The Solitary Sheikh

The Solitary Sheikh
ALEXANDRA SELLERS

A HARDENED, LONELY SHEIKH Prince Omar's heart was as barren as the desert - until beguiling Jana Stewart, his daughters' tutor, tempted the widower's weary soul like an oasis. Though the powerful prince desperately desired Jana's touch, he resisted her, believing that love was merely a mirage… . A WOMAN TO HEAL HIMJana was captivated by the sheikh and his breathtaking inheritance, the Cup of Happiness. But a taste from the goblet had failed to bring him joy. So Jana tempted the prince to touch his lips to hers, and in his unquenchable desire she glimpsed his hidden need to be healed… and loved.Could this beauty restore Omar's faith in family… and make this solitary sheikh lonely no more?Powerful sheikhs born to rule and destined to find love as eternal as the sands… SONS OF THE DESERT

“It’s No Wonder People Fall In Love In The Desert.” (#u6204d2d9-59f8-56f3-9114-b70c4396e67e)Letter to Reader (#u7c53407d-4cca-522a-9574-8d689d408bed)Title Page (#u33a0da16-6717-5131-a766-f48e91262c79)Dedication (#u71547cfa-e9ad-5633-9f71-4bede88adb03)About the Author (#u16f94f14-de40-58a1-89a4-07603d844081)Omar’s Inheritance The Cup of Happiness (#u0dc0ae12-95e8-5542-a4e0-85302af2008f)Chapter One (#uee4c490c-b744-503b-ae8f-b9fa86ef57f6)Chapter Two (#u208c5de9-6f2f-55fa-9d48-403363fb0d72)Chapter Three (#u304634f5-444c-53cf-9273-ef197f006586)Chapter Four (#u6d68474c-d55f-5205-9c1b-37568b9b1778)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“It’s No Wonder People Fall In Love In The Desert.”

Prince Omar’s jaw tightened at Jana’s words, but she was looking at the distant dunes and did not notice. “Do you think so?”

The tone of the sheikh’s voice startled her, so full of cynical unhappiness that she turned and blinked at him. “Don’t you?”

“I have never loved the desert or thought it inspired love,” he said flatly.

She watched him for a moment under the starlight. “What do you love, then?”

He gave a bark of laughter. “You speak as if everyone must love something.”

“A person would have to be very hard not to love someone, some part of the world,” Jana said mildly. “So hard they couldn’t be called human.”

“Oh, I am human,” he replied, reaching through the moonlight to touch her hair. “And I have you to remind me that I am a man....”

Dear Reader,

This May we invite you to delve into six delicious new titles from Silhouette Desire!

We begin with the brand-new title you’ve been eagerly awaiting from the incomparable Ann Major Love Me True, our May MAN OF THE MONTH, is a riveting reunion romance offering the high drama and glamour that are Ann’s hallmarks

The enjoyment continues in FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE BRIDES. with The Groom’s Revenge by Susan Crosby. A young working woman is swept off her feet by a wealthy CEO who’s married her with more than love on his mind—he wants revenge on the father who never claimed her, Stuart Fortune A “must read” for all you fans of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca!

Barbara McMahon’s moving story The Cowboy and the Virgin portrays the awakening—both sensual and emotional—of an innocent young woman who falls for a ranching Romeo But can she turn the tables and corral him? Beverly Barton’s emotional miniseries 3 BABIES FOR 3 BROTHERS concludes with Having His Baby. Experience the birth of a father as well as a child when a rugged rancher is transformed by the discovery of his secret baby—and the influence of her pretty mom. Then, in her exotic SONS OF THE DESERT title, The Solitary Sheikh, Alexandra Sellers depicts a hard-hearted sheikh who finds happiness with his daughters’ aristocratic tutor And The Billionaire’s Secret Baby by Carol Devine is a compelling marriage-of-convenience story

Now more than ever, Silhouette Desire offers you the most passionate, powerful and provocative of sensual romances Make yourself merry this May with all six Desire novels—and buy another set for your mom or a close friend for Mother’s Day! Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Please address questions and book requests to

Silhouette Reader Service

U S.. 3010 Walden Ave., PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian. PO Box 609, Fort Ene, Ont. L2A 5X3

The Solitary Sheikh

Alexandra Sellers

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

for my sister, Margaret,

who helped

About the Author

ALEXANDRA SELLERS was born in Ontario, and raised in Ontario and Saskatchewan. She first came to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and fell in love with the city. Later she returned to make it her permanent home. Now married to an Englishman, she lives near Hampstead Heath. As well as writing romance, she teaches a course called “How To Write a Romance Novel” in London several times a year.

Because of a much-regretted allergy she can have no resident cat, but she receives regular charitable visits from three cats who are neighbors.

Readers can write to her at P.O. Box 9449, London, NW3 2WH, England.

THE BARAKAT EMIRATES

SHEIKH’S RANSOM, Prince Karim’s story, April 1999

THE SOLITARY SHEIKH, Prince Omar’s story, May 1999

BELOVED SHEIKH, Prince Rafi’s story, June 1999

Available only from Silhouette Desire.

Omar’s Inheritance The Cup of Happiness

To Prince Omar’s lot fell the Kingdom of Central Barakat, a land of sometimes rich, sometimes desolate desert, and the high, rugged, white-capped mountains of Noor with their many valleys. To him also was given the cup of his ancient ancestor Jalal, a magnificent pedestal cup of ruby, emerald and gold that was said to confer happiness on its owner. It had not conferred happiness on Omar. From the moment his father’s will had granted him the cup, his life had seemed a bitter betrayal.

There was once a king of ancient and noble lineage who ruled over a land that had been blessed by God This land, Barakat, lying on the route of one of the old Silk Roads, had for centuries received the cultural influences of many different worlds. Its geography, too, was diverse: it bordered the sea; then the desert, sometimes bleak with its ancient rums, sometimes golden and studded with oases, stretched inland for many miles, before meeting the foothills of snow-capped mountains that captured the rain clouds and forced them to deliver their burden in the rich valleys. It was a land of magic and plenty and a rich and diverse heritage.

But it was also a land of tribal rivalries and not infrequent skirmishes. Because the king had the ancient blood of the Quraishi kings in his veins, no one challenged his right to the throne, but many of the tribal chieftains whom he ruled were in constant jealousy over their lands and rights against the others.

One day, the king of this land fell in love with a foreign woman. Promising her that he would never take another wife, he married her and made her his queen. This beloved wife gave him two handsome sons. The king loved them as his own right hand. Crown Prince Zaid and his brother were all that he could wish for in his sons—handsome, noble, brave warriors, and popular with his people. As they attained the age of majority, the sheikh could look forward to his own death without fear for his country, for if anything should happen to the Crown Prince, his brother Aziz would step into his shoes and be equally popular with the people and equally strong among the tribes.

Then one day, tragedy struck the sheikh and his wife. Both their sons were killed in the same accident. Now his own death became the great enemy to the old man, for with it, he knew, would come certain civil war as the tribal chieftains vied for supremacy.

His beloved wife understood all his fears, but she was by now too old to hope to give him another heir. One day, when all the rituals of mourning were complete, the queen said to her husband, “According to the law, you are entitled to four wives. Take, therefore, my husband, three new wives, that God may bless one of them with a son to inherit your throne ”

The sheikh thanked her for releasing him from his promise. A few weeks later, on the same day so that none should afterwards claim supremacy, the sheikh married three beautiful young women, and that night, virile even in his old age, he visited each wife in turn, no one save himself knowing in which order he visited them. To each wife he promised that if she gave him a son, her son would inherit the throne of Barakat.

The sheikh was more virile than he knew. Each of his new wives conceived, and gave birth, nine months later, to a lusty son. And each was jealous for her own son’s inheritance. From that moment the sheikh’s life became a burden to him, for each of his new young wives had different reasons for believing that her own son should be named the rightful heir to the throne.

The Princess Goldar, whose exotically hooded green eyes she had bequeathed to her son, Omar, based her claim on the fact that she herself was a descendant of the ancient royal family of her own homeland, Parvan.

The Princess Nargis, mother of Rafi and descended from the old Mughal emperors of India, had in addition given birth two days before the other two wives, thus making her son the firstborn.

The Princess Noor, mother of Karim, claimed the inheritance for her son by right of blood—she alone of the wives was an Arab of noble descent, like the sheikh himself. Who but her son to rule the desert tribesmen?

The sheikh hoped that his sons would solve his dilemma for him, that one would prove more princely than the others. But as they grew to manhood, he saw that each of them was, in his own way, worthy of the throne, that each had the nobility the people would look for in their king, and alents that would benefit the kingdom were he to rule.