Sold To The Sheikh: His Indecent Proposal (An Interracial Sheikh Romance Novel) (15 page)

THIRTEEN

Despite her initial relief
at the fact that she was, in fact, capable of becoming pregnant,
within hours of discovering that it had finally happened, Mia began
to wonder what the next step with Rami would be.

“So there’s one thing that
I am kind of…perplexed about,” Mia said to him the next morning, as
they sat on the couch having a light brunch together.

“What’s that, sweetheart?”
Rami set his coffee cup down, turning all of his attention onto
her.

“So—obviously you still
want to have the baby, right?”

“Of course I do!” Rami
nodded fervently.

Mia pressed her lips
together. “Well…as you know, originally, the plan had been for me
to…to give the baby to you when it was born, right? And for us to
go our separate ways.” Rami waited for Mia to say more, looking at
her intently. “So I guess what I mean is, when that happens, what
are we going to do about…us?”

“Oh. Yeah, that is a very
good question,” Rami said, reaching out to pull her closer to him
on the couch. “Well,” he began, taking a deep breath and exhaling.
“If you’re interested in being the child’s mother…we could raise
him or her together.”

“We’ve only been together
for a couple of weeks,” Mia pointed out. “Do you think we can do
this together? I know you were thinking of raising the baby on your
own.”

“I can’t think of anything
better,” Rami told her, smiling. “It can’t help but be even better
for the baby to have both a father and a mother that loves it,
right? And between the two of us—you know how to give our child all
the love in the world, and I can make that he or she never wants
for anything. It will be ideal, won’t it?” Mia couldn’t help but
agree. She didn’t hesitate as Rami brought her mouth up to his,
kissing her hungrily as his hands took her cup and set it aside
next to his. Mia’s clothes fell away and she was more than happy to
spend the next few hours continuing to celebrate their
accomplishment in finally getting pregnant.

Some time later, in the
afternoon, Rami reached for his phone. “Who in the world are you
calling?” Mia asked him, watching from the bed where they had spent
the past few hours making love.

“Dr. Farber,” Rami said
with a little grin. “I assume you still want to see her,
right?”

Mia laughed. “I wonder if
she’ll find it as funny as we do that after all that stress,
strain, discomfort and money, you knocked me up the old fashioned
way?”

“If she has any sense at
all,” Rami said, holding the phone to his ear while he waited for
the call to connect, “she’ll laugh her ass off.” Mia turned onto
her side, stroking her hand over her abdomen. She could barely
believe she was actually pregnant. She remembered what her mother
had said to her, months before, just when she and Rami had agreed
to start the IVF and Mia had started to become anxious about their
lack of progress; even if Mia wasn’t able to conceive artificially,
she might find she was able to the “natural” way.

“We have to tell my mom
soon,” Mia told Rami. He nodded, and Mia watched as he convinced
the receptionist at the office to put him on the line with Dr.
Farber.

“I’ll hold,” Rami said
agreeably. Mia feasted her eyes on him, clad in only his pajama
pants. He was even more gorgeous underneath his expensive clothes
than she had imagined, and every time they made love together she
realized more and more just how lucky she was to have him. “Hello!
Dr. Farber. I have some interesting news for you.”

Mia curled up as Rami
delivered the news, giggling irrepressibly at the doctor’s
victorious shriek—which could be heard even several feet away. Once
the doctor had congratulated the two of them on finally achieving
their goal, Rami was transferred back to the front desk to schedule
the first ultrasound session and fetal checkup. He was barely off
the phone before he was in bed with Mia again, holding her close to
him. “Don’t even tell me you want to go again already,” Mia said
playfully.

“It’s not like I can make
you more pregnant at this point,” Rami pointed out. “But I know you
need your rest. Do you feel like eating something
finally?”

“Now that you mention it,
I am starving to death. How dare you deprive me of
food!”

Rami slipped out of the
bed quickly. “You are going to stay right there, and I am going to
cook you whatever you want to eat. Or if you want something I can’t
make, we can order in.” He grinned.

“This is what the rest of
my pregnancy is going to be like, isn’t it?”

Rami nodded. “I might even
get you an assistant, or—what’s it called? A doula?” Mia laughed,
shaking her head and burying her face against Rami’s pillows for a
moment until she was able to catch her breath.

“Just make me breakfast
and I’ll stop complaining,” she told him.

FOURTEEN

Mia’s first scheduled
check-up was the six-week ultrasound, and by the time it rolled
around she still had not told her mother that she was pregnant. Dr.
Farber had advised the two of them to wait until at least the
twelve week milestone before making an announcement, as
miscarriages were more frequent up until that point, but Mia’s gut
feeling was that if everything looked okay at the appointment, they
would announce it sooner; maybe even right afterward.

Just as they had so many
times before, Mia and Rami waited patiently for their
appointment—although now they were sitting in a different waiting
room.

“You know, if I’d known I
was going to be spending so much time hanging out in waiting rooms
when you asked me to have your baby, I would have told you to take
you hundred thousand a month and walk away,” Mia told
Rami.

“You could have negotiated
for more!” Rami pointed out. “And anyway, now you’ve got any money
you want at your disposal.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Not
in payments; it’s still your money.” Rami grinned at her as if he
was enjoying a private joke, but Mia couldn’t get him to tell her
what was so funny.

When they were finally
called through, Mia went directly to the exam table, while Rami
took one of the two chairs adjacent to it. They had barely waited a
minute before the tech came in, launching into all of the expected
questions as she made her way over to the cart containing the
ultrasound equipment. “Is this your first baby? Are you hoping for
a boy or a girl?”

“It’s our first,” Rami
said, giving Mia’s hand a squeeze. “And we don’t care whether it’s
a boy or a girl, as long as it’s healthy.”

“And how did you two get
together?” the tech inquired.

Mia looked at Rami and
suddenly the laughter burst out of her so forcefully she thought
she might void her bladder and thereby ruin any chance of getting
her ultrasound done that day. She fortunately managed to hold back,
shifting uncomfortably on the table, as Rami told the tech a
carefully edited version of the events that had led them to the
office that day.

“Imagine that!” The older
woman laughed. “Well, you’re getting your baby after all; let’s
just see how it’s coming along, shall we?”

Mia focused on the woman’s
reactions, ignoring the wet, cold feeling of the gel on her belly.
She could feel her heart beating faster, a low kind of dread
working through her that for whatever reason the baby might not be
okay. But the older woman’s face quickly broke into a smile. “Do
you want to see what he or she looks like? Way too early to know if
it’s a boy and a girl—at this stage it looks like a little sea
creature.” Mia giggled at that and the tech turned the monitor for
her and Rami to see. The baby was little more than a blob, a blur
in a pool of darkness on the screen, but Mia felt the tears coming
nonetheless.

“Oh—oh Rami, isn’t it
beautiful?” Mia turned to look at the man she loved, only to
receive a second shock: he wasn’t watching the screen but was
holding a tiny jewelry box open to show a ring, with a bright,
glittering diamond in the center of the band.

“Will you marry me, Mia
Campbell?” Rami said, smiling. Mia’s mouth fell open and she stared
at him, unable to speak for a long time. She thought she might
faint as an overwhelming wave of emotions washed through her: joy
that she was actually pregnant, relief that the baby was healthy,
and finally incredulity that Rami was choosing this moment to
propose.

“Yes! Of course! Of course
I’ll marry you,” Mia said, tears flooding down her cheeks as Rami
slipped the ring onto her finger, where it fitted perfectly. “Oh my
God this is… I think I need to pee because…. Oh God I don’t know if
I can breathe.” The tech leaped into action, helping Mia off of the
table and escorting her to the tiny bathroom in the exam room. Mia
cleaned herself up and came back to find Rami waiting with a bottle
of cold water for her. “I think this is probably the best day of my
life,” Mia said, shaking her head in disbelief. A moment later,
when some of the shock had passed, she turned to Rami. “We have to
tell Mom.”

“About being engaged?” he
asked.

“About all of it—the
engagement, the baby—the whole thing. We have to tell her right
now.”

“Let me just get some
blood from you first, dear, and then you can run off to wherever
you have the energy to go.” The technician called a medical
assistant to take care of obtaining the blood samples needed to
make sure the pregnancy was indeed progressing normally. Mia was
barely able to sit still through the stick and blood
draw.

“Oh my God,” Mia said over
and over, looking at her ring. “You jerk! You totally had this
planned all along, and that’s why you were grinning like a fool
when you told me I had access to all your money now.” Rami
laughed.

“Do you like the
ring?”

Mia smiled, looking at it.
“It is way too expensive,” she said, glancing at him, “but I love
it.”

They drove straight to
Amie Campbell’s house, Mia almost exploding in her urgency to tell
her mother the news. She barely gave Rami time to park the car
before she unbuckled her seat belt and darted out of the car,
straight through the front door. “Mom! Mom, you will never guess
what’s happened.”

Her mother was standing in
the kitchen with a cup of coffee in hand. “Mia, are you okay?
What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“Nothing! I’m pregnant!
And engaged!” Her mother stared at her in shock for a moment that
seemed to last an hour, before Rami’s polite knock at the door
broke the silence.

“Can I come in?” he asked,
opening the door just a crack. He had met Mia’s mother before, but
it had only been a lunch date.

“Can you come in? You can
come in any time you want, Rami al-Hassan!” Mia’s mother hugged
him, giving him a quick but affectionate kiss on the
cheek.

“Then I take it you
approve?” Rami grinned at Mia.

“I absolutely approve,”
Amie said, hugging Rami and then hugging Mia. “I couldn’t think of
anything I would want more than to see my little girl happy—and
I’ve never seen her happier in my life.” Mia’s mother kissed her
and then hugged Rami once more.

It was only a brief visit
at Amie’s house that morning. While her health was rapidly
improving, Mia knew Amie still didn’t have very much stamina for
long visits. Once they’d taken their leave, exchanging more hugs
and kisses with the frail older woman, Rami took Mia by the hand to
lead her back to the car.

“Okay. I want to tell my
mom now,” Rami said quietly.

“You mean you haven’t told
her about any of this?”

Rami grinned. “I think—I
hope—she’ll be happy to know about it now that it’s a settled
thing. I didn’t want to get her hopes up until I knew I was going
to have a baby and everything was the way it should be.”

“I think I’ve got enough
energy for that,” Mia said, taking a deep breath. “Do I look nice
enough to meet her?” She frowned, looking down at her outfit
doubtfully.

“You look perfect,” Rami
said, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. “Just
perfect.”

FIFTEEN

As Rami pulled into the
long, winding driveway that led to his parents’ home in town, Mia
started to doubt his assertion that she would be just fine. She had
known Rami was wealthy, but his penthouse apartment was nothing in
comparison to the sprawling grounds and enormous house looming at
the end of the drive. “Are you really sure about this, Rami? Do you
want to tell her yourself, alone?”