Delaney's Desert Sheikh by Brenda Jackson Page B

She had been reading it all morning. The only time he noticed her not reading was when she’d fallen asleep on the hammock.
    â€œOh, yes, and it was wonderful,” she said, reaching up in the cabinets to get two plates. “And of course there was a happy ending.”
    He lifted his brow. So she had been reading one of those kind. “A happy ending?”
    She nodded turning around. “Yes. Marcus realized just how much Jamie meant to him and told her that he loved her before it was too late.”
    Jamal nodded. “He loved this woman?”
    Delaney smiled dreamily. “Yes, he loved her.”
    Jamal frowned. “Then what you read was pure fantasy. Why waste your time reading such nonsense and foolishness?”
    Delaney’s smile was replaced with a fierce frown. “Nonsense? Foolishness?”
    â€œYes, nonsense and foolishness. Men don’t love women that way.”
    Delaney braced herself against the counter and folded her arms across her chest. Her legs, Jamal noted, were spread apart. Seeing her stand that way almost made him forget what they were discussing. Instead his gaze moved to the junction of those legs and wondered how it would feel fitting his hard body there.
    â€œAnd just how do men love women?”
    Jamal’s gaze left her midsection and moved up to her face. She was still frowning. Evidently she was no longer in such a good mood. “Usually they don’t. At least not in my country.”
    Delaney lifted a brow. “People do get married in your country, don’t they?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œThen why would a man and a woman marry if not for love?”
    Jamal stared at her, suddenly feeling disoriented. She had a way of making him feel like that whenever he locked on her dark brown eyes and lush lips. “They would marry for a number of reasons. Mainly for benefits,” he responded, not taking his gaze off her eyes and lips. Especially her lips.
    â€œBenefits?”
    He nodded. “Yes. If it’s a good union, the man brings to the table some kind of wealth and the woman brings strong family ties, allegiances and the ability to give him an heir. Those things are needed if a sheikhdom is to grow and prosper.”
    Delaney stared into his eyes, amazed at what he had just said. “So the marriages in your country are like business arrangements?”
    He smiled. “Basically, yes. That’s why the most successful ones are arranged at least thirty years in advance.”
    â€œThirty years in advance!” she exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief.
    â€œYes, at least that long, sometimes even longer. More often than not, the man and woman’s family plans their union even before they are born. Such was the case with my father and mother. She was of Berber descent. The Berbers were and still are a proud North African tribe that inhabits the land in northwestern Libya. As a way to maintain peace between the Berbers and the Arabs, a marriage agreement between my mother, an African princess, and my father, an Arab prince, was made. Therefore, I am of Arab-Berber descent, just as the majority of the people of Tahran are. My parents were married a little more than a year when my mother died giving birth to me.”
    Delaney leaned back against the counter. At the moment what he was telling her was more interesting than making a sandwich. “What if your father, although pledged to your mother, had found someone else who he preferred to spend the rest of his life?”
    â€œThat would have been most unfortunate. And it wouldn’t have meant a thing. He would still marry the woman he’d been pledged to marry. However, he could take the other woman he fancied as a mistress for the rest of his days.”
    â€œA mistress? And what would his wife have to say about something like that?”
    He shrugged. “Nothing. It’s common practice for a man to have both a wife and mistress. That sort of an