Sheikh's Princess of Convenience Read online

  “Meet my husband,” Galila invited Amira, stepping back to Karim’s side as she made the introductions.

  The resemblance between Karim and Adir wasn’t obvious, but she was looking for it and saw the way Karim noted their similar height and scanned a brow and a jaw that matched his own. Seeing their profiles reflected like that, the similarity was undeniable to her. Strange and endearing, especially because she saw a hint of her brothers in Adir as well.

  “What business do you have with me?” Adir asked Karim.

  “My wife wanted to see her friend, to assure herself she was well.” He nodded at Amira.

  “Very,” Adir said flatly. “As you can see.”

  Amira patted her baby bump. “All three of us are very happy.”

  “I’m glad,” Galila said. “But we also wanted to speak with you, Adir. About...” She looked to Karim. This was such a delicate matter. “It’s a private matter. We have something for you. But I think...” She looked between Adir and Amira, able to see the obvious connection between husband and wife. “Amira, you should come, too.”

  They entered the tent that Galila and Karim occupied. Amira accompanied them, a confused look on her face. Galila gave her hand a small squeeze and offered a smile of reassurance as she lowered to the cushions with her.

  Adir waited while Karim brought the parcel they’d carried into the desert with them, then sat as Karim did.

  The bookends were both wrapped carefully in linen. Galila helped Karim unravel them until the lion and lioness were both revealed.

  Karim set the lion on the mat before Adir. Then he took the heavy lioness from Galila and braced the two upright walls back to back.

  Now it looked as though the male lion gazed on his mate with a casual check-in. Stay close, sweetheart. She peered over at him. I’m right here, darling.

  “A wedding gift?” Adir said, voice somewhere between dry sarcasm and suspicion. But it was clear he saw the value in the pieces and found it odd they were offering such a treasure to him.

  Galila licked her lips. “This one belonged to my mother.”

  Karim’s cheeks went hollow before he nodded at the lion. “The other was my father’s. We think you should have them.”

  Adir’s brows slammed together.

  Amira gasped. “Are you saying...?”

  Karim nodded once, curt. He was wary, she could tell, because she knew her husband well these days. She wanted to take his hand, but there were still times where he needed his walls. This was one of them.

  Adir looked between them, astonished. He picked up both pieces and turned them over.

  “There’s nothing to prove it,” Karim said. “Except that I know it to be true.”

  “That your father is—”

  “Was. He passed away when I was six. A few months before you were born.”

  Adir drew a harsh breath. “You’re saying we’re brothers?” He was clearly astounded, but studied Karim with more interest.

  Karim was doing the same to him. “I didn’t know there was a child. Not until the night of Zufar’s wedding, when Galila told me.”

  “These are so beautiful,” Amira murmured, taking up the lioness.

  “Are you sure you want to give them up?” Adir looked between them.

  “It’s best if questions aren’t asked in my palace about how we found the mate,” Karim said. “And it seems right that you should have something of them.”

  Adir nodded and set aside the lion, thoughtful. “Volatile information, indeed. Thank you for entrusting me with it.” He shot a look at Galila and the corner of his mouth quirked. “Good thing I never intend to talk about this, since I would have to tell people that my brother and sister are married.”

  She gave his knee a nudge. “Exactly the sort of misplaced remark I expect from a brother.”

  His mouth quirked and he looked to Karim again. “I’ve always wondered who my father might be. What was he like?”

  * * *

  “That was a wonderful trip, but it’s good to be home,” Galila said as they entered their apartment. The doors between their rooms were rarely closed these days.

  “What are you most excited for? A proper bath? Or Wi-Fi?”

  “Privacy with my husband,” she said, pinching at his stomach as she walked past him toward the bathroom. “Join me in the bath?”

  “Love to. I’ll be in as soon as I check—” He cut himself off with a sharp curse.

  Galila swung back, instantly concerned. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know if it’s wrong, but your brother has abdicated.”

  “Zufar? Why?”

  “To rule Rumadah, Niesha’s home country.”

  “What?” Her ears rang under the news. “Then who is king of Khalia?”

  His head came up. “Your brother Malak.”

  She blinked in shock. “God help us all.”

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed Sheikh’s Princess of Convenience by Dani Collins, look out for the rest of the Bound to the Desert King series!

  Sheikh’s Baby of Revenge

  by Tara Pammi

  Sheikh’s Pregnant Cinderella

  by Maya Blake

  Available now!

  Sheikh’s Secret Love-Child

  by Caitlin Crews

  Coming soon!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Spaniard’s Pleasurable Vengeance by Lucy Monroe.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Presents title.

  You want alpha males, decadent glamour and jet-set lifestyles. Step into the sensational, sophisticated world of Harlequin Presents, where sinfully tempting heroes ignite a fierce and wickedly irresistible passion!

  Enjoy eight new stories from Harlequin Presents every month!

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Other ways to keep in touch:

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!

  Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.

  Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice

  OR

  EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.

  Click here to join for FREE

  Or visit us online to register at

  www.HarlequinMyRewards.com

  Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.

  The Spaniard’s Pleasurable Vengeance

  by Lucy Monroe

  PROLOGUE

  “I DON’T NEED a damn appointment! I’m his sister, you cretin.” The sharp American accent and strident tone of Gracia’s voice reached Basilio through his partially closed office door.

  The heavy door opened forcefully, slamming back against the rich paneling of his wall, but surprisingly, his administrative assistant made it into the office a step ahead of Basilio’s sister. “Sir, I’m sorry.” The distress at not holding her post was clear in his admin’s tone. “She refused to even wait for me to ascertain if you were still on your conference call.”

  Gracia came storming around his admin at the same time as his executive assistant came rushing in from her annex office.

  “What is going on in here?” Her hair in a severe chignon, her navy business suit immaculate, his fifty-year-old executive assistant could do freezing aristocratic disapproval better than even Basilio’s mother,
who was actually the daughter of a count.

  His admin immediately began apologizing again as he stood from his desk, giving his sister a look that would have made Basilio’s mother proud. Gracia halted in her approach to his desk, her annoyed expression morphing to one of consternation.

  She gave the EA a moderately polite look before looking at Basilio with wariness. “It is a family emergency.”

  Basilio merely waited in silence for more information.

  His executive assistant wasn’t so patient. “I see, and there was no time for you to call and apprise us of your imminent arrival so we could clear your brother’s schedule on your drive from the airport?” Camila Lopez asked with clear censure.

  Gracia looked between Basilio and his EA, her cheeks going pink. “I wasn’t thinking of calling. Only getting here.”

  “And if Señor Perez had been away from the office?” Camila pressed with a single raised, perfectly shaped black eyebrow.

  “I didn’t think of that.”

  As amusing as he found his sister’s interaction with his executive assistant, Basilio did not have time for the entertainment. He did, in fact, have a very busy day.

  “Thank you for your assistance and I will need the next thirty minutes for Gracia,” he said to both his admin and Camila. “See that we are not disturbed.”

  “Of course, señor,” Camila said to him with just the right amount of deference before offering his sister a look that said clearly, she wasn’t worried about someone else interrupting.

  Once the other two women had left his office, both doors through which they’d gone closed firmly behind them, Basilio indicated one of the chairs facing his desk. “Sit down, Gracia, and tell me what has you forcing your way past my admin.”

  Gracia sank into the seat with more grace than her behavior had shown so far. “It really is a family emergency, Baz.”

  For the family that so rarely remembered he was a member?

  “Explain,” he demanded as he settled back into his own chair.

  Gracia frowned at his tone. “You remember when that awful teenager hit little Jamie with her car?”

  “I am unlikely to forget.” Five years before, his then four-year-old nephew had spent two weeks in a coma after being hit by a car while on an outing with his mother.

  “Well, apparently, she changed her name and moved away from Southern California.”

  “Unsurprising.” While Basilio had been in Spain at the time, saving his father’s company from bankruptcy, he knew that Miranda Weber had been vilified in the broadcast media and even worse on all the social media outlets.

  “Yes, well. Some idiotic reporter found out who she is and is resurrecting the story.”

  And this was the family emergency that she needed Basilio’s help with? When usually both Carlos and Gracia were happy to forget they were half siblings most of the time.

  Putting aside his own sense of cynicism about their definition of family, Basilio said, “I can see where that would be emotionally difficult for Carlos and Tiffany.”

  “Yes. It’s awful! And this time some fly-by-night morning gossip show wants to interview the girl. She’s all set to give them her side of the story.”

  “She’s not a girl any longer, surely.” Miranda had been nineteen five years ago.

  “Woman, then,” Gracia said dismissively. “She’ll go on television and lie. About our family!”

  “Surely Carlos has PR people who can handle this.” Not to mention lawyers. If the woman lied in a public forum, they could bring a civil suit.

  “You know he prefers you call him Carl.”

  Yes, because it was less Spanish, letting him forget he ever had a father named Armand Perez. “That is what you want to discuss now?” Basilio asked, his voice dry.

  “No, of course not.” Gracia wrung her hands. “It’s just you have to do something!”

  “What do you imagine I can do that Carl and Tiffany cannot? They are not exactly without resources.” Carlos’s wife came from an old and wealthy East Coast family.

  Basilio’s brother ran his stepfather’s business, one of respectable enough size to have public relations people on retainer. While Perez Holdings was much bigger and more successful now, that had not always been the case.

  “She had a restraining order taken out against both Carl and Tiffany. It includes any representative working for, or on retainer from, them.”

  “How did she manage that?” Basilio wondered aloud.

  “It’s insane, I know.”

  That was not what Basilio had meant. For Miranda Weber to obtain such a thing, serious threats had to have been made. Cursed with a deep-seated sense of entitlement, his brother could be a hothead, as well. Carlos had never had to save a company, or put the hours into shoring up his family’s name in the international community as Basilio had done. When their father split with Carlos and Gracia’s mother, she’d remarried quickly and both of Basilio’s older siblings had embraced their new American family wholeheartedly, taking their stepfather’s last name and rejecting their Spanish heritage for their American mother’s way of life.

  While Basilio was not sure he could blame Carlos, considering the current circumstances, clearly the older man’s temper and certainty he could do as he pleased had cost him access to Miranda.

  When Basilio didn’t say anything right away, Gracia added, “I think it might have been her brother-in-law or something.”

  “She has a sister?” He didn’t remember that. He’d thought the woman who put his nephew into a coma was an only child.

  “Apparently. Only a half sister, but still...”

  “Yes, still.” Basilio knew just how little regard his sister and brother had for the concept of a half sibling.

  “Oh, get off it, Baz. I didn’t mean you.”

  “As you say.”

  Gracia leaned forward. “You need to do something.”

  “What would you have me do?”

  “Well, Carl’s company doesn’t have quite the sway yours does.”

  That was an understatement. Basilio had ruthlessly built Perez Holdings into a powerful multibillion-dollar international entity, while his brother’s realty group was worth mere millions. “The Madison Realty Group is hardly a global concern” was all Basilio said, though.

  “Exactly.”

  “So?” Basilio prompted.

  Gracia’s expression turned crafty. “So, maybe you can convince the brother-in-law to withdraw his support.”

  “Who is this in-law?”

  “His name is Andreas Kostas. That’s Greek, isn’t it? I don’t remember the name of his company.”

  Surprise made Basilio sit up straighter in his chair. “Yes, it is Greek, and I know exactly who he is. My company uses his company’s security software, or what used to be his company. I believe he recently merged with Hawk Enterprises.”

  Andreas Kostas was a shark’s shark and he was now in business with one of the biggest sharks swimming in their waters. No wonder Carlos needed help dealing with Miranda’s family.

  Gracia waved that information away. “Whatever. He didn’t respond well when Carl contacted him, hoping to convince him to talk Miranda out of doing the interview.”

  “If he threatened him, I don’t imagine so.” Kostas wasn’t known for tolerating fools or blowhards. Unfortunately, Carlos had played both on occasion.

  “Who said Carl threatened anybody?” Gracia sounded indignant, but her guilty expression didn’t jibe with her words.

  Basilio just gave his sister a look until she squirmed in her chair.

  “Okay, he may have said some things he didn’t mean, but come on.” Gracia waved her hands in agitation. “He and Tiffany went through enough five years ago.”

  “On that we can agree.”

  “So, you’ll do something?”

  “I
will come to the States and look into the situation.” That was all he would promise.

  If it came down to it, Basilio wasn’t above using his influence and power to push either Andreas Kostas or his sister-in-law into doing what was best for Basilio’s family because for him family came first, last and always. However, first he would get some real answers about what was going on.

  “You have to hurry. She’s slated to do her interview in three weeks. The recent media storm is just starting to die down, and if she does that interview, it’s bound to blow everything up again.”

  “Understood. What name does she go by now?”

  “She kept her first name, but changed Weber to Smith.”

  “Very anonymous.”

  Gracia’s lips twisted in distaste. “Yes.”

  Well, Weber or Smith, Basilio had every intention of finding the woman who had already cost his family so much. Whatever it took, he would protect the brother and sister-in-law who had suffered enough.

  Copyright © 2018 by Lucy Monroe

  ISBN-13: 9781488083761

  Sheikh’s Princess of Convenience

  First North American publication 2018

  Copyright © 2018 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Dani Collins for her contribution to the Bound to the Desert King series.

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.