an emphasis on El Bahar. Her education didn’t exactly prepare her to make her way in the world…unless they’d had a very specific job in mind.

She sucked in a breath. “Oh, no! They’ve been planning this for years .”

“Who’s been planning what?”

She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “Jamal, you have to believe me. The king and your grandmother want us to marry. I just realized they’ve been preparing me for the role of your wife.” She thought about the exclusive all-girls boarding school she’d attended before her women’s college. Had they influenced her grandfather to arrange that? “Maybe for longer than I thought.”

She was so damn earnest, Jamal thought with amusement. Heidi looked up at him with her big eyes and her trembling mouth, acting as if her revelation was going to change the course of history.

“You’re saying they sent you to the closest equivalent of Princess School?”

Her nose got scrunchy. “You’re mocking me, but this is serious. I do not want to marry you.”

“You’ve got to stop flattering me, Heidi. It goes to my head.”

“Oh, don’t be such a man. I’m not being insulting. I can’t imagine you want to marry me, either. In fact this isn’t about you.”

“If we’re discussing marriage between the two of us, then it is about me.”

She dropped her hands to her sides and turned away. “You’re being deliberately obtuse.”

She was so frustrated by the situation. Her feelings about avoiding any kind of permanent entanglement were genuine enough to charm him. After spending his entire adult life avoiding women who wanted something from him, how was he supposed to resist a woman who couldn’t care less about his title, his money or his heritage?

He had a feeling that Heidi was right—that Fatima and his father had been preparing her to be his bride for some time. He’d made it clear he was in no hurry to marry again, so they wouldn’t have been concerned he would run off and fall in love. Been there, done that, he thought grimly. With disastrous results. He wasn’t anxious to repeat the experience.

But he would have to marry. For the sake of the kingdom and because he wanted children. So far Heidi was the front-runner. He held back a grin. He could only imagine how thrilled she would be to hear the news.

“What if I said I wouldn’t mind marrying you,” he said as much to tease her as to test the waters.

She spun back to face him. “Are you insane? ” she demanded. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. We have nothing in common.”

“On the contrary. We have several things in common. We care about El Bahar, both past and present. I’m very interested in preserving our heritage. You know the customs, you enjoy living in the palace. You’re intelligent enough to be able to handle the complexities of living a royal life. I suspect you think I’m handsome, and I find you quite attractive.”

The last bit was a stretch, but he’d told worse lies in his time. After all, it was for a good cause. In truth, she wasn’t unattractive , she just needed a little help.

She opened her mouth and closed it several times. No sound emerged. He watched the color climb her cheeks.

“You’re blushing,” he observed.

“No, I’m not. I don’t blush. Never. I don’t live an embarrassing life, so why would I blush?” Even so, she ducked her head and pressed the back of her hand against her cheek.

“Would it be so very terrible?” he asked.

“Yes!” She glared at him. “Why are you doing this? Why aren’t you running screaming in the opposite direction? I’ve just told you that your father wants you to marry a stranger, and you don’t seem to care.”

“I care. I just don’t think it’s the end of the world. There are worse fates.”

“Like what? Being buried alive? Being eaten by bloodsucking bats?”

He winced. “You’re right, Heidi. You don’t cater to the male ego. As my wife, you’d have to work on that.”

She stomped her foot. “Read my lips, Prince Jamal Khan of El Bahar. I am never, ever going to marry you. Not in this life, not in the next life, not even for a day. No. Not me. And that’s final.”

“Want to bet?”

Jamal grinned, then stepped close to her. He slipped one arm around her waist and slid the other around her shoulders. Instantly her body went stiff, and her mouth dropped open with shock.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked as she pressed her hands flat against his chest.

“Finding out if that mouth of yours is good for anything but tossing around insults.”

Her hazel eyes flashed with fire. He was afraid the heat just might melt the frames of her glasses.

“Don’t even think about it,” she told him. “I’m not interested in you in that way. I don’t enjoy physical contact. I will only ask this once, sir. Unhand me.”

“If you’re only going to ask once, then I’ll only have to answer once. No.”

T his was not happening , Heidi thought in amazement. She and Jamal were in the middle of a serious conversation about why they could not possibly marry. He wasn’t actually going to stop talking to kiss her, was he?