My Insatiable Sheikh - Marian Tee Page 0,18

to pay back the advance - which we both know you do not - it still wouldn't change a thing. The only way out for you is to get Dahlia involved..."

He didn't have to say anything else after that. If I got Dahlia involved, Portia would surely make a move of her own as well, and then Greg...

Fuck.

Nothing had changed after all, and I had once again acted with disgusting naïvete, letting myself think for even one moment that the sheikh would've let me off the hook in light of Dahlia's duplicity. The sheikh was an asshole first and foremost, and he was too fucking ruthless to release me from the contract just like that.

But even so...

"Don't you care at all," I burst out, "that I never signed your stupid contract in the first place? If you still insist on...on things, then you'd be forcing me—-"

"There will be no force involved," the sheikh slotted in, "and you know it. I only have to look at you now, habibti..." He suited action to words, his gaze slowly trailing down my body until he was staring at my tits.

"Stop that."

But still his gaze lingered, his eyes blatantly revealing his desire, and to my utter shame, I could feel my body responding, my breasts once again swelling and aching, and my nipples starting to pout and pucker.

Shit, shit, shit.

I heard the sheikh laugh as I quickly crossed my arms over my chest in a futile attempt to control my body's reaction.

"You see now how good it can be between us, my Story?"

"Shut up." But with the way my voice was still faintly breathless, I might as well have told him the truth. Yes, dammit. I knew and had always known it could be so good between us, but...

"It would have made things easier for me," he murmured, "if I had never told you what I knew about your twin."

That was true, but so what?

"But I chose to let you know the truth because I wanted there to be no lies between us. I think of our circumstances as a gift of fate, habibti. If not for what your twin did, our paths would never have crossed."

"What exactly are you getting at?" I asked uneasily.

"We enter into a new agreement," he said simply. "You are to still bear my child and stay under my care until you give birth—-"

"I can't," I said flatly. "I'm willing to admit that we have a certain chemistry, but even so. I can't just give away my child—-"

"Who says you have to?"

"But the contract—-"

"That was when I thought you were nothing but a gold-digger," he rebutted, "and you cannot fault me for that, since at that time my opinion was entirely based on Dahlia's...performance."

There was that curl of his lip again, and God, as much as I hated him for his cocky ways, he was also surprisingly good for my ego. He really was one of a kind, with the way he could so easily see through Dahlia's act.

"The new contract will be different," the sheikh went on to say. "If it is you, I will not mind having you in the child's life for as long as you wish. It will benefit the child even, having both birth parents around."

I tried wrapping my head around what he was suggesting. Basically, he still wanted me to be his baby mama, and even though he hadn't said anything about the perks that would come with the position, if the old contract was anything to go by, then I was sure they'd be nothing to complain about.

So, compensation-wise, I supposed the contract worked completely to my advantage, but...

A baby?

Getting married had never been part of my plans, much less having a kid. I knew myself well enough to know I'd be a responsible mother, but what about being happy? Would I be happy being a mom?

I used to think a woman was born with maternal instincts, but getting to know Portia obviously proved otherwise.

"What if I'm not ready to become a mother," I finally forced myself to ask, "and I suddenly don't want to be a part of the baby's life?"

"Then you won't be."

I took a peek at his expression and was relieved to find zero judgment on the asshole's face. It was nice to know the SOB still had a few redeeming qualities, and with the issue of motherhood taken care of, I moved on to other concerns.

"What about marriage? We don't need to tie the knot or anything, right?"

The