The Sheik's Secret Bride (8 page)

Callie waved her hand.  “Oh, there are tons of recipes.  If you don’t find one in the kitchen, there are millions of recipes on the Internet that could help you out.”

He didn’t buy it.  “We don’t have all the ingredients?”

She chuckled.  “Luca and I anticipated many afternoons making cookies.  We have plenty of supplies for just about anything you might want to bake, not to mention all of the additional supplies that this house already has.” She grinned as Luca continued to pull Zahir away. “Trust me,” she tried very hard to have a sincere, innocent look on her face as she said “if there is any ingredient that you need that the house or my supplies don’t have, I will be more than delighted to drive to the grocery store and pick up that additional item.”

Zahir thought that he was adequately warned about this event simply by the look in her eyes. He just couldn’t imagine how difficult it might be to bake cookies.

Three hours later, Zahir suddenly understood how evil his wife could be. Those kind, innocent eyes of hers had hidden depths of evilness that even he could not have imagined.

The kitchen was filled with smoke.  Again!  All of the smoke detectors in the house were now in a heap on the dining room table, there were no available cookie trays, and the cookie trays that had already been used would have to be trashed because of the burnt batter that was now permanently welded to the surface of each cookie sheet that they had stuck in the oven. Zahir had no idea what was on the floor of this kitchen, but no matter where he stepped, his shoes would crunch or stick.

“This was not as easy as I thought it would be,” he said to his laughing son. The two males stared at each other, Zahir stunned by the amount of flour and batter and, he really hoped that was a pecan hanging from Lucas hair. Zahir suspected that he looked just as messy.

Grabbing his son around his waist, Zahir carried Luca with his hands and feet dangling in front of him as he went in search of his wife. He found her sitting on one of the comfortable deck chairs, looking beautiful and clean. She looked so serene as she stared out at the lake, the book that she had been trying to read was laying on her lap, face down.

He ignored the stunned expression on her face as he approached, still with Luca dangling from his arm. “Tell me the secret, woman!”

Callie stared, taking in the tall, formidable man in front of her. This could not be Zahir. It was simply impossible to think that the man who had confidently sailed around the lake, tilting that boat to a forty-five degree angle and pulling it right back up again, never capsizing the boat, sure of where all the rigging was supposed to go, how the boat was supposed to be sailed, how the winds could give them more speed or slow them down or turn them, could be trounced by cookie baking.  She laughingly looked up at this man standing in front of her with her little boy, almost completely covered in flour and…what was that hanging from Luca’s hair?

Callie tried very hard not to laugh at the sight in front of her but it was just too much to ask of anyone. She lifted her hand to cover her mouth but it was pointless.  Laughter burst out of her, and she couldn’t stop as she continued to survey the two males. Luca just grinned from ear to ear while Zahir tried to intimidate her with his Sheik–stare.

Luca turned around and looked up at his dad, and both males shrugged at each other, not exactly sure what was so funny. Unfortunately, that only made Callie laugh even harder. Zahir set Luca down onto the deck, and that was Callie’s first clue that she was in serious trouble. Unfortunately, she didn’t move quickly enough. By the time she realized that she was in trouble and had jumped up from her chair, Zahir was already too close. The arm that had previously been holding her son was now wrapped around her waist and she was being lifted into the air. Zahir spun her around so that she was now facing him, her hands manacled behind her back by one of his hands.

The laughter died out of her as she stared up at him with huge, wary eyes.

“Are you going to tell me the secret?” he demanded.

Callie couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter that burst out of her. “If you’re going to try and intimidate me,” she said, “then you have to get the batter off of your face.  The flour on your eyelashes doesn’t do your ‘bad-angry’ stare much help either.”

“Oh, you think I’m not intimidating?” He growled. “Let me see if I can become a bit more intimidating,” and he leaned in and nibbled at her lower lip.

This was something Callie hadn’t been expecting, but she should have. There was no way that Callie could say that she truly knew this man, but she knew his tactics. She knew the things that happened between them when they touched or when he took her into his arms.

So she should not have been surprised when he kissed her, or when his free hand slid up her waist. But she was. Nor could she stop the moan that escaped her lips at his touch.

The childlike giggle to their right caused Callie to freeze. Thankfully Zahir also lifted his head turning slightly to stare down at his son. “I think your next lesson is how to be a good wing man,” Zahir explained to the giggling toddler.

Luca’s curious gaze almost caused Callie to erupt into laughter again. Especially when his head tilted to the side and he said, “What is a wing man?”  Obviously, he was more than ready to learn anything from his new father. 

Zahir sighed but he pulled back again. “Don’t think you’re getting away with anything. We will continue this part of our discussion later.” He dropped his hands from her wrists and waist then stepped back. Callie’s eyes instantly dropped lower on his body, then shifted to see if Luca had noticed anything strange about his father. Thankfully, her son was too absorbed in a rabbit that had just hopped onto the property. But Zahir looked at her with a determined glare as he shifted slightly in his pants.

Callie suspected that a strategic retreat was in order. She stepped around Zahir and moved towards the stairs of the deck. “I don’t understand why you think that making cookies is so difficult.” She opened the sliding glass door and stepped into the great room of the house. But that was as far as she got. Her eyes took in the kitchen. Nothing else could enter her consciousness at this moment as she wondered if a hurricane had passed through the inside of this house over the past few hours.

There was flour everywhere, batter hanging from even the light fixtures on the ceiling. How in the world did they get batter on the ceiling? Luca was on one side of her and Zahir was on the other side and she looked at both of her men, then back at the kitchen then at both of them again. She still didn’t get it. “What happened?”

Both Luca and Zahir shrugged their shoulders at the same time then looked back at the catastrophe of the kitchen. Luca took her hand and Callie tried not to shudder at the stickiness of his fingers.

Luca spoke up in their defense.  “I think we did something wrong.”

Callie stepped closer to the kitchen, her steps careful as she surveyed the damage to the once beautiful and elegant environment. “How did…?” She stopped. Callie decided that she didn’t want to know.

She lifted her hands, relieved that she could drop the sticky fingers of her son, and said, “You go take a bath and get some clean clothes on. I’ll start cleaning up.”

Zahir was having none of that. “No way. All of us will go shower and change for dinner. We are going out.”

Callie shook her head and started moving towards the kitchen. “This has to be cleaned up. It will be even worse if the batter dries and hardens on the...” Her eyes once again rose to look at the light fixtures. And the ceiling. And above the stove.

“You guys go get showered and when you’re finished you can help me clean up.”

Zahir shook his head.  “You’re not cleaning this up.  I have a very capable staff who will clean this up.  Go change and meet us out here in,” he glanced at his watch, “thirty minutes.”  He looked up at her.  “Will that give you enough time?”

She opened her mouth but he stopped her with a raised hand.  “No, Callie, you are not cleaning this up.  I am taking you out to dinner and by the time we return, this will all be cleaned up.  No arguments.”

Callie wasn’t really comfortable with that mandate, but she figured she could start cleaning once he had gone into his own bedroom to shower.

Once again, he read her mind.  “Callie, go in to get ready or I will pick you up and make sure you are in the shower,” he warned.  His voice had turned deep and husky and Callie knew exactly how he would ensure her compliance with his orders. 

She didn’t like it, but she also knew when to retreat when confronted with a difficult situation. 

She almost stomped into her bedroom while Ms. Fisher took charge of Luca.  When they were alone later tonight, she was going to have a stern discussion with him about him telling her what to do. 

She was absolutely not going to bow down to all of the ways he wanted to change the raising of their child!

“Goodnight, sweet little guy,” Callie whispered to Luca who could barely keep his eyes open. It had been a good day, she thought.  All things considered.  Dinner out had been delicious with fresh catfish and hushpuppies, always a good choice but she suspected that the restaurants around Lake Anna were not the usual style that Zahir was used to.  The man was a sheik after all.  He ate in five star restaurants.  The fried catfish was amazingly delicious, but it was from a diner where the service was friendly and warm-hearted versus deferential and intimidating.  She and Luca loved it.  And Zahir didn’t seem to be disturbed by the family style ambiance, but she wasn’t going to guess at what he was thinking any longer. 

“Momma?” he called out when she’d reached the doorway. 

“What’s up, honey?” she asked, pausing to turn and look back at him. 

“He’s not going away again, is he?” Luca asked sleepily, snuggling against his teddy bear. 

Callie wished she didn’t know who he was talking about.  “No.  He’ll be here in the morning, my man,” she assured him.  She suppressed the tears that sprung up to her eyes, wishing that he didn’t want a dad as much as she knew he did.  She wished that she could be enough for him, but that wasn’t the case.  Luca had met and already fallen in love with his father, and that was as it should be. 

“Will he take me swimming tomorrow?” he asked.

Callie laughed softly.  “I’m sure he will if you ask him tomorrow.”

Luca grinned from the pillow.  “I already know how to swim.  You taught me so I won’t be a problem to him.  I promise.”

Callie’s heart broke as she realized that her little boy thought his father had gone away because he was a problem.  She hurried back to his bedside and knelt down. “Oh Luca, you’re never a problem.  You’re the best thing that happened to me.”

His little fingers played with the ears on his teddy bear, obviously nervous and confused about his father’s sudden presence in his life.  “But he didn’t want to be with me.  I just now got big enough.”

She shook her head again.  “No, honey.  That’s not why he wasn’t with us.  I told you that he’s a very important person and his main priority was keeping us safe.  He couldn’t be near us and do that.  You believe me, don’t you?”

He considered that for a long moment, but in the end, he was just too tired to make sense of this new development in his young life.  Callie leaned forward, kissing him again on his chubby cheek.  “We’ll talk about it more in the morning.  And maybe your dad would like some of our special pancakes.  What do you think?” she suggested.

Luca smiled but rubbed his face against the soft fur of his teddy bear as the sleep took over. 

She pulled the door almost all the way closed, wanting to be able to hear him if he woke up during the night.  She then made her way to her own room.  Well, the room she’d decided to use for the week.  She’d had to search out her clothes yesterday because the uber efficient and never seen staff had stored them in the master bedroom.  They all thought she was just going to fall into bed with Zahir and…she shivered at the very idea of that action.  It was impossible, she told herself.  As she had several times since his reappearance, she pushed the idea out of her mind, not letting it take root.  She had to be strong!  She had to find the willpower, otherwise…she’d be mush. 

She wanted to discuss Luca’s words with Zahir, to let him know that his son was worried about what might happen in the future.  But she was too scared of what might happen now that they were alone, and not in the distant future but right here, right now.  She could almost feel Zahir’s presence even though she couldn’t see him.  It was almost as if she could sense his thoughts and knew that he wanted to make love to her tonight.

She absolutely could not let that happen.  She was overwhelmed by his presence and everything that it implied not to mention Luca’s instant love for the man.  No doubt about it, she was in a complicated mess and she had no idea what to do, except continue to be as strong as possible. 

So she took the coward’s way out and went into the bedroom.  She washed her face and brushed her teeth, feeling very proud of herself for not giving in to the pull of need that was ever-present when Zahir was close by. 

She pulled on her nightshirt and, for one moment, she wished that she had something sexier, more sophisticated than the drab nightshirt.  It was completely unflattering but soft and comfortable.  Which is pretty much the way most of her wardrobe was.  She went for comfort more than sophistication. 

But no matter how soft or how comfortable, she couldn’t relax in the enormous bed.  She was too painfully conscious of the fact that Zahir was here, in the house, probably waiting for her to come downstairs again.  He’d let her sleep alone last night, but she suspected that tonight would not be the same. 

Sure enough, ten minutes later, the door to her bedroom opened up and she held her breath, trying to pretend to be asleep.

“It isn’t going to work, Callie,” Zahir growled as he walked over to the bed.

Her eyes popped open and, for a split second, she thought about scooting over to the other side of the bed.  But that pause was her downfall.  He was there, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her out of the bedroom. 

“I don’t want to sleep with you, Zahir,” she told him. 

“Good.  I hadn’t planned to do much sleeping anyway,” he told her as he carried her down the hallway and into the master suite. 

That made her breath catch in her throat and she couldn’t believe what he was implying.  Or maybe she could, but she didn’t want to acknowledge it.  “We can’t have sex either.”

He laughed softly as his foot kicked the door to the master bedroom shut.  “I don’t remember any problems the last time we tried it, my dear.” 

Callie shook her head, her mind shifting into overdrive as his words hit her.  She started to struggle, but he just let her legs drop down while, at the same time, his mouth covered hers. 

And just that easily, he overcame all of her objections.  Callie tried to fight the desire.  She was proud of herself for all of maybe five seconds while the heels of her hands pushed against his chest.  But then he shifted his hands, cupping her full breasts that were pressing against that darned nightshirt and she was lost.  Worse than lost, she was ravenous for his touch. 

Suddenly, instead of trying to push him away, she was pulling him closer, her body needing him in a basic, elemental way that flashed through her mind, creating a furnace fire of heat within her that could be put out only one way. 

When his mouth moved to her neck, she leaned back, her hands pushing against his shirt, needing desperately to touch his skin, to feel all of him once more.  All of the memories of this man, of the way he would touch her, make love to her, came rushing back to her mind, filling her with the most delicious anticipation.  Gone were all of her resolutions to stay away from him, to not let this happen.  Five years of wanting erupted as he continued to touch her and she was almost crying with her need to feel him inside of her. 

His teeth nibbled then his lips soothed, but there was no soothing the nuclear passion that was inside of both of them.  They’d been apart for five, long years. 

Zahir felt her shivering and couldn’t slow down.  This was his wife, the mother of his child and no other woman had ever compared to her.  From the first moment he’d seen her, she had been the one that had driven him mad with desire.  He ripped her underwear off, discarding it so that his fingers could delve into her wet heat.  “Callie!” he roared. 

She lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist and pulling him closer, needing all of him.  And when he slipped inside of her, she gasped as her body stretched, her back arched and her eyes practically rolled back into her head.  “More,” she pleaded, her hands fisting in his hair as if he might move away from her. 

“Yes,” he growled back and he moved deeper into her heat, filling her up then waiting for her body to adjust to his size.  He had to remind himself that she was a tiny woman.  He had to take this slow.  She felt so tight, so hot and he shook his head, trying to regain just a small bit of control so he didn’t tear her apart. 

But his perfect Callie was having none of that.  Her hips lifted, inviting him to move, demanding that he move.  And so he slid out of her, watching her mouth open as the sensations made her crazy. 

This was what he loved, what he’d been craving for years without her. Because of all the years apart, it took only a few strokes before Callie was splintering apart into an explosive orgasm.  And with her tight sheath squeezing him, Zahir couldn’t hold out much longer either. 

He held her close, his body trying to protect her but it was just too good, too amazing to be in her arms, to be holding her once again. 

When the vibrations slowed enough, he rolled over, pulling her with him so that she was draped across his chest, still intimately connected to him.  He let his fingers glide down her back, over her adorable, round bottom and then back up again while he listened for her breathing to come back under control. 

Callie realized what was happening, what had just happened and was shocked.  Pulling away, she tried to get up off of the bed, to move away from him but he was having none of that.  And since her body was still thrumming with pleasure, she didn’t have the energy to fight him just yet.  She’d give herself a few minutes, then head back to the other bedroom.  There was no way she could...

“Please don’t…” she whispered and shifted so that he was no longer filling her.  Moving off of him, she tried to get her mind back in order.  But then his hand moved around to her stomach and he pulled her back against his chest.  Her body was once again on fire for him.  She might have just had the best climax of her life but this was Zahir.  She was more than ready for round two but she didn’t want to give in.  She had to be strong at some point, shouldn’t she?

“Don’t do what?” he asked, sweeping her blond hair off of her neck and kissing the sensitive skin on her nape.  “Don’t do this?” he asked, nibbling on her ear.  She shivered, closing her eyes.  “Or do you want me to stop this?” he asked, as his fingers trailed down her naked spine, finding all of those erogenous zones that he’d discovered during their three week relationship so long ago. 

When she arched her back, her bottom pressed against his erection and his hands moved lower, pulling her thigh back so that his own could slip between her legs.  His hands pulled her sleepshirt over her head, tossing it onto the floor behind them.  That gave him better access to her breasts and he used that access perfectly, his hands cupping her breasts, his fingers tweaking her nipples. 

Callie was once again lost in the sensuous spell that he could so easily weave over her body.  “Zahir,” she whispered, shifting her leg higher against his and pressing her chest into his hands.  His mouth and teeth continued to tease her back and shoulders while his hands drove her crazy with his hands and fingers.  So when he slipped into her wet heat again, she was completely on board, even pushing against him to deepen the movement.  And just that easily, they were moving in that rhythm that took her higher and higher.  It wasn’t as fast in coming this time around, but mostly because Zahir was controlling their pace, not letting her move against him as fast.  So when she exploded, the pleasure was so intense she had to grab his hands, begging him to stop the pleasure on her breasts.  It was too much and she couldn’t take it after so many years.  His hands moved down to her hips, holding on as he pressed into her harder and faster.  And suddenly, she was climbing that cliff once more, arching her back as yet another orgasm swept over her just as he found his own fulfillment. 

Afterwards, she collapsed against the mattress, her body so sated, she couldn’t even move.  Nor could she push Zahir away when he pulled her against his chest.  The last thought she had was the realization that she still had no willpower where this man was concerned.