The Sheik’s Unfinished Business Elizabeth Lennox
Chapter 1
The sun was hot and the humidity within the city was oppressive. The moist air caused the traffic pollution to mix with the scents of the restaurants and the other odors that were distinctly city oriented to hover in the air, pressing down on the occupants as if it were a heavy blanket with no hope of relenting any time soon.
Just like that first day, Victoria Phillips thought to herself. The horrifying thought startled her and she stopped in her tracks, terrified of those memories. “No!” she said out loud and shivered, not wanting any of those feelings to come back into her mind now. “This is ridiculous!” She pushed herself harder, walking as if a demon were on her back in an effort to reach the school where she was a guidance counselor for an elementary school.
Why was she thinking about that day again? Five years ago, she’d worked hard to eliminate all that pain from her system. Why was it coming back now? She was late, she told herself, just like that morning so long ago and she was rushing. Victoria looked around, searching for a long, dark car that would indicate that the past was going to repeat itself.
When she saw the car parked in front of the school, her steps faltered and her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be! Blinking hard, she opened her eyes once again and stared in front of her, sure that her eyes were playing tricks on her. But the elegant limousine didn’t disappear. It sat there, ominously mocking her as if it were a giant snake about to reach out and attack her with a venomous bite.
She almost dropped her bag and ran the other way. The pain ripping through her heart was almost as intense as it had been that day five years ago.
When a tall, dark man with a muscular frame got out of the car, she gasped as the painful memories came flooding back to her. Sure enough, there he was. And, impossibly, he was bigger and more handsome than she remembered him.
Five Years earlier
A taxi sped by, his horn blaring at some perceived offense, then drove past, leaving the smell of exhaust permeating the earth in its wake. Victoria pulled her thick brown hair off her neck, wishing she’d taken a few more minutes that morning to pin up the heavy curtain of soft, brown curls. But after spending most of the previous night in the library studying, she hadn’t wanted to wake up early enough to take the time to do anything more than shower and change before heading off to her morning classes.
Her green, almond shaped eyes looked up at the sky, noting the red disk of the sun. That was never a good sign, she thought. She remembered her father’s saying, “Red sun at night, sailor’s delight. Red sun in morning, sailor’s take warning.” What warning they would take, she wasn’t sure. He never went farther than just quoting the phrase. She suspected that it meant they would have a hot, humid, awful day. Just like today was starting out to be.
She pulled her hair over her shoulder, trying to give her back some relief from the heat. Since she’d been so rushed earlier, she was paying the price since her hair was sticking to her neck and her sundress, which had seemed such a pretty, lively and more importantly, cool, choice earlier in the day. The dress was unfortunately covering her legs which could be the grateful recipient of what little breeze was available if she’d chosen her normal choice of shorts and a tee-shirt.
Hefting her heavy bag of books more securely onto her shoulder, she hurried on to her class, wishing she didn’t have to travel so far through London. Unfortunately, her tiny dorm room was on the opposite side of the campus from her class and there was nothing to do for it but walk faster or be late.
She was hurrying with her head bowed low in an effort to keep the sun off her face and out of her eyes so she didn’t see the limousine pull up beside the tall building. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a door open and a tall man get out, surrounded by other men who were shorter, but scarier looking. Unfortunately, even those nebulous thoughts didn’t enter into her mind quickly enough. She was walking too fast with a book bag that was too heavy, leaving her off balance so when the men started walking into the building, she wasn’t able to stop herself fast enough.
As if in slow motion, Victoria saw her bag slip from her shoulder, then the arm swing wide, knocking her chin and tossing her to her knees.
The sudden burst of pain came from several directions all at once. She could feel the cement dig into the soft skin of her knees as she slid across the rough surface, then the pain entered the palms of her hands as she tried to keep her face from a similar fate as her knees. Both palms were subjected to the same rough surface but even that wasn’t her primary pain. Her jaw was suddenly aching as if it had been lit on fire, then the throbbing told her that she’d been hit for some bizarre reason. Her confused eyes looked around, trying to identify the source and reason for the strike but nothing in the world made sense to her pain-fogged brain.
As all of these sensations were tallied in her brain, a distant crying sound penetrated and that was the only issue she was able to deal with at the moment. Looking around, her eyes searched for and found the little girl who was now clinging to her mother’s leg. Victoria stood up, ignoring the pain that shot through her hands, knees and face with the effort. Going over to the little girl, she smiled, battling the sharp stab of pain from her jaw and bent down to the child’s level.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Victoria said calmly. “I’m okay. Are you hurt?” she asked.
The mother also bent down to reassure her daughter and after several moments, the two of them were able to calm the child enough so that she was smiling again. “What’s your name?” Victoria asked, when the child had overcome her crying.
“Lucy,” the girl said.
“Lucy, I hope you have a very nice rest of the day and I think you are sweet to be concerned for me.”
The little girl, who had to be no more than five or six years old, reached out a chubby hand and gently touched Victoria’s face. “Does it hurt?” she asked. She noticed the little girl looking over Victoria’s shoulder shyly but she kept her attention solely on Lucy and her anxiety.
Victoria wasn’t sure who was behind her and hid her curiosity well from Lucy, preferring to deal with one problem at a time. “Not really. I’m made of pretty tough stuff,” she said, grinning broadly for Lucy’s benefit.
The mother smiled at Victoria, then at her daughter. “See? Everything is okay. Are you ready to go home to see daddy? He should be back by now.”
Lucy smiled, eager to see her father and obviously relieved that no one was hurt. The child took her mother’s hand and continued with their walk home, obviously eager to tell her father about their incident of the day. Victoria heard the small child chattering away but the only words that she was able to understand were “scary men” before she was out of hearing distance.
Victoria stood up and all the pain she’d been pushing to the back of her brain came rushing forward. Her knees, palms and especially her face were suddenly on fire and she wanted to melt down into the cement and lean her sore body against the building. But she knew that the little girl wasn’t the only one that needed reassurance and she forced herself to find the inner strength to face the other audience.
Turning slowly, she tried to bring up another smile for the strangers she knew where standing behind her, hoping to reassure them so she could stop being a spectacle. But the sight that greeted her when she turned around was too much. The tall, dark man standing directly behind her, holding her book bag in one hand and reaching for her right hand with the other, was possibly the most handsome man she’d ever seen, even from the movies. “Are you sure you are okay?” the tall, incredibly gorgeous man asked. He was at least six feet three inches tall, towering over the other men around him. And although they were bulkier, he was extremely muscular himself. His eyes were dark, almost black as was his hair which was cut short, barely brushing the collar of his shirt.
Victoria’s only thought was that he had a lovely accent and spoke perfect English. The next thing she knew, she was watching the building swing around her and the sky was blinding her as her mind started spinning, twirling around and her eyes stopped focusing. Then blackness.
Dharr Hokum Qudama the third, Sheik of Ashir, the most powerful middle eastern country with oil reserves beyond the imagination, found himself at a loss for the first time in his life as the stunningly beautiful woman in front of him slowly started falling to the earth. With reflexes honed from long hours in military training and an innate sense that women should be protected at all costs, he caught the fainting woman in his arms, easily lifting her up and cradling her as his body guards opened the door to the building he had been about to enter only minutes earlier for business meetings.
As he stared down into her lovely face, he was startled by the perfection of her features. He knew her now closed eyes were a sharp, crystal green. Now that he could no longer see her eyes, he noticed the flawlessness of her skin that was pale white now but a moment before had been tinted with peach color on her high cheekbones. Her eye lashes were long and black as they lay against her skin and he wondered if they were covered in mascara. He didn’t think so. They looked natural but too long to be real. Her hair was incredible, the soft, brown curls falling like a cascade of water almost to the ground as he held her close to his chest. He wanted to run his fingers in the curls just to see if they were really as soft to the touch as they looked but he didn’t have a free hand at the moment.
Shifting her slight weight in his arms, he tried to be the gentleman and not notice her petite figure but he was a man and any male with blood running through his veins would notice her. Her breasts were large for her small frame but she had a tiny waist and slender hips topping off long, shapely legs. It was the kind of figure a woman would spend hours in the gym trying to achieve, he knew.
Pushing thoughts of her physical assets to the side, he lifted her more closely to him, enjoying the way she felt, as if she were meant to be just for him. “To the hospital,” Dharr commanded and all five of his body guards retreated back to either the limousine or the waiting black SUV that was parked in front of the building. Within moments, the limousine was pulled up in front of the emergency room where a doctor was standing by, obviously alerted to the situation by one of the guards phoning ahead and prepared to help in any way he could.
Stepping out of the limousine, he refused to transfer her figure to the waiting gurney. “What is wrong with her?” Dharr demanded of the doctor who was checking the prone woman’s pulse and eyes. “Don’t hurt her!” Dharr said when she started to moan softly.
Dharr liked the way she moved, even when coming out of a dead faint. She was graceful as her body slowly came back to consciousness and he watched in fascination as those lovely green eyes blinked and focused.
It was odd that a man with his reputation with women, someone who could, and did, have any woman he desired with the flick of his wrist, was so entranced by this one, young, lovely woman who wasn’t even wearing makeup or designer clothes. Even so, his body was instantly reacting to hers, appreciating the innocent sensuality that she conveyed with her movements.
The doctor was monitoring her resumption of consciousness and nodded approvingly. “I think she is okay although she has some nasty scrapes on her knees.” The doctor stepped back and watched for a moment, carefully checking for any signs of problems as she looked around the sterile emergency room that was cut off from the rest of the area only by a white sheet. “Her pulse is normal. She probably just stood up too quickly or hasn’t eaten in too long,” he suggested.
Victoria listened to the deep voices around her but tried not to move, afraid that the pain she was feeling in her jaw and legs would intensify. All she could understand is that she was in a white room with two men looking down at her. She had no idea how she’d gotten here or why they were looking so concerned. Actually, the man who was obviously a doctor if his white coat and stethoscope were any indication, was not looking concerned any longer. But the handsome man beside him was definitely worried. “What’s wrong?” she croaked, then wondered why her voice was so strange. The pain that shot through her jaw when she spoke also was bizarre.
“You fainted,” the handsome man replied, moving the doctor out of the way. “Are you okay?” he asked, bending down to look at her face, taking her hand in his and checking her pulse himself.
Victoria was confused by the concern that was showing in the man’s eyes but his lips were compressed as if he were angry with her for some reason. “Yes,” she replied, then tried to sit up. “I’m fine,” she said, but then the dizziness came back and she grimaced, trying to keep her head from spinning by placing her hand on her forehead.
As soon as she tried to sit up, his hand touched her shoulder, keeping her laying flat on the bed. “You must relax for another moment. No sudden moves until the doctor has said you are okay,” the man replied.
The heat that went through Victoria’s body when he touched her frightened her enough that she actually shrank back against the bed, unsure of herself and the man. “Where am I?” she asked, naturally turning to the taller man who had a commanding presence, giving off an aura of authority that just ignited the air around her. She tried to smile to give the man the impression she was okay but she wasn’t sure if it worked.
“You’re in a hospital,” he explained gently.
Victoria didn’t like that word at all. Hospitals meant money. Lots of it. That was one thing she didn’t have, being at school on a scholarship. “The hospital?” she yelped, sitting up quickly and evading the man’s hand while swinging off the bed on one graceful movement. Unfortunately, the sudden movement had her swaying again and the man’s hands reached out to steady her.
“Whoa!” she said, holding onto the bed, praying she wouldn’t make a fool of herself again and pass out. After several minutes, the room stopped spinning and she was able to make sense of the words being spoken. “….sit back down,” the tall man was saying firmly.
Victoria turned her attention back to him, a frown on her face. “Excuse me?” she asked, looking him up and down as if he were beneath her. Unfortunately, the idea of what a hospital visit would do to her budget was making her a little snappish. She didn’t have the money to toss at a series of doctors and needed to leave as soon as possible. In her current state of mind, this tall, attractive man was the main hindrance from her leaving as quickly as she could.
Besides the expense of the hospital, he was actually ordering her around. She didn’t like that one bit. She wasn’t even used to her gentle father giving her orders, she surely wasn’t going to take them from a stranger who thought he was in charge of the world. “Who do you think you are? I don’t take orders from you, sir. Not even if you were the Prince of Wales,” she sniffed. Handsome or not, she hated arrogant men! And this one could give lessons.
Dharr was shocked enough to almost smile. Almost. How could a tiny slip of a woman speak to him like this? Didn’t she know who he was? The doctor obviously did if the horrified look on his face was any indication. Surely it was the novelty of the whole situation that amused him. He would never permit such conduct otherwise, he told himself.
Dharr waved the doctor’s protests aside before they could be spoken. “How about something to clean those scrapes,” he said, turning to the doctor and interrupting what was probably an explanation as to why the woman shouldn’t speak to Dharr this way.
For some reason, Dharr didn’t want his anonymity broken. And what Dharr wanted, he got. The doctor immediately disappeared, leaving the two of them alone.
Victoria stared at the man, wondering what to do next. She realized that her manners were severely lacking and knew that her mother would be horrified if she didn’t make amends. Smiling brightly to the man, she stuck out her hand, then grimaced as she saw the ugly scrapes on the palms. “I guess I should introduce myself,” she started off, hiding her hands from his concerned view. “I’m Victoria Phillips. How do you do?” she said. She extended the least abused hand, which, thankfully, was her right one.
Dharr stared at the hand for a split second before accepting it. The normal introduction would be for her to bow slightly before him but, continuing with the novelty of the situation, he took her hand in his, enfolding her cold, slim, scraped hand in his large one, covering it with the other and taking a step towards her. “It is indeed a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Phillips. I am Dharr Qudama, at your service. I regret the incident which caused you to be in this position. I will endeavor to make it up to you,” he said.
“What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes wide as she looked up into his dark, intense gaze.
“It was my man who caused your fall. He was acting with an overzealous sense of duty and will be eliminated immediately from my guard.”
Victoria was horrified. “You mean you’re going to fire him?”
“Of course,” he said, not an ounce of regret or emotion showing on his tanned face.
She didn’t like being responsible for anyone losing their job. It was a tough economy and anyone fired would have a hard time finding a new position. “But why?”
Dharr reached up and gently touched a finger to the already darkening spot on her jaw. “Such beauty should not be marred, Ms. Phillips.”
Victoria stuttered, flustered by this man’s touch and confused as to why his touch could cause so much tumult within her system when other men’s touch just caused irritation. She was also unsure of what this man represented but sure he was powerful and could genuinely hurt the man’s chances of continued employment. “But if he is on your staff, shouldn’t you train him more thoroughly? I mean, really, if he acted inappropriately, isn’t it your fault? Shouldn’t you give him a second chance?”
Dharr actually smiled this time. It was too much. He was constantly surrounded by people vying for power and positions close to him, thereby making themselves more powerful in their associations with him. But here was an innocent woman begging for a stranger’s continued employment. A stranger who could have broken her jaw if his swing had been any harder. What she didn’t know was that Dharr’s personal guard was the elite of the Ashiri military, specially trained for years before they are even considered to be close to Dharr. These men were trained in arms, munitions and personal combat but here was a woman weighing maybe a little more than one hundred pounds and might reach five and a half feet tall protecting a man she’d never met.
The doctor returned to the closed off area with cleaning supplies and Dharr took them, dismissing the man with a nod. As he prepared a sterile gauze to start the cleaning, he asked, “You protect a man who wounded you. Yet you know nothing about him. Why would you do that?”
“Well,” Victoria thought hard, knowing she had to come up with a reason why the man shouldn’t be fired or feel awful about it, “he didn’t mean to, did he? It was only an accident.” The cool liquid felt wonderful against her suddenly aching knees. She hadn’t really noticed that they were still on fire while she was talking to the man called Dharr but as she looked down, she noticed the mean looking scrapes on her knees. Raising the hem of her dress slightly, she saw that the scrapes were long and relatively deep. “Oh, goodness,” she said, inhaling sharply when he put the gauze on a particularly deep area.
“Does that hurt?” he asked, instantly moving off the area, looking down at her face.
The compassion in his eyes created butterflies in her stomach. She felt funny, knowing that this obviously powerful man was taking the time to clean her scrapes. She also felt bad for speaking to him so harshly a few moments before. “Don’t worry,” she said, reaching out to take the gauze so she could clean the area herself. For some reason, this man’s closeness was overwhelming her. “I can do that,” she said softly. She wished her hands didn’t shake as she reached out to take the cleaning supplies from him.
Dharr put a hand on her wrist to lower it, and continued his tender ministrations. “Explain to me why you would defend someone you don’t know,” he demanded.
Victoria smiled at his autocratic tone. “You aren’t very good at asking, are you?” she teased.
“Asking?” Dharr questioned. “Asking what?”
Victoria only laughed, her suspicions confirmed. “Well, that answers my question, doesn’t it?”
“Explain,” he said, enjoying the dimples that suddenly appeared in her cheeks. They brought his attention to her soft, full lips. Lips that would look lovely begging him to kiss her, he thought.
His command to explain only caused another chuckle to burst from Victoria. “I mean, you want to know why I would defend someone but instead of putting it to me as a query, you simply demand an answer. I think you’re mother would be ashamed of your manners, Mr. Qudama.”
Dharr stared in shock as the tiny woman actually tssked him. He couldn’t help but smile in response. “I don’t think my mother would be offended,” he replied.
Her head tilted to the side and her sharp, green eyes turned curious. “Why not? I think all mothers would want their children to be raised with manners.”
Dharr liked the way her soft, brown hair fell over her shoulder as she tilted her head. It was lovely, he thought and again he had the impulse to bury his hands in the long tresses, pushing back the small, wispy curls that framed her face. . “My mother is dead,” he said without emotion.
Victoria instantly felt awful. Putting a hand out, she touched his shoulder, sure that the stiffness in his manner was because of his recent loss. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Qudama. I apologize for bringing it up. It must have been hard for you,” she said. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up into his hard, unyielding ones. “I can see that you miss her,” she said.
Dharr’s hand stopped, not because he was finished but because he could no longer move. The emotion clogging her voice and the tears in her eyes melted a small part of his heart that had been frozen for so long he hadn’t even known it existed. Why was this woman, this beautiful stranger, crying for his mother that had passed away when he was in his teens? He was thirty years old and long past needing his mother’s comforting arms, which she’d never offered to begin with.
“Thank you,” was all he could say.
Victoria took the gauze from his hand and finished the task, wincing several times when she hit a particularly painful spot but persevering despite the pain. When she was done, she looked up at him, smiling brightly. “Well, that wasn’t so bad, I suppose,” she replied and slid down off the gurney. “Promise me something?” she asked, picking up the mess and tossing it into the appropriate bins.
“Anything,” Dharr promised.
“Anything?” she asked, turning back to him with another bright smile on her face and mischief twinkling in her eyes. “What if I ask for a new car or a castle? Shouldn’t you hear what I’m asking before you promise the moon?”
Dharr felt like chuckling since he could indeed deliver on anything she asked. Possibly not the moon, but even that might be within the realm of possibility in a few years. “Okay, anything within reason?” he said.
Victoria nodded but then turned serious. “Please don’t do anything about the man who accidentally knocked me down,” she said. “It really won’t be too bad.”
Dharr walked closer to her and touched her skin where a bruise was already forming. “How old are you?” he asked.
Victoria had to concentrate since his touch had driven all thoughts out of her mind. “Uh…twenty,” she said.
“Only twenty?” he asked, thinking he felt much older than his thirty years of age.
Victoria blinked at his response, wondering if he thought her a child. He was obviously much older than she was but felt it was important to point out that she wasn’t too young. Too young for what, she didn’t let her mind define. “I don’t feel ‘only’ anything. Besides, twenty isn’t too young,” she asserted strongly.
“It isn’t too young for what?” he asked, and was delighted when she blushed again.
She glanced away but only for a moment, looking back up at him through her long lashes. “You’re teasing me, but really, I’m not that young. I’m only two years away from graduation which at times feels like eternity but will come eventually.”
He decided it wouldn’t be gentlemanly to tease her more about her innocence. “What are you studying?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Psychology.”
“And what do you want to do with a degree in psychology?”
“Help people,” she said without hesitation.
“Help who?”
“Children probably,’ she said, smiling despite her nervousness. “They are wonderful little people but sometimes they are so vulnerable and misunderstood.”
Dharr stared at her lips, the need to bend down and taste them almost overwhelming. But he resisted the urge and took a step back. He needed to just forget about this woman and her refreshing honesty and spirit. He had work to do and very little time to finish it before heading back to Ashir. “Now that you are cleaned up, may I give you a lift somewhere?” he asked.
Victoria snapped out of her dream were she was being kissed by the man. He was probably married or seeing someone seriously. No man this gorgeous and sexy could remain unattached.
She sat up straighter, testing her head tentatively by turning it from right to left. When nothing happened, she shook her head in response to his offer. “No, thank you. I’m only a block away from my class,” she said and gasped. “Oh no! My class. I’m going to be late,” she said and hurried out of the room. At the split in the curtains, she suddenly stopped and turned back to Dharr. “Thank you so much for your kindness, Mr. Qudama. I’m sorry to have been so silly by fainting on you.”
Dharr watched her rush over to a nurse, taking out her wallet. The nurse quickly shook her head, obviously explaining that the hospital bill had already been paid. He slipped out of the curtained area, following the signs to the exit where he knew his limousine was waiting. It had been a refreshing interlude, but now it was over and he needed to get back to work.
Once the nurse explained that one of the burly men with Dharr had paid her bill already, Victoria glanced back to the curtained area, intending to wave her thanks. But the man was already gone. Her heart dropped and she felt like the sun had just left for the day, leaving only the heat and oppressive humidity.
Walking out of the hospital, she looked up at the sunshine still beating down on the busy city sidewalks and sighed. So much for life’s little fantasies, she thought.
Stepping out onto the sidewalk, she made a determined stride towards her class. It was a once a week class so it would last three hours today. She’d already missed the first hour but she could make it for the last two.