Sheikh Protector

She did have that fall. And despite feeling fine, she did worry. And it wasn’t as if he was going to give her a choice about going. “Fine. But don’t think you’re coming with me. Absolutely not.”

“And I looked into testing,” he said. “There’s something called amniocentesis that can be done during pregnancy. They can obtain DNA and determine paternity.”

She didn’t know how she felt about that. The test would prove that the father was Aziz. That would bind her even tighter to Karim, an outcome she wanted to avoid at all cost. Could she refuse? What would that gain her? Time.

She turned from him and marched out with the half-eaten banana in her hand, calling a “Go to hell” over her shoulder on principle.

As she sped her steps, the banana under her top dislodged and fell to the floor. She picked it up, glad he didn’t see her. But a glance back at his bedroom door revealed that, in fact, he had.

He’d come after her and was leaning against the door frame, watching her with a superior smirk on his face. “You may take the whole fruit bowl if you’d like.”

THE RADIOLOGIST asked him no questions, one of the privileges of being sheik. Karim stared at the staticky-looking black-and-white screen, at the blurry outline of what seemed like a head and part of the abdomen. He kept his gaze studiously on the screen, ignoring the creamy expanse of skin in his peripheral vision.

He had come in with her because despite the blood test, he still half believed there might not even be a baby. Tests could be wrong. Tests could be altered for the right amount of money. She could have had it all set up at the hospital.

And if she were pregnant, he had half hoped that the ultrasound would reveal that she was lying about the child being Aziz’s. The time of conception could have been wrong. Or the kid could have had stark red hair and looked obviously Irish, or whatever. What did he know? He’d never seen an ultrasound before.

But the date of conception was right on the money, during the time that Aziz had been in Baltimore. And, although the gray blob on the screen bore no resemblance to Aziz, Karim could hardly hold that against it. It barely looked human.

But here was the funny part, the thing he hadn’t seen coming: the longer he looked at the kid, the more he wanted to believe the woman who lay on the hospital bed with her eyes glued to the screen and tears misting her fine eyes.

“Nice, strong heartbeat. See that?” the radiologist asked him.

And he could. The heart pulsed rapidly in the middle of the screen. The image was mesmerizing. He didn’t like the softening it brought out in him.

Most likely, the woman was a money-hungry scammer.

The report he had received on her last night certainly pointed in that direction. Her family had been anything but upstanding and responsible. Her father left early on. Her mother dumped her and her siblings into the foster-care system. Julia floundered around for a while after that, then went to college on some sort of government program. Ended up with a nonprofit organization where she seemed tolerably successful.

He considered her alluring beauty, the crown of hair that to his disappointment she wore up today, that light in her eyes as she stared at the screen.

Hell, who wouldn’t have fallen for that? Maybe she’d done so well because she could flirt successful businessmen into large donations. But her track record hadn’t been enough. Her organization was downsizing and she was let go a month ago.

Pregnant and without any income. That had to be the definition of desperate for a woman.

Last night when he’d gotten the report, he’d been certain she was lying about the baby belonging to Aziz and was impatient for that DNA test. He wanted her to be gone.

Then she had come to his room, and in a moment of insanity, he just plain wanted her. He had wanted her to offer herself to him, and not only to prove him right about her character.

But now, looking at the child, the rapidly beating heart on the screen, suddenly he wanted there to be a baby from Aziz, someone left behind by his brother. He wanted the feisty, auburn-haired beauty to be true and not a conscienceless liar. He wanted her and her baby to belong to him.

Because of Aziz. He would take care of them for Aziz. There was so infuriatingly little he could do for his dead brother otherwise. Finding his killer was about it, which he would do even if he had to put his own life at risk in the process.

“Looks like you are just entering the second trimester. Everything looks well,” the radiologist said. She was a petite, modest woman who wore a veil that covered most of her head and a large part of her hospital uniform. “The baby seems healthy.”

“I called Dr. Jinan last night. She said something about the possibility of an amniocentesis,” he said.

“That would be done sometime between week sixteen and week twenty of the pregnancy. Is there a concern about genetic problems?” The technician looked up.

“An issue with paternity,” Karim growled, trying not to care that Julia flushed red with embarrassment.

“We don’t normally do it for that purpose.” The woman bowed her head.

“But it could provide confirmation?”

She nodded. “There are risks.”

“What risks?” Julia asked.

“In a small percentage of the cases, the procedure can cause miscarriage. But if you absolutely have to—”

“No,” he said at the same time as Julia, and hated the surprised look she gave him. Did it really stun her that much that he wouldn’t put the baby’s life at risk? “The procedure is not that necessary.”

She would just have to stay around until the baby was born and they could do a no-risk DNA test. He would have to find a way to get her to agree. Despite his threats, he couldn’t really hold her that long against her will, not in the current political climate. The country was trying hard to build strong diplomatic relations with the West, to prove that the place was safe for tourists and the culture prosperous and civilized. A rogue sheik kidnapping an American woman would definitely create damaging publicity.

She had come for money, he was pretty sure about that. All he needed was to figure out the price of her cooperation. They would discuss it over dinner tonight. He wasn’t buying her burning need to leave, anyhow. Could be she was just being coy.

The prospect of her prolonged stay and the continued annoyance it was sure to bring should have bothered him but, oddly, it didn’t. “So the child is healthy?”

“All looks as it should.”

Dr. Jinan walked in and greeted them warmly, looked at the screen over the technician’s head. “Everything is in order?”

“Perfect.”

“Since you did have a fall, I’d recommend another day of rest. No work, no exercise, no sexual relations,” Dr. Jinan was saying to Julia. “But if you continue to feel fine, you can resume all normal activity the day after tomorrow. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to call.” She gave Julia an encouraging smile.

Karim felt his shoulders relax, then tense again when his cell phone beeped. His chief of security. He turned off the ringer. He’d call the man back later. He didn’t want to miss anything.

Never in a million years would he have expected to find himself in a place like this. He was resigned not to marry and have children of his own. He’d tried back in his early twenties. But he’d seen the look in the girls’ eyes at the introductory meetings. The fathers were all willing. But he scared the women. And he didn’t want to take a wife who would be repulsed by the sight of him, would cringe every time she looked at him for the rest of their lives.

Julia Gardner was scared of him, which didn’t keep her from standing up to him, but she never once cringed.

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” The question was barely audible, her voice filled with wonder. Her face was radiant. A deep joy shone through her skin, joy that could not be faked.

He could not remember when he’d felt such unrestrained, undiminished happiness, if ever. She was about glowing with it, her beauty intensified until he could barely look away from her. Maybe a veil for her, too, wouldn’t be a bad idea while she was in this country, although he didn’t plan on letting her wander around without him being close behind.

“Not yet.” The radiologist smiled. “Maybe in another month or so.”

“Oh.”

The child moved, looked like it was waving. Cute little bugger. Karim couldn’t help a smile, but schooled his features back into place before Julia could notice.

If she realized that he was softening, who knew what outrageous demands she could make. If the child was Aziz’s, Karim would take care of it, no question. If it wasn’t… He looked at the woman who was still staring at the screen, teary-eyed. Something flipped over in his chest at the sight.

She was in a desperate situation. Had to be, to go into a far-flung scheme like this and try to pass her child off on a man who wasn’t the father. He glanced at the screen again. If the DNA test came back proving Aziz had nothing to do with this, he could still see that she was able to raise the baby. Hell, he could afford it.

“Would you like some pictures?” the radiologist asked.