The Sheik's Kidnapped Bride by Susan Mallery Read Free Book Online Page A

king would feel obligated to go to his good friend, Aleser , and tell him about his daughter. As far as Khalil could see, all roads led to disaster.
    He had paced for nearly an hour when the phone rang. The sharp sound startled him. He crossed to the instrument on the desk in the corner and picked up the receiver. As he did so, he heard Dora’s voice.
    “Hello?”
    Khalil was about to hang up when a man said, “Dora, it’s Gerald. Where the hell have you been?”

Chapter 4
    Khalil heard Dora’s sharp gasp over the phone. He had the brief thought that he shouldn’t listen, then dismissed the idea of hanging up. He was curious about Gerald. The man had behaved inappropriately and was a fool. Dora wasn’t especially beautiful, but she was a good worker and he, Khalil , liked her.
    “How did you find me?” she asked.
    “When you canceled the caterer, you left them a phone number. Now tell me what the hell you think you’re doing? You’ve completely canceled the wedding. How dare you do that without speaking with me first?”
    “How dare I cancel the wedding? You’re the one who had his hand up a married woman’s skirt, and you want to know how I dare anything? You’re an insensitive cad, Gerald. Do you even know what time it is here?”
    “It’s a little after ten. What of it?”
    “It’s after one in the morning. I’m in
New York
. But as you never dial your own phone, you probably wouldn’t recognize the area code.” She sighed. “Not that any of this matters.”
    “You’re damn right it doesn’t matter,” Gerald growled. “I don’t care if you’re in
New York
or Zimbabwe . You get your fat ass back here by the end of the week. Do you hear me?”
    Khalil tightened his grip on the phone. Dora’s cry of pain was barely audible, but he heard it.
    “No,” she managed, although her voice was a little shaky. “The engagement is over. I can’t believe I was so stupid about you. You’re nothing but a faithless jerk, and I was a moron to think you were more. I’m glad you’re out of my life.”
    “You don’t know how I wish I could stay out of it, Dora, but I can’t. Mr. Greene wants to know where you are. However much either of us would like to end it right now, we can’t.”
    She sniffed. “That’s where you’re wrong. I have ended it.”
    “The hell you have. What am I supposed to tell Greene?”
    “How about the truth? How about telling him the only reason you said we were getting married was that you’d gotten caught? Why don’t you tell him that in addition to trying to sleep with me, you’ve also been doing it with Glenda and Lord only knows who else?”
    “I will not lose my job because some dried-up old virgin gets cold feet.”
    Khalil found himself wondering how Gerald would look after several encounters with a horsewhip.
    “You always were an expert at sweet talk,” she said sarcastically. “Go to hell, Gerald. I don’t want anything to do with you.”
    “I’ve been to hell,” he countered. “I went there every time I thought about having to make love with you. Did you ever wonder why I never tried? I was actually grateful old man Greene caught us that first night because there was no way I was going to do anything with you. You’re already an old woman, and you’re barely thirty. You were born a virgin, and you’re going to die one. No man in his right mind is ever going to want you. I’d like to—”
    Khalil heard a click and knew that Dora had hung up the phone. He replaced his receiver as well, then stood in the silence of the living room. From there he could hear the faint sounds of Dora’s sobs. Her pain was as tangible as the furniture in the room.
    He shifted uncomfortably. Until this moment, he’d not thought of his temporary assistant as a real person. She was efficient, intelligent and humorous. He’d enjoyed working with her. He’d known she was alive, but he’d not realized she was someone with hopes and dreams, someone with a spirit,