The Sheik Who Loved Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

Watson. He said nothing, either. Neither of them were willing to break the spell.
    The woman turned her attention back to Kamilah, obviously aware that something was playing out on a much deeper level. “Well, I’m very grateful that you found me,” she softly.
    And with those few words, she notched up a resenting respect from David. In spite of her injury, in spite of her memory loss, she had enough presence of mind not to call Kamilah on her statement. She’d simply gone with the flow.
    David watched as Kamilah’s eyes slid in wonder down from the woman’s face to where her legs raised the Egyptian-cotton sheet. Then his daughter tensed visibly.
    “What is it, Kamilah?” the woman asked.
    Kamilah’s eyes shot up to the woman’s face, then back to the unmistakable shape of legs under the sheet. And David knew. He knew exactly what was worrying Kamilah. The woman didn’t have a tail.
    He had to do something, say something. He cleared his throat. “Kamilah…feels, uh, she believes that you should have a tail.”
    Everyone stared at him. He cleared his throat again. “You’re…you’re supposed to be a mermaid. With a tail.”
    The woman’s almond-shaped eyes widened. Her jaw dropped. David’s stomach balled into a knot. He had no idea what the woman might say, what words it would take to crush his child. He was petrified Kamilah would once again derail when she discovered the woman was not a real mermaid.
    “A tail?”
    David nodded. “Yes.”
    She studied his eyes, trying to read him, trying to guess his game, then she turned slowly to face Kamilah. “Should I have a tail, Kamilah? Please don’t tell me I should have a tail. Have I totally lost it?”
    Watson chuckled heartily, cracking the tension. “Well if you had a tail it’s gone now, so yes, I’d say you lost it.” The doctor continued to chortle merrily at his own joke.
    David didn’t find it at all amusing. He knew what this meant to Kamilah.
    The woman sensed it, too. “But you seem to think I should have a tail, Kamilah?”
    The little girl nodded, her face deadly serious.
    “Hmm.” Then the woman smiled. A warm smile. Like sunshine. It reached right into her emerald eyes making them sparkle with the morning light. And it made a dimple deepen in her one cheek. David stared, struck once again by her unbalanced beauty, by how white her teeth were against her soft tan. She’d been exquisite in repose, but the animation in her smile brought her beauty to full life. And it was dazzling. But it wasn’t only her physical appearance that intrigued him. She possessed a latent confidence, and right now she was in control of this bizarre situation in spite of her loss of identity, in spite of the fact she was stark naked under that thin sheet, a fact he couldn’t seem to erase from his mind.
    Bemused, he watched as she placed her hand gently over Kamilah’s. “You know, sometimes it happens when mermaids come on land,” she said softly. “Sometimes they lose their tails in exchange for something else…like legs.” She tipped her head conspiratorially closer to his daughter’s, and lowered her smoky voice to a whisper.
    “And, Kamilah,” she said. “You do have to remember that sometimes things are not quite what meet the eye. You’ve always got to keep an open mind, because one can never be sure when it comes to the magic of fairy tales.” She smiled again. “But I think you know that, don’t you? I think you know all about fairy tales.”
    No one spoke. Tiny dust motes danced, glistened in the shafts of yellow sunshine sneaking through the wooden slats that covered the window.
    “What’s your name?” Kamilah’s little whisper sliced the silence. David released a whoosh of air he hadn’t realized was trapped in his lungs. His heart tripped back into a steady rhythm. His child was coping. She was going to be okay.
    The woman studied his daughter carefully, looking deep into her eyes, as if seeing something there that he, a mere