A Secret Birthright(21)
She was floating somewhere gray and oppressive when she felt a caress on her hand.
She jerked out of the coma-like sleep knowing it was Fareed. Only his touch had ever felt like a thousand volts of disruption.
“I apologize for disturbing your slumber, but we’re about to land.” His eyes glowed like embers even in the jet’s atrocious lighting, his magnificent voice soaked in gentle teasing. “I hope fourteen hours of sleep managed to provide a measure of rest.”
She would have told him they sure hadn’t if her throat didn’t feel lined with sandpaper. She rose from the comfort of the plane bed, returning it to its upright position, feeling as if she’d been in a knock-down drag-out fight.
Apart from everything that disturbed her past, present and future, she knew why she felt wrecked. She might have been hiding in unawareness, but she’d felt him as she’d slept, and his thoughts, the demand, the promise in them and her struggle against them, had worn her out.
Rose waited until he left to approach her with Ryan, eyeing her in sarcastic censure. “That was sure record-breaking.”
“You mean you and Ryan staying awake for that long?”
Rose huffed. “Oh, we slept, around an hour on each leg. We were savvy enough to take advantage of that once-in-a-lifetime experience. While you are either stupid, or stupid not to grab at all that…God offers.”
From the proof of undeniable experience, Gwen knew that Rose, the only “aunt” she’d ever had, had only her best interest at heart. She’d always counted on her outspokenness to make her face the truth when she shied away from it. But now that smack of reality only made her sink deeper into despair.
Rose had no idea how…impossible everything was.
She was almost thankful when Fareed returned, bringing with him another dose of disturbance. She wasn’t up to more evasive maneuvers with the other unstoppable force in her life.
She was unequivocally thankful when Rose engaged Fareed in conversation during landing. It left her able to pretend to look outside her window when she saw nothing but her internal turmoil.
They were really in Jizaan.
After touchdown, Fareed got up and took Ryan from Rose.
Gwen jumped up, tried to take him. Fareed looked down at Ryan. “Which ride do you want, ya sugheeri?”
Thorns sprouted in her stomach at the loving way Fareed called Ryan his little one.
Ryan, who seemingly understood anything Fareed said in either English or Arabic, looked back at her with dimples at full blast. Then he bobbed in his arms, spurring him to move.
There. She’d gotten her answer.
As Rose preceded them out of the plane with Emad, Fareed kept a step behind her.
His bass purr hit her back. “I’m not competing with you for his favor.”
She slanted him a glance over her shoulder, almost winced at the incredible sight of him, as immaculate and fresh as if he hadn’t been up for the past twenty-four hours, after a month of grueling surgeries, too. He towered over her, his shoulders broad enough to blot out the whole world, virility and gorgeousness radiating off him in shock waves.
Looking ahead before she stumbled, she murmured, “It never occurred to me that you were.”
“And he’s not choosing me over you.”
A mocking huff broke from her. “Could have fooled me.”
His deep chuckle resonated in her bones. “He’s not. I’m just the new toy.”
She would have chuckled, too, if she’d been able to draw more air than that which kept her on her feet and conscious.
And that was before he took her elbow, offered the support he must have felt she needed, smiled down at her. “You really should be happy we’re enjoying each other’s company so much.” Her knees almost lost their solidity as seriousness tinged his gaze. “But I can’t be more relieved that he likes and seeks me. The coming time isn’t going to be easy, and trusting me is going to make everything so much better for him.”
He was that thoughtful? She’d only ever known one other person with that kindness.…
Memories lodged into her heart like an ax. She clamped down on the pain. She couldn’t afford to let those overwhelm her now. She needed to be at her strongest, her most resolute. For Ryan. And for her own struggle.
She passed by a time zones clock, blinked at its verdict. Four-thirty in the afternoon in L.A., 5:30 a.m. in Jizaan. Exactly twenty-four hours from the moment she’d staggered into his orbit.