Chapter 1
“You have to be kidding me!” Shala pushed back from her desk, threw her glasses on her keyboard and kicked off her shoes. Zadir was driving her mad. Absolutely, positively and right into the nuthouse. He’d just emailed her his schedule for the next two weeks and they weren’t in Jovanbar for more than twelve hours. How he expected her to just drop everything and travel the world with him, she had no idea. She only knew that he expected it, the Sheikh expected it and the acting CEO, Sima Alzari expected it.
So she would pack her bags and be ready to leave two days from today. Shala had known this assignment was a bad idea when the Sheikh had approached her, but it was a great honor and she couldn’t turn it down and expect to keep her career on track. Besides she had a feeling the Sheikh saw more than he let on and knew she’d harbored a secret crush on the bad boy twin for years. She cursed her expressive features that gave her away and vowed—once again—to keep her attraction to him hidden.
The problem was Zadir the man was far more appealing than he’d been as a boy. He was taller, bigger and thanks to therapy, had a golden tan body full of rippling muscles. Those green eyes sparkled constantly, with mischief and desire and mirth. His new hairstyle gave him a rugged, bad boy appeal that should have had her running for the hills. Too bad he had a bigger pull on her today than he’d had since he’d saved her from bullying teen girls. “God help me,” she muttered when she grabbed an image from her mind of Zadir, sweaty and shirtless with eyes dark with desire and boring into her.
She was in trouble. A world of trouble.
“Shala, do you have a minute?”
She looked up at the sound of the Sheikh and saw Rashid’s bride-to-be standing with him. “Yes, for you always.” Although formidable, Sheikh Alzari was a kind man who had always been nothing but nice to her. “Come on in,” she waved them to the chairs across from hers.
“Thanks Shala. I love that dress on you, too bad I’ve got too much arse, er,” she looked nervously at the Sheikh beside her. “Too much junk in my trunk, I mean.”
Shala waved her off. “You have just the right amount of junk,” Shala told her. “I’ll give you the name of this designer, he’ll be happy to tailor one of his creations for you.” She returned Sabrina’s grateful smile and took her seat again. “How can I help you today?”
“How is Zadir doing, really?”
Shala was surprised Sabrina was the one to ask the question. She knew they were friends but she hadn’t realized their bond was so tight. “He’s doing well. His body seems to be healing well and he only seems to experience pain at the end of his workouts. His behavior has been exemplary.” She laughed at the Sheikh’s raised eyebrows. “Well exemplary for him. He’s an incorrigible flirt but there has been no late night partying, no sexy tell all stories from his conquests and no drinking and driving.” Truthfully she’d been surprised by how easily he’d turned around his reputation.
“Really? Are you sure nothing gets by you?”
She didn’t want to tell the Sheikh or Sabrina she was sure because he spent most of his time trying to get her into bed so she just said, “I’m sure.”
The Sheikh nodded thoughtfully. “That’s good. What’s on the schedule this week?”
She released a soft sigh and relaxed into her plush leather chair. “It’s a pretty hectic few weeks,” she warned and handed over the schedule she’d just printed out.
Sabrina whistled. “You’ll be able to stay with him everywhere?”
She nodded. It was her only job for the foreseeable future. “Yes, I just received the schedule and I’ll hand over my other work today.” She answered a few more questions and escorted her guests to the elevator. “I’ll keep you updated as often as I can,” she promised.
“Call Sabrina and update her, I’ll be somewhat unavailable for the next few weeks.”
She nodded but her thick sculpted brows creased with concern. “Is there anything I can help you with, Sheikh?”
He patted her cheek. “You were always such a good girl, Shala. Thank you but I’m good, or I will be. You’ve grown into a gorgeous woman and you’ll make some man very lucky.”
She blushed. “Thank you, Sheikh. I hope you feel better.” The doors closed and her shoulders slumped in relief.
* * *
Zadir had a plan and it included him and Shala in a bed with an obscenely high thread count, champagne and if he was really lucky, whipped cream. He smiled to himself as he thought about that jam packed schedule he’d sent to her. She hadn’t called, just sent a short reply that said she would meet him at the royal air strip at eight tomorrow morning. That wasn’t good enough, so he’d sent her a message saying that he would pick her up. He’d called her laughing after he received her one word reply. Fine.
He smiled all day and into the next morning when he thought of the time they’d spend together. To ensure that, he’d booked two bedroom suites for them to share and discuss business. It would be like living together for two weeks. She wouldn’t be able to resist his charms and soon he’d have his hands full of her round ass and her slender legs wrapped around his body as he thrust into her. Zadir quickly shook those thoughts away before his attraction to her became hard to hide. It wouldn’t do to pick her up this morning with a raging boner. It might set the wrong tone for their trip.
“I’ll go get her. Wait here,” he instructed the driver and shut the door behind him. Shala lived in a small house a few miles away from the palace. It was nice, he thought as he walked up the grey stone paving stones and up a short set of stairs to knock on her door. The house was small, stucco with a lot of windows. “Good morning Shala. You’re looking gorgeous this morning,” he told her and flashed his most charming smile.
“Good morning, Zadir. You’re bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.”
He leaned against the door frame. “In anticipation of seeing you, that’s all.” It wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t slept well because he’d been plagued with thoughts of Shala and those damn curves, those lush lips and that spicy flowery scent that emanated from her. It was a long painful night.
She smiled at him and stood back so he could come in. “You know, Zadir, there is such a thing as too charming.”
His eyebrows rose. “There is? I refuse to believe that. And I’m telling you the truth. If you want to know why I couldn’t sleep last night, I’ll tell you.” He stood close, invading her space until her spicy scent reached his brain and his hand went to finger her thick dark locks. Without thinking he stroked her silky hair for a long minute before she interrupted him.
“We need to leave soon, Zadir.”
He smiled at her husky voice. She was affected. “We do,” he whispered and she blinked at his nearness. “I’ll grab your bags and we can go.”
“You don’t need to do that, Zadir. You’re still healing and I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own bags.” To illustrate her point she leaned over, giving him a nice view of her heart shaped backside, and lifted one case and leaned the other on its wheels and began to walk. She turned at the doorstep to look at him. “Do you plan on staying at my house for the duration of our trip?”
Her teasing question caught him off guard and he smiled. “We could both stay here and take care of the business by teleconference. What do you say?” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.
Shala looked at him with a stony glare, her light brown eyes were sharp enough to cut glass. Then she surprised him and laughed. She was doubled over with laughter when he closed the door with his hand out for the key. “Is it that funny?” He asked, his voice gruff and grumpy.
She stopped laughing briefly and tried to speak, only to be interrupted by another fit of laughter. Under control again she ran a hand down her hair, “What do you say,” she mimicked him with a deep voice and bedroom eyes, and then she erupted in another fit of uncontrollable laughter. “Sorry. My goodness,” she said and fanned the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “Okay,” she beamed a smile at him. “I’m ready to go now.”
He smiled at the few giggles she released on the way to the car. His smile morphed into a scowl when she waved the driver away and tossed her bags in the car. “Let the man do his job, Shala.”
She smiled up at the older man. “We all deserve a break sometime and it’s not like I’ll break a nail.” While she talked, Shala lifted her bags into the trunk. By the time Zadir caught up to her, she had already slid into the open door and settled into her seat. “Took you long enough, slow poke.”
His lips curled into a lazy half-smile and he slid closer to her until his shoulder butted up against hers. “Maybe I just wanted to let you choose your seat so I could make sure I got the one right next to you.”
Her brow wrinkled. “But we’re the only two…oh. You really are incorrigible, Zadir.” She laughed and released a wistful sigh. “Some things never change, do they?”
“I haven’t changed, that’s what you’re saying?”
She bumped his shoulder. “Not in the ways that matter, I suppose. You’re still an outrageous flirt with a wicked sense of humor. You still make me smile even when I don’t want to.”
The tension seeped out of his body at her words. He was glad someone could see the good in him. That wasn’t strictly true, Sabrina also saw past his shallow surface to the man he really was. Zadir smiled at Shala, happy he’d ended up with her as his babysitter. “Why wouldn’t you want to smile? You have such a sexy smile Shala, its full bodied and contagious.”
He heard the gasp she tried to hide and smiled. She glared at him. “Your sexy bag of tricks won’t work on me Zadir.”
“Why not?” He reached for her, letting just one finger slide down her temple to her jaw and down her neck, stopping just before the small space between her cleavage.
“Because I don’t want to lose my job over one night in bed.” She brushed his hand away with a frustrated wave.
“So what you’re saying is if your job wasn’t in jeopardy, we could sleep together?”
The car came to a stop and she hopped out before the driver had killed the engine. “No Zadir. I’m saying that risking my job for a one night stand isn’t something I’m interested in. At all.”
Okay he was confused. This is what he missed about his time in America. The girls were straightforward, making it easy for him to figure out who was free for a few nights of fun and who was looking for forever. “What?”
At the top of the steps that led into the jet she turned to him. “I’m not interested in a one night stand, Zadir. Whether or not my job is at risk. Got it?”
He nodded and smiled as she turned her back. Maybe that accident really had knocked some sense into him because he wasn’t terrified of more than one night or few nights. He had a feeling he’d need at least a month in Shala’s bed before he needed a change. “Oh I got it.” He brushed by her at the top of the steps and stepped onto the royal jet in all its overwrought luxury. “And Shala?”
She sighed, biting back a smile. “Yes?”
“Challenge accepted.”