Sheikh's Baby Bombshell Read Free

physically or mentally.
    Whereas with Abby—
    He had to stop thinking about that girl!
    ‘There are people waiting outside the palace in expectation of an announcement,’ his father said. ‘They’ve been camped there for days.’
    ‘I want another week before I announce the engagement.’ The engagement. Not my engagement.
    ‘But why?’ his father asked. ‘What’s got into you? You’ve not been the same since you went to London in May. You’ve seemed restless and on edge ever since you came back.’
    Talib hadn’t realised he had been showing any outward sign of the inner turmoil he was experiencing. He knew what was expected of him. He’d known it for a long time. But that didn’t mean he didn’t feel constrained by the role he’d been born into. He had the money to buy anything he wanted... except his freedom .
    He was his father’s sole heir.
    With his parents’ troubled marriage they had been lucky to produce one child, let alone a spare or two. He couldn’t abdicate even if he wanted to. He was born to be sheik and he would do it because his country desperately needed stability. It was a rocky region politically. Quarrels between various factions had broken out in neighbouring provinces and the threat of civil war was ever present. The old world and modernity constantly clashed. It would be his role as ruler to bring the two sides together in some sort of working compromise.
    ‘Nothing’s got into me.’
    ‘It’s because you spend so much time with that Caffarelli boy,’ his father said. ‘Remy is a loose cannon. I’ve always told you that. He and his older brothers are such rakes. You can’t live that life anymore, Talib. You are a desert prince. You have heavy responsibilities resting on your shoulders.’
    Talib turned to look out the window and sighed. Don’t remind me ....

    Abby got off the tour bus just outside the royal palace of Dharbiri. There was an air of expectation in the air, an atmosphere of celebration as she joined the other tourists gathered outside the imposing-looking residence. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked a woman standing next to her holding an impressive-looking camera.
    ‘There’s a rumour Crown Prince Talib Firas Muhtadi is going to announce his engagement some time this week,’ the woman said. ‘I’ve been here for the last five days. I want to get the first picture of the royal couple.’
    Abby felt her heart plummet. ‘Oh... how exciting....’
    She had come all this way ... .
    She had found out who Talib was the morning after their night of passion. She had been absently leafing through a gossip magazine in a café when she saw his picture. The shock had made her spill her tea. But it was nothing to the shock of seeing those positive lines appear on the pregnancy test two days ago.
    Abby hadn’t tried to call the palace, because she wasn’t sure if anyone would be listening in, even if by some remote chance she were put through to Talib. Servants and officials would surround him every minute of the day. How could she simply announce over the phone she was carrying his child? It was probably naively optimistic of her, but she had flown all this way hoping to catch a glimpse of him, to somehow get a message to him that she was here and would like to see him in private.
    But how could she tell him now just days before the announcement of his engagement?
    Abby turned away from the palace and, shielding her eyes from the blinding sun, looked at the dunes of the desert shimmering in the distance.
    She suddenly felt a very long way from home.

    Talib was still standing at the window of his private study after his father left when he caught a glimpse of a chestnut-haired girl standing apart from the crowd of onlookers and tourists that had spilled out of the tour buses. His heart gave a little kick against his chest wall. He had been doing it for the past month, imagining he was seeing her in the crowd. He narrowed his gaze in focus and, as he was looking,