Chapter Eight
At some point, Annabel grew tired enough that she was nodding off on the couch, and Adil sent her to sleep with Marissa.
"I'll likely end up sleeping on the couch out here," he said, "though I am very used to this flight. I might save sleep for actual night fall when we are in Sakhi. It helps me get my sleep back in order."
She had just long enough to wonder if she should have done that for her and Marissa, but then she fell into a deep slumber that was completely dreamless.
When she rose from that sleep, she was well-rested, possibly more well-rested than she had ever felt.
Is this what it's like to get enough sleep, Annabel wondered. If so, I've been missing out.
She turned over to check on Marissa, but to her surprise, the little girl was gone. She felt a tingle of fear run up her spine, but then she told herself that there was only so far her little girl could have gone. She walked out into the main cabin, where there was bright golden light streaming in through the windows, and she stopped short at what she saw.
Marissa was seated next to the sheikh of Sakhi, leaning against his arm as he drew something on a sheet of paper on the table in front of them. Marissa's face was drawn tight with concentration, but Annabel wondered if she had ever seen Adil look as relaxed as he did now. There was a slight smile on his face and his hand held the pen with a relaxed elegance and grace.
Annabel wanted the moment to last a little longer, but then Marissa saw her.
"Mama, mama, come look, Adil is showing me how to draw a bird."
"Or more appropriately, we are showing each other how we draw," Adil said gravely. "Marissa's cats are quite practiced. She has made a very strong case for my house needing a cat at some point down the road."
Annabel came to sit across from them, grimacing slightly.
"Marissa, I hope you weren't bothering Adil..."
Marissa stuck her chin out stubbornly.
"I wasn't," she insisted."We were just talking."
"It's true," Adil said with a smile. "We were only talking."
Annabel glanced at the sheet of paper that they were passing between them. It was half-covered with doodles in pen. She could recognize her own daughter's half-formed scribbles easily, but she was immediately taken with Adil's drawings. They were fluid and loose, capturing the essence of the animal that he was depicting, whether it was a cat, a dog or a bird.
"Those are pretty," she commented. "Do you do any painting?"
He ducked his head in a way that looked almost shy.
"No, not really. It is simply something that happens when I find myself in a place with paper and pen. Marissa agrees that the same thing happens to her."
She was startled by the wistful warmth in his voice when he spoke about her daughter. After an immediate protective feeling died down, she was left with a strange sort of tenderness. This was a man who wanted to be a father, even if he was going about it in a strange way.
She glanced out the window, startled to see the bright blue water and the golden coast.
"We've come a long way," she said. "How long were we asleep?"
"For quite some time. As it turns out, this is a voyage that can knock you out if you are not used to air travel. Fortunately, it looks like you and Marissa are both natural travelers."
Marissa giggled, liking the idea quite a lot, and then she started to regale her mother and Adil with a list of places that she wanted to go in the future.
When she paused for breath, Adil addressed them both.
"Although I would not say that Sakhi was close to many other places, it is easy enough for us to travel by jet to wherever we want to go. Perhaps we can see some of those places in the future if we have the time. We will, however, be in Sakhi in an hour or so. I am looking forward to introducing both of you to my home."
This is real, thought Annabel. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered all over again if she had made the wrong decision, if she had changed her and her daughter's lives forever. Nothing would ever be the same, but glancing at her daughter's happy face, she thought that it might be all right.
Adil studied her for a moment, and then he turned to Marissa.
"It sounds like the stewardess is getting our meals ready right now. Why don't you go see what it is we are having?"
As Marissa made her way to the stewardess's quarters, Adil turned to Annabel.
"Are you all right?" he asked, and she smiled a little helplessly.
"I am," she said. "Only I think a lot of this is beginning to sink in. It's all real. You are a sheikh, you are going to give me a child, or I am going to give you one. I am living in a future that I could never have dreamed of."
To her shock, his gaze cooled off slightly.
"Are you having second thoughts, then?" Annabel wondered if there was something menacing in his voice even as she shook her head.
"No, not really. I think anyone in my situation would have taken your offer."
She wondered if there was a slight flicker of pain that crossed his face, but then it was gone as he shrugged elegantly.
"That may very well be, but I did not ask anyone. I asked you. What is important to me is that you find our arrangement satisfactory."
Annabel found that she had to laugh a little at his formal words. He looked hurt again at that, and she reached out to squeeze his hand. In the back of her mind, she was slightly shocked at how comfortable she was with simply reaching out and touching him like this.
"Do not worry," she murmured, aware that her daughter could be returning at any moment. "I am a woman of my word."
He relaxed a little, squeezing her hand just as she squeezed his.
"Good," he said, his voice imbued with just a small growl. "That is what I require from all around me."
She started to say something, but then she saw a heat rise up in his eyes. A few moments ago, they had been bantering back and forth about their bargain, and suddenly, she was now confronted with the physical reality of it. This man would take possession of her body in a way that only one man ever had before, and suddenly her mouth was dry.
"There is more than just our words involved here, Annabel, and I want you to remember that," he said, his voice a velvety rumble.
He let go of her hand abruptly as Marissa returned with the stewardess close behind. Annabel was sure that her face was as red as a tomato, and she was relieved when he was the one who turned to the pair with a kind smile.
He asked Marissa to describe the meal in front of them, and as the stewardess laid it out, Annabel discreetly touched her hand where he had held it. She could still feel the warmth of his fingers there, but it was more than that. She felt branded in some strange way, as if she would glow there for anyone who had the eyes to see it.
I feel claimed, she thought finally. I feel like I belong to him now.
...What have I done?
***
Annabel was quiet after they got off of the plane, and there was a pensiveness that hadn't been there before. Adil could sense it, but for the moment, he left her alone. There were many reasons why she might be more serious right now, but she still flashed him a grateful smile when he answered Marissa's dozen questions about the airport that they walked through and the sleek dark car that was pulled up for him.
It was mid-afternoon in Sakhi, the large city in full bustle. Adil, who had always preferred to drive himself, took the driver's seat and with Marissa in the back seat and Annabel by his side, he took them through the city.
Marissa was buckled in, but she pressed her nose to the glass, looking out, wide eyed.
"There are so many people!" she said happily. "There's a man spinning sugar! Can we stop? It looks delicious!"
Adil was going to say of course they could, but it was Annabel that quickly shook her head.
"No, Marissa. You just ate, and putting sugar on top of the meal that you got on the airplane is going to make you sick to your stomach."
Adil lapsed into silence as Marissa fussed slightly and then subsided into a deep sigh. Annabel caught his eye and smiled.
"Can't wait for those turbulent teen years," she said.
Until recently, Adil had not thought much about children or about how they were raised. While plenty of his friends and acquaintances had children, they were very much kept out of the adult sphere. It had not occurred to him how very involved a parent could be, or at least, the reality of it had not struck him.
He looked at Annabel with a new respect. His own parents had taken a hand in raising him, but he also knew that nannies and tutors were involved as well. As far as he could tell, Marissa had become a very sweet girl with just her mother keeping her in line.
The trip out to their destination was relatively short, just an hour and a half from the airport, but by the end, Marissa was drowsing in the back seat and Annabel was glancing back at her with worry.
"Air travel takes it out of people," Adil said softly. "Adults and children. She will be fine."
Annabel bit her lip, a gesture that he found strangely engaging. For a moment, he had a mad urge to pull over and kiss her lower lip, but he reminded himself that that would be the least appropriate thing he could do at this juncture.
"I hope so. She's just been so easy to wear out lately. I hope that they can figure out what is going on with her. The doctors back in New York were no help at all."
He could hear the helplessness and despair in her voice, and he reached over to take her hand again.
"Something will be done," he promised. "Do not worry about it."
She smiled at him, a slightly rueful edge to it.
"That's right, you're new to this parenting thing. It's what parents do. We worry. One day, you're bopping along, doing fine, and then, suddenly, there's an entire world that you cannot control. All you can do is look after it and love it, and sometimes, you have to find that there is nothing at all you can do."
Adil blinked a few times.
"I'll admit," he said, "there is not a great deal that I cannot control. I have been sheikh for more than ten years, and though there are things that go wrong, I also have the power to set them right."
"That sounds very nice," she said with a slight laugh. "I don't doubt that there are some things about that that will apply for children as well, but, well. You'll see, I suppose."
When he glanced over at her. Adil was struck by the soft beauty of her face. Her dark hair was still up in those sleek braids (did she even sleep with her hair up?), but there were a few strands falling down around her face, giving her a sleepy kind of charm.
He suddenly knew that he had chosen well, even if inadvertently.
"I suppose I will," was all he would say, and he drove a little faster. Suddenly, Adil wanted nothing more than to be off the road for the night.