Page 156 of Shâhzâdeh

He chuckled as he shook his head and pecked my forehead. “Ziba, I will wipe your ass if necessary, but zhere will never be a day vhen you need to know about mine.”

I pinched his nipple playfully and he gripped my ass in retaliation. “Stop being ridiculous, baby. I’m trying to figure out if you need nausea meds or if you need Pepto or something.”

“All I need is you. Just having you here makes me feel better. My head was dizzy but now I feel comfort. Do you zhink it’s possible I was going zhrough wizdrawals from you? We will have to fix that.” He pulled me down on his lap and nuzzled the side of my neck.

“You’re crazy.” I didn’t move though because I had missed him.

“Are you going to tell me about your day?”

I rolled my eyes at his ridiculousness because I knew that had gone on. “Why? You already know about it.”

“Yes. Thebrusbandand someone who thinks you’re his blood sister.” He was back to laughing and I guess this was better than him feeling like he was going to pass out.

“How much information have you dug up about him?” I just knew that he was gonna tell me that Mr. Thornton was a professional hustler and was running out of money and targeted me.

“Enough to know zhat he might be telling zhe truz.”

I didn’t have to ask if he was being serious, Xerxes never said anything that he didn’t mean. “What?” I couldn’t even look at him because I was too nervous.

He nodded his head slowly and I wasn’t sure if it was from his feeling better or the weight of what he had to say. “Your adoption paperwork was notarized by a Mormon man in Virginia. Several weeks after the fire that killed the Thorntons.”

The idea of this man actually remembering a sister from so long ago was crazy. For her to potentially be me was even wilder. “You’re joking.”

“Never about somezing so serious and never when it comes to you.”

The nerves that fled when worry replaced it were back full force. “So you think he might be right?”

“I do.”

I scratched the side of my head nervously trying to remember if there was anything about his features that mirrored mine. He was way taller than me, and his hair was almost black and not red. I wasn’t sure how he thought we could be related. “That would be crazy.”

“Not crazy. I believe zhat once you began to walk in zhe path zhat was meant for you, everyzing else around you falls into place. We were always destined so of course our merging our lives togezer would allow yours to go back to where it needed to be.” Xerxes wrapped his fingers around mine and gave me space to process what he’d said.

“And what about you? You’re over here sick not even a month after we get back from our honeymoon. Am I a plague on you?”

“It is temporary, love. But come and lay down with me. We have an appointment to attend to later and I don’t want us to be interrupted.” He stood up from the loveseat with me in his arms and, before I could protest, he gave me a kiss to silence me.

“An appointment?”

He nodded as he strode to the bed and placed me on top. I watched as he finished removing his shirt and he climbed into bed next to me. “At zhe penthouse. Zhe results will be in by zhen and I invited Mr. Thornton to meet us zhere to discuss them.”

I was pacing in the family room of the penthouse I had only lived in for two weeks before all of this happened. The view of the Charlotte skyline stretched out before me and I felt like I was about to throw up. Xerxes must have tired of my nervousness because he called out to me.

“Ziba. Come sit. You’re making me nauseated pacing.”

The doorbell rang and I knew Quentin and Sho were handling seeing him into the apartment. Shortly after I moved out, I had the apartment staged with furniture that had been used in one of the other empty units. Most people didn’t think it was smart to show the very best unit in a rental building because if they weren’t there for that, they might get jealous. But with the type of market that Charlotte was, seeing something luxurious would make the right person want it. And even if it didn’t, having it decorated nicely would give them inspiration and show what they could do with a unit they could afford. To me it was a winning situation either way.

Vincent walked in nodding appreciatively at the apartment as Xerxes stood up next to me. With a hand extended, Ahmad approached us almost nervously.

“You must be Mr. Cannon.” They shook hands and I noticed that despite his taller height, Mr. Thornton seemed intimidated by my husband. It was either that or the situation had him as nervous as me.

“Xerxes. You obviously know my wife.” Xerxes held his hand out to me and I gave an awkward wave because I wasn’t sure what to do.

“It’s good to see you again, Vanya.” Ahmad looked like he wanted to say something else but put his hands behind his back and waited for me to take the lead.

“Ugh, maybe same.” I didn’t know what to do with myself so I just stood there like a fool.

He didn’t take my indifference as an issue, just nodded and smiled almost apologetically. “I understand it might be a weird situation.”

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