Bad sheikh pregnant mistress

Eleven.

Brenda woke with a start, and gasped heavily with the tube down her nose, making her feel as if she were choking. Loud beeping echoed in her ears, and almost instantly, a woman she'd never seen in a crisp, white nurse's uniform was helping pull the breathing tube from her nose.

"Where am I?"

"The medical wing of the palace, my sheikha," she replied bowing low and then scurrying to pick up the call button. She pressed it and turned her attention to the machine. "The sheikha is awake."

Brenda took a deep breath, trying to remember everything that had happened. Had she passed out at the wedding ceremony? What had happened to land her in the hospital? Then it came to her a vivid Technicolor flash: Abir abducting her, the knife to her throat, and the pain lancing through her side. Instinctively she reached to her stomach to touch her children. To her horror she found it flatter than it should have been.

Turning to the nurse, she begged her for any information. "How long have I been out? Where are the children? Did they make it?"

Before the nurse could answer, Jamsheed and Haley both burst into the room. She was so grateful to see her eldest daughter that at least a few of her fears were quelled. Haley had been breathing when Brenda was dragged off, but there was no guarantee her condition wasn't severe, that things wouldn't go downhill. Her daughter reached her first and she opened her arms wide to hug the girl she loved so dearly. Tears poured down her cheeks as she kissed her daughter's forehead.

"I love you. You shouldn't have stood up to Abir."

"Mom, I wouldn't let anything happen to you," her daughter said, an impish grin on her face that sometimes annoyed her now sending warmth to her heart. It was amazing to see her daughter be so selfless and be someone who would so gladly step in front of harm not just to protect Brenda, but also the triplets.

Oh God where are the triplets? How long has it been?

"I was bleeding wasn't I?" she asked as Haley broke away from her and Jamsheed rushed forward to kiss her and then took her hand. "Are the babies all right?"

Jamsheed sighed. "Dr. G was able to help. We rushed you back here for an emergency C-section. The triplets were barely thirty-two weeks. Two are so strong, but one still has to be in an incubator to help him breathe, but he gets stronger every day."

She blinked. "Him? I have a son?"

Haley rolled her eyes. "You have three sons. I'm totally outnumbered. He'll pull through. Dr. G is going to be taking him off of his regime in about a week. It's going well."

She nodded and wiped at her cheeks. "How long was I asleep?"

Jamsheed's jaw clenched and she watched as a cord in his neck pulled tight. "Almost two weeks. We were worried with how much blood you lost that you'd be out even longer. I never believed you'd die. You're too strong for that, but I've been here every day, as much as I can around my country's needs. I was so worried, my phoenix, but I'm glad I gave you that nickname. Allah has surely blessed you."

She leaned up and kissed him. "I think He's blessed us both." Sitting up higher, she swung her legs over the mattress to the edge of the bed and gestured to the IV in her arm. "Can you get Dr. G to unhook me? I want to see our children. Please."

Jamsheed rubbed her back, one large palm giving warmth and security to her in the smallest of gestures. "I thought you'd never ask."

The children were so tiny, the two blue bundles in cribs in the corner of the hospital room set up for them. She leaned over and picked up one first. The baby didn't cry—maybe he knew who she was on sight—and then he opened his eyes, they were the same amazing amber of his father, and she wondered again if all their children would carry that distinctive coloring.

"Did you name them?"

He shook his head. "We go by the designations of the medical team. We have Baby A and Baby B here. The one in the incubator still is Baby C. There was no way I was going to presume for you and do this by myself," Jamsheed replied, picking up their second child and cradling him gently. "Do you have any ideas for these two?"

She looked down at "Baby A," at the delicate cheek bones and the nose that reminded her just a hint of her father. "Can he be Franklin, after my father? Is that not allowed since he'll be a sheikh?"

"I think the royal head of Zomelia can be called whatever he pleases. We'll give him a traditional middle name, but..." Jamsheed said, smiling down at the child. "Hello, Frank." Then he rocked "Baby B," who had opened now identical eyes to blink back at both of them. "And would Farook be fine with you for our second son?"

"Are we now getting a consonant theme?" she asked, joking. "Fs for all?"

Jamsheed winked. "I think some alliteration is allowed." He nodded to someone across the room, and she smiled, relieved to see Jazmina walking across to them.

Her servant held out her arms. "My sheikha, allow me to watch your boys while you go to the clean room for your other son. They'll be safe with me."

"Jazmina was the one who ran so fast to alert me that you'd been taken."

Brenda set Franklin in the crib and then turned to her servant and embraced her. "Thank you, Jazmina. I don't know what we'd have done without you. If Jamsheed had even been a second later..."

The older woman pulled back and kissed both her cheeks gently. "Do not worry on what might have happened. Fortune has smiled on all of us, and we have you and the children all safe. It is more than one could ever hope for and everything our kingdom needs."

If you ever need anything, Jazmina, you can have it," Brenda asked, winking at her. "Just don't ask me to hide a body for you or clean up a crime. I would, but it would be an awkward spot for a Head of State to be in."

"I am a law-abiding woman, this I swear, but I will think of my payback carefully. Still, I'd have done everything I could to save you all. You're my family too, sheikha."

She hugged Jazmina once more before returning to Jamsheed's side. "I feel the same way."

Jamsheed pulled her flush against him and led her to the next part of the nursery suite. For several minutes they had to scrub their arms and put on gowns and masks to ensure they wouldn't bring any microbes into the room that might assault Baby C's immune system. The pneumatic doors of the clean room slid open and they walked hand-in-glove-clad-hand to the incubator. Her heart fluttered when she saw their son there, so much tinier than Franklin and Farook. Tears threatened to well in her eyes and one or two may have slipped out when she followed Jamsheed's lead to reach with her fingers through the portholes and stroke their child's back. The tiny infant brought a small thumb to his mouth and sucked at it.

He's so little," she said, the quiver in her voice threatening to overwhelm her words.

"He's a fighter, like his mother. He'll pull through. Like Haley said, it's only a week more until he can join his brothers in a proper crib."

"He's beautiful," she said, grinning broadly when their child opened his eyes, that same golden gaze of Jamsheed—of all their sons—glinting back at her. "Walheed."

Jamsheed's eyes opened wide. "What?"

"It's only fair. We named one after my father, and the proud Rahal line should always remember one of its best sheikhs, no matter what happens to your father, he'll always live on."

Jamsheed nodded and leaned forward to kiss her, even though he didn't move his hand from their son's back. She didn't either. "We'll live on because that's what we do. It's who we are, my phoenix."

"Exactly."

I hope you all enjoyed the story
BAD SHIkEH PREGNANT MISTRESS