Page 72 of The Geek and the Sheikh

“You’d be surprised how easy it is to get married here,” Midnight said.

“Oh? Easier than back home?”

“If someone tells you to sign something here, make sure you read it first,” Midnight dryly remarked.

She frowned and shook her head. “Who would be stupid enough to sign something without reading it first?”

The chorus of smothered laughter met her question. It wasn’t until she noticed Junayd’s sheepish expression and her sister rolling her eyes that she put two and two together and realized that Midnight was married! And the wedding was going to behers! Midnight was marrying Junaydtwice! What shocked her even more was the fact that her sister was looking so pleased about it.

* * *

Two hours later, she slowly walked back to Jameel’s apartments. She had been surprised when he kept his distance in the throne room. Even as everyone else mingled and chatted, he had remained off to the side.

Worry gnawed at her. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t returned last night. The bed in the master bedroom looked untouched. She hadn’t bothered to go to bed. There was too much going on in her brain to relax.

She had quickly gone through a roller coaster of emotions. The last being fury. She wasn’t mad at Jameel. It was obvious from the photo that both he and Allison had been younger. Sowhatif he had slept with her forever ago and lied about it? He must have been struggling with it and felt ashamed. No, she was furious that Allison was such a bitch and that she had given the woman space in her head.

Now she was in payback mode. It was time to stop dancing with Allison and hit her where it hurt—in the wallet. She was going to empty every account the woman had for the rest of her life!

She slowed when several men exited Jameel’s apartment followed by two women who giggled when they noticed her. They quickly covered their mouths with their hands and hurried after the group of men. Junebug turned in a circle, taking several steps backwards before she faced the door to the apartment again.

Pushing it open, she entered the foyer and kicked off her shoes. Fortunately, she had remembered them this morning before she left. She released a sigh. What she wouldn’t give for her—

Junebug jerked to a stop. Her mouth dropped open as she gazed around the once pristine living room of Jameel’s apartment. The furniture had been moved to the side and in the center of the room were boxes. Not just a few boxes, but boxes on top of boxes. She walked around them, reading the message written on the outside of them.

“There are two million, four hundred eighty-two thousand, six-hundred and ninety-eight ways I could tell you I'm sorry and it still wouldn’t be enough, but there are eleven million, two-hundred-ninety-nine thousand, one hundred and six ways I could tell you that I love you, and it would just be the beginning. Each one-inch tile in these boxes is just the beginning of all the things I want to do with you in this life. I want to create a picture that will be seen for centuries, declaring to the world how much I love you.”

Junebug paused in the middle of the room and pressed her fist to her mouth. Tears glittered in her eyes, but didn’t fall. This was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. She sniffed and looked at the floor. Someone had carefully laid out some tiles in the shape of large arrows.

Curious, she followed the arrows to the kitchen. A laughing gasp slipped from her. Every free surface area was covered with mountains of bags of chocolate-filled marshmallows. It would take her a lifetime to eat all of them and she would be larger than the palace by the time she was finished. Shaking her head, she laughed again when she saw arrows made out of packets of hot chocolate mix.

Following the trail, she entered the master bedroom, stopped, and slowly sank down onto the carpet. This time the tears came. Large, monstrous tears with huge hiccupping sobs that shook her body. There were fluffy bunny slippers, furry kitten and puppy slippers, monkey slippers, panda slippers, cartoon-character slippers, and every assortment of fluffy, soft slippers known to man in the room. In the center of all of them, holding white, fluffy bunny slippers with tiny ‘I love you’ hearts on them, was Jameel.

He slowly walked over to her and knelt on one knee. She lifted her head when he cupped her cheek, caressing it with one hand. Reaching out, she took the slippers from him and hugged them to her chest.

“I love you.”

She sniffed. “You really do. No one would have done something this crazy for someone they didn’t.”

He laughed and leaned closer to give her a gentle kiss. “I missed you last night. I don’t ever want to spend another night away from you.”

“It sucked. Big time. Where were you?” she asked.

He twisted and sat down next to her. He waved his hand at all the slippers and shook his head. She watched the expressions dancing across his face.

God, but I love him!

“It took a while to get all of this arranged and coordinated. There are a lot of merchants in a multitude of countries that are very happy right now. We may be eating marshmallows for a while. I think I maxed out my credit card,” he teased.

“Well, at least we won’t go hungry,” she laughed.

He wiggled his nose. “No, we’ll just die of a sugar overdose.”

“I know of a better way to die.”

He looked at her. “How?”

She leaned into him and whispered. “By starving to death because we're too busy making love.”

---