The Sheikh's American Bride (The Sharqi Sheikhs Series Book 2) (2 page)

Taleb Sharqi tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Claire on the meticulously maintained front lawn outside Harvard’s reception. Students and staff milled past, but there was no sign of Claire.

Arriving on time, he expected her to be waiting for him, but she was nowhere to be found. Staring at his watch, it was already two minutes past the hour and she was only now walking toward him.

Huffing in annoyance, he was prepared to stop this ridiculous tour the Dean wanted him to take. As he had told him, he did not require a babysitter.

“Hey,” she said as she approached him.

“I believe you are late, Miss Anderson,” Taleb said to her. Claire raised her eyebrows and looked at her watch.

“My watch says eleven,” she told him as she turned the watch face for him to see.

Snapping his wrist up, he showed her his Rolex. “Your watch is wrong and tardiness is unacceptable,” he answered vehemently.

Going up on her toes to read his watch, she appeared to be about to say something when she frowned. Sighing, “Well I am here now,” she finally answered not looking or sounding excited.

Taleb looked at Claire from head to toe. He did not recall her being this short, as he realized that when he met her yesterday, she was sitting down. Looking at her attire, his nostrils flared slightly as he took in her baggy jeans, t-shirt and ponytail.

How was it that this woman graduated Harvard when she looked like she was in high school, he wondered as his gaze swept over her casual attire. He did not understand why the Dean thought she would be an appropriate guide when it was clear that she did not want to be there. The last guides that the Dean tried to stick him with were far more enthusiastic.

Continuing to stare at her, he took in her long brunette hair, which looked soft to the touch and her warm hazel eyes, which currently appeared to be shooting daggers at him. Sighing inwardly, he decided to get the meeting over with so that he could move on to more important things,
like finding my bride.

While he had yet to find someone suitable, he had at least narrowed down the criteria: tall, blonde, slim, from a reputable family, appropriate attire, as he continued to mentally tick off the list, he sized Claire up.

No, she would not do. She was everything he wasn’t looking for in a wife: short, plump and definitely not interested in her appearance.

“You know Kim, your brother's fiancée?” Claire asked, interrupting his thoughts. 

“Stalking my family?” he asked.

“No.” Claire rolled her eyes. “Kim is my best friend.”

“Is that so? I see no similarities.” Taleb got along with Kim very well. She was amazing, in fact and the best thing that had ever happened to his brother.

“What similarities? We’re not sisters. We’re friends.”

She talks too much
; Taleb thought to himself. “I mean that you seem to have different personality traits,” he pointed out.

“How would you know, you just met me.”

“I assume that you will go to the wedding?”

Claire nodded, “Of course, I’m the maid of honor,” she said with a big smile on her face.

“She is a good woman,” Taleb said, dipping his hands into his pockets.

Tilting her head, Claire looked at him, “I’m glad you approve.”

Taleb glanced down at his watch again. “I have a meeting at one. Let’s find a café so that we can sit down to discuss a schedule.” If he was going to be forced to participate in this activity, they would do so his way.

“Okay, I know a place,” Claire replied eagerly as she turned to walk back the way she had come.

“We will take my car,” he interrupted as he started walking in a different direction.

“It isn’t a far walk or if you prefer, we could take the bus.”

“The bus?” Taleb asked incredulously. She was seriously suggesting that he ride the bus? He had never ridden on public transport in his entire life and he was not about to start now.

“Yes, why not? It’s the fastest way to tour parts of the campus and the surrounding neighborhood.”

Taleb raised his dark eyebrows. She was not selling it very well. There was nothing appealing about public transport. “I can see the city from my car,” he said to her as he placed his hands on his hips and stared at her. Claire tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Okay, I guess we can take your car,” Claire began as Taleb took his phone out and pressed a contact.

“Malil, we are leaving campus for a coffee shop or café, please find something suitable,” he spoke into the phone before disconnecting the call and putting his phone back in his pocket. “Come, by the time we get to the car, he will have texted me with a location.”

“Erm, okay,” she replied slowly as Taleb turned on his heel and strode toward what Claire assumed was his car.

So much for me being the one to provide the tour
, she thought as she trailed along behind him.

As they walked towards the car, Taleb could not help but think about his bridal issue. He was definitely eager to find himself a bride. It was a shame that Claire did not fit the profile. There was something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on but he did not have time to speculate on her now. He had to keep to the plan. He
would
find his future bride.

Claire stared at the silver-colored Aston Martin in shock. She had never been so close to such an expensive car before. She heard the click of the lock as the door popped open. Staring at the door, she realized that it didn’t have handles. It looked like a sleek, shiny space pod.

Taleb stood by the open passenger door as Claire’s focus shifted to the interior, which looked like the inside of what she imagined a space pod would look like. A luxurious one. The sound of a throat clearing caught her attention as she realized that Taleb was still waiting for her to get into the car. Blushing, she quickly slid into the passenger seat before he shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side.

Reaching for her seatbelt, Claire leaned back against the leather seats as she felt her body melt into the seat, which seemed made for her. Looking around the interior, the high tech electronics on the dashboard coupled with the leather and wood trim made her feel as though she were cocooned inside a sex machine.

Everywhere she looked, the car seemed to be begging her to touch it. Unable to resist, she ran her fingers lightly over the dashboard as she trailed her fingers along the supple leather as if it were a person.

She imagined her fingertips gliding down Taleb’s arms and across his chest, as her own fingers explored the car’s interior.

“Um, what are you doing?” Taleb asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Shaking her head and laughing at herself, “This car exudes sex,” she admitted, as he gave her a strange look. “What? You didn’t buy it for its sex appeal?”

“It has more than five hundred horsepower and can reach speeds of up to two hundred miles per hour,” he responded stiffly.

Snorting in response, “Yeah, that’s useful in the city,” Claire replied as he started the car and pulled away from the curb.

“So how do you know Kim?” Taleb asked as he drove.

“We grew up together,” she replied. When Claire’s family moved after her father was remarried, Kim was the first friend she made and they quickly became inseparable. It was only once Kim moved permanently to the Middle East that Claire truly felt the loss of her friend in her life. Granted, she could always video chat with her on Skype, but it wasn’t the same as having her friend sitting by her side when she was feeling her worst.

Lost in thought, Claire realized that Taleb was already pulling to the curb. Looking up, they were in a part of town that she didn’t normally frequent as it was far too upscale for her wallet.

“How did you find this place?”

“Malil texted me the address. He says it’s one of the best. Have you been here?”

Shaking her head no, Claire released her seatbelt and was about to open the door when Taleb was already there holding it open for her. Stepping out, she murmured a thank you, as she followed him in. She was supposed to be the one providing the tour but Taleb had quickly taken over and Claire realized that she needed to put things back on track.

As they walked inside, Claire noticed that most of the customers were dressed in suits. A blonde-haired server greeted them and introduced herself as Linda. She smiled at Taleb who ignored her, before showing them to a table. 

Sitting down, Claire couldn’t help but see the looks Taleb was receiving from the women in the café. She watched two women leaving the café; they both stared at him waiting for him to acknowledge them before they both smiled and flipped their hair.

Claire was not surprised that they were staring at him like that, he was a very attractive man. If she hadn’t been blackmailed by the Dean to serve as his guide, she would have never been seen with him.

Handsome men like Taleb did not look at plain Janes like Claire. Linda approached them with their order. Taleb had ordered Turkish coffee, which he proceeded to sip without any milk in it. Shaking her head, Claire took a sip of her extra chocolately mocha before diving in to her banana nut muffin with relish.

“So you are a librarian at the law library?” Taleb asked her.

Nodding her head as she sipped her mocha, “Yes, I started there over the summer after graduation. What about you? What brings you to Harvard?” Claire asked.

“I am looking for a wife,” Taleb replied as Claire choked on her drink. Before she could say anything, Linda popped around again.

“Is there anything I can get you?” she asked Taleb while completely ignoring Claire who stared in amusement as he barely looked at her. 

“No, I do not require anything else,” he told her dismissively.

“Okay.” Linda tucked a blonde lock of hair behind her ear, smiled and walked off. She would definitely join Taleb's fan club; Claire thought to herself. She looked at Taleb.

“A wife?” she asked. She had definitely not forgotten what they had been talking about before Linda and her batting eyelashes had interrupted them.

“Yes, I am looking for a wife.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at Claire. His grey gaze seemed to see right through her.

“Here in the US?”

“Yes. I want a western woman to be precise.”

“You do? Why?” Claire could barely hide her shock.

“I see the Tazeems so happy with their western women,” Taleb explained. Claire did not know who the Tazeems were but she was not going to ask about that. “Even my brother, he is so happy with Kim.”

“That is because Kim is such an amazing person. It has nothing to with where she was raised,” Claire replied as she resumed eating.

“That may be the case but she is still a westerner.”

“I don’t get how you are looking for a wife. I mean don't you need to date someone for a while before thinking about marriage?” That was the way normal people acted.

“I came here with the sole purpose of looking for a wife and I am going to accomplish that goal in the next week or so.”

“Wait, I thought you were here to attend law school?”

Waving his hand dismissively, “That’s what my brother and father think. Otherwise, they would not have allowed me to come here.”

“So…how exactly are you going to accomplish this impossible goal of yours?” Not only was it impossible, it was also ludicrous.

“I will have to meet with different women and see which ones meet my criteria.” Taleb replied. He sat there in his chair looking so comfortable and relaxed, as he drank his coffee and acted as if what they were discussing was normal.

“Criteria?” Claire asked, puzzled.

“Of course, they must meet my requirements.”

Setting her mocha down and sliding her partially-eaten muffin out of the way, Claire set her elbows on the table and stared at Taleb. “So, what exactly are your requirements?”

As Taleb methodically counted off his requirements, Claire felt herself inwardly shrinking. She wasn’t blonde, she wasn’t tall, she wasn’t slim, she didn’t come from a well to do family.

Nope. Nope. And definitely nope.
Wow, I’m rejected without even trying, that’s a first
, she thought to herself.