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  ‘I’m getting there,’ she said, ‘and I didn’t thank you for paying me those wages. I know you must have put the money into my account because the money-lender’s bully hasn’t been to see me.’

  ‘Wages? You thought all I’d paid you were some piddling wages?’

  He seemed angry again.

  ‘Why would you have paid me more? Why would I have expected there to be more?’

  Azzam found himself groaning again. How stupid had he been to have even thought of judging this woman by his experience with Clarice?

  He stood up, lifted the woman he loved with ease then sat down on the divan with her in his lap.

  ‘Later, you will tell me how we can repay these debts, and maybe make life easier for your sister-in-law and niece, but now I need to apologise to you because right from the beginning I let the past and my experience with Clarice when she first came to Al Janeen influence my judgement of you. Yet that first time I saw you in the rose garden I felt something for you, and afterwards, when I watched the way you helped the children at the earthquake village and held the orphans in your arms, I understood you had that rarest of gifts, a love that reached out to all humanity.’

  He kissed her neck, lifting her hair and pressing his lips to the pale skin.

  ‘That’s when I fell in love, although maybe I fell a little bit in love in the rose garden when you turned on me with such fierce anger. This is a woman with iron in her soul, I thought, and was intrigued.’

  ‘Iron in my soul?’ Alex echoed, but she’d turned her head and was kissing his ear as she spoke, teeth nipping at it. ‘I’m not at all sure that’s a compliment.’

  He moved so their lips met.

  ‘Believe me, it is. My country needs women with iron in their souls as leaders of the community, and I—’ he kissed her more firmly ‘—I need a woman with iron in her soul as my consort, and in my bed as well, and as mother of my children, and grandmother of my grandchildren—’

  She broke away.

  ‘The children? I didn’t think! I was so surprised to see you my mind went blank. The children are all right? Did anyone find out anything about their father? Is the new oasis dug? Is the village being rebuilt?’

  Azzam smiled at her.

  ‘The children are well and happy. The baby is starting to walk around furniture, Zahid’s arm is out of the cast, and Tasnim asks me every day when you are coming back. She tells me she is learning English words from Ghaada so she can talk to you. As to the rest, you must come and see for yourself. We cannot marry yet, you and I, because of the mourning period, but you will return with me and we will be together as misyar man and wife, then in time we will have a more formal marriage, maybe out beside the lagoon, just you and me, Samarah and Hafa as witnesses, and the children, for they, too, are special to us both.’

  Had she rubbed the lamp unintentionally? Or was this real? Alex returned the kisses Azzam was pressing on her lips, but her mind was not on kisses. It was whirling, doing sums—if the million dollars was really hers, she could pay off the debt then buy a house for her sister-in-law and niece, and have plenty left over to invest for her niece’s future, enough to pay for any equipment or treatment she might need. And surely she, Alex, could fly them over for a visit, take them to the blushing lagoon and out to the village, show them the desert…

  ‘I’ve lost you,’ Azzam said, straightening up and looking at her with a slightly wary expression on his face.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she assured him. ‘I was just tying off some loose ends in my head. I’m with you now.’

  And she kissed him to show that she was.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8525-9

  SHEIKH, CHILDREN’S DOCTOR…HUSBAND

  First North American Publication 2011

  Copyright © 2011 by Meredith Webber

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  Copyright