The sheikh's chosen wife by Michelle Reid

warrior.
    'Well, just look what we
have here,' she drawled at this newly arrived target for her anger. 'If it
isn't my lord sheikh's fellow conspirator in crime.'
    Rafiq had opened his
mouth to offer her a greeting, but her tone made him change his mind and
instead he dipped into the kind of bow that would have even impressed Faysal,
but only managed to sharpen Leona's tongue.
    'Don't you dare efface
yourself to me when we both know you don't respect me at all,' she sliced at
him.
    'You are mistaken,' he
replied, I respect you most deeply."
    'Even while you throw an abaya
over my head?'
    'The abaya was an
unfortunate necessity,' he explained, 'For you sparkled so brilliantly that you
placed us in risk of discovery from the car headlights. Though please accept my
apologies if my actions offended you.'
    He thought he could
mollify her with an apology? 'Do you know what you need, Rafiq Al-Qadim?' she
responded. 'You need someone to find you a wife—a real harridan who will make
your life such a misery that you won't have time to meddle in mine!'
    'You are angry, and
rightly so,' he conceded, but his eyes had begun to glint at the very idea of
anyone meddling with his life. 'My remorse for the incident with the abaya is
all yours. Please be assured that if you had toppled into the ocean I would
have arrived there ahead of you.'
    'But not before me, I
think,' another voice intruded. It was very satisfying to hear the impatience
in Hassan's tone. He was not a man who liked to be upstaged in any way, which
was what Leona had allowed Rafiq to do. 'Leona, come out of the sun,' he
instructed. 'Allowing yourself to burn because you are angry is the fool's
choice."
    Leona didn't move but
Rafiq did. In two strides he was standing right beside her and quite
effectively blocking her off from the sun with his impressive shadow.
    Which only helped to
irritate Hassan all the more. 'Your reason for being up here had better be a
good one, Rafiq,' he said grimly.
    'Most assuredly,' the
other man replied. 'Sheikh Abdul begs an urgent word with you.'
    Hassan's smile was thin.
'Worried, is he?'
    'Protecting his back,'
Rafiq assessed.
    'Sheikh Abdul can wait
until I have eaten my breakfast.' Levering himself away from the yacht's rail,
he walked back to the breakfast table. 'Leona, if you are not over here by the
time Rafiq leaves you will not like the consequences.'
    'Threats now?' she threw
at him.
    'Tell the sheikh I will
speak to him later,' he said, ignoring her remark to speak to Rafiq.
    Rafiq hesitated, stuck
between two loyalties and clearly unsure which one to heed. He preferred to stay
by Leona's side until she decided to leave the sun, but he also needed to
deliver Hassan's message; so a silence dropped and tension rose. Hassan picked
up the coffee pot and poured himself a cup while he waited. He was testing the
faith of a man who had only ever given him his absolute loyalty, and that
surprised and dismayed Leona because, tough and cold though she knew Hassan
could be on occasion, she had never known him to challenge Rafiq in this way.
    In the end she took the
pressure off by stepping beneath the shade of the awning. Rafiq bowed and left.
Hassan sent her a brief smile. 'Thank you,' he said.
    'You didn't have to
challenge him like that,' she admonished. 'It was an unfair use of your
authority.'
    'Perhaps.' he conceded.
'But it served its purpose.'
    'The purpose of reminding
him of his station in life?'
    'No, the purpose of
making you remember yours.' He threw her a hard glance. 'We both wield power in
our way, Leona. You have just demonstrated your own by giving Rafiq the freedom
to leave with his pride intact.'
    He was right, though she
didn't like being forced to realise it.
    'You can be so cruel
sometimes.' She released the words on a sigh. To her surprise Hassan countered
it with a laugh.
    'You call me cruel when
you have just threatened him with a wife? He has a woman,' he confided, coming
to stand right behind her. 'A black-haired,