The Fierce and Tender Sheikh
The instructions were simple: seek out and return home with the long-lost princess of Bagestan now that her family had regained control of the throne.But when he found her, Sheikh Sharif Azad al Dauleh fell hard and fast for Princess Shakira's sultry smile and mysterious aura. She was everything he never thought he'd wanted in a wife, and yet her fiery nature promised a lifetime of passion.He knew he needed to convince Shakira of the importance of fulfilling her duty to both family and country - but bringing her back wasn't nearly as tempting as keeping her all for himself….
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He Said He Had Waited Too Long To Hold Her.
She put her hand in his but as he drew her closer, she protested nervously, âIâve never danced with a man before. I donât know what to do.â
âItâs like walking. Shift your weight back and forth between your feet, and let me give you your direction.â
Shakira felt enclosed and safe. The music seemed to flow through them, wrap around them, binding them together, so that after a time it seemed as though something else created the dance, using their bodies.
A singing heat tingled on her skin when he touched her. His hand moved against her bare back, and she felt a shivering response down her spine. He bent his head to murmur something, and even his breath against her neck caused a delicious melting.
Then he dropped his hands and she knew she had been wrong about the bonds that linked them. They were not the product of the music, but something else. Because they were still there, binding her to him, when the music stopped. And she regretted that this moment ever had to end.
Dear Reader,
Silhouette Desire is starting the New Year off with a bang as we introduce our brand-new family-centric continuity, DYNASTIES: THE ASHTONS. Set in the lush wine-making country of Napa Valley, California, the Ashtons are a family divided by a less-than-fatherly patriarch. We think youâll be thoroughly entranced by all the drama and romance when the wonderful Eileen Wilks starts things off with Entangled. Look for a new book in the series each monthâ¦all year long.
The New Year also brings new things from the fabulous Dixie Browning as she launches DIVAS WHO DISH. Youâll love her sassy heroine in Her Passionate Plan B. SONS OF THE DESERT, Alexandra Sellersâs memorable series, is back this month with the dramatic conclusion, The Fierce and Tender Sheikh. RITA>® Award-winning author Cindy Gerard will thrill you with the heart-stopping hero in Between Midnight and Morning. (My favorite time of the night. What about you?)
Rounding out the month are two clever stories about shocking romances: Shawna Delacorteâs tale of a sexy hero who falls for his best friendâs sister, In Forbidden Territory, and Shirley Rogersâs story of a secretary who ends up winning her boss in a bachelor auction, Business Affairs.
Hereâs to a New Yearâs resolution we should all keep: indulging in more desire!
Happy reading,
Melissa Jeglinski
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
The Fierce and Tender Sheikh
Alexandra Sellers
ALEXANDRA SELLERS
is the author of over twenty-five novels and a feline language text published in 1997 and still selling.
Born and raised in Canada, Alexandra first came to London as a drama student. Now she lives near Hampstead Heath with her husband, Nick. They share housekeeping with Monsieur, who jumped through the window one day and announced, as cats do, that he was moving in.
What she would miss most on a desert island is shared laughter.
Readers can write to Alexandra at P.O. Box 9449, London NW3 2WH, UK, England.
Contents
1 Hani
Haniâs Dream
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
2 Shakira
Shakiraâs Dream
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
3 Princess
The Princessâs Dream
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
4 The Beloved
The Dream of the Beloved
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Haniâs Dream
In the dream she had a name. Her own true name. In the dream she knew who she was.
She wasnât alone, in the dream. She had a home and a family, her own true family. The beloved faces she had lost so long ago were restored to her, in other faces that somehow belonged to her.
She wasnât hungry, in the dream, and they told her that she would never go hungry again. And there was water there, clean water, to wash in as well as to drink. Nor did she sleep in mud under a filthy tent, nor in a tiny, stifling room with bars on the windows. No, she had a bed so large and comfortable and clean she could not sleep for the freshness and wonder of it, and a room so airy and beautiful that in the dream she wept to see it.
In the dream they saidâher familyâthat it belonged to her by right and that she would never again be lost to them. People called her Princess in the dream, as if she were someone to cherish. Someone important, someone worth loving.
In the dream, she was a woman.
One
The desert lay smoking under the burning sun, rugged and inhospitable all the way to the distant mountains. Cutting across it, the highway made no compromise with the terrain, a grey, featureless ribbon streaking over gully and flat with ruthless self-importance: the hostile conspiring with the inflexible to produce a faceless indifference to human need.
A large flatbed truck, its load covered with a bright blue plastic tarpaulin and fixed with ropes, was roaring over the lonely stretch of highway, smoky dust rising from its passing, as if the flat tarmac were setting fire to its wheels and it had to keep moving or be consumed.
