Possession of the Sheikh: (Interracial BWWM Erotica) (The Men of Sharjah Series Book 2) by Nadia Aidan Page A

lifted his head, his hands clasping her face so that she had no choice but to meet his gaze.  “I can also promise you that I have never been more serious when I say I want more than this weekend with you.”  The smile that spread across her face, was more than enough assurance for him that even if she wasn’t yet in love with him, he wasn’t alone in his feelings either.  He joined their lips again in a kiss that threatened to spiral out of control, but before it could, he pulled away.  He smiled when she protested, but he refused to give in to her this time.  They had been at it for days, and she needed to rest, despite what she claimed, and he needed to get them something to eat that wasn’t on the room service menu, and he said as much.
    “I’ll be back in less than an hour,” he said when she continued to argue, and then offered to join him.  She was only mollified when he promised they would go out for dinner that night, since it would be their last night together.
    It took what was still left of his waning willpower to leave Sabeen naked and alone in that shower, and get dressed, but it was absolutely necessary because the conversation he needed to have with her father was one best conducted without her for an audience.
    Fifteen minutes later he was headed to a nearby Chinese restaurant to grab take out when his mobile rang.  Thinking it was Sabeen asking him to pick something up for her he answered it without looking at his phone.  For many years he would wish he had just let it go to voicemail, although had he ignored the call from his cousin, it would have only complicated what would turn out to be an impossible situation. 
    “ Alo ,” he answered, using the common slang term of greeting, popularized by the younger generation of Arabic speakers in the U.S. 
    “It’s me.”
    Khalil grinned, immediately recognizing the voice of his cousin, Amir.  Having grown up together, they were as close as brothers, and they were only half-joking when they told others they were closer to one another than they were to their actual brothers.  That was due to several things, one being that they’d been born less than a year apart, and the other was because as the eldest sons, they both shouldered similar burdens of one day leading their family clans.  Although, Khalil readily acknowledged, that Amir’s burden was far heavier, given that he would be expected to one day govern over Sharjah when his father eventually retired.
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Slow down, man, I missed all that,” Khalil said, when he realized Amir had been speaking the entire time he’d been lost in thought.
    “I said that I’m betrothed—to Sabeen.” 
    Amir’s words stopped him dead in his tracks. He couldn’t have possibly have heard that right. “What did you say?”
    “Man, what are you doing?” Amir barked impatiently.  “I’m engaged to Sabeen. It’s some bullshit contract our parents entered into when we were little, and now that she’s eighteen they want me to marry her—“
    “What!  You can’t do that!” Khalil shouted angrily, and it wasn’t until there was a long silence on the other end that he realized how he must have sounded.
    “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were madder about this than me,” Amir chuckled but Khalil easily heard the sharp edge of bitterness just beneath his cousin’s laughter.  “I’m not. I mean I can’t marry her so I told my parents no.  I’m not even thinking about marriage, and especially not to Sabeen.  She’d like a little sister—a fucking bratty ass, empty headed—”
    “Chill dude, I get it,” Khalil interrupted, before Amir’s description rattled him further.  He didn’t blame his cousin for thinking that, because his impression of Sabeen had once been the same as Amir’s, but that had all changed days ago. 
    But Amir didn’t know that.  Khalil’s body which had already been tense from the moment Amir had spoken, now corded tight with