Sheikh's Fake Fiancee by Jessica Brooke, Ella Brooke Page B

I can see people in pain and suffering. I can see how stricken you are, and even if you were just a member of my kingdom asking for help, I’d want to assist you. The fact that we’ve already shared a connection…”
    “It was more than that,” she said, adding a wry smile despite the seriousness of their situation.
    “Exactly, so let me make this deal with you. You only have to stay married to me for a couple of years, to fulfill the contract. If you feel it’s too odious a duty, then we can always divorce. Yemen isn’t as strict as some kingdoms. It never has been. I need to obey the spirit of the law,” he added, winking at her. “Not the letter. Please, can you help me? Hell, will you let me help your family?”
    She nodded and swallowed hard, then slipped the ring onto her finger herself. It wasn’t what he wanted. A big part of her soul already wished that he could have slipped the diamond ring on, done it all the old-fashioned way, but there was nothing old fashioned about this. Frankly, his immediate family and hers would know it was all for show, a farce to get them both what he wanted.
    It didn’t make the feelings in his chest any less sharp or genuine.
    “Well,” she said, tears welling up a bit in her eyes. “I have to call Mama and explain to her everything that’s going on. I…we’ve always been terrified this would come, even when she was just a baby and the doctors figured out why she was so sick all the time.”
    He gathered her to his chest; it was the most natural motion he could have made. Jennifer felt right nestled there, tight against his body. If he could protect her from the uncertainty to come, Bahan would. He would offer his money and influence, make sure that Sydney was cared for by only the best doctors and surgeons in the world. But even he couldn’t buy fate. Hopefully the medical intervention would work, but even that was beyond his power and reach. For right now, he could hold her, rock her closely and promise her that he’d be by her side as they navigated this tough time of illness in both of their families.
    Bahan only wished the marriage were as real as their pact to take care of each other and their relatives. But at least she’d said yes, and that was a start.
    ***
    The wedding had to be in New York. They were having it in the deluxe hospital suite he’d arranged for Sydney at the best facility in Manhattan. With his machinations, Sydney would be receiving a kidney by the week between Christmas and New Year’s. If any of them had been a blood and tissue match, they’d have done it sooner. But even testing him and Fareed on the off chance there was a match had yielded nothing.
    He had noticed that with her first set of procedures, Sydney did seem better. She slept less and her skin had a far less yellow caste. It made him believe, hopefully, that her kidneys were stabilizing, at least as much as they could until she received a brand-new Cadillac model. But despite tradition and everything else, he didn’t want to take his bride away too early from his sister’s side. He wanted her to be able to celebrate everything fully with her family—business arrangement or not—before they went on their quick honeymoon. Because of this, they’d flown in the royal Imam from Yemen to oversee everything by the bedside. His mother had come as well, and he could tell from the brief interactions he’d had with her so far that she was stewing at this technicality he’d found. She’d never been fond of Western girls, or “infidels” as she sometimes called them.
    He didn’t care.
    Even if he was only going to have Jennifer Wilde by his side for a couple of years, he was going to follow his heart and his instincts, not tradition. To him, she was a strong woman, and a noble one, someone working so hard to keep her family together.
    However, as unconventional as the wedding was, he still needed to speak with his father, even if it was only over Skype. Part of all of this was