Page 15 of Sheikh's Unexpected Triplet Babies

Chapter Six

Almost four hours later, she had quickly decided that things weren't going to be all right after all.

They had spent an enjoyable time together, eating and talking, keeping to safe topics and making sure that neither felt too uncomfortable or nervous. Of course it was just an accident when her hand brushed against his as they shared an excellent meal of kebabs and greens. Of course their legs only ended up pressed against each other because the booth was so narrow.

In fairly short order, however, Bedelia had to admit that things were burning, even if the burn was slow, even if she was the only one who had noticed it. She was, as her Iowan grandmother would have said it, playing with fire, and it would be far better to excuse herself before it got more risky. However, she told herself this was fine. This was limited. They were friends, nothing more, and nothing was going to happen between them, nothing at all. She was confident in that, so confident that when Jahin asked her to stand close as he opened the festival, she agreed without thinking of it.

“It is not a long or onerous ceremony,” he said. “And afterward I would very much like to speak to you more. Perhaps if you stay close, I will not have to risk chasing you across the town.”

She blushed a little, nodding.

“I'm not planning on running,” she said with a toss of her head. “At least, I am not planning on running unless you do something particularly foolish.”

Almost every other man she had ever met would have been offended or irritated. Jahin, however, only smiled at her, tipping her a wink.

“I am foolish on a fairly regular basis,” he said with a smile. “So I suppose I had better get good at running.”

He was opening the festival in front of the citadel, where an enormous stage had been erected. The people of Masir and the people who had come from distant parts of the country to be a part of this ancient festival were gathered in front of it by dusk, and by dark, Bedelia could see that the square in front of the platform was utterly packed with people. If she hadn't been with Jahin on the platform, pushed towards the back with a few town officials and Jahin's discreet bodyguards and assistants, she might have worried about being trampled.

There was something deeply human and historic about the scene in front of her. Night had fallen, and the stars above were bright now that the electric lights had been doused for the occasion. The platform that she was standing on was lit with torchlight, and out of the dark shadows, the mayor of the town, a round man who had obviously been drinking, stepped forward.

It only took a few moments before Bedelia realized that she didn't understand what was being said at all. Her Arabic was passable, even good, but this seemed to be some other dialect, one that slipped and slid around without her being able to grasp it at all.

Well, it's probably not that important that I understand it, she thought.

The mayor finished with what he had to say, and then he came back to the sidelines, where he stood with her. Up close, it was even easier to tell that he had been drinking, and she was relieved when all he seemed to want to do was to wink at her. He had seen her and Jahin standing closely together earlier in the day, and she supposed that was all that was necessary for someone to think that they were together in this part of the world.

There was a gasp and a cheer as Jahin stepped out under the flickering light of the torches. He was dressed in his suit, but there was still something about him that fit perfectly into this place and this time. He was doing what his ancestors had done for decades, and unless Bedelia missed her guess, he was doing it very well. She felt a deep pulse inside her pull her towards him, and she couldn't imagine what it was to be standing up in front of all those people the way he was.

He started speaking, and he was using that same dialect that the mayor had used. She could not understand it at all, and she hugged herself a little bit, feeling like more of an outsider than ever.

He spoke, and his voice was low, but there was a power to it that made it resonate. He walked right up to the edge of the platform, coming face-to-face with the people below. When he spoke, they were hushed and waiting, and when he stopped, they cheered. There was a connection between them, people to lord, and she could feel it as well, a kind of gravity that he exerted.

He said something, the crowd roared with laughter, and for a moment, she thought he was done. He started to walk away from the crowd, and then suddenly everything shifted. She heard the mayor's boozy laugh, and she felt a hard shove from behind that put her straight in Jahin's path. She stumbled, and she would have fallen if he hadn't wrapped his arms around her. It was strange. One moment she was falling, and the next she was perfectly, utterly safe.

She looked up into his copper eyes in the torchlight, beautiful and bewitching, and in that strange and wild moment, she knew that a part of her would always belong to him. He watched her, and for one insane moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. That was foolishness, of course, and he pulled her to her feet. That was when the crowd broke into a loud and raucous chant.

"What are they saying?" Bedelia asked, unable to stop herself from pressing against Jahin's body.

"They're telling us to kiss," Jahin said with an exasperated smile. "It's an old tradition, one that goes back a very long ways."

The moment he said the word “kiss,” Bedelia felt her cheeks heat up. She was still warm from the dancing, but she knew that this heat was entirely different, something that started from deep within her and swelled to cover her entire body. It was something that she was becoming quite used to after spending any amount of time with Jahin, apparently.

"Well, we can't really," she started to say, but then the crowd grew louder, and Jahin looked at her with a wry smile. She was convinced he was going to tell her to hop down off of the platform, but instead, he took her in his arms. He was as quick and as strong as she remembered him being, and when she looked up into his extraordinary copper eyes, she was convinced that they were lit from within by some kind of heavenly fire.

"Sorry about this," he muttered, and she had just enough time to think that he didn't sound sorry at all, before his mouth swept down on hers. There was no artifice about the kiss. There was no gentle peck to calm the crowd, there was no show where his mouth stayed a centimeter from hers. This was real in every way that mattered, and Bedelia felt herself swept away in the passion of the crowd, in the feel of his lips on hers, in the way his mouth claimed her completely. She wrapped her arms around his neck to keep her balance, but after a moment of shock, she found herself kissing him in return, giving herself up to him with a deep and passionate need.

Bedelia barely noticed as the crowd let up a wild cheer, and when Jahin drew back from her, she looked at him wild-eyed. For a moment, she couldn't understand why he had stopped, and then she remembered where they were and blushed anew.

"I..."

"Come on," he said, taking her hand. "We should go."

She had no time to protest before he dragged her down off the platform, making their way to the quiet of the old palace behind them. The guards at the door let them through with a nod, and when the door shut out the crowd, they were suddenly bathed in a silence so deep that it felt like heavy velvet.

"Why did we have to leave?" Bedelia asked once she had gotten her breath back. "We could have stayed..."

"I suppose we could have," Jahin said with amusement, "but if we hadn't gotten out of there right then, I believe they would have started shouting things that were perhaps more graphic than you cared to indulge."

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