The Sheikh's Bride Bargain (You Can't Turn Down a Sheikh Book 4) Read online

  It was more than Dakota had dared to hope for. “Thank you, Your Highness,” she said again. “Thank you so much.”

  The Emir dismissed them from the courtroom. Dakota forced herself to walk until they were outside the palace, but as soon as the first rays of light touched her skin, she ran to Majeed and flung herself into his arms. He spun her around, then set her lightly on the ground and kissed her. “I love you, Dakota,” he said.

  She gazed into his eyes, allowing herself to ignore the fact that both of their families were watching, and smiled. “I love you, too.”

  Chapter 26

  Dakota didn’t return to the States. Her family flew back that very night; they hadn’t packed for a long stay, and they all had jobs and responsibilities to contend with. Dakota, though, left the Emir’s palace with the bin Ayads.

  “I don’t have any clothes,” she said, laughing, as she hugged her parents and brother goodbye. “I don’t have anything. This all happened so quickly.”

  “We’ll send some of your stuff over,” Dylan said. “Email me a list of what you want, and I’ll put together a shipment. We’ll bring the rest over with our own things, but that should be enough to help you get by in the short term.”

  “The royal tailors will also make clothes for you,” Majeed said. “And there are shops, of course. I’ll take you to the shops first thing tomorrow, and we can find whatever you need.”

  Now, three months later, Dakota still felt like she was living a dream. She had thoroughly stepped outside the confines of her previous life, so much so that she sometimes had to pinch herself to make sure it was all really happening. She would stand in front of the mirror in her spacious marble bathroom, staring at her reflection and whispering, “I fell in love with a handsome prince.” It was every little girl’s fantasy, but now it was her reality.

  She had moved into the bin Ayads’ manor home, as had been the original plan for when she married Majeed. The two of them were living in the wing of the manor that had been set aside for them. It had a private entrance from the outside, its own kitchen, and an interior lock that prevented the other bin Ayads from entering without permission, and Dakota found that she didn’t at all mind living in the family home. She and Majeed had all the privacy they needed.

  Dylan had returned to Baraq to live, with both Rachel and Ghost in tow. “I didn’t think you’d come,” Dakota had admitted, holding out her arms for her dog, who she hadn’t seen since she’d left him with her neighbor, and who was very happy to see her. “Thanks for bringing him, by the way.”

  “Are you allowed to have him at the bin Ayads?”

  “It’s my home,” she’d told him. She hadn’t expected that to feel so true, but it did. The manor—or at least, their wing of it—was hers. She didn’t feel like a guest in someone else’s home at all.

  “Rachel decided it would be a fun opportunity to live here for a while,” Dylan said. “Who knows, we just might be the next to get married.”

  “Are you going to ask her?” Dakota gripped her brother’s arm in excitement.

  Dylan grinned. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

  Now, Ghost came trotting up to her feet as she cracked scrambled eggs into a pan for breakfast. “Big day, Ghost,” she told him quietly. “Biggest day of my life, that’s for sure.”

  Ghost yapped and chased his tail in a circle before flopping down on the ground, thoroughly overexcited. Dakota reached down and scratched between his ears, half wishing she could bring him with her today. It was strange, she thought, that she felt so nervous. After all, she had been married to Majeed for months now. This was just a party.

  But then again, marrying Majeed had never been the thing she’d been nervous about. It was having their families all together in one room that was scary. The Lees and the bin Ayads had gotten together a few times over the past couple of months, and everything had been calm. But if things went wrong today…

  Well, Dakota thought, I guess I just have to have faith that they won’t. It’s all I can do at this point.

  It was, Dakota thought, the perfect blend of the two wedding days she’d had previously. Her dress was simple but beautiful. Instead of a professional team of artists, Rachel did her hair and makeup for her. She and Majeed had opted not to have attendants, but Dylan and Karida stood beside them at the altar as they exchanged vows, serving as witnesses to the event.

  Perhaps most important, though, was the fact that her loved ones were there to celebrate with her. Not only that, the people of Baraq were in attendance. Dakota and Majeed had talked it over and decided to open their wedding up to the public. Thousands had turned out for the ceremony, absolutely packing the church. Dakota was humbled to see what a royal wedding meant to them.

  The ceremony itself was very formal. Although she’d had two previous weddings, this was the first time Dakota had actually been through a Baraqi wedding ceremony. The entire thing was conducted in Arabic, and although Dakota had been working on her Arabic over the past few months, the officiant’s rhythmic singing made it too hard to translate what was going on. Fortunately, she had Majeed by her side, whispering the translation in her ear. Somehow, having him talking her through the ceremony made the whole thing more intimate. In this room full of people, Dakota was the only one getting Majeed’s translation.

  At her courthouse wedding, they’d had no rings to exchange, having married on the spur of the moment. As a placeholder, Majeed had given Dakota his royal insignia ring. “You’ll get your own soon,” he had said, sliding it onto her finger. “You’re a member of my family now, so the royal insignia is yours, too. And you’ll get a real wedding ring just as soon as I can get to a jeweler.”

  Majeed had kept his promise, and they had gone to a jeweler their first day after meeting with the Emir, three months ago. The wedding ring set Dakota picked out were the most exquisite she had ever seen. And her husband was proud to wear the wedding band they had picked out together. They were delighted to use their new rings in the ceremony, in front of family, friends, and the people of Baraq.

  The reception after the ceremony was a more private affair. The bin Ayads hosted the Lees in their manor. It was strange to see the two families, who had been rivals for so long, getting along, but it was also a tremendous relief. Dakota found she felt comfortable walking away from the rest of her family for a private moment on the patio with Majeed. She could trust them now to be civil and respectful to the bin Ayads, and she felt confident that they’d be treated with civility in return.

  “Maybe someday they’ll even learn to like each other,” she suggested to Majeed as they watched the sun going down over the desert landscape. “We can host holidays and invite everyone to them.”

  “Holiday banquets are always hosted at our manor,” Majeed said. “And your parents will certainly be on the guest list.”

  “I guess I have a lot to learn,” Dakota said.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist. “We have the rest of our lives.”

  After a while, they wandered back inside to see how the party was going. As Dakota had predicted, no fights had broken out. Instead, the family members seemed to be getting to know each other, somewhat cautiously. Dylan was dancing with Karida, and Dakota could see that they were both smiling. Rachel, meanwhile, was sitting at a table with the Sheikh and the two were laughing uproariously. Dakota had always admired Rachel’s sense of humor and was grateful to see her using it as an icebreaker here. Her own parents were standing with Majeed’s mother, who was pointing out architectural features of the manor.

  Dakota accepted a petit four tray from a passing waiter and popped the little dessert in her mouth. It was delicious—spongy vanilla cake with a raspberry buttercream frosting. “Oh, my God,” she moaned. “I’m so hungry.”

  Majeed looked concerned. “Haven’t you eaten?” he asked.

  “This dress is too tight to eat much.” She showed him the lacing that fastened it in the back. “I can’t even inhale deeply.”

  “W
ell we’d better get you out of it,” he said seriously.

  She laughed. “I knew you’d say that.”

  “I’m only concerned for your well-being!” he insisted, but he was laughing too. “I can’t imagine what you’re accusing me of.”

  “Sure you can’t,” she said and kissed him.

  In the days that followed, life slowly returned to normal. Dakota was surprised at how quickly she was able to adjust to life as a royal. There was, as she had anticipated, a lot to learn, most of it having to do with the way she was expected to appear and behave in public. Dakota was no longer allowed to wear clothes that mentioned any brand or product that hadn’t been endorsed by the Emir, for example. She was also required to learn the names and titles of the rest of the country’s royalty—and there were a lot of them. She and Majeed made a game out of it, printing up flash cards so he could test her in the evenings.

  She learned to cook from a book of Arabic recipes and prepared a meal for her new in-laws, despite Majeed insisting that it wasn’t necessary and that no one was expecting it of her. “I wasn’t raised with valets,” she told him. “Where I come from, you have to be able to make your mother-in-law a good meal.” She prepared stuffed peppers, tabbouleh, and minted potato salad and served the bin Ayads in the manor’s main kitchen. Everyone agreed that the food was delicious, and Dakota felt more like one of them than she ever had.

  The Lees had been taking their time in moving back from Seattle, flying back and forth to look at houses and bringing things over in stages. Two weeks after the wedding ceremony, the process was finally completed. Anne and Ben moved into a beautiful house on the edge of town with a massive pool in the back. They negotiated and reacquired LeeWay Corp and offered Dakota her old job back, but she declined.

  Dakota and Majeed had decided to take some time away from work and spend the next few years focusing on their royal duties, marriage and family. Their goal was to restore and enhance the reputation of the royal family. They each had charities they were devoted to, helping with communication strategies and attending fundraising events. Dakota considered herself very lucky to be in a financial position to afford such a luxury.

  Dylan, on the other hand, had continued his job at LeeWay Corp, having also found a job for Rachel within the company. He had proposed to her on their last night in Seattle, and she’d happily accepted, but the two of them had decided to delay their wedding until the following year and to marry in the States so Rachel’s family and their old friends could attend. In the meantime, they had found and purchased a modern loft in the heart of Kezab and were happily setting up their home together.

  Ayad Aviation had been restored to its former glory now that the Emir had given the company his endorsement once more. Dakota and Majeed went out to the hangar to help oversee the seals being painted on the noses of each plane. Majeed told Dakota that the company had been able to open a new office and had hired almost five hundred additional employees. “It’s a great benefit to the people of Baraq, not just to our family,” he said. “My father prides himself on being a job creator. Now that we’ve taken on many of his former royal duties, he can focus on the business.”

  The bin Ayads held a ball to celebrate the opening of their new office. It was Dakota’s first formal event as a member of the royal family if you didn’t include her wedding. She stood in a receiving line and shook hands with hundreds of partygoers, feeling slightly awkward as they thanked her over and over for something she hadn’t really had a hand in.

  “You’re the reason the Emir gave us his endorsement again,” Majeed pointed out. “You healed the rift between our families.”

  The Lees were at the party too, and Dakota was once again happy to see that they were enjoying themselves calmly and not causing trouble. At one point, Majeed’s father even asked Dakota’s mother for a dance.

  Dakota was on the edge of her seat the entire time. She was watching them spin gracefully around the dance floor, waiting for the moment one of them would accidentally step on the other’s foot, but it never came. The song came to an end, and Ubaid bin Ayad bowed congenially and released Anne back to her husband, revealing that she had even conversed with him in some basic Arabic during their dance, having recently resumed the language lessons she had abandoned years before.

  “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it,” she said to Majeed, who had taken a seat beside her midway through the dance.

  “I know what you mean,” he said. “I guess people can always surprise you, can’t they?”

  “You surprised me,” she said.

  “All good surprises, I hope?”

  “The best.”

  “Have I mentioned, by the way, that you look stunning tonight?” he asked.

  “This old thing?” Dakota ran her hands down the front of her dress. It had been custom made of a rich royal purple fabric she’d chosen herself for tonight’s event. With a sweetheart neckline, it fanned out at the hips into a bell around her feet.

  He leaned over and kissed her. “You look like royalty,” he said.

  They stayed late at the party, excusing themselves only when most of the guests had gone. It was nice to be able to retreat up to their wing of the manor, to not have to worry about traveling anywhere. Once upstairs, Dakota wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed him deeply, her intentions clear.

  “We shouldn’t stay up too late,” Majeed pointed out. “We have a press conference in the morning.”

  “We shouldn’t have to go,” she said. “We don’t even work for our families’ companies anymore.”

  “I know,” Majeed agreed. “But after all these years, they’re finally signing a collaborative business deal with no drama or fighting. Don’t you want to be there just to see it happen?”

  He met her laugh with a kiss.

  As it turned out, Majeed and Dakota weren’t the only ones eager to see the deal signed. Ordinarily, an occasion like this would have called for one or two representatives from each family, but when they arrived at the LeeWay Corp office building, Majeed and Dakota were surprised to find almost everyone there. Even a couple of Majeed’s aunts and uncles were present, smiling and shaking hands as if they were at a reunion instead of a business deal. The Lees had decided to have the meeting catered, but several home-cooked dishes had been brought in by various attendees as well, and by the time all the food was laid out, there was barely room on the conference room table for the paperwork that needed to be signed.

  Even the Emir was there, attended by his security staff. At first Dakota assumed he was present to ensure the deal went through without any more fighting or drama, but she was surprised to see that he was happily joining in the feasting and conversation with everyone else. Dakota had never seen him look so happy and carefree, and she was pleased that her family had something to do with it.

  Today’s deal cemented a master partnership between LeeWay Corp and Ayad Aviation, guaranteeing that the two companies would work together directly going forward. It was a significant boost for both of them, and something both families had wanted for a long time, although they had always had to fight against their dislike of each other in getting it done. Now, finally, that hurdle had been overcome. Ben Lee and Ubaid bin Ayad shook hands like old friends and even smiled for the photographer who was on hand to take their picture for the local paper’s write up of the event.

  Throughout the day, Dakota and Majeed drifted apart and back together. They were pulled away by family members and members of both companies to discuss both the ramifications of the business deal and, more often, their recent wedding. Everyone was eager to hear the story of the American runaway bride turned princess firsthand. Dakota patiently answered everyone’s questions, but as soon as she could, she always ended the conversations and made her way back to Majeed. Being close to him still felt wonderful and new.

  Eventually, they escaped the conference room and found a private office. Dakota pulled Majeed inside and locked the door behind them before indu
lging in a long, pleasurable kiss.

  “Do you think they’re getting by all right without us out there?” Majeed asked, peppering her forehead with kisses.

  Dakota smiled and leaned into him. “I think they’re going to have to.”

  Epilogue

  The finest plane in the Ayad Aviation fleet was pulled from the line to take Majeed and Dakota on their honeymoon. Because neither of them had a boss to report to, they had decided to take their time and travel the world, visiting all the places they had always wanted to go. They had sat together for a week, preparing their list and planning out their route. Dakota had never been so excited for a journey in her life.

  After three nights in China, visiting the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors, they traveled to Thailand, where they visited an elephant sanctuary and learned about the fight to protect the enormous, beautiful creatures. Later, their tour guide surprised them by stopping at the top of a zip line course.

  Dakota glanced nervously at Majeed. She had never been down a zip line in her life. He, however, shot her a confident grin, and before she knew it she was harnessed up and gliding over the treetops, hollering with glee. It was one of the most exciting things she had ever done.

  A few days later, they headed to rejuvenate on the Greek island of Crete. The nights they spent there were some of Dakota’s favorite of the whole honeymoon. She and Majeed began their evenings by sharing a shower and wrapping up in the resort’s giant fluffy bathrobes. They ordered room service, complete with wine, and watched a movie together each night. The movie always went unfinished, though, as they gradually became more interested in each other than in what was happening on screen. Every night, they fell asleep in each other’s arms, and Dakota’s last thoughts were always to marvel at how she could be so lucky.