The Sheik's Sensuous Trap (16 page)

Alea dressed carefully for dinner that evening.  She knew it was a welcome party in her honor and both her parents
as well as several of Rashid’s relatives
would be at the head table.  She pushed back the tears that threatened to spill over her lashes and fought down the anger that
crept
into her mind
, almost overwhelming her with its intensity. 

How dare he!  She had been so angry all day, she had barely heard any of the conversations going on around her.  She hated this, feeling so betrayed.  It wasn’t fair.  Alea had questioned Yaseem
about
the
pretty
woman she’d seen Rashid with.  Apparently, she wasn’t just an old flame.  The beautiful, voluptuous woman had been the rumored future fiancée until Alea had stepped into the picture.  The whole country had been waiting hungrily for the announcement that the two childhood sweethearts were going to be married.  No one was upset about Alea usurping that position – except for the ex-almost-
fiancée
, of course. 

Tossing her brush onto the dressing table, she stared at her reflection angrily.  So she was second choice.  What was she going to do about it?
The way she saw the situation,
she had two choices.  She could sit around and be angry, marry the man of her dreams and become queen.  Or she could leave it all behind. 

The second option definitely seemed better right at the moment. 

Obviously, he still had feelings for this woman and
the lovely “Batima”
definitely had feelings for him if her tears were any indication.  Good grief, regardless of the tears, her expression showed that she would gladly crawl inside the man if it meant she could be closer to him. 

The knock on her door startled her and she had to take several moments to get her emotions under control before she answered it. 

“Good evening, Your Highness,” a woman said, bowing slightly as she held her heavy makeup cases.  “Are you ready for us?” she asked, motioning to two other women behind her.  Alea knew that one was a hair dresser and the other a manicurist. 
All three women hesitated at her doorway.

Glancing down at her fingernails, she mentally rolled her eyes, wondering why she had to have another manicure.  Her nails looked perfect.  Her dress tonight was red and she had a French manicure which mean the tips were white and, therefore, would match anything she chose to wear. 

Sighing because she knew that she could not get rid of them easily, she allowed them entry.  “Yes, come in.” 

She stepped
out of the way
and walked back to her dressing table, allowing the three women to follow and set up their wares.  Alea knew from the last three days that the manicurist would start first, and the hair dresser would work some magic to get her long, black tresses into some sort of sophisticated style, then the make up artist would go to work.  She had suggested lighter makeup the first night and the artist had looked horrified.  “
B
ut the cameras, Your Highness.  They will be all over
the area, and the makeup will help hide any blemishes
.”

Alea didn’t want anyone to be offended
even though she
had been in the public spotlight all of her life
and had never worn this much makeup before
.  But she also knew that this week, the week before her wedding, her picture would be all over the world so she should strive to look her best, even if it meant wearing enough makeup to have it feel like a mask.
  However, enough was enough. 

“Okay, ladies, do your magic,
but you’re going to have to lighten up on the makeup.  I don’t want too much tonight and I don’t care if the rest of the world thinks I’m fading into starvation or dying from lack of sleep.  I’m not going to wear as much as I have the past three days,
” she said and took
a
comfortable seat while each of them worked their chemicals. 
She felt better having made a stance about something, even if
it’s
as insignificant as her makeup.  It was the little things in life that mattered, she told herself. Quickly, she blinked back the tears that threatened when she thought about the one big thing that could destroy her if she let him. 

An hour and a half later, Alea took off her robe and pulled on the red dress, appreciating the way the folds hugged her figure but not revealing anything overtly.  The red sandals were comfortable, which was a relief since the pair she’d been wearing the previous evening had been torture. 

“Thank you for your help,” Alea replied.  “Would you mind if I had a few minutes alone?” she asked.  Immediately, all three women shoved their make up and tools into a container and left. 

The silence was wonderful but it did nothing to calm her anger.  She couldn’t cry though, not with the amount of mascara that had been applied.  Or maybe it wouldn’t matter – would it be water proof?  Who knows, she sighed and wanted to throw something, anything, just to hear the crash as it hit another hard object.  Preferably Rashid’s head. 

“You look lovely,” a soft voice said from the doorway.

Alea turned to see her mother standing there, smiling at her.

“Oh, mother,” she cried out, grabbing a tissue in a desperate attempt to halt the awful tears that started slipping unwanted down her cheeks. 

Sasha hurried over and gave her daughter a hug.  “What is it?” she asked, ignoring the makeup that was sure to ruin her
red
dress. 

“I hate him,” she cried out, clinging to her mother’s reassuring embrace. 

“I know dear.  But I also think you’re in love with him,” she said, and pulled Alea over to the bed, sitting them both down and looking at her daughter intently.  “What’s this all about?  I thought you were starting to get excited about the
wedding plans
.”

“Oh mother!  He’s in love with another woman!”
  Her shoulders sagged in defeat as she revealed the awful secret to the one woman Alea knew would understand. 

“No!” her mother cried out, shocked that Alea would even suggest something.  “I don’t believe it,” she said.

“It’s true.  I saw them together this morning.  They were almost kissing
in the salon downstairs.  And what’s worse, Rashid doesn’t care that I know about it!  He was supposed to be meeting me,” she cried, wiping angrily at her tears.  “But moments before I walked in, he was holding this other woman in his arms and it looked very sweet
and intimate
.”

Sasha put a finger under her daughter’s chin, lifting her tear stained face up so she could look into her eyes. 
“
A
lmost kissing?  So they weren’t actually kissing?”
she clarified. 

Alea took a deep breath, knowing where her mother was going with this line of arguments. 
“No.  But I did
n
’t stick around to wait for the scene to unravel,”
she said and swiped her tears with a tissue, grimacing when it came back covered in makeup.  “Oh, what am I going to do?”

“You’re going to talk to h
i
m about this
and demand an explanation,” Sasha said firmly, laying her hands in her lap as she watched the expression of horror drift across Alea’s features. 

“I can’t,” Alea gasped, her eyes wide with
dismay. 

“Why ever not?” Sasha asked, confusion all over her face. “This isn’t somethin
g you can ignore.  You’re due to
be married in
four
days.  You deserve an explanation.
  And I suggest that you demand fidelity from him if he’s going to require it of you.  This is a political marriage but it doesn’t mean he has the right to disrespect you.
”
  Then her mother’s features softened.  “But I don’t think you have anything to worry about.  I have seen the way your Rashid looks at you across the room and I think he is just as much in love with you as you are with him.  And I think what you saw this afternoon was simply a misunderstanding.”  Sasha waited for her words to sink in before continuing, “Why won’t you ask him about what you saw?  Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for the woman being in his arms and ‘almost’ kissing your fiancé.” 

Alea walked to her makeup table and covered her face in cold cream, rubbing it all over in an attempt to clean off the thick makeup.  “Because I don’t want to hear the truth?”

“The truth is that he’s in love with you.  Any fool can see it.”  Sasha looked at her daughter then shook her head, “Well, not any fool because you obviously don’t.”

Alea swung around, uncaring that she looked ridiculous with cold cream all over her face and dark black circles where the mascara was rubbed off and waiting to be rinsed away.  “You didn’t see them
together
, mother.  You didn’t see their tender expressions as they spoke.  I saw it and I could tell that, whatever he was saying, was packed with emotion.”

Sasha knew she’d never get through to her daughter this way. Taking a different tactic, she said, “Okay.  So you saw something that got you angry.  What are you going to do about it?  Just lay down and take it?”

Alea swung back around to the mirror.  “I don’t know.  I do know that I’m not going to deal with this life the way I hav
e for the past three days.  It’
s insane. I mean, just look at the amount of makeup they want me to wear!
” she said with feeling, her hands flying to float around her crazed looking features.
 
“
It
’
s ridiculous.”

Sasha smothered her smile, knowing that her beautiful daughter truly did look ridiculous.  “Well, perhaps you wouldn’t look so
outlandish
if you washed that stuff off your face and started over.”

Alea growled and slipped out of her gown, tossing it carelessly over the back of a chair.  “Yes, I was planning on it,” she said and stomped into the bathroom to rinse her face with co
ld water.  She didn’t feel self-
con
s
cious at all walking in her underwear and high heeled
shoes
in front of her mother.  She was too angry to feel anything else at the moment. 

She quickly rinsed off her face, then came back
,
tied her robe around herself,
and re-
applied her own makeup, keeping it light this time.  When she was done, only five minutes later, she pulled on her gown again, her movements quick and jerky as she considered all her options.  “As for your last question, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it,” she said. 

Sasha nodded her head. “Well, think about it and let me or Rashid know.  I’d be interested to hear the real story, instead of what you thought happened.” 

Alea looked sharply at her mother.  “And what if the real story is that the man is a lying, cheating, two timing jerk who is just out to gain an easy solution to a situation his predecessor created?  Would you support me when I ask to leave the relationship?”

Sasha laughed, unable to stop herself but smothered her amusement when her daughter only became angrier.  “Dear, why don’t you ask him about the scene first, and let’s talk about an appropriate reaction later?  You don’t have all the facts.  But I’ll warn you, I think you’re wrong.  The man is in love with you and I doubt those feelings would permit him to do something so destructive to the trust you’ve given him.”

“I don’t trust him
,”
she countered.

Sasha smiled gently. “Of course you do.  You agreed to marry him, didn’t you?” She placed a gentle finger over Alea’s mouth and continued before her daughter could interrupt her, “I know you think you agreed to this marriage because of some other reason, but if that’s what you’re telling yourself, then you are not being completely honest.  Probably with both yourself and your man.”

S
asha walked out of the bedroom, leaving her daughter more frustrated
than when she’d arrived,
and seething with fury.