Free Sheikh's Blackmailed Love by Sophia Lynn

setup, shrugged.
    “At some point, he will likely find a bride from one of the other emirates or from one of the noble families here in Jabal. Until then, well, he has certainly had affairs, but he is very discreet about them. One imagines that he keeps mistresses like a European aristocrat, secreted away in some lovely apartment that he visits.”
    Or in a cave with a surprisingly comfortable air mattress , she thought wryly, and then she flinched at the idea of him having other women discreetly, making the same deal with them that he had with her. She hung on to the words he had said, about how real they were together and the passion that they shared, but weren’t those the words that every mistress heard?
    Most nights found her waiting until dark had fallen. When the murmurs around the fire were dying down, and when people were starting to head back to their sleeping places, she would wave and yawn as if she were making her way to her own trailer. Once she was sure that she was out of sight, she switched on the tiny flashlight that hung on her key chain and made her way up around the excavation site to the cave that she was coming to know so well.
    Some nights, he would arrive before she did. There might be a roaring fire to give the cave warmth, a welcoming spread of blankets that were waiting to cover their naked bodies. Dario would be there, smiling and waiting for her with open arms.
    If Bailey was honest with herself, though, she would say the nights that she loved the most were the ones where she arrived first. Dario might be held up by serious logistical concerns with the other riders, or with the satellite talks that he had to have with Jabal officials from time to time. She would arrive at the cave, build up a fire, and sit on the ledge outside, staring up at the stars. She wondered if there was something strange about the fact that she liked waiting for him. There was a kind of quiet yearning there that she relished, and it felt good because she knew that he would come. She loved hearing his step on the rocky path, and she knew that when he came to her, his smile would be as brilliant as the sun itself.
    They were drawn to each other by something that felt as natural, as powerful, and as unquestionable as gravity. In his arms, she felt more like herself than she had ever felt before.
    “I feel so good with you,” she whispered one night. They were naked under the covers, her head was tucked under his chin. “I wonder sometimes, though, what I give to you?”
    His laugh was incredulous.
    “Do you even have to ask, my little gem? When I am with you, everything feels possible. I am purely myself, and that is a feeling that few people can offer me. With you, I feel like the finest version of myself that I can be.”
    She supposed it made sense, but there was always a part of her that felt like there were pieces missing. What they had in the cave was real and true, but she was beginning to feel like two people. One walked in daylight, joked with her friends, and loved the work she was doing, even if she had been coerced at the beginning. The second one crept along the mountain at night, lived by firelight, and gave up her body to a man who could make her feel things she had never imagined before.
    As time went on, those two different parts drifted apart farther and farther. Bailey told herself that there was no separation. She was one person. She knew that the split was hurting her, but she did not know how in the world she was going to fix it.
    *
    Things went on as they were for two weeks, and then the excavation team found the diadem. The shout went up around the camp that something big had been found, and sooner rather than later, most of the crew was at the dig site, watching from a safe distance as a skilled archaeologist worked gently to free the prize.
    Bailey stood on tiptoe to watch as the woman painstakingly brushed away the centuries old stone and grit to reveal the shine of gold. This was a terrifying