Читать книгу The Chatsfield Collection Books 1-8 - Люси Монро, Annie West, Люси Монро - Страница 24
ОглавлениеHAVING LEARNED OF Sayed’s intention to take Liyah out to dinner, Queen Durrah showed up with an ornate crimson dishdasha for Liyah to wear.
“But this is the color of the royal family.”
“Yes, my dear, it is. It is also the gown I wore for the formal announcement of my own upcoming nuptials.”
Liyah put her hands up as if warding off an attack from the dress. “I can’t wear it, what if I tear it or spill something on it?”
“Don’t be silly, Aaliyah,” the queen said with amusement. “If I had had a daughter, she would have worn this gown to her first formal function when she came of age. It pleases me for you to wear it now.”
Tears burned in Liyah’s eyes.
The queen tsked and patted Liyah’s cheek softly. “None of that now. I’m going to be very happy to welcome you into our family, ya ’eni.”
“Mom used to call me that,” Liyah admitted emotionally.
“Then it will be an honor for you to allow me to do so now. Just as you were the precious in your mother’s eyes, you will always be in mine, as well.”
The endearment literally meant my eye, but it carried more the connotation the queen gave it. And it touched Liyah deeply.
“You should be angry at me.”
“No, Aaliyah,” Queen Durrah said with certainty. “I have seen more life in my son in the past week than for two decades. You are so good for him. How could I be anything but happy at the idea of you becoming my daughter?”
“He hasn’t asked me yet.”
“He will.”
“It’s really special, you know?”
“What?”
“That he insists on asking. For all intents and purposes he’s been trapped into this, but he’s not treating it like a business proposal.”
“All of the men of this family have a romantic streak. They always have had. I should have realized there was a problem when Sayed’s showed no sign of coming out with Tahira,” the queen mused.
“He told me about the hidden room.”
“I always loved that story. I wanted Falah to build me a room, but he told me it had already been done.”
“Not so romantic, then.” But then a king had to have a practical streak, just like a prince.
“Well...actually...”
“Oh, tell me.”
The melecha smiled with obviously fond reminiscence. “He took me to a European castle for our honeymoon.”
“You live in a palace.”
“He bought me the castle and a title to go with it.”
“Being queen wasn’t enough?” Liyah teased.
“It was something that was just for me, not Zeena Sahra.” Queen Durrah smiled softly. “That castle became our refuge after Umar’s death, a place we could take Sayed and simply be a family.”
“A place he could still be a boy and play freely,” Liyah said softly.
The queen nodded. “And in safety.”
* * *
Liyah was still thinking about her visit with Queen Durrah when Hasiba arrived to tell her the driver was waiting with the car.
“Where is Sayed?” Liyah asked Hasiba with some trepidation, worried the older woman would have decided Liyah took advantage again.
“I believe it is supposed to come as a surprise,” Hasiba said with a conspiratorial smile.
“Okay.”
Hasiba reached for Liyah before she left the suite. “I am truly sorry about before. My emir has never been so happy as since meeting you. Even back in London, though none of us understood his dreamy preoccupation was not with his coming nuptials but the woman that would steal his heart.”
If only that were true. “Thank you, Hasiba. Your support means so much.”
The older woman pulled Liyah into a tight hug. “You will be a wonderful emira.”
Liyah would do her best.
The limo ride into the city only took about twenty minutes, but it was the longest twenty minutes of her life. It ended when they pulled up in front of an elegant hotel.
A man dressed in a dark kameez rushed forward to lead Liyah inside and to an old-fashioned cage elevator.
Sayed was waiting beside a table set on a dais in the center of the large and very full dining room of the hotel’s rooftop restaurant.
He wore a men’s dishdasha in the same crimson shade as Liyah’s. Though with the elaborate gold embroidery on her chiffon outer dress, Liyah’s was a lot fancier.
His black abayah had more moderate masculine embroidery in the same crimson shade. His egal was the ceremonial black shot with gold and his keffiyeh the color of the royal house, as well.
“You look like the emir,” she said in a near-whisper as she took his hand to step up on the dais.
“But you remember always the man underneath the robes,” he said with pure satisfaction.
“Yes.”
His smile was blinding as he helped her into her chair.
Dinner was amazing, Sayed in top form, practically oozing charm.
Though they consumed no alcohol, she felt tipsy on hope by the time dessert arrived. Several photographs had already been taken throughout the evening, everyone at the tables around them smiling and nodding as if they were as much a part of what was to come as Liyah and Sayed.
Maybe they were.
Sayed would always serve his people with his whole heart.
Sayed waited until the dessert dishes had been taken away before he rose from his chair only to drop to one knee beside hers.
Even knowing he was prompted by the need to prevent more scandal, and maybe save some face in the wake of Tahira’s defection, Liyah was overwhelmed with emotion.
“Aaliyah Amari, will you do me the very great honor of agreeing to become my emira and lead the people of Zeena Sahra by my side?”
His words put the weight of reality on this fantasy moment. Sayed was putting more trust in her than she could imagine. He wasn’t just asking because it was expedient.
He had to believe in Liyah as a person to trust her with the position of his emira, much less his wife.
“Liyah?” he prompted softly, typically not sounding worried, but patient.
She smiled, feeling the hot track of tears on her cheeks. She hadn’t even known she was crying. “Yes, oh, yes, Sayed. I want that more than anything.”
“I am so pleased.” Then showing the influence of many years spent living in the States, he leaned forward and sealed the deal with a kiss.
The restaurant erupted into applause, camera flashes going from phones as well as reporters strategically waiting in the wings.
Liyah didn’t care. If sharing her life with Sayed meant sharing it with the rest of the world, too, then so be it.
As he leaned back, she whispered quietly for his ears alone, “I love you. I just thought you should know.”
His dark eyes heated and filled with definite pleasure. “Thank you. I will always treasure that gift.”
She hadn’t expected him to return the words. Liyah knew Sayed didn’t love her, but his genuine appreciation of her feelings gave her hope for the future and certainty that even if he never fell in love with her, she would always have his regard and consideration.
This man would always be faithful―his “three-year drought” proved that―but just as importantly, he valued her affection. He would not take Liyah’s love for granted, even if he never returned it.
* * *
Sayed waited for the video call to connect. He’d sent Yusuf to London the day before with an envelope to deliver to Gene Chatsfield.
The call connected and Gene’s distinguished features filled Sayed’s screen. “Sheikh Sayed, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Yusuf has delivered my package.”
“If you mean this...” The older man lifted the heavy-duty envelope sealed with Sayed’s royal family symbol set in crimson wax. “Yes.”
“Inside you will find several papers.”
Gene’s confusion was apparent, but he seemed too preoccupied to be nervous. “Shall I open it, then?”
“Yes.”
Gene’s face paled as he read the documents in front of him. “You know where she is? My daughter?”
“So now you are claiming her?”
“Denial was a knee-jerk reaction caused by similar situations in the past, none of which ended up being what they claimed.”
“You decided Aaliyah’s was?”
“She left the locket. I’d given it to her mother. Nothing more than a trinket to me, but she kept it all those years and passed it on to her daughter.” Gene swallowed, as if emotion was getting the best of him. “She’d left my picture behind hers. I looked when I remembered.”
“If you need further proof, Aaliyah’s DNA report is there, as well. Running your own will provide an undeniable match.”
“You know I will, because in my position I cannot afford to take anything on word alone.”
“Yes.”
“But I’m confident of what the test will tell us.”
“As am I.”
“I would like to see my daughter,” Gene said with hope. “Is she working for you now?”
“We are getting married next month.”
“What? How is that possible? Is she pregnant?”
“No, she does not yet carry my child. As to how and why, you do not have a place in her life that affords you personal answers of that nature.”
A practical man of the world, Gene didn’t flinch at the reminder. “I would like to.”
“You will have to apologize,” Sayed warned.
“Of course.”
Sayed wasn’t prepared to let it go at that. “Well enough that she believes you are sincere.”
“Whatever you may think of me, my children matter to me.”
“You will get one opportunity to prove that.”
“And if I don’t to your satisfaction, I never see my daughter again?”
“You are a man of discernment.”
“And you have a reputation for ruthlessness. Does Aaliyah know that, I wonder?”
“She loves me despite my flaws.” The satisfaction he felt saying those words was immense.
“I’m very glad to hear that.”
“Really?”
“I would not like to think my daughter was marrying for anything but honest emotion and hope for a future.”
“Come to Zeena Sahra and tell her that.”
“When?”
“Yusuf is waiting to take you to our jet.”
“You expect me to drop everything and come now?” Gene asked, showing dismay for the first time.
“Yes. You may bring your fiancé.”
The older man waved that off. “She is busy with wedding preparations.”
“Then it is the ideal time for you to make this trip.”
“You don’t lack arrogance, do you?”
“Aaliyah will tell you I do not.”
Gene smiled. “Give me a couple of days and I will fly out commercial.”
“No. Your visit must be kept under wraps. Your place in Aaliyah’s life will not be announced until if and when she is prepared to recognize you as her father.”
“I cannot come on a moment’s notice.”
“With Giatrakos at the helm? I think you can.”
Gene frowned. “Fine. She deserves a little sacrifice on my part.”
“More than a little, I think, but luckily for you she has me now and no major sacrifices on your part will be necessary.”
* * *
“You called my father?” Aaliyah jumped up and paced across his mother’s receiving room. “And he’s going to be here within the hour?”
“Give or take, yes.”
“But why?”
“Because you deserve an apology for his idiocy.”
“What did you threaten him with to force the apology?” she asked suspiciously.
“No threats were required. He was already trying to find you.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“Yes.”
“I doubt it.”
“I’d already hired a private detective and have the retainer receipt and first reports to prove it,” Gene Chatsfield said, having entered the room with Yusuf through the side entrance, indicating the bodyguard had brought him into the palace discreetly. “How he missed your location when your engagement is all over the media, I don’t know.”
Aaliyah spun around to face her father, her face blanching before her expression turned wooden.
Sayed crossed the room and put his arm around her waist. “All will be well. You are not alone.”
Gene smiled at them. “You look very good together.”
“Why are you here?” Aaliyah asked baldly.
“I owe you an apology. I should have heard you out to begin with, but I’m a suspicious man. I made mistakes in the past and they made me vulnerable to a certain type of people. You were not like them, but I was blinded to that at first.”
Sayed was impressed with the older man’s openness and sincerity.
Aaliyah didn’t look quite as taken with her father’s words. “So, you acknowledge I’m your daughter now?” she asked suspiciously.
“Oh, yes.”
“Don’t you want a DNA test, or something?”
Gene glanced at Sayed and then back to Aaliyah. “Already done. Your fiancé provided your results.”
“From the blood test?” Aaliyah asked quietly.
“Yes.”
She scanned his face, as if looking for something. “You planned this.”
“I did.”
“What if he’d kept acting like a bastard about it?” she asked, her vulnerability to that eventuality in her tone.
Though Sayed doubted anyone else would have heard it.
He let her see how serious he was before he promised, “I would have ruined him and destroyed the Chatsfield from London to Sydney.”
“Wow.”
Sayed guided her to a seat on one of the small sofas and indicated a chair for her father to take.
Once they were all seated, Gene said, “I realize I have a lot of making up to do to build a relationship, but I want to try.”
Aaliyah looked up at Sayed. “Is he sincere or is this because I’m going to marry a prince, a pretty ruthless one at that?”
“He is sincere. Believe it.”
She nodded. “Okay.” Then turned her head to face Gene. “We can work on it.”
“You are very forgiving. I am not sure I deserve it.”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t,” Aaliyah said with her usual honesty.
Gene winced. “Touché.”
“But Mom wanted me to try, and if you’re willing, I am, too. For her sake.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not calling you Dad, though.”
“No, I imagine we will suffice with Gene and Aaliyah.”
“Liyah. My friends call me Liyah.”
“I thought Sheikh Sayed called you Aaliyah.”
“Only my family calls me that.”
Like his parents and him. Sayed smiled.
“And I’m not that.” Gene sounded sad.
“Not yet.”
“It is something you will work on,” Sayed added.
The older man nodded. “Yes, I will. Liyah, I appreciate your willingness to try to forgive me―however, this news will come as a great shock to the children. I want to introduce you to them with the respect you deserve. But at the moment they are scattered throughout the world. They have lessons to learn,” he said ruefully, “hard lessons to learn before I would like you to meet them. Myself and Giatrakos are working on it, and they’ll all be back together soon. But for now, I would hope that you understand my request to wait.”
He was only able to stay one night, but in the time he was at the palace, Gene Chatsfield had shown nothing but genuine desire to build a relationship with the daughter he hadn’t known about.
Sayed was glad when both his parents confirmed his instincts that said bringing Gene Chatsfield into Aaliyah’s life was the right thing to do.
He returned Aaliyah’s locket to her before he left for the airport.
* * *
“That was kind of incredible,” she said after waving her father off.
“I am glad you enjoyed your time with him.”
“He’s not nearly the jerk I thought he was.”
Sayed agreed. “Just a man with fears and worries like anyone else.”
“You know he offered me an equal trust fund to what my half siblings have been given,” Aaliyah informed him.
Sayed had expected something like that and would have been disappointed if Gene had not done so. “What did you say?”
“No.”
“Good.” He’d expected that, as well.
Aaliyah smiled. “I don’t need his money. I never did.”
“You just wanted family and now you have mine.”
“It’s a pretty wonderful family.”
“My mother and father will be pleased to hear you say so.”
She frowned up at him as they walked back into the palace. “You’re not going to try some kind of intervention with the Amaris, are you?”
Sayed shook his head. “Absolutely not. If you were not good enough to recognize before becoming emira, they will not be allowed to claim you now.”
She nodded decisively. “Good.”
“Besides, if we had any of the Amaris in hitting distance, I’m not sure my mother could control herself.”
Aaliyah laughed. “Now, that would make an interesting picture for the front page.”
“No doubt. Let’s avoid it, shall we?”
“Your mom calls me her daughter. I like it.”
“So does she.”
His father was extremely fond of Aaliyah, as well, but then so was Sayed. More than he’d ever thought he could feel for someone not born into his family.
He wasn’t sure he was in love with her, though he thought he might be. Until he knew for certain, he wasn’t saying anything. She deserved truth, not confusion.
* * *
Aaliyah’s wedding was a royal event, attended by dignitaries, heads of state, sheikhs, other royals and European nobility.
But she was most pleased by her father and his fiancée’s presence. Aaliyah’s only other personal guest was Stephanie Carter, the head housekeeper from the Chatsfield San Francisco, a woman Hena Amari had called friend.
Aaliyah wore white, her dress a traditional Middle Eastern ensemble designed by a prominent Italian designer who had designed several gowns for Queen Durrah. Sayed wore a more ornate version of the outfit he’d proposed to her in.
His coronation took place directly after their wedding, though it wasn’t the one everyone had been expecting. Sayed was given the distinction of crown prince, but his father had decided he wasn’t ready to retire.
In fact, Sayed had shared with Liyah that King Falah had liked the idea of training his nephew to take Sayed’s place as emir before he was crowned melech. She hadn’t been surprised, though she didn’t tell Sayed so.
She’d had her own little talk with her soon-to-be father-in-law about the timetable for Liyah becoming melecha. She’d let him know in no uncertain terms she wasn’t ready yet.
He’d taken it in good humor, and though he’d blustered a bit, he’d given in pretty easily with her idea of training Bilal to follow in Sayed’s place.
The entire country celebrated the wedding and crown prince coronation into the early hours of the morning.
* * *
Following the pattern he’d established with her, Sayed lifted Liyah into his arms at the reception in the main ballroom and proceeded to carry her up the stairs and down unfamiliar corridors, ending up in his room.
“Our room now,” he said as he lowered her to stand beside the bed.
“Yes, our room.”
“Tonight, I make love to my emira.” The expression in his dark eyes took her breath away.
She reached up and touched his face, loving the fact she was the only woman besides his mother in the entire country allowed such familiarity. “Whatever we are outside that door, when we are together intimately, you are always my man, ya habibi, and I will always be first and foremost your woman.”
His expression turned nearly beatific. “Yes. I do. I am certain of it.”
“What?” she asked, feeling like she’d missed something.
“I love you, habibti. I was not certain because I’ve never experienced anything like what you make me feel, but my heart is yours, from the moment our eyes met unto eternity.”
She stopped, her heart going so fast she heard the rush in her ears. “You love me?”
“Yes. It happened so quickly, but you are perfect for me. Everything about you matches something in me.”
“I’ll never have a pedigree.”
“And I thank God for it. You help me to see with my heart, not my position.”
“I wasn’t born to be a princess.”
“But you were, born to be my emira.”
She was out of arguments. “I love you, too, Sayed, so much.”
“One day, you will carry my child.”
“Yes. You’ll be such a wonderful father.”
“I had a very good example, just as you did for being mother to our children.”
“We went from single to plural pretty fast.”
“I’ve got a dream.”
“Of lots of babies?” she asked a little worried.
“Not lots, just maybe four?”
“Four? Wow, you do realize I was an only child, right?”
“But you have so much love to give.”
That was one truth she could no longer deny. Gone were the days when Liyah denied her emotions. “You’re being persuasive again.”
He turned and grabbed something off the bed and handed it to her. “Thank you for marrying me.”
She smiled and stepped back from the box. “Just a second.”
She’d asked Hasiba to make sure Liyah’s gift for Sayed had been dropped off in the suite. She found it on the desk, wrapped in burgundy paper, the royal crest holding the gold ribbon together instead of a bow.
She rushed back into the room and offered it to him. “Thank you for marrying me.”
“Your love is all the gift I need,” he said fervently.
“Ditto.”
He smiled and opened the gift, his expression going very solemn as he opened the jeweler’s box. It was a traditional wedding bracelet, of the type brides gave their husband in Zeena Sahra. Though it was not leather, or hand woven from her hair.
It had something to do with their Bedouin roots, but all Liyah knew was that she approved the symbolism of it.
“The eternal circle of love and commitment,” Sayed said with satisfaction.
“Yes, because I will always love you and am in this thing for life.”
“As am I.” He slipped the heavy platinum masculine bracelet on, a single ruby for his royal house offset left of center on the top.
She’d used the last of her savings to buy it and couldn’t think of a better use of her mother’s final gift to Liyah.
“Now it is your turn.”
“Is it?” she asked, so full of love and happiness she didn’t think any gift could add to it.
“Yes. I remember you once told me, we are supposed to keep things even.”
She laughed, remembering. “That was about getting naked.”
“We will get to that.”
“Promise?” she teased.
“Oh, yes. Now, open your gift.”
Liyah tore the paper off the flat box and pulled off its lid, but was a little confused when she saw it was filled with legal documents. “What are these?”
“You know the hotel where I proposed?”
“Yes.” She’d loved the rooftop restaurant.
“I bought it for you.”
“You bought me a hotel?”
“It’s in your blood, but you’ll have to keep a general manager as your duties as emira will not allow for a full-time occupation outside of the palace.”
“Your mother explained.” Queen Durrah had been giving Liyah “princess lessons” daily since she agreed to marry Sayed.
“And you do not mind?”
“No, Sayed. When I say I love you, I mean the you that is emir, too.”
“You are amazing, habibti. Intee albi.”
“And you are my heart. We’ll beat for each other. I love you so much, Sayed.”
“As I love you. With everything that I am or ever will be.”
“I know it.”
“You do?”
“The proof is in the pudding, as they say.” Her heart was so full it was hard to get the words out, but she did. “First you gave me the gift of family, both my father and your own parents, cousins and aunt. Then there’s the hotel—the grand romantic gesture the men in your family are known for.”
“I should have realized I loved you when I started negotiations for the hotel.”
“Maybe.”
“Perhaps you need a little more proof.” Sayed’s meaning was clear in the hunger glowing in his espresso eyes.
“I’ll never say no to that type of proof.”
Nor would she ever balk at giving it. Love had turned her from repressed into passionately expressive.
And Sayed adored her that way. He said so.
They made love throughout the night, taking turns expressing their spiritual affection in carnal ways no less beautiful than the emotion that flowed between them.
Ultimately, Hena Amari had gifted Liyah with Sayed, her final request leading her daughter to London where fate ordained she connect with the other half of her soul.
Liyah whispered a prayer of gratitude as she slipped into sleep, wrapped in the arms of her one true love, and hoped her mother could hear it, as well.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from THE CHATSFIELD: PLAYBOY’S LESSON by Melanie Milburne
