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She nodded, not wanting to get bogged down in small talk. This was a fact finding mission. “Your father was not Sheikh.”
“No. My mother’s brother, Hakim. I was named for him.”
“Did he have children?” She asked, finally feeling like she was shading in the background of the picture.
“No.”
“Why not?”
He seemed to be closing off to her, perhaps tiring of her questions. “I do not know. It is personal. The pressure was removed from providing an heir, as I was there.”
She hadn’t even thought about the pressure of providing an heir. She lifted her blue eyes to his face, scanning it for the information he wasn’t providing. “Do you hope that I am pregnant?”
“No.” His dark eyes were earnest. “I do not. You are too young to have a child, my Saleena. Besides, I want you to myself for a while longer. I am selfish, and not ashamed to admit it.”
Her smile was bright.
“Do you need to know anything else?”
“I’m sure I do.” She pulled an exaggerated thoughtful face. “How old are you?”
He watched her face carefully. “Thirty three.”
“So you were how old when you became Sheikh?”
“Twenty one.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Your age.”
“I don’t know how you did it. I can’t imagine taking on a responsibility like that now.”
He furrowed his brow. “But you are.”
“I suppose I am.” She batted her eyelids at him coquettishly. “But I’ll have you to show me the ropes.”
Hakim’s voice was husky. “Are you being deliberately irresistible?”
“Is it working?” She leaned closer, so that her breasts brushed against his chest.
“Almost,” he said with a small groan.
“What were you thinking about? When I came in here, I mean. You looked so serious.”
He put a finger beneath her chin, lifting her face so that she was staring into his eyes. “The same thing I have been thinking about almost obsessively for the better part of a month. You.”
Phoebe’s heart felt like might burst. She dipped her head forward, so that her lips were tantalizingly close to his. So close they were almost, but not quite, touching. “But with such a somber expression.”
“Not somber,” he corrected, giving into temptation and plundering her mouth. She m
oaned, pressing her body against him, and Hakim didn’t know that he would be able to halt the bolt of lightning that was being created by their mutual need. He lowered his mouth to her neck, kissing and tasting, teasing and delighting. Against her soft skin, he whispered, “Impatient. Cross. I did not want to wait any longer for you.”
“And then I appeared, once again, offering myself to you on a platter,” she said on a tremulous laugh.
He made a noise of assent before breaking their contact and pushing off the bed. He stood, staring down at her, amusement and accusation warring in his face. “I can have more strength of will now, though. In four days you are to become my wife, and we can indulge these feelings for the rest of our lives.”
The disappointment on her face made him long to take her in his arms, but he had to be strong. Strong for both of them.
“Any more questions, Saleena?”
“Just one.”
