The Tycoon's Misunderstood Bride (20 page)

But as soon as the man walked in, Emma knew exactly who he was.  The two men were the same height, same coloring except the older man was mostly grey haired but the eyes and the build were identical.  As were the intense glares…that slowly eased to recognition. 

“Jason Montenegro?” the older man asked after several moments. 

Jason continued to stare at the man for a long moment before he finally took the offered hand.  “Roger Phillps?” he said and a smile was starting to form on Jason’s handsome face.  Roger still looked bemused as he shook his head. 

“I didn’t know that your mother got pregnant,” he said softly.  “She was a beautiful woman.  Where is she…” he started to say.

Jason’s jaw clenched but he finally said, “She died in childbirth.”

Roger’s eyes clouded over and he bowed his head slightly.  “I’m sorry!” he replied with feeling.  “I never knew!  I promise, I never knew.
”  His mouth opened and closed as if he wasn’t sure what to say.  “
She didn’t say anything!”

The two men suddenly realized that there were others in the room and Jason snapped back to the present.  “Let me present to you my wife, Emma Montenegro and my newborn son, Ethan Montenegro.” 

Roger walked over to the hospital bed and, with amazement, looked down at his grandson. 
“He’s beautiful,” he whispered. 

Emma smiled at her son.  “Thank you.  Would you like to hold him?” she offered. 

Both Roger and Elizabeth looked up, both appearing stunned to be able to participate in the small family’s new beginning. 

“Thank you,” he said, trying to keep the emotion from his features. 

Emma looked around at her growing family.  Ethan was still sleeping but looked like an angel with dark hair and dark blue eyes that she suspected would darken to the almost black like his father and grandfather.  Her mother and her father-in-law were overwhelmed by the day’s events, but even so, they continued to glance at each other when they thought they could get away with it.  There was an obvious attraction blooming with those two.

And Jason stood at the end of the bed, taking it all in like the alpha male that he was.  And she loved him so much that it overwhelmed her at times.  He was so handsome and so incredibly wonderful, she couldn’t believe that so much happiness could be found in this world. 

As Jason looked at her and smiled, his arms crossed arrogantly over his chest as he surveyed his domain, she thought briefly about her father and his machinations.  If he could have foreseen how incredibly happy she was right now, and everyone surrounding her, he never would have demanded that she marry a complete stranger and have a baby with him. 

But Emma was truly grateful that he was the monster that he was! 

“
Love By Accident
”
S
eries….

Rashid looked at the pink and pudgy thing in his mother’s arms, disgusted and irritated.  He didn’t want to be here.  He wanted to get back to his studies.  His instructor was just telling him how to calculate an angle which was much more fascinating than whatever this…thing…was.  “It’s a girl,” he said with nine year old disdain and stepped back from the bed where his mother was laying with the ‘thing’ in her arms.  He didn’t know why she wanted anyone else in the family.  The three of them were just fine!

Lila, Rashid’s mother laughed softly and nodded her head.  “You’re very smart,” he teased.  “She’s a girl and she’s very interested in meeting you.”  Lila looked down at her already handsome son with pride, understanding that he felt as if this new baby might usurp his place in her heart.  She had to be gentle so that he knew that she loved him just as much as before the birth of their new baby. 

Rashid glanced down once again, noting that the eyes in the round, pink face were closed.  He discarded the notion that the baby was even remotely interested in meeting him.  “I believe it’s more concerned with sleep mother,” he said carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings, but still not interested in his new baby sister.  “Besides, I wanted a brother.  Not a sister.”

Lila glanced up at the man standing at the end of the hospital bed with amusement.  Majid El Hasham Busain, current Sheik of Tasain and one of the most handsome men she’d ever met in her life, looked down at his first born son with pride and amusement as well.  When Lila looked back at her son, still standing stiffly beside the bed and pretending to not be interested in the baby girl, she chuckled.  “Why would I want another boy?  I have a perfect son with you,” she replied and leaned over to kiss his dark hair. 

Rashid sighed, leaning in to the kiss and stepping closer to his mother.  “What are you going to call it?” he asked, trying to get into the spirit of the occasion.  Since they were alone in the room, he accepted her affection but he didn’t like it when others might see him.  They might think he was weak if they knew how much he liked his mother’s hugs and kisses and that couldn’t be allowed.  His father had told him over and over again how a ruler must never show weakness.  And the people of Tasain loved his father, almost as much as he did, so the invincible man must be doing something correctly. 

His father smiled down at his slightly larger family, beaming with
delight.  “Her name is Isla and she’s going to love you just as much as we do, son.” 

Rashid felt better when his tall, strong father walked to the side of the bed next to him.  “Will it cry?” Rashid asked carefully, slipping his hand into his father’s larger one, feeling better when his warm, strong hand wrapped around his smaller one. 

His mother laughed softly.  “Your sister isn’t an ‘it’, dear.  And yes, Isla doesn’t know how to talk yet so the only way she can tell us she’s hungry or uncomfortable is by crying.”

Rashid leaned against his father’s strong leg.  “I still don’t understand why you wanted a baby,” he grumbled.

He didn’t see the look cross between his mother and father because he was watching as the pink bundle moved, her lips pouting together and one hand reaching out as if to touch him.  Her eyes were still closed so he wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he reluctantly agreed that pink wasn’t such a bad color, as long as it was on a girl. 

Nine
years later
….

“Come on!” Rashid called out, pulling eight year old Isla along behind him.  “You’ve got to see this!” he said. 

Isla ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, but her older brother was much taller.  She hoped she could be as tall as he was when she got to be seventeen but she knew she had a long way to go before she could match her beloved brother. 

Well, she loved him today.  That wasn’t always the case.  Sometimes she just wanted to punch him but knew she shouldn’t.  She did on occasion though.  And only when he wasn’t expecting it because Rashid was fast and strong.  The last time she’d done something to him, he’d caught her and tickled her until she was crying, which she didn’t like.  But most of the time, he was pretty nice.  Especially when he helped her with her homework.  He had a lot of patience with her then. 

“Just trust me,” he said, his deep voice and broad shoulders already more than matching his father’s.  In fact, they were the spitting image, except that Rashid was now slightly taller.  The brother was extremely protective of his baby sister, especially since she’d transformed from a pink pudgy ball into a little girl he could play tricks on and he could talk to, when he wasn’t talking with his father about everything from politics to economics. 

“Is it mother?” Isla asked, concerned because she’d gotten so big lately.  “Has the baby come yet?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” he said, only slightly disappointed that she’d guessed so accurately.   Most of the time, he enjoyed his sister’s intelligence.  He was glad she wasn’t one of those irritating girls who only thought about shoes and clothes.  Isla was smart and picked up on her lessons quickly.  Otherwise, he would stay away from her as much as possible.  He really disliked women who were brainless and there were enough of them in the world!  Well, there were stupid men too, but he was thinking about the soft, sexy women and the way he liked to kiss them. 

A horrible thought occurred to him and he stopped in the middle of the hallway.  Isla stopped as well and looked up at him and he was startled to realize that his little sister was going to be a great beauty.  Would some other man do to her the things he thought about doing to other women? 

The idea of his sweet little sister in the arms of another man suddenly enraged him. 

“What’s wrong, Rashid?” Isla asked, suddenly worried about the furious expression on his face.  He’d been so excited a moment ago, what had changed? 

Rashid started to say something, his hand tightening on his arm as he looked down at her innocent expression.  “Don’t ever…” he started off, but stopped himself.  He knew that his sister would eventually marry, but he gritted his teeth with determination.  She wouldn’t marry some jerk!  Or someone like him, who….well, just not someone who would think of doing things to her that he thought of doing to other women.  Things like kissing and touching their breasts, of moving inside….

No!  She would be protected from that!  She was sweet and innocent.  She shouldn’t even think about having sex, much less doing it.  His mind always seemed to be thinking about sex and women and how lovely they were and how soft and pretty. 

Dammit!  He had a responsibility towards his little sister, and now there were two of them!  What was a man to do? 

Father would know, he thought to himself.  Rashid knew he’d have a talk with his father as soon as possible.  He had to protect his sisters now! 

“Rashid?” Isla prompted when she saw his jaw clench.  She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him as best she could.  “Are you ill?  Should I call a doctor?”  Her mind frantically went through the possibilities but he didn’t have any of the symptoms she’d read about in the medical books she’d snuck out of the palace library.  She read them in secret, thinking they were the most fascinating things to read.  But none of them helped her right at the moment.  She couldn’t discern any problems with Rashid and that scared her. 

Just as suddenly as his ager came, Isla saw his face clear up and he smiled down at her.  “It’s nothing.  I just thought of something I need to discuss with dad.”  He squeezed her hand to reassure her.  “I promise, it’s nothing I can’t take care of.”

Isla smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.  He was right.  Rashid could do anything and if he had trouble, father was always there to advise him.  She sometimes became irritated with their discussions because they were always filled with boring talk of politics and money or buildings.  That was so boring!  But they liked it, so she tried very hard to keep quiet when they were intently arguing their side during a conversation. 

Rashid pulled her along again and they were walking as quickly as possible towards the area where the palace hospital was located.  The closer they got, the more concerned she became. 

At the hospital room door, he looked down at her with an eager expression, then shoved open the door to allow her entrance. 

Isla looked inside the room and saw her mother and father.  “Mother, why are you in here?” she asked, more than a little worried because everything looked strange here.  The bed wasn’t comfortable like the one at the palace, and the people all were wearing strange clothes, very plain and dull.  

She peered over the high bed, ignoring her mother and father’s huge grins.  Something was wiggling and she wanted to see.  “What’s that?” she asked as she noticed the baby.  “It looks like a baby.  Is that what was in your tummy?” she asked curiously. 

Lila laughed and nodded her head.  Patting the side of the bed, she encouraged her daughter to get a better look.  Rashid came over and lifted his little sister up high.  “Isn’t she pretty?” her mother asked, her long, tapered finger running down the chubby cheek of the newborn. 

Isla looked down, wondering what it was her mother and father saw in the baby.  “She looks squished,” she replied. 

Lila looked at her husband and they both laughed.