The Sheik's Pregnant Lover Page 0,6
men she was around, men who could take care of her and dress her in the most beautiful clothes if she would only flirt a little more openly, be friendlier and take those advances the men were offering.
Sidra wasn’t like that. She didn’t want to win a husband, she wanted to win respect. She’d lived too long in the shadow of her brother, a successful stock broker who had always teased her that she’d never make it in the world with her soft, creative heart.
Maybe he’d been right. She loved her brother Ryan, but he was cold, calculating and at only two years older than she was, had made a great deal of money. That wasn’t the path she wanted to take though. She didn’t want to make a lot of money. She wanted to make beauty. She wanted the world to be a better place to live in and she knew she could use the creative gifts God had given her to make things nicer.
She wasn’t weak, she told herself, arguing against what her brother always said about her. She was strong, but kind hearted. Which was why she worked for a design firm who handled the business side of things instead of going out on her own. They collected the money, while she enjoyed the creative side of the business. Well that, and the fact that she didn’t have any clients! Having clients is pretty essential to her dreams, she thought with a smile. Ryan had to approve of that side of the issue at least.
She needed to call him. She hadn’t talked to him in about a week and they usually caught up with each other more often than that. He must be pretty busy because he rarely let a weekend go by without checking in with her. He’d raised her after their parents died and it had been pretty tough for a while. But he’d pulled them through that crisis at an age when he was much too young to be bearing the responsibility of a young sister to raise. She’d never forget him for that. She owed him a lot.
“You look exceptionally beautiful when you smile like that, Sidra,” a deep voice said as the man and horse walked quietly through the damp forest towards her.
Sidra quickly stood up, startled that the man she’d just been thinking about would suddenly materialize in front of her like that. “What are you doing here?”
He took several steps closer, watching her the whole time and uncaring of any little creatures that might crawl along the leaves. “Hoping you would come for a walk through these woods at the same time you drove into my life yesterday.” He halted and smiled, “Or more specifically, didn’t drive into my life.”
She couldn’t believe he’d actually said those words. Wasn’t he supposed to prevaricate and tell her that he’d only been coming on a morning walk like he usually did? “Aren’t you supposed to pretend that this was an accidental meeting?”
His horse stepped over the stream and came closer, allowing him to look down at her with a raised eyebrow. “Why would I do that?”
She looked around, shrugging her shoulders in confusion. “Because you’re a guy and men need to pretend like they aren’t interested until a woman shows that they’re interested?”
He chuckled as he threw his long leg over his horse and dismounted. “And are you interested? In me?” He walked up to her, leaving just a foot of space between their bodies as he looked down at her.
She thought about lying, or at a minimum, telling him that she thought he was handsome but not that she was interested. But there was something about the way he was looking at her that forced the truth from her. “Yes. Very much so,” she finally said, looking down at her hands that were clenched on top of her knees from the nervousness he generated within her. “You’re a very interesting man.”
He smiled and Sidra was glad she’d been honest. “What do you know of me?”
She laughed, pretending that her blush wasn’t so obvious and looked up at him. “I know that you have no mechanical knowledge at all when it comes to cars, but you’re very good at reading maps.”
“And is that all?” he asked, leaning forward slightly.
“And you’re very handsome.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “No one has ever said I was handsome before.”
She tilted her head to the side, considering his features. “You are. Not in the pretty boy kind of way,