Page 47 of Sheikh's Unexpected Triplet Babies

He could go stay with the families of one of the women who he was routinely associated with. Wouldn't that delight them, the sheikh showing their daughter such favor.

For a moment, Bedelia wished intently that she was one of those women, born wealthy and beautiful with a place in Jahin's world as fixed as the North star. She longed to be someone that it was appropriate for him to look upon, to court properly, but then in the next moment, she dismissed it.

"This is where I want to be," she said out loud, and she was surprised to realize that it was true.

If she was one of those girls, she and Jahin would never be in this situation. Their children wouldn't exist. There would always be a wall between them, one made of expectations and assumptions. That was one thing they had going for them; they had always seen each other truly and honestly.

Bedelia sighed, gazing out the enormous windows. Below her the capital city buzzed away, thousands and thousands of lives rolling on whether hers did or not.

She didn't know what she would do if he didn't come back. How long could she chase him? How long before she grew tired and heartsick?

She squared her shoulders.

I will chase him as long as it takes,she thought to herself. As long as it takes.

***

JAHIN FOUND HIMSELF thinking of Bedelia throughout his day.

She was in the back of his mind as he went over the budget with his chief financial officer.

She popped up with her sweet smile and green eyes as he was trying to hammer out a good plan with a policy maker from Dubai.

She was with him when he ate and talked and waited for meetings to start, and he knew that he was in a dangerous place.

During a short break, he sat at his desk, all ten fingers buried in his thick, dark hair, and he simply breathed.

The image of her in the shower, blurred and warm and wet, echoed in his mind, but he knew that wasn't it.

His craving for her went beyond the physical, though he thought that the physical was plenty powerful enough, to be sure. No, he wanted more than just sex. He craved the warmth that had been between them, the power of her heart and the cleverness of her mind.

You can have that, his own traitorous brain whispered to him. Of course you can have that...

He couldn't. She was dangerous. She had tried to betray him. She was perhaps the least suitable woman he could bring into his life, and they were both damned lucky that the tabloids hadn't gotten wind of their affair.

For some reason, the word “affair” made him flinch. That wasn't what they had, but it was what the world would call it. It made him furious, and that was not a thing he could afford. She deserved so much more than that, and he felt as if he could have cheerfully killed anyone who put her in that position.

The clock was ticking, and Jahin realized that he had to make a decision. According to the men he had guarding her, she was still at the penthouse. At some point, he was going to need to decide if he wanted to come back--come home--to her, or if he was going to find some other place to go.

It would be the smart thing to go to a hotel, he knew that. He could go to a hotel and bar her from entry. There were, after all, plenty of other properties where she could be very comfortable. He could bar the hotel’s door against her, no matter how much that would hurt her, no matter how much it would hurt him.

Or...

Or he could return to the penthouse. He could order some food delivered to them. Was the Chinese place they loved so much too greasy for her now that she was pregnant? He was troubled he didn't know. And they could simply...forget that the past week or so had happened. They could be themselves again. They could be happy.

It would feel so good. He could feel himself longing for it even as he thought of it, longing for the warmth that had always come so easily to them.

He wondered bleakly if that was what had put him in such a foul mood. The thought was uncomfortable, to say the least. Instead of it being a betrayal that had made his heart constrict, that had made that black despair rise up within him, it was merely her absence. There was something in him, that strong blood that had driven his ancestors to conquer, to protect and to rule, that roared in denial of being that much in thrall to anyone else, of allowing himself to be ruled.

However, he had to admit to himself, if someone had to rule him, there would be far worse choices in the world than Bedelia.

Jahin put his head in his hands. For the last few days, he had been in a fog. He kept waiting for it to clear up so he could think, so he could act, do what was right, but now as he pressed on, nothing was clear. Every way he turned, there was nothing that would help him.

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