Taken by the Desert Sheikh by Mel Teshco & Cathleen Ross & Christina Phillips

Author:Mel Teshco & Cathleen Ross & Christina Phillips [Teshco, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Five weeks later

Amber sat on one of the cushioned seats out in the courtyard, willing herself not to be sick even as nausea sat like a lump in the base of her throat.

She’d taken to sitting outside, ostensibly for the fresh air, while in reality it was to search the empty blue skies in an endless wait to hear any news on her father and her people—and as much as she hated to admit it—her husband.

How could she for even a second miss the one man who’d kidnapped her and as quickly abandoned her. The same man who’d also as quickly planted his seed inside her. She pushed a hand beneath her soft T-shirt and touched her flat belly. If nothing else good came out of this marriage, at least she’d have a baby to adore.

She sighed, for the hundredth time wishing that the middle of the desert didn’t also mean no cell phone coverage or internet. She would have demanded to be taken to Zafar’s city palace, except she knew he wouldn’t have allowed it. With the desert palace further away from Yhemen’s border and no chance of enemies blending into the crowd, there was much less risk of attack here.

Or you could try to escape like you’d planned to all along?

She almost laughed. But she couldn’t deny it any longer. She was desperate to see Zafar again. To touch him, and kiss him.

Makina walked out onto the patio carrying a tray, no doubt trying to tempt Amber with food yet again. This time it was a bowl of shorba, a traditional lentil soup, which she placed onto the table. “You must eat,” Makina said carefully, already mastering the Yheminic language.

Amber sighed. If she hoped to fit in as Czuden royalty, she needed to practice their language in return. She accepted the bowl, doing her best to ignore the churning of her stomach as the strong lentil scent wafted up her nose. For her baby’s sake, she’d force a little sustenance into her body, and hope it’d stay down.

She took a mouthful and forcibly swallowed, the lump in her throat threatening dislodgement in the most humiliating way possible.

“Excellent,” Makina said in approval. “You have lost much weight.”

Amber’s laugh was all on the inside, but then she couldn’t have found the strength to be joyous even if she tried. If she’d thought herself hard and lean when she’d been a soldier, as the newly married Sheikha of Czuden, she was bordering on gaunt. Illness and exhaustion had taken over in her husband’s absence.

At least her knee was almost fully healed now, with only a twinge now and then to remind her of the injury.

She was only grateful she had Makina as her servant. Makina seemed to know when she was wanted and when Amber needed her space…unlike the twins. She sighed. The girls fell over themselves to please her, and after living the life of a soldier for so long, their cosseting was just too much.

She managed one more mouthful of the shorba before an all too familiar thomp-thomp noise broke the heavy silence.

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