Seduced by the Sheik (The Raminar Family #1)- Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,29

as he led her into the dining room tonight, was too strong. Setting down his notebook, he nodded curtly to his servant.

An hour later, he strode into the salon for pre-dinner drinks, a little girl’s hand in each of his own. “Everyone, I decided that Elsa and Ellora are old enough now to join us for pre-dinner drinks. Any objections?”

His eyes swept the room, looking for Harper, but she wasn’t here.

“I think that’s a great idea!” Gaelen announced, stepping forward to scoop Ellora into his arms. “And since you’re old enough for drinks with us, I think that you’re old enough for a ginger ale with a cherry in it. What do you think?”

The little girl smiled tentatively, nodding her head. She even wrapped her arm around Gaelen’s neck, holding on as she leaned her too-thin body into his.

Elsa looked up at Amit and he was just about to lift her into his arms when Tarin swooped down and lifted her up into his arms.

“Oh no you don’t!” he laughed, kissing the top of Elsa’s head. “My big brother got to walk you down the hall. I get to introduce you to drinks with the family!” and with that, Tarin carried Elsa over to the bar where the bartender was pouring two ginger ales, adding a cherry to each glass.

Amit smiled as his brothers and sister circled around the two little girls. He watched for a long moment, feeling a sense of rightness. The girls should never have been kept in the nursery. He’d done that to isolate their feelings from the oppressive silence that the four older siblings had endured after hearing about the death of their older sister. He’d thought he was doing the right thing, protecting the girls from the grief of the adults. But Harper had explained how wrong he’d been.

Damn, he was so grateful to her. The girls still weren’t speaking, but he could see the looks in their eyes. They wanted to talk. They wanted to cry. They just needed more time to be around their family, to see how the adults dealt with their grief. More talking, less hiding, he thought to himself.

Speaking of Harper, where was the good doctor? He turned, glancing at one of his guards, who shrugged apologetically. Even as they both realized that she should be here and wasn’t, she rounded the corner, slightly out of breath.

“Goodness, I’m so sorry for my tardiness,” she told him, smoothing down the same black dress she’d worn the previous two nights she’d dined with them.

His eyes skimmed down over her curves, noting the soft flush to her pale cheeks that made her skin seem to glow. “That’s the same dress you wore last night,” he commented.

Harper shook her head. “Yes. Um…well…I don’t…normally…” she paused, looking around at the others, including Talia who was dressed in a shimmering ivory silk cocktail dress. “My normal dinner attire is just a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt during the cold months and a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt during the summer months,” Harper explained, obviously feeling self-conscious of her simple black dress. “Occasionally, I wear socks,” she told him. She must have come to some sort of conclusion in her head because she pulled her hands away, a daring challenge to her uplifted gaze. “I don’t have a huge need for formal attire.”

“If my clothes offend you, then I’ll just…” she started to turn away, but he caught her elbow, chuckling as he pulled her back to his side. “Don’t you dare,” he growled in her ear. “You look lovely and you know that we need you here. I’ll fix your wardrobe issue tomorrow.”

He thought that he’d just eliminated one of her concerns, but the tensing in her shoulders told him otherwise.

“I don’t have a wardrobe issue, Your Highness.”

He almost burst out laughing at her use of his title instead of his name. Oh, she was so adorable when she tried to rile him! “We’re back to that again?”

“Back to what?” she asserted firmly, glaring up at him with fury burning in her gaze. And was that a touch of nervousness?

Yes. She definitely was nervous.

He shifted so that his body blocked her from the view of the others. “Using my title to distance yourself from me?” he offered.

He almost laughed out loud at the way she tried to pull away. It wasn’t happening. He was staking his claim, so to speak, showing his brothers and Talia what was going on. Gaelen glanced in their