Love Slave (Ellora's Cave) Read online

  Maybe the world had shrunk enough that their marrying wouldn’t make it shatter. Shana hoped so.

  Then she saw her brother.

  “Look, there’s Jake. That must mean Mother and Daddy are willing to hear us out.”

  “It will be all right, love. The worst will be that they won’t throw you the society wedding of the year.”

  On the way home, Jake bolstered her spirits further. “Remember what the Old Man always said about people being people, no matter where they come from or what they believe or whether they’re rich or poor, every time he caught me joining in to tease some kid at school?”

  “I remember you getting grounded for two weeks for calling a classmate some derogatory name. But what does that have to do with us now?”

  “Pop mumbled it to himself, sort of, after I mentioned Bear’s Kuwaiti and Muslim. Almost like he was reminding himself what he believes. I don’t think you’ll get much hassle.”

  Bear wasn’t certain of that until Jacob Green called him into his study and repeated the philosophy he said he had developed while acting as a translator for the war crimes tribunal following World War II. “Will you take care of Shana?” was the only pointed question he asked.

  “I will protect her with my life,” Bear replied without hesitation.

  “Then you have my blessing.”

  Epilogue

  Their wedding took place three days before the Butcher of Baghdad attacked Kuwait. Shana clung to Bear the morning Iraq invaded, but she’d known since learning the Emir had fled to the United States that this was coming.

  The Gulf War raged for five long months. Kuwaiti oil fields burned for many months after Saddam’s forces were defeated. Through it all, Bear served his country while Shana prayed for him from her childhood home.

  Though Bear’s plane went down, he escaped unscathed and came back to Shana. Together they built their dream home near Mina Su’ud, on the site of the ancient villa the Iraqi army destroyed, finishing it in time to welcome their first child, a daughter.

  Desert sand and blue sky framed nearby el Rashid oil fields rebuilt with GreenTex technology. To the east lay the Khalij, no longer floating with oil slicks by the time Shana presented Bear with their second daughter two years later.

  The years passed quickly, and on the eve of their eleventh anniversary, Shana gave Bear a son. Only her worry about her little brother dimmed her joy.

  When they came back to Houston a few months later because of her father’s illness, Shana vowed to help Jake find happiness again, the way he had paved the way with their parents for her and Bear. Jake needed a good woman—one who’d love him the way she loved Bear, make him a home, and give him the children she knew he would adore.

  They lay in bed in their Houston condo, their children asleep with their nanny watching over them. “You know,” she said, “I think Kate will be the one for Jake.”

  Idly, Bear plucked at her swollen nipple. “What makes you so sure?”

  “Because Jake gets hard for her the way you still get hard for me,” she said, stroking his tightening balls. “Come here. I want to play with your big, beautiful cock.”