Page 31 of Sheikh's Unexpected Triplet Babies

AFTER BEDELIA’S UNFORTUNATE discovery of the newspaper, Jahin lay awake for a long time. He knew she did as well, but he could tell when she dropped off to sleep, uttering a sigh that was little more than a dry sob. Her sadness and confusion struck him like a hammer, but he had no idea what to do.

The truth was that she was right. At some point, the newspapers would be true when they talked about him with this princess or that duchess. He had been hearing the mutters for years about how it was time for him to wed, and now that he had turned thirty, they were getting louder.

A young man's taste for the bachelor life was one thing, but his elders had always said that people liked to see who was going to be running the country in years to come. Without a clear succession, there could be trouble, and with it came the vulture-like attentions of foreign competitors, and even other emirates. It was a duty his parents had been very careful to hammer into him before they died, and it was one he took to heart.

He knew they would not have approved of the length or depth of his affair with Bedelia, and looking down at the woman who slept next to him, he felt a deep stab of injustice at that. Bedelia, who looked at the world with courage and curiosity, who didn't have a cruel or malicious bone in her body, would have been looked down upon, and he had to stop his fists from curling in rage.

But...wasn't he the cruel one?

He was painfully aware that the only reason she was with him now was because he had offered to show her Muneazil as no foreigner ever saw it. Muneazil was a beautiful land, harsh and lovely by turns, and he had held it over her like a bargaining chip. He could still remember the look of shock on her face as she’d realized what he was demanding, and that twinge of guilt rose up a little further.

If he was going to be truly kind to her, if he was going to be truly a decent man, as he was raised to be, as he was told that he had to be, he would let her go.

He would wake up in the morning, tell her how sorry he was for all of this, and tell her that she was free to go, to walk his emirate and the UAE at large like any other tourist or researcher. Because the truth was, eventually, one day the headline would be true, and whether she loved him or not, she would be hurt. No one liked to be replaced, and that was exactly what was going to happen. In the most brutal and practical terms, one day he would have to marry someone suitable, and that person wouldn't be a little foreigner with no ties, no money, nothing but the biggest heart and the most breathtaking smile he had ever seen.

She whimpered a little in her sleep, and he realized somewhat guiltily that he had been hanging on to her tightly. He loosened his grip, but the truth was plain.

There was no way he could let her go before he absolutely had to. There was no way in the world that he was willing to let her go before she let go herself. The time that they had spent together...it was too important, and he knew that from this moment on, he had to cherish every moment that they did get together.

The word thudded in his mind and in his heart. Love. It was there, and it slept in his arms. Someday, perhaps someday very soon, there would be a reckoning, and that love would walk away from him.

Jahin had always thought that he was a strong man, but in the face of this pain, a part of him wanted to break down and howl. It could not face the possibility of losing her without a fight. It could not take the possibility that she would no longer be there.

He looked down at her sleeping face, a faint frown on her brow. He gently touched her face, and the frown smoothed out to a soft smile, possibly the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

"Forgive me, beautiful one," he whispered. "I do not wish to let you go..."

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