Free Sheikh's Fake Fiancee by Jessica Brooke, Ella Brooke Page B

not sure how I can really let myself go, knowing my baby sister is in some hospital an ocean away.”
    “We’ll talk about that in the morning,” he said, sensing that his bride needed rest. The day’s events—all of them—had been too much for her. “Now,” he said, kissing those soft lips once more. “Get rest, Jennifer, and I’ll show you the city as you’ve never seen it before.”

Chapter Eight
    Jennifer felt if she were on autopilot at the hotel. She’d slept well, which surprised her. Since the revelation of Sydney’s diagnosis, it felt like she’d only caught cat naps here and there. Getting through the day on coffee and the occasional energy drink, as well as through bleary eyes, had become her new normal. So to be fully comfortable and content while curled up in Bahan’s strong arms had been a revelation. They’d been intimate in small ways before but had never hit a home run, as Rose might have put it with her Jersey leanings.
    He’d also never spent the night with her. She felt like with her sister’s health teetering, she couldn’t afford to be away from her apartment or the hospital for too long. She just hadn’t allowed herself the luxury of sleeping a full night with her lover.
    Husband .
    That word struck her across the center of her chest as surely as if she’d been hit by a two-by-four. It felt so serious, so heavy. Yes, they’d annul eventually, and this was a marriage of convenience for both of them—a business deal. Yet, she’d never been married before, and for right now, Bahan wasn’t just her lover or the man she cared about. Under both US and Yemeni law, he was her husband, and that was a huge and consuming thing.
    But he seemed to also be the only one who could calm her. She hadn’t slept like this since she’d heard the doctor calmly rattle off Syd’s diagnosis. That had to mean something, right?
    She’d been dating for over ten years, through high school and college, and even considered marriage with Dustin. At least until that damn cocktail waitress who one of his business associates finally came clean to her about. It was never a good idea to have any lover or fiancé or anyone else who traveled too much. It led to…temptation, to put it mildly. But she’d always thought it would take time. You’d date for a year, really get to know each other, then you’d commit based on the pros and cons of an alliance. It would be methodical.
    You couldn’t possibly be swept up in a swirl of passion after only knowing each other for a few hours at a club or after a date or two.
    And yet, Bahan could calm her fears, give her a sense of safety and security that she’d never known before. It had to mean something. Her head was spinning as she finished unpacking.
    She also couldn’t stop the gnawing feeling in the pit of her chest, this pure panic that it was wrong for her to even have this weekend, either. But Bahan was being a gentleman, giving her space to shake the jet lag out of her eyes as well as to collect herself. Jennifer appreciated that. God, she loved so much about him already. It all just seemed far too fast.
    Her phone buzzed on the kitchen counter and she bit her lip, fretting that it might be Bahan and that she’d zoned out far too fast. When she glanced at the screen, she realized that it was her sister. Her heart stopped in her throat and she was terrified something bad had happened. Of course, if it had, her mother would have been the one calling, or Rose.
    “Hey, Syd, what’s up?”
    “Did you go to the Louvre yet? What about strolling by the Seine?” her sister asked, her tone as perky as it usually was. That was so Sydney. Nothing could get the girl down for long. She adjusted better than anyone Jennifer knew. “Tell me, is Paris da bomb?”
    “What?”
    “Puh-leeze,” her sister said, and she could imagine the younger girl rolling her eyes. It was, after all, Syd’s favorite motion. “Bahan did tell Rose and it wasn’t like Rose could keep