Sheikh's Fake Fiancee (6 page)

“Well, meeting adjourned. I hope you’ll all be working as a ready and able team tomorrow,” he said, eying all three of them closely.

She stood, feeling her head spin and her legs go weak beneath her. It felt like the most impossible task on Earth to even walk to the elevator. Rose was supporting her covertly under one arm. Kahn was already out the door, probably off to play golf with the other masters of the universe, or, at least, Wall Street. Michael followed them out, and pressed the elevator for the three of them.

“So, I look forward to you both working
under
me,” he said, his voice dripping with innuendo.

Rose snorted. “Dream on, Huntington. I have standards.”

“Yes, I’m sure the finest Jersey can offer,” he snapped back. “Besides,” he said, pinching Jennifer’s ass, “I wasn’t talking about you.”

She stiffened but tried not to acknowledge or react at all to the clumsy pass he’d tried with her. “Not if you were the last man on Earth. I’d start finding out about the wonders of lemurs and gorillas, just saying.”

“Well, on Monday, just remember I’m the boss.”

“Oh, how could I forget,” she said, sighing when her phone rang. It was probably Sydney wanting her to bring more DVDs or some other treat. “Hey, sis,” she said. “Meeting’s over so what’s what?”

It was Mrs. Katz instead. “It’s Sydney. She’s collapsed.”

***

Renal failure
.

The words she understood. Hell, it was a concept that had scared her and her mother for decades—that gnawing fear that one day the insulin problems her sister struggled with would eat through her kidneys. She just didn’t expect that day to ever actually come. Soon she’d have to call her mom, but right now she was numbly trying to process everything that Dr. Singal was telling her. The biggest problem was that her sister would be on dialysis for a long time as she navigated the transplant list. Unfortunately, neither she nor her mom had the right blood type. They’d always joked about being A’s, but her little sister was a B negative.

“I…but she’ll get one if she’s on the list, right?”

“That can’t be guaranteed. With dialysis, she can live at least five more years and that might open her up to a donor or to even other advancements in treatment. We’re making them all the time.”

“That’s not what I asked. What are the odds she’ll get her donor to give her a kidney in time?” she asked, balling her hands up at her side, wishing she could beat up the whole damn world for how unfair everything was, how twisted.

Dr. Singal looked down at his clipboard and then back at her. “She’s young and she’s managed her condition well. She doesn’t have other complicating factors should she stay compliant. I’d say at least a sixty percent chance.”

“I…”

She didn’t even know what to say to that. It was an even greater than one-in-three chance that her sister wouldn’t get better and she’s lose her within the next five years. It was as if someone saw her have five minutes of damn happiness last night and decided that was far too much for Jennifer Wilde to have. God, the devil, Zeus…whoever…had decided to curse her all at once and rip everything out from under her. But a job was just a job. This was her baby sister.

Suddenly, it was like a jolt of electricity had whizzed through her. Standing up from her chair, her hands still balled into fists at her side, she glared at the doctor. “There has to be another hospital, though, or a foundation that can help her. Syd isn’t going to die.”

“Miss Wilde, I didn’t say that’s what was going to happen.”

“But you’re telling me percentages, giving me an estimate of when her time runs out. That’s not good enough,” she said. “There’s got to be something else. Isn’t there any way to get up higher on the list?”

“No, it’s not manipulated like that.”

“Then we have to figure out a better treatment, Dr. Singal. I know she’s on Mom’s crappy stuff from working at Walmart, but we have to do something, please.”

“Miss Wilde, I advise you call your mother and take some time to digest this news. What I can tell you is that as we stabilize her, the staff here will do the best job we can, and we’ll help you find a good regime back home in Kentucky. The university is in your town. That should help. UK has its advantages.”

“But it’s…there has to be something else we can do.”

“Call your mother. You both need to understand how fully this is going to impact your family.”

“Believe me,” she said, “I couldn’t be more aware of it. Not at all.”

When he was gone, she slipped into the hall and went first to Rose, standing guard like the perfect and most loyal sentinel outside of her sister’s room. Her friend looked up at her and reached out and held her tightly.

“What did he say?”

“I…she’ll need dialysis until they can find a donor. Mom and I have the wrong type.” Suddenly all those jokes about being A-plus people because of their blood type weren’t funny anymore. She’d do anything if she matched with her little sister, but she didn’t. Hell, if they were the same type, she’d strap herself to the gurney right now and ask the doctors what they were waiting for. “I need to call Mom but I can’t even think. It’s like my brain’s on this weird, fuzzy autopilot, like none of this is real.”

“But I’m here for you, and I’m not the only one,” she said. “It seems someone’s
sheikh
is here, and you so have tons more to tell me about Bahan later, girl,” she said, pointing Jennifer to the waiting room in the corner.

Bahan was there, sitting alone. Maybe he’d arranged for that—another rich-guy trick that she couldn’t fathom. Or maybe it was just the way the world was today. She and her sister alone and feeling adrift in a cold, cruel universe. Either way, she’d only left him a few hours ago. It seemed like it had been longer. Her life had fundamentally changed since their night together and the relaxed brunch they’d shared with his brother, Fareed. Still, it warmed her heart to see him there. It was something her dipshit of a father had never done for her or Sydney, and it was nothing that Dustin would have done either. It gave her hope that her heart hadn’t chosen poorly this time around.

“You’re here,” she said. Then she looked back at Rose. “Can you go and watch over Sydney? I’ll be there in five minutes. I just need to talk to him and then call Mom.”

“You know I can, boss,” Rose joked, winking back at her before she hurried back to Sydney’s room.

Bahan didn’t say anything, just swept her up in a fierce hug. She needed that, needed to feel the steel cage of his arms around her, giving her the security that the rest of her life lacked. Inhaling deeply, she took in that addictive scent of him that seemed to follow him everywhere. It was already like coming home, and she wasn’t sure what that said about her. She’d tried her whole life not to be dependent on anyone else, and she barely knew this man. But he felt so safe, like he could give her the shelter she seemed to lack currently.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s my sister…I…she has kidney failure. Mom and I aren’t a match.”

“Then we can get her a new kidney,” he said dismissively, almost as if he could go buy one at the local grocery store.

That made her angry.

“God,” she said, pushing away from him, heat flaring in her cheeks. “I know things just happen when you’re the royal head of a whole country. People fall in line and say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘how high, sir,’ but in reality we can’t just have an underling murdered for a good available kidney.”

“That’s not what I’d do and don’t make those assumptions about my culture. We’re not so completely different from you. But I do have the influence. I can get her what she needs with a donor and the best surgeons in my country. You have no idea what I could get for her.”

“Why would you do that? I’m just some girl you met at a club. I’m nothing to you,” she said, her anger draining out of her. It was all too much, the stress and pressure and that crushing reality seeming to close in all around her.

“Because…” he said, getting down on one knee, and Jennifer felt her eyes bulge out of her head. This couldn’t possibly be real. “I want you to be my sheikha. You won’t just be ‘anyone’ anymore. You’ll be royalty too, and there are things that you can expect. And one of those things is that there are no limits on what the world can offer you and what you can have. If you need a kidney and great surgeons for Sydney, then we’ll be able to find them. It won’t be a problem.”

“But you don’t even know me,” she objected.

Then he pushed open the small velvet box’s top, revealing the large diamond inside. Seriously, it would put the average princess or movie star to shame. It was princess cut and set in a ring base of filigreed silver.

“Well, then, Jennifer, uh…”

“Wilde,” she supplied, chagrined that he didn’t even know her last name.

“Yes,” he said, composing himself and starting over again. “Miss Jennifer Wilde, would you take me to be your lawfully wedded husband? Will you be my sheikha and rule Yemen faithfully by my side? Will you let me care for you for as long as I live?”

It was hard to swallow when he said that last part. The lump in her throat came out of nowhere, but seemed to take up half the space there. He was offering to take care of her, to be what she needed, especially now. So it gutted her to give her answer.

“Of course not.”

Chapter Six

Rejection.

This was a new sensation for Bahan. He’d never had any woman refuse him. It would be intriguing if it weren’t also annoying. They didn’t have much time to dither, and yes, he could still try and keep his title by marrying the sheikha of Lebanon, but that wasn’t what he wanted. Not that he was ready for a full marriage, but he agreed with his brother’s plan. There was no one he’d want to at least work with and make love to for a couple of years outside of Jennifer. He loved the taste of her on his lips, the feel of her body—so soft and feminine—in his arms, and he wanted to pursue this fragile, budding relationship.

So he was completely dumbfounded when she said that she didn’t want to marry him. Yes, it was beyond sudden, but he was a sheikh and one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet. Surely he’d just misheard her.

Staying on his knees, he presented the ring to her again. “I’m serious, Jennifer, would you marry me?”

“We’ve known each other for a weekend.”

He nodded and stood, but not before handing her the velvet box. “Perhaps I need to explain. I didn’t realize how sick Sydney was or how terrible a time this is for you, but I think we can truly help each other.”

“Because if you’re a sheikh you can just get important organs down at the KidneyMart or have an underling get on the operating table for you,” she drawled.

“No, because I need a wife in order to comply with arcane laws in our country, and I need one before my ailing father dies. You need someone who can cut through the red tape and who can make sure that with the right donations and the right political influence, Sydney gets that special organ within the month.”

“You could do that?”

“I can make it possible. They want you to think that no matter how rich or powerful you are that you can’t jump the list, but I can call in some favors that some senators and others owe me here. If you marry me…hell, even if you don’t…I’d do anything to help your sister survive. I’m not lying, though, when I say that if you also had the title of royalty surrounding you that it would help you to speed up the process even more. But, Jennifer,” he said, taking her empty hand in his, “I care about you and I don’t want your family to suffer.”

“You barely know me.”

“Well, I might have a playboy reputation and I might be a ruler—or will be someday—but I can see people in pain and suffering. I can see how stricken you are, and even if you were just a member of my kingdom asking for help, I’d want to assist you. The fact that we’ve already shared a connection…”

“It was more than that,” she said, adding a wry smile despite the seriousness of their situation.

“Exactly, so let me make this deal with you. You only have to stay married to me for a couple of years, to fulfill the contract. If you feel it’s too odious a duty, then we can always divorce. Yemen isn’t as strict as some kingdoms. It never has been. I need to obey the spirit of the law,” he added, winking at her. “Not the letter. Please, can you help me? Hell, will you let me help your family?”

She nodded and swallowed hard, then slipped the ring onto her finger herself. It wasn’t what he wanted. A big part of her soul already wished that he could have slipped the diamond ring on, done it all the old-fashioned way, but there was nothing old fashioned about this. Frankly, his immediate family and hers would know it was all for show, a farce to get them both what he wanted.

It didn’t make the feelings in his chest any less sharp or genuine.

“Well,” she said, tears welling up a bit in her eyes. “I have to call Mama and explain to her everything that’s going on. I…we’ve always been terrified this would come, even when she was just a baby and the doctors figured out why she was so sick all the time.”

He gathered her to his chest; it was the most natural motion he could have made. Jennifer felt right nestled there, tight against his body. If he could protect her from the uncertainty to come, Bahan would. He would offer his money and influence, make sure that Sydney was cared for by only the best doctors and surgeons in the world. But even he couldn’t buy fate. Hopefully the medical intervention would work, but even that was beyond his power and reach. For right now, he could hold her, rock her closely and promise her that he’d be by her side as they navigated this tough time of illness in both of their families.

Bahan only wished the marriage were as real as their pact to take care of each other and their relatives. But at least she’d said yes, and that was a start.

***

The wedding had to be in New York. They were having it in the deluxe hospital suite he’d arranged for Sydney at the best facility in Manhattan. With his machinations, Sydney would be receiving a kidney by the week between Christmas and New Year’s. If any of them had been a blood and tissue match, they’d have done it sooner. But even testing him and Fareed on the off chance there was a match had yielded nothing.