How on earth did you summon a cab in Al-Zhera?

Eloise missed Denver, where she could just push a button on the app on her phone and a car would appear. No doubt this city had something like that too, but she didn’t know what it was or how to take advantage of it, so what was she supposed to do?

She worked her way along the sidewalk in what she hoped was the general direction of the hotel, looking for cars with indicator lights on top of them and not seeing any. A couple of times, she thought she spotted something and lifted a hand, only to realize she was looking at a utility vehicle or police car, and dropped her hand quickly.

She was never going to get back to the hotel at this rate.

Damn Patrick. How could he have left her stranded like that? He had known the car was her only way back to the hotel. She thought back to the ride from the hotel to the Khan Capital office. How long had it been? Twenty minutes? Thirty? There was no way she could walk all the way back in heels—even if she did know the way.

What was she going to do?

“Need a ride?”

Eloise turned. The voice was coming from the inside of a sleek black car which rode low to the ground and had a high spoiler on the back. It seemed to scream “fast!” at her, and Eloise knew it was the kind of thing her parents would have flinched at her riding around town in when she was younger.

The partially-open window rolled the rest of the way down. Masoud was in the driver’s seat, and when she saw him, he smiled and jerked his head toward the passenger seat.

“Come on. Get in.”

“I…how did you know I would need a ride?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “I was on my way home for the day.”

“So early?”

“It’s one of the perks of owning your own company,” Masoud grinned. “Usually, I do stay late, but it’s such a nice day today, it seemed a shame to spend it indoors.”

“I’m with you there,” Eloise said.

“I’ll take you where you need to go, if you’d like.”

“My hotel?”

“Where are you staying?”

“The Royal Waterfront.”

“I can take you there. Get in.”

Eloise got in the car, ignoring her trepidation about being picked up by a man she didn’t know well in his flashy sports car. Masoud seemed to be trustworthy, she reasoned. His company did have a morality clause, after all, and she’d been enjoying spending time with him upstairs; she was grateful to have a little more time with him.

She fastened her seat belt as Masoud stepped on the accelerator, tearing down the dusty road toward the edge of town.

“So,” Eloise said, feeling bold. Here she was, after all, in a fancy car with a practically royal man. Her employer had tried to ditch her, but wasn’t she making lemonade out of those lemons! “What are you planning to do with your day off?”

“I thought I’d hit the beach,” he said. “I try to go as often as I can. I’m so fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of the world, and I would be ashamed if I didn’t take advantage of everything it has to offer.”

“I haven’t been to the beach here yet,” Eloise confessed.

“You’re kidding.” He took his eyes off the road to stare at her.

“I’m not. There’s a great one behind my hotel, but I was exhausted after my flight yesterday, and there was no time this morning.”

“That’s what you should do with your afternoon, then,” Masoud said decisively.

“Oh, I’d love to,” Eloise said. “There are so many things I’d love to see here.”

“You should! Take the day and explore. You’ve got to go see the old town; it’s just a short drive from your hotel. And try our fresh seafood. It really lives up to its reputation.”

Eloise sighed. “As it stands, I’m probably going to have to spend most of the afternoon chasing things down for Patrick. Today didn’t go the way he wanted at all.”

“What will you have to do?” Masoud asked.

“There’s probably going to be a charade of preparing for a lawsuit. He’ll have me call the company lawyers and find out if we can sue you for bringing us out here under false pretenses—don’t worry,” she added quickly, “they’ll advise him not to do it, and in the end, he won’t. That’s what happens every time.”

“Okay,” Masoud said. “So you’ll waste several hours of your time preparing a legal case that will never come to fruition. Then what?”

“He’ll want to feel powerful again, so he’ll send me on a series of errands. Maybe it’ll start with something he actually needs, like a drink—”

“He needs a drink?”

“Well, he’ll want one. At any rate, he’ll feel better when he sees me following his orders, so he’ll send me out on more errands.”

“You’re just going to be running around for him all day?”

“More or less. Probably.”

Masoud seemed to hesitate. “Do you have to go back?”

“What do you mean?”

“He did leave you at the office.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is, he can hardly complain if you don’t come back in a timely manner. Take the day off with me.”

Eloise sputtered. “I can’t do that!”

“Why?”

“I’m supposed to be working.”

“Let him fetch his own drinks for one night. It won’t hurt him. Take the opportunity to see what Al-Zhera has to offer. I’ll show you around personally.”

Could she really do that? It was tempting. A chance to see this beautiful country she might never be able to visit again. A whole day with Masoud. Patrick would be angry, of course, but he was always angry. He would be angry no matter what she did.

That thought was enough to sway her.

“Okay,” she said, smiling at the handsome sheikh. “Let’s do it.”