With my heart racing, I grab my phone and leave the room.
“Kamal?” I say when he answers.
“Madeline, I didn’t expect you to call.”
“Am I disturbing you?”
“Never. Is something wrong?”
“In three days, I’ll have my first ultrasound. I wanted to know if you . . . uh . . . wouldn’t mind being there because—”
“I’ll be there.”
My God, the way this man makes my heart race can’t be healthy.
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
Chapter 54
Boston
The next day
I watch as the driver I sent to pick her up parks in front of my residence in Boston.
As soon as we got engaged, I ordered my lawyers to look for a property in the city. This is the place where Madeline was born, and she will surely want to visit it frequently.
Yes, I am assuming that we will be together as a family. She is my woman, and even though I agreed to give her space, there is no way I will give up on us.
I dismiss the staff and open the door myself, trying to maintain the neutral expression that, as the leader of my country, I have been trained to have over the years.I grip the doorknob and turn it slowly, but there’s nothing I can tell myself that can stop my heart from pounding.
I thought that after all this time apart, I could at least act with a modicum of civility once I saw her. Show her that yes, I can be a composed man, take it easy.
But it was all an illusion.
When we finally lock eyes, I, the ruler famous for his speeches, can’t form a sentence.Words are incapable of expressing the crazy passion, the all-consuming love I feel for her.
It’s as if, with the distance, I have been deprived of air.
I am a Sheikh, and at this moment, Madeline is my guest. Perhaps I should greet her using the exquisite manners with which I was raised.
But above all, I am a man madly in love and hungry for his woman, so I set aside every damn rule I was brought up with: I walk up to her like a caveman ready to claim the one who will own his heart for as long as he lives.
I don’t even know what happens first: whether it’s our lips locking fiercely or my hand tangling in her hair, but when I hear her moans, when I realize her attempt to undress me right here, standing in the hallway of my house, I lift her in my arms and start climbing the stairs.
“I love you,” I swear, backing away just enough to say the words she seems eager to hear. After all, my feelings for Madeline can’t be captured in one sentence.
Air, food, home.
My heart. My everything.
I now understand what my father felt for my mother. Giving up Madeline would besurvivingbut neverliving.
I don’t even bother to close the bedroom door.
I set her on her feet, and as if we had agreed on it, there’s a wild rush to get rid of our clothes.The urgent need for each other turns us into a tangle of arms, mouths, and teeth seeking each other.
It’s a primal longing, a lustful, dirty desire.
