The next morning, Marian woke up early to get herself centered. She’d spent the majority of her first night in Minarak bitching to Annabelle about Kelly’s intolerable comments and gorging on decadent hotel food, so today needed to be a clean slate.

Today she was going to do her actual job, clean up the project, and get on her way to never seeing Kelly again.

She reviewed the files she’d brought for the presentation, even though Kelly was in charge of handling it and would never let her get a word in edgewise. She’d come so prepared that she could actually do Kelly’s job. In fact, she would do it a million times better, given his inherent aversion to sensitivity and diplomacy.

If she liked her job less she might have found the sinking ship of Kelly more entertaining. But really, it just stung. He was ruining their good name and burning bridges around the world. Annabelle was equally aghast at his behavior, but her only warning last night for the presentation was: be prepared to assert yourself.

Her words rang in Marian’s ears as she buttoned up her ruffled shirt, tucking it into a plain, black skirt.

Marian grabbed her sleek briefcase and purse, then headed downstairs to meet Omar and Kelly so they could carpool to National Oil’s headquarters for the meeting. At least with Omar here, she wouldn’t have to worry about the car departing without her. In the lobby, the two men waited by the front doors. Kelly already had a sour look on his face.

“Good morning,” she said brightly, ignoring the pulse behind her eye that cynically awaited a snide comment from Kelly. As soon as Kelly opened his mouth to speak, she added, “I hope that whatever you’re about to say is kind.”

Kelly watched her for a moment then turned away. “Let’s go.”

Omar sent her a secret grin as they walked into the Minarak morning. Traffic hummed in the distance, beyond the stone walls surrounding the hotel property. The air was misty with city dew, casting a gauzy glow over everything. This would be a perfect day to get lost with Omar and see where we end up.

“Did you sleep well?” Omar held the back door of the car open for her as she slid inside. Kelly quickly claimed the front seat.

“I did. This hotel is lovely.” Marian waited as Omar came around to the other side, working on actively ignoring Kelly’s presence in the front seat. “I had a delicious, quiet meal in my room, without any irritating outside influences.”

Omar’s grin widened as the driver shifted the car into gear. The ride to National Oil was pleasant and mostly quiet. Omar chatted a bit, but Kelly stayed silent, thankfully. By the time they pulled up to the boxy office building, seemingly made of black mirrors and steel reinforcement, Marian was hopeful that they could pull this deal off.

Inside, a suited man led them to a large conference room. Twenty men—nearly identical in their dark suits—already sat around the table. Three empty chairs near the head of the table waited for them. Omar said something in Farsi to the group.

“If the whole meeting will be in that language, we might as well call it off now,” Kelly said, adjusting his suit coat as he settled into his seat.

Marian fought a groan. “Seriously, don’t start with this right now.”

“Gentlemen,” Omar said in a clear voice. “Thank you all for having us here today. We are honored to be here to discuss a potential deal linking our merged companies with your oil technology.”

Marian looked around the room as Omar spoke. Not a single woman. This must have been what Annabelle warned her about.

Omar gave a quick introduction to the nature of their proposed deal—utilize National Oil’s machinery and systems to gain access to a coveted region for mining purposes, while offering them unlimited use of Almasi Holdings’ connections in return.

“Our company is the best in America,” Kelly interjected, his puffy face looking more pompous than usual. “We’re an invaluable link, one only idiots would turn down.”

A tense moment of silence settled over the table, and Marian sensed the need to intervene. One of the oil tech men began speaking at the same time she did, though, so she subsided.

“We’re prepared to let you have use of our newest line of machines,” he said in slow, practiced English. He rattled off the model numbers, which Marian immediately recognized from her recent studies of machine reviews.

“Excuse me,” she said quietly. When another man began speaking over her, she said again, “Excuse me, gentlemen, but those machines have consistently poor performances in all recent trials.”

Several sets of dark eyes turned to her, and she looked to Kelly and Omar. Both of them avoided her gaze, so she went on. “Those machines would not be effective for our purposes,” she said, adding a few figures about the scope of the mining work Almasi-Thomas intended to do.

Kelly chuckled a little, all but reaching out to pat her on the head. “Well, thanks for that.”

Some of the oil tech men tittered. “Women always seem to have a response to everything, don’t they?”

A ripple of laughter coursed through the room, and Marian’s neck heated up. Anger prickled through her, and she turned to Omar for help. He had to see the logic here. He was sane and rational, and handsome. Help me out here.

“We should lock her up, like you guys do with your women.” Kelly waved his hand dismissively across the table, a sneer on his face. “Isn’t that right? They can barely leave the house without permission. Seems like it might work on this one.”

A heavy silence thudded across the table, and Marian gaped at Kelly. Oh. My. God. Just when she thought he couldn’t get worse, he did. The man knew no limits.

One of the oil tech men fired off something fast and angry in Farsi, to which Omar responded with a furrowed brow. A moment later, several men were shouting in Farsi, and the entire meeting had exploded before her eyes.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she hissed at Kelly. “Did you seriously just say that?”

“It was a joke,” he shot back. “Seems nobody can take one these days. Bunch of sensitive pussies everywhere I go.”

Marian let her head drop into her hands. He wasn’t even worth it. He had a skull as thick as a glacier. And a brain that moved about as fast as one. A moment later, Omar stood, looking down at both of them with an intense gaze.

“We have to go.” He nodded toward the door.

He led them out of the conference room, leaving a thick wake of tension behind them. In the hallway, the air was cooler and twenty pairs of angry eyes weren’t boring into them. She turned to Omar, making her hands into fists so she wouldn’t start wringing them.

“What the fuck just happened?”

“They’re refusing to do further business with us until you apologize,” Omar said, staring pointedly at Kelly. “You crossed a line with them.”

Kelly scoffed. “It was a joke!”

“It doesn’t matter. You spoke poorly of their families and our culture.”

“This is business,” Kelly said, his red-rimmed eyes narrowing to slits. “I don’t give a flying fuck what your women do in their spare time. That has nothing to do with this deal.”

“But respect has everything to do with it,” Marian said, crossing her arms. “And you ruined the deal by disrespecting them.”

“I’d say you did.” Kelly stepped closer to her, a sickening heat rolling off him. “You just couldn’t keep your goddamn mouth shut. You don’t tell the brokering firm that their equipment sucks. God knows what your real job is here, but according to me, it’s to stay quiet.”

Marian opened her mouth to respond, but Omar stepped between them, raising a hand in the air.

“Listen. This deal doesn’t move forward without a representative from each of our merged companies.” He looked between Marian and Kelly, his face drawn tight. Even when he was pissed and talking to them as if they were warring children, he was drop-dead gorgeous.

“I’ll be the representative then.” Marian balled her fists, standing up straighter. Even at her tallest, she barely reached Kelly’s shoulders, let alone Omar’s. “I can do his job in my sleep.”

“You’re insane,” Kelly said.

“Well, you’re argumentative and impossible to work with,” Marian shot back. “If we want the deal, either you have to apologize or I’ll do it.” After a second thought, she added, “And I’ll do the job you couldn’t.”

Kelly laughed exaggeratedly, as if acting in a bad after-school movie. “That’s hilarious.”

“We’ll have to take this to the CEOs,” Omar said after a moment, massaging his temple. “Come on.”

He walked briskly down the hallway, leading them out of the building while he fiddled with his phone, presumably to call the driver. They hadn’t lasted fifteen minutes in this building before being essentially kicked out. Omar paced the lobby while he spoke with someone in anxious Farsi on the phone, his shiny leather shoes tapping softly as he walked.

Was Omar on her side? He was hard to read. He clearly was miffed about Kelly’s inglorious stunt, but didn’t seem very excited by the idea that she take over. Though he probably didn’t have the executive function to just kick Kelly out and let her slide into his place. Still, it would have been nice to see more support from him. He’d barely looked at her in the meeting when she brought up the crucial point. If they got into a bad deal with piss-poor machinery, then what was the point?

Marian stood far to the side, arms crossed. If she could avoid speaking another word to Kelly, she would. But for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine how he’d managed to snag—or keep—his job with an attitude like his. It was like he tried to sabotage himself at every turn. The business would be better off booting his ass to the curb.

A moment later, the car arrived, and the three of them got inside in tense silence. The ride to Almasi Holdings didn’t feature even a murmur of conversation. Marian tapped out furious texts to Annabelle, updating her about the heinous happenings, to which her friend responded with pure “OMG”s and “WTF”s.

At Almasi, Omar practically led the two of them up to the top floor by their ears. Marian had never felt so much like a kid in trouble. Here they were, going to meet the Parsian CEO, who would report back to the American CEO. It felt exactly like tattling, and someone was about to get a painful ass whooping.

The Sheikh Almasi, Omar’s father, sat stern and majestic behind an enormous desk in a lushly appointed office lined with bookcases. The air smelled faintly of myrrh.

“Father, I’d like you to meet Kelly Gunther and Marian Frank. Kelly is the CTO of our American branch, and Marian has accompanied him to finalize the deal with National Oil. We had a problem at today’s meeting that is, as of now, completely unresolved.”

Mr. Almasi nodded, his jowls wobbling a little. “Let’s call New York, shall we?”