The Sheikh's Captive Mistress
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Authors: Ella Brooke,Jessica Brooke
The Sheikh’s Captive Mistress
By: Ella Brooke & Jessica Brooke
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2015 Ella & Jessica Brooke
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Table of Contents
Emma James wanted to escape the boredom of her life. Everything she was doing was expected. After finishing up Dartmouth with honors, she’d be going to Harvard Law in the fall, just as her father and older brother had before her. If she were anything like her older brother, Bradley, she’d find “The One” at Harvard, be married by the end of law school, and weighed down with rugrats not long after making junior partner at a huge firm in Washington, D.C. It was pre-ordained.
After all, what Senator Alan James Sr. wanted was always what he got.
So Emma had gone out with her two best friends, Alexis and Parker, to the hottest club in Georgetown in order to pretend she had freedom. It was rebellion since she’d be buried under thick law tomes in a few more weeks and chained to the law library to prepare for starting in the fall. Her father insisted she get used to legal writing first since he knew how hard it was from having been a lawyer himself before the senate. After being chained in the basement, she’d be shriveled to dust. Fun was going to be some long forgotten relic that would only barely register in her brain. What joy.
“You’re on your fourth Grey Goose,” Alexis chided as she pushed a long strand of honey blonde hair from her face. When she scowled like that, her hawkish nose seemed even more angular and pronounced. “It’s only midnight. Wouldn’t you prefer to be able to walk out of here?”
Emma rolled her eyes and sipped the vodka tonic. “I rarely drink. Hell, I rarely do anything that’s not studying.”
“I know, and that’s why you’re going to really regret this in T-minus two hours,” Alexis replied, sipping casually on her rum and Coke. “What’s really got you addled?”
Emma sighed and looked to the crowd. Out there, Parker was already dancing, sandwiched between two frat boys with their popped collars and pastel golf shirts. She was a tall girl, all willowy limbs and long legs. She was completely Emma’s opposite. While she wasn’t plain (her mother had always said that Emma “had a pretty face”) Emma wasn’t exactly what Madison Avenue would consider gorgeous. While she had blonde hair naturally so light it was almost white and blue eyes, she was also a bit heavy set. Okay, she was curvy, Rubenesque, and zaftig, as well.
At five foot three, she was short with bigger hips and breasts than she’d actually like. She’d never be a stunner like Parker who could be a model someday if graduate school failed her or like Alysssa who always seemed to have boys wrapped around her fingers. It was left to Emma just to be the studious one, the patient friend who helped dig the others out of trouble. Mostly she didn’t mind it, but after another lecture from her father and the looming prospect of law school, Emma was beginning to mind everything.
“It’s just maybe everything’s not that great.”
Alexis snorted. “I’m the one who has to go to a state school for law school. You’re so lucky.”
“Maybe I just don’t feel it,” she muttered, finishing her drink and stepping out on the dance floor.
Maybe someone could take her mind off of things for the night. She’d never been that type of girl before, she’d only had one high school boyfriend and a fiancé for a bit her senior year at Dartmouth. Kevin – the fiancé – had turned out to be a complete jerk, and she’d found him in bed at their apartment with someone else when she’d returned a day early from a trip. Since then, she’d basically been a nun. Hell on her self-esteem, but it was great for her GPA.
Moving over to Parker’s group, Emma sidled up next to her friend and started dancing. That, she loved. There was the thrum of the bass, the heat of the club goers merging altogether, and the strobe lights above her. Closing her eyes, Emma leaned into Parker and moved her hips in time with the other girl. There were catcalls and cheers from the rest of the club, and, for a few moments, it was fun to be part of the group that everyone else wanted to be dancing with, as well.
After the hubbub died down, Parker parted off and went with her guys, leaving Emma to sway on her own, feeling her pulse start to beat in time with the rhythm of the hip-hop song blaring over the sound system.
When she opened her eyes again, it was because Alexis was tapping her on the shoulder. Concerned green eyes bore into her own. “Parker went home with Grant and Matt. My sister called, and she’s down the street at Sullivan’s. Do you want to come with?”
Emma forced herself not to frown as she followed her friend to a corner of the floor. She and Alexis’s sister didn’t exactly get along. She figured it always came down to how they disagreed on acting in public. When Emma went out to a restaurant, she actually ordered some food. In contrast, Alexis would get a salad and water…and then spend the rest of the night giving Emma obvious digs about her appetite. The last thing she wanted was to join such a bully for a night cap.
But Alexis was a great friend, so Emma settled on trying to find a way to smooth it all over. Faking a yawn, she smiled at her companion. “No, you go on ahead. I promised Mom and Dad I’d come over and do brunch tomorrow. I should crash before the room starts spinning.”
Alexis hesitated and eyed the doorway of the club. “We parked a few blocks over and it’s pretty dark.”
“And this is Georgetown with the college guys and boutiques. Don’t sound like my father. This isn’t downtown near the crack houses.”
“Sure, I just wanted to make sure you’d be able to get home safely. If you’re sure…” her friend added, biting her lower lip.
“Of course! I’ve got this. It’s not far, so what could happen?” Emma replied, heading over to their table and gathering up her purse. She tossed a few extra bills onto the top for the waiter. He’d been kind and there were some advantages to her gilded cage, after all. At least she could tip well for the poor people who usually had to put up with the drunks of the world. “I’ll even call you when I get back to my place. If you don’t hear from me within the hour, then you know something’s up, okay?”
“Sure, but really we can just get some food at Sullivan’s. It’s not a big deal.”
Except for the way that Alexis would eye her and snicker at every French fry that graced her lips.
No thank you
.
“Nah, I’ll skip out and call you,” she insisted, hugging her friend.
After all, how much trouble could she get into in four city blocks?
***
Everything was fine for the first block.
It wasn’t that late, and she occasionally caught glimpses of groups of college kids about her age leaving the bars clustered on the street. However, once she stepped to the next block, the one away from the actual clubs and more poorly lit, Emma stopped seeing other kids. By the third block, she noticed something that sent a chill creeping deep into her bones.
There was a man following her. She wasn’t sure at first. After all, there was every possibility that he was just heading toward the public parking lot, too. Except he was following her closely, his steps measured in time with hers.
She could even feel his breath, hot and putrid, on her neck.
When she stopped, he stopped.
Swallowing hard, she pulled her purse close to her and started to run.
At first, Emma hoped her reaction was just paranoia run amok. The man didn’t break into a lope after her, but his steps did increase. Looking over her shoulder, she dared to look at her pursuer. He was walking quickly, with purpose. His skin appeared dark in the scattered lamplight, an olive complexion and a swarthiness that met her gaze when he passed under the light. His beard, though, that was distinctive. It was long and thick and reminded her of the way insurgents from the Middle East looked in mug shots.
Oh God, what’s going on?
By the fourth block, Emma was racing to her car and, finally, the man was starting to jog after her. She was panting, sweat pouring down her forehead, and her shoes barely hanging on her feet. Eventually, as she rounded the corner to the parking lot, her sandal fell off and she just kicked the matching one off. Fuck them. She could get more; she could do
anything
as long as that guy didn’t touch her.
When she reached her Volkswagen bug, she looked down into her clutch and shoved her cell and make up aside. Her key ring was large, a caricature of Yoda’s head that her friends mocked her for, but made it easy to find her key ring no matter where it was in her apartment or bag. She was grateful for that now. Quickly, Emma grabbed the keys and pressed the button to open her car. She reached for the handle when her pursuer chased her down.
He grabbed her arm and she screamed “Fire!” as loud as she could, having been taught long ago that people didn’t come for other, uglier words.
The man tried to yank her to him, but she pulled back – for once glad for her extra heft – and it threw him off balance.
“Bitch!” he shouted and then something else came out of his mouth, something ugly and guttural, but she couldn’t place the language.
He reached out for her again, but Emma was prepared. With a staccato movement, she lifted her leg up and kneed him hard in the crotch. Her would-be captor groaned and fell to the ground.
Thank God.
Emma didn’t wait. She twisted open the door and leapt into her car. She didn’t even yank the door back shut before she started the engine.
“Come on, come on!”
It was then that she felt the bite of the electricity from a taser and realized with growing horror there was more than one of them – and they’d come prepared to kidnap her.
***
The jolt of the taser was enough to make her pass out. When Emma woke up, she found herself in the back of a massive SUV. Unfortunately for her, it was one of those with super-tinted windows, so dark she wondered if the tint was even legal. No one would be able to see her through them. Heart pounding in her chest, she started to reach up to the windows to pound on them, to do anything to gain attention so that she could be released.
It was then that the muzzle of a gun was shoved into her ribs.
“Ouch!” she screamed and then blinked at the four men surrounding her. The SUV’s seats had been rearranged to face each other like the limos her father was often ferried in for work on Capitol Hill. It allowed her to see all four men, huge and brawny, as they eyed her back. All of them were equally dark in complexion and had thick, bushy black beards. “What’s going on? Who are you?”
One man, the tallest of the four and the one who was missing an eye, focused his attention on her. He pulled the lapel of his jacket back just enough to reveal the taser hidden there. So he’d been the one to shock her.
“We work for Sheikh Munir Yassin of Yoman.”
Ice ran deeply into Emma’s veins. She knew that name. Everyone who’d been watching the news lately knew that name. Yassin was the newest ruler of the desert kingdom; he had come to power in the last year after his father abdicated due to a failing heart. He was potentially an ally for the United States in such an unstable area of the world, but no one had been able to sway him to sign any alliances or treaties yet. An unknown quantity, her father had called him.
Dad would know.
He was the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and one of the biggest war hawks out there.
“Then what do you want with me?”
The man who’d started following her first spit at her, but was quickly slapped in the face for his trouble by one-eye. “No, no one is to harm her from here on out. Those were the sheikh’s explicit orders. Kashif, you’ll be punished.”
“That bitch hurt me.”
One-eye chuckled. “Then you should feel shame that a woman bested you, let alone an untrained civilian. If I were you, I wouldn’t relay that story to the sheikh or he’ll demote you to guarding the toilets back home at the palace.”
“Palace?” Emma said. “Look, I have to go home. You have to let me go. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“You’re Senator James’s daughter. We know exactly who we were sent to capture.”
“Capture?” she squeaked and wished she had a witty retort. Right now, all she wanted to do was something stupid like try and throw herself against the door and out the car. But if she moved, she had a feeling she’d be riddled with bullets. “If you know who my dad is, then you know that he’s powerful, has lots of friends. He
won’t
like this.”