The Sheikh's Convenient Bride

The Sheikh's Convenient Bride
Sandra Marton

Despite his attraction to her, Sheikh Qasim is trying not to take Megan O'Connell to his wealthy but tradition-bound kingdom; women have no status in his homeland. Yet, as no one else has Megan's financial expertise, he is given no choice.Once in Suliyam, Megan finds her life threatened by tribal leaders who think she's a woman of loose morals. The only way Qasim can save Megan–and her reputation–is to marry her…!

Praise for

by Sandra Marton

“This first book of the O’Connell series, Keir O’Connell’s Mistress, vibrates with charismatic characters and a tight, page-turning plot. No one delivers consistent must-reads like Sandra Marton!”

—Romantic Times

“Romance does not get better than a Sandra Marton story. The Sicilian Surrender has power and passion evident in the strength and compassion of an exquisite hero and the heroine’s courage to create a new life. Together they are a formidable couple.”

—Romantic Times

More praise for Sandra Marton

“When passion ignites in the tale it is really hot enough to burn!”

—A Romance Review on Marriage on the Edge

“Powerful characterizations, intense emotions, sizzling sensual chemistry and a flair for the unexpected…Ms. Marton has a unique way of pulling readers deep into the story right from the beginning.”

—The Best Reviews onCole Cameron’s Revenge

“The Pregnant Mistress…has sensational characters, a superb storyline, sensual scenes and an intense conflict.”

—Romantic Times

Dear Reader,

Some images and ideas are impossible to resist. A while back, I read an article about a woman who’d risen to the highest ranks in the corporate world and how difficult it had been for her to get there. She talked about the men who’d insisted on seeing her solely as an unqualified female, and about the one man who’d never viewed her that way…the man she fell in love with and eventually married.

And I thought, what if that man had not been so open-minded? What if he, too, had seen her as nothing but trouble—but trouble in the best possible way? What if he were a sheikh, sexy and gorgeous and arrogant as hell? And what if fate brought them together, despite their initial dislike of each other, and forced them into a marriage neither wants?

Welcome to The Sheikh’s Convenient Bride, and to a love affair hot enough to set the desert on fire.

With love,

The Sheikh’s Convenient Bride

Sandra Marton

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

HE WAS a sheikh, the King of Suliyam, a small nation sitting on an incredible deposit of oil on the tip of the Bezerian Peninsula.

On top of that, he was tall, dark-haired, gray-eyed and gorgeous.

If you liked the type.

According to the tabloids and the TV celebrity-tell-all shows, most women did.

But Megan O’Connell wasn’t most women. Besides, tall, dark, handsome and disgustingly rich didn’t begin to make up for egotistical, self-centered, and arrogant.

Megan raised her coffee cup to her lips. Okay. Maybe that was superfluous. So what? Men like him were superfluous, too. What did the world need with penny-ante dictators who thought they were God’s gift to the female sex? To everybody on the planet, when you came down to it?

She’d never exchanged a word with the man but she didn’t have to, to know what he was like. Her boss—another egotistical jerk, though not a good-looking one—had transmitted the sheikh’s message to her this morning and it had been clear as glass.

She was a female. That made her a second-class citizen in his eyes. He, of course, was male. As if that weren’t enough, he was royalty.

Royalty. Megan’s lip curled with contempt. What he was, was a chauvinist pig. How come she was the only one who seemed to notice? She’d been watching him charm the little group at the other end of the boardroom for almost an hour, tilting his head when one of them spoke as if he really gave a damn what that person was saying.

If only they knew what an SOB like him could do to someone.

She had to admit, he seemed good at what he did. Holding the attention of a bunch of self-important partners and managers of a prestigious financial firm wasn’t easy but then, if you believed the Times, he was the leader of his nation’s cautious steps into modernity and development.

If you believed the Times. It seemed more logical to believe the tabloids. According to them, he was a playboy. A heartbreaker on three continents.

That, Megan thought, was undoubtedly closer to the truth.