Free The sheikh's chosen wife by Michelle Reid Page A

here?'
    'Why do you think?' Hassan
countered, and gained some enjoyment out of watching Ethan stiffen as he
absorbed the full masculine depth of his meaning. 'As long as she remains under
my protection no one can touch her.'
    Ethan's response took him
by surprise because he dared to laugh. 'You've no chance, Hassan,' he waged.
'Leona will fight you to the edge and back before she will just sit down and do
what you want her to do simply because you've decided that is how it must be.'
    'Which is why I need your
support in this,' Hassan replied. 'I need you to leave this boat before she can
have an opportunity to use your departure as an excuse to jump ship with
you."
    He got it. In the end,
and after a bit more wrangling, he watched Ethan Hayes turn to the door on a
reluctant agreement to go. And, oddly, Hassan admired him for trusting him
enough to do this, bearing in mind the year that had gone before.
    'Don't hurt her again.'
Almost as if he could read his thoughts, Ethan issued that gruff warning right
on cue.
    'My wife's well-being is
and always has been of paramount importance to me,' Hassan responded in a
decidedly cooler tone.
    Ethan turned, looked him
directly in the eye, and for once the truth was placed in the open. 'You hurt
her a year ago. A man gets only one chance at doing that.'
     
    The kid gloves came off.
Hassan's eyes began to glint. 'Take a small piece of advice,' he urged, 'and do
not presume to understand a marital relationship until you have tried it for
yourself.'
    'I know a broken-hearted
woman when I see one,' Ethan persisted.
    'And has she been any
less broken-hearted in the year we have been apart?'
    Game, set and match,
Hassan recognised, as the other man conceded that final point to him, and with
just a nod of his head Ethan went out of the door and into the capable hands of
the waiting Raflq.
    At about the same time
that Rafiq was escorting Ethan to the waiting launch presently tied up against
the side of the yacht, Leona was slipping her arms into the sleeves of a white
linen jacket that matched the white linen trousers she had chosen to wear.
Beneath the jacket she wore a pale green sun top and she had contained her hair
in a simple pony-tail tied up with a green silk scarf. As she turned towards
the door she decided that if she managed to ignore the throbbing ache happening
inside her then she was as ready as she ever could be for the battle she knew
was to come with Hassan.
    Stepping out of the
stateroom, the first person she saw was a bearded man dressed in a long white
tunic and the usual white gutrah on his head.
    'Faysal!' Her surprise
was clear, her smile warm. Faysal responded by pressing his palms together and
dipping into the kind of low bow that irritated Hassan but didn't bother Leona
at all simply because she ignored it. 'I didn't know you were here on the boat.
Are you well?' she enquired as she walked towards him.
    'I am very well, my
lady,' he confirmed, but beneath the beard she had a suspicion he was blushing
uncomfortably at the informal intimacy she was showing him.
    'And your wife?' she
asked gently.
    'Oh, she is very well,'
he confirmed with a distinct softening in his formal tone. 'The—er—problem she
suffered has gone completely. We are most grateful to you for taking the
trouble to ensure she was treated by the best people.'
    'I didn't do anything but
point her in the right direction, Faysal.' Leona smiled, ‘I am only grateful
that she felt she could confide in me.'
    'You saved her life.'
    'Many people saved her
life.' Daring his affront, she crossed the invisible line Arab males drew
between themselves and females and reached out to press her hands against the
backs of his hands. 'But you and I were good conspirators, hmm, Faysal?"
    'Indisputably, my lady.'
His mouth almost cracked into a smile but he was too stressed at having her
hands on his, and in the end she relented and moved away.
    'If you would come this
way...' he bowed '...I am to escort you to my lord