Page 11 of Sheikh's Unexpected Triplet Babies

Chapter Four

Back in his trailer, Jahin shook his head and examined the hand print on his face.

She is small, but she is mighty, he thought ruefully. He could see every finger outlined on his skin, and the place where she struck him still tingled.

Even though his face was sore, he couldn't find it in himself to be too angry with her. She was a romantic, and he had a feeling that romantics could be formidable indeed when their dreams and ideals were threatened. Hers had simply run a little deeper than he’d thought they would, and he had paid the price for underestimating them.

He stretched out on the small camp bed in his trailer, so different from the luxurious one that he was used to in the capital. It wasn't like he could have offered her very much in the first place even if he had gotten her to come back with him. And if she had, then what? They would have had a single night together, and then it would have been straight back to normal.

What the hell is wrong with me?

The more he thought of it, the more foolish it looked for him to think that she would be all right with sharing a single night with him. A woman like that, she wanted a lifetime, and that was not something he could give her.

No, it was more than foolishness, he realized. There was something about Bedelia that had drawn him in, even if it was a strange attraction and unlike one that he had felt for anyone else. It didn't make sense, not in the women he had been with in the past, not with the women he wanted to be with in the future.

He pushed aside the doubts that told him to go speak to her, to apologize and tell her that if he had hurt her, it hadn't been his intention.

Instead, Jahin stayed right where he was. There was no point in doing otherwise. All he could do at this point was hurt her more, make her angry or insult her. No, he thought ruefully, he had acted to protect himself, and now this was the consequence of doing that altogether too well. There was no way she would come near him now, and his infatuation--because now he could see that that was exactly what it was--was over.

“I am sorry, Bedelia,” he muttered to thin air, but it did not make him feel one bit better.

***

BEDELIA FELT A little better when she got up the next morning. Someone had left a plate of slightly stale pastries on the hostel's table, and she helped herself to one as she sat and thought about her day. There were about eight messages from Mr. Miller to get back to, and she didn't think he was going to be impressed with the fact that she had gotten her heart slightly broken by a random man at a horse fair.

She tried to tell herself that what had happened with Jahin was likely for the best. They came from worlds that were so different that it was bizarre they even breathed the same air. However much they had enjoyed each other's company, there would always be a limit to how much they had to say to one another, and at the end of all of that, there was nothing to be done.

Bedelia remembered the things he had said with a kind of shiver.

That is the kind of man he is,she tried to tell herself. When someone tells you clearly and effectively who they are, you don't doubt them and look for excuses that they could be otherwise. You believe them, and you act accordingly. “Acting accordingly,” in this case, meant that she should realize she was far better off without a man like that, no matter how handsome or funny he was.

Still, a part of her couldn’t quite believe that the man who had rescued her earlier in the day had turned into such a careless monster at the end of it. She didn't know what it meant. A part of her couldn't understand what he had done or why he had done it. It was a puzzle to say the least, but it was not one that she had the time or the energy to understand.

“Not my problem,” she said, standing up decisively. She wasn't sure that it was true, but it felt good to stand up and say something decisively. It certainly didn't matter in the least that a part of her couldn't think of Jahin's copper eyes and lithe frame without a deep pang inside her heart.

“Let's find out where Miller wants me next.”

She had been planning to stay at the horse fair for at least another day, but right now, she wasn't sure she would stay even if people tied her down. The chances of running into Jahin, or worse, the two men who had accosted her, were too great, and they made her nervous. No, it would be better to move on and figure out what she wanted to do next.

Miller had given her a budget and a list of things he wanted, so it was easy enough to find out where her next research location was going to be, and also to start looking to the future. Even if a part of her kept looking over her shoulder and hoping to see a familiar smile and a pair of copper eyes, it was time to move on.

As she packed, she came across the little wooden figurine that Jahin had bought for her, the girl Meelia who had watered the valley with her tears. She held flowers of both white and red, and something in her painted face made Bedelia feel better.

It'll be fine, she told herself. Life goes on, and I am not going to miss him at all.

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