The Sheikh's Destiny (Harlequin Romance) by Melissa James

Author:Melissa James [James, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Kings and rulers, Nurses, Contemporary, General, Romance, Middle East, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373176786
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-08-10T08:58:54+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

ALIM stared ahead at the empty-seeming darkness: as filled with pitfalls and boulders as Hana’s conversation. He did indeed know what would come next: the sharks would begin circling, from other princely families in the region to neighbouring countries, to powerful Western corporations and nations with greedy eyes fixed on their oil and gas reserves.

And he knew everything Hana wasn’t saying. Was Harun drowning beneath the load of responsibility he, Alim, had tossed on him by disappearing? Why wasn’t he happy with the beautiful princess he’d—he’d been forced to wed?

For the first time Alim realised how selfish he’d been to leave his younger brother alone and grieving. Drowning in his own grief, he’d been blind to Harun’s needs. As Hana had said so eloquently, he’d expected Harun to pick up the pieces of a shattered royal family and a nation on his behalf. He’d known serious, stable Harun would do the right thing, do a better job than he, Alim, ever could—right down to marrying the princess when he couldn’t face it.

‘Thank you for telling me,’ he said, and couldn’t help the terse anger in his voice. He only hoped she knew it wasn’t directed at her, but a reckless, passionate young man who’d led a charmed life until the fateful day he’d talked Fadi into racing him.

‘I hope it helps you make the right decision.’ Hana looked out of the window into the empty night. She was leaving the decision to him.

They both knew there wasn’t a decision to make. He had to go home, ask Harun what he wanted, to stay on as sheikh or not, to remain married to Amber or not. Maybe if he had a bit of time out, he and Amber could work it out—

Then he glanced in the rear-vision mirror, and gunned the engine again. ‘And what happens next might come to us, and sooner than we think if we don’t move. I should never have stopped the Jeep.’

Hana turned her face to the back window, and paled. ‘They’re close.’

‘Four kilometres, maybe more,’ he corrected gently, cursing himself for scaring her. ‘The dust looks closer than it is out here, in the darkness.’

She nodded, and didn’t speak again for long minutes. Then she said in a strained voice, ‘It wasn’t my place to tell you about your brother.’

‘Maybe it needed to be said. And maybe I needed to talk about it,’ he replied, surprising himself with the realisation that what he’d said was true. She’d made him want to live again, to stop running, merely by telling him of the suffering his little brother endured on his behalf.

She was holding onto the broken jacket as if it were her only lifeline. ‘Not to me, Alim. Don’t ask me, don’t confide in me. I can’t even help myself out of my own mess.’

‘Maybe you don’t have to, Hana,’ he said quietly. ‘Maybe life, fate or God brought us together for a purpose. Maybe we can help each other.’

‘What, we met for the express

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