Read Online Society Weddings by Sharon Kendrick, Kate Walker - Free Book Online Page A

about what her future ‘role’ as his wife would entail.
    And Rashid had narrowed his black eyes and fixed her with a look of bemused tolerance.
    ‘Why, Jenna,’ he had responded softly, ‘your role is to support your Sheikh.’
    ‘But I have been studying law, Rashid,’ she had pointed out. ‘Could that not be put to some use?’
    Her father had shaken his head and smiled. ‘Your role as consort will leave you little spare time, Jenna.’
    And Rashid, murmuring his agreement, had risen, his silken robes flowing, signalling that the discussion had come to an end.
    The chaperons had put paid to all but the most formal communication between them. Like questions from Rashid about her preferences for the wedding feast—and, on one memorable occasion, a drawled query about where she would care to spend the honeymoon.
    As far away from you as possible, her eyes had said, but she had given him a sarcastically submissive smile. ‘That choice must be yours, O Sheikh,’ she had answered softly, and had seen his mouth tighten in response. ‘Perhaps Paris?’ she had questioned, with mock innocence. ‘I believe that the Sheikh knows the city very well?’
    He had drummed his long fingers on the exquisite inlaiddesk at which he’d sat, and his dark eyes had frosted her a look of pure ice.
    ‘Perhaps we should stay right here in Quador,’ he had murmured in a little-spoken Quadorian dialect which he knew full well that she alone in the room understood. ‘After all—one bed is pretty much the same as any other!’
    Jenna shivered again. After the wedding and the feast would come the wedding night itself, and that was the part she was dreading most. She had declared that she would not respond to him, that she would tolerate his caresses but not enjoy them. Yet over the last few headachy days she had begun to wonder whether she would have the resolve to withstand his raw and heated sensuality.
    But even if she didn’t there was no guarantee that she would enjoy it—not if that single, frantic bout in the bedchamber was anything to go by. And if she was worried that Rashid would be unable to resist the lure of mistresses past, present and maybe future—then she was almost certain that a frigid wife would send him running straight to their beds.
    She stared into the mirror one last time and fixed a practised smile onto her lips. She would go forward towards her future, and put her trust in fate.
    There was little else in which she could trust.
     
    Rashid stood with narrowed eyes as he surveyed the horizon for the first sign of her carriage.
    ‘Exalted One?’
    Rashid didn’t move, his heart unaccustomedly heavy. ‘What is it, Abdullah?’
    ‘The woman—Chantal—she has been leaving messages for you, O Sheikh.’
    Rashid did turn round then, his narrowed eyes growing even more flinty than usual. ‘You dare to speak to me of such matters on the day of my wedding?’
    ‘I merely pass on messages, Sheikh, just as I have always done.’
    ‘Then pass them on no longer,’ said Rashid tonelessly. ‘I instructed Chantal not to contact me. She knows that I am a man of my word.’
    ‘Indeed.’ Abdullah nodded.
    ‘Did she choose one of the pieces of jewellery I left?’ Rashid enquired, as an afterthought.
    Abdullah shifted uncomfortably. ‘She said that making a choice was impossible, Excellency.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘She kept them all.’
    For a moment the Sheikh was still, and then he smiled a cynical smile. ‘So be it,’ he murmured. ‘Then there is nothing more to be said.’ He stilled once more as bells began pealing loudly in the palace courtyard. ‘She is here,’ he breathed. ‘Jenna has come.’
    Moving stiffly in the heavy wedding gown, and surrounded by her women-in-waiting, Jenna made her way slowly towards the Throne Room, where Rashid awaited her.
    And with her first glimpse of him a small, instinctive sigh escaped from her lips—for he looked as perfect as it was surely possible for any man to