The Sheikh's Son (Book 3 of The Desert Sheikh) (Sheikh Romance Trilogy)

By Katheryn Lane

Book 3 of The Desert Sheikh

Sarah Greenwich is a British doctor in London.
Her estranged husband is a Bedouin warlord from the Middle East.
Ali, their nine-year-old boy, is caught in the middle.

When Sheikh Akbar manages to track down his long-lost wife, he also discovers the one other thing that he has always wanted: a son. However, reclaiming what he wants and loves is not as easy as he first thinks.

Who will win in this renewed battle of wills and what lengths will Akbar go to in order to keep his child?

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The Sheikh’s Son is the third novella (17,700 words) in The Desert Sheikh series. It follows Kidnapped By The Sheikh and Married To The Sheikh. Each book stands on its own, but if you prefer to read in order, you might want to read those books first. Alternatively, you can buy the entire series in just one book, The Desert Sheikh.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katheryn Lane
• Release date: Jan 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301949830

Katheryn Lane

I’m a wife, teacher, author and mother of two boisterous boys, so most of my days are taken up with finding lost school shoes, getting stuck in traffic and wondering why I always join the queue that doesn’t move in the supermarket. However, I try to forget these daily problems (and the fact that I burnt the toast again this morning) by losing myself in a good book and writing novels that give readers a break from everyday life.Open one of my books and escape on an adventure to an exotic location, because it’s easier to buy a book than it is to book an air ticket.Have a break, read a book!

Book preview

THE SHEIKH’S SON

Books 3 of The Desert Sheikh trilogy

by

Katheryn Lane

Smashwords Edition

Published by:

Katheryn Lane on Smashwords

The Desert Sheikh

Copyright © 2013 by Katheryn Lane

All rights reserved

Cover art by Rae Monet at www.RaeMonetInc.com

Thank you to The Atwater Group for copy editing this book.

www.TheAtwaterGroup.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, and events depicted herein are either a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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THE SHEIKH’S SON

When Sheikh Akbar manages to track down his long-lost wife, he also discovers the one other thing that he has always wanted: a son. However, reclaiming what he wants and loves is not as easy as he first thinks.

Who will win in this renewed battle of wills and what lengths will Akbar go to in order to keep his child?

Chapter 1

Ali, I’m home, Sarah called out to her nine-year-old son as she walked into the house. Sorry I’m so late. I got held up at the surgery with a patient and then there was a delay on the Tube. Honestly, you’d think that after three months of maintenance work, they’d have sorted out the trains by now.

Sarah took off her coat and dumped her umbrella into the kitchen sink, where it dripped all over the remains of the breakfast dishes.

Ali, what have I said about doing the washing up when you get home and a bit of tidying up?

She cleared a pile of toy cars off the kitchen table, put down a bag of shopping and then began picking up dirty clothes off the kitchen floor. She shoved them into the laundry basket in the corner, which was already overflowing.

Ali, I thought we’d have pizza tonight. I bought your favourite, pepperoni.

Sarah turned on the oven and removed two frozen pizzas from their plastic wrappings.

Ali? She called up the stairs to his bedroom. Ali, are you there?

There was no reply. Sarah dragged herself up the steep, narrow staircase. She was too tired to keep running up and down the stairs after him. She knocked on his door. No answer. She waited a moment and then knocked again. Finally, she opened the door and put her head round.

Ali was standing in front of a TV screen, playing some type of game that seemed to involve shooting people. Sarah walked in and removed the headphones from his dark, curly hair.

What have I said about this? You know I don’t like you playing violent video games.

Ali carried on clicking the controls in his hand. On the screen in front of them, Sarah watched as a man’s head got blown off.

Turn that off now!

Ali carried on clicking. Another man had his legs shot to pieces. Sarah turned off the TV screen and the control box.

Mum! I was just about to reach my top score.

Sarah looked at her son. He had dark, swarthy features and an unruly mass of black hair that fell in front of his eyes. Through it, she could see that one of his eyes was swollen and there was a cut across the eyebrow.

Ali, what happened? Were you in a fight again? Barely a week seemed to go past without Ali getting into some kind of trouble.

It wasn’t my fault. The other boys started it.

You know what we said about fighting: if somebody says something you don’t like, you have to explain to them why you don’t like it. Hitting people is not a solution.

But they called you names.

I don’t care what they call me. Don’t get into any more fights. Sarah knew what the other kids said. She went into school often enough to talk to Ali’s teachers about it to know exactly what was going on. Ali’s school had a high proportion of children in it who were from the Middle East and North Africa and they teased Ali for being of mixed race. Even worse, though, was the fact that they told Ali that his mother must be a whore for sleeping with and then leaving Ali’s Arabic father.

Come here. Let me look at your eye.

Sarah brushed away his hair and looked at her son’s injuries. As a doctor, she could see that the cut didn’t need stitches, but it might leave a scar, which would match the one he already had across his other eyebrow.

Why did you leave Dad? Ali asked.

We’ve gone through this before, my dear. Sometimes two people find it very difficult to be together and so they have to separate.

So you didn’t love each other?

"No, that’s not true. We loved