Page 23 of Sheikh's Virgin Love-Slave

“Look behind you.”

He did and glared at her since she now snuck behind him. Her dress was too short and too tight for such a gathering, and it looked cheap on her. So much looked cheap on her, and he didn’t know how he never noticed that before. Maybe it was because he never had Bridget’s easy style and grace to compare Sabella to. Well, he did now.

“I did not ask you to come here.”

“No,” she said, grinning like a cat that caught a canary. “But the nephew of the sheikh of Abu Dhabi needed an escort.”

“I’m sure you’re good at those services.”

She reached out and traced a finger down his front. “How quickly we forget good times, Ravi.”

“You forget your place, Sabella. You’re not my equal.”

“I’m a servant, right? Just the woman you need when it’s convenient.” She shook her head and glared back at Bridget who was animatedly talking with Adil and Kamala both. “I want to talk with you. I’m better than that American giraffe over there, and I deserve more than a brush-off after all we’ve been through together.”

“I owe you nothing.”

She narrowed cold, black eyes at him. “You may not think so, but I’ll make a scene right here, Ravi. Ruin the opening day of your mother’s exhibit.”

His jaw clenched and he led her out to the hallway. When they were in a private corner of the hall, he glared back at her. “You’re low. Did you know that?”

“But I get my way,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders. “I want you to remember something.”

“What?” he asked, his stomach still churning with bile.

She kissed him so suddenly that he barely had time to process any of it. Then she draped her leg over his waist, pressing up against him fully. In his shock, he let the moment pass and then collected himself to force her off of him.

“No,” he said, straightening his robes. “We are never doing this again. It’s over, Sabella.”

She laughed at him, as if only she were privy to a secret joke. “No, my so-called sheikh. It’s only just begun.”

***

Bridget was enjoying the stories both Kamala and Adil were telling her about a certain precocious, curly-haired boy who eventually grew to become Ravi. The old man had just finished telling her about how a frog ended up as part of the former sheikh’s entrée at a dinner years ago thanks to Ravi’s mischief, and she was bent over laughing at the thought. Yes, Ravi was adventurous in so many ways now, but she wanted to know more about that carefree boy, the one who set a live frog down on his dad’s dinner plate when Heads of State were coming; the one who had laughed so easily.

The one who didn’t seem so haunted by the loss of his parents in very different ways.

“That’s nothing. I have a far better one about Sheikh Shamon and the chicken pox,” Kamala started.

“Oh please, I’m all ears,” she said. Then Bridget frowned when her phone dinged. She had a text. “Sorry, let me take this,” she said, pulling it from her clutch. It was Ravi. He’d stepped out of the ballroom for his business call, and she was glad it was over. Or at least that it hopefully was.

Meet me in the lobby.

She rolled her eyes and hoped that it wouldn’t be another piece of jewelry. The pearls around her neck were more than enough. Bridget meant it earlier when she proclaimed that he was all she wanted. Frankly, after the few crappy boyfriends she had, he was the ultimate precious stone for her. Still, she was missing him desperately. Excusing herself from Adil and Kamala, Bridget made her way out of the ballroom and then turned her head.

Her heart shattered. It just crumbled in her chest.

There was Ravi making out with Sabella, and that witch had her leg wrapped around his waist.

Pain burned through her and the nausea was back as it had been every day since the aquarium. Bridget just hadn’t had the heart to tell Ravi, to worry him. What a waste of kindness that had been. He clearly didn’t give a damn about her. Chewing back her nausea, she rushed for the nearest ladies’ room, even as tears fell down her cheeks. Rushing in through the door, she slammed it behind her and lunged for a toilet. Her retching was familiar after a week, but the new ache in her heart and, seemingly deep down to her soul, was so very new.

She thought she was crushed when Kevin cheated on her, but that was a mosquito prick compared to the bite of a giant bear. Everything about her was tearing apart, and after she took cool mouthfuls of water from the sink, her mouth tasted of ash.

“I knew this was coming,” she said, as she splashed more cool water on her face. Her tears wouldn’t stop, and she had no interest in seeing Ravi again. She was glad she came separately with Kamala. Hopefully the servant woman could get her back to the mansion without her having to interact with that jerk ever again. If she saw him, she would weep so hard that it would never stop. That much Bridget knew was true. “But why?”

The door swung open and Sabella sauntered into the room, moving like pure sex. She sold it everywhere she walked, didn’t she? No wonder Ravi had fallen back into her arms.

“I know why.” The other woman purred, proud of her victory.

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