Читать книгу Hired: The Sheikh's Secretary Mistress - Люси Монро, Lucy Monroe, Люси Монро - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

GRACE CURLED UP on the sofa in the living area of the two-bedroom suite she and Amir shared, pretending to watch an old Hepburn-Tracy movie on low volume. But all she was really doing was thinking about Amir.

He’d once told her that if his family knew of their traveling arrangements, it would upset his mother. In the next breath, he had laughed as if the idea of anything inappropriate happening between them was too funny for words.

And wasn’t it?

She’d asked him what constituted attractive to him and he had pointed her to his former playmates after agreeing he had been perfectly happy with his father’s choice for his future wife. Every one of those women fell in the realm of near physical perfection. He dated models, but usually stuck to women within his social set, women who dressed like they should be on the cover of a fashion magazine even if they weren’t. And Princess Lina. She was a pocket Venus if there ever was one. Grace’s hands went to her own small breasts and she frowned.

If she had to be as tall as a lot of men, couldn’t she have gotten the voluptuous curves to go with her height? Instead she was stick-skinny with what could charitably be called understated curves. Hugging the throw pillow from the sofa, she frowned. Amir had said not one word about personality or compatibility, unless she wanted to count sex. Was he really that shallow?

She knew he wasn’t. So why was he willing to settle for a marriage of convenience with a woman who had little more to offer than her beauty and ability to be charming in social situations? He deserved so much more. His passionate soul needed more, even if he refused to see it.

This had to be the result of losing Yasmine at such a young age. He’d once told her the grief had led him places he never wanted to go back to. The men of the Zorhan royal family hated any semblance of weakness. Perhaps Amir even more than the others, because he was the youngest and felt he had something to prove.

It must have been difficult growing up an alpha male with two brothers of equally dominant natures. She often saw him chafing against that reality even now. But to resort to this? It wasn’t right.

The second to the last thing Grace ever wanted to see was Amir in love with another woman. The last was him married to a woman he could never love. As annoyed as his current attitude made her, she couldn’t help wanting him to be happy.

He wasn’t going to end up that way married to some empty-headed beauty, who shared nothing in common with him but her ability to traverse the two worlds he inhabited and her prowess in bed.

Grace hugged the pillow more tightly, feeling lonelier than she had since first meeting Amir. From the moment she’d walked into his office at the age of twenty to interview for the position of personal assistant, he had changed her world. He’d filled it with light, warmth and sound.

The social awkwardness that usually plagued her did not touch her when she was with him. It was as if, standing in his shadow in her role as PA, she was part of him. He had nothing to be shy and awkward about and therefore neither did she on his behalf. She had felt at home in his office from the very beginning.

She’d also loved him practically from the first, not that she’d realized it. Sure, it had started as a typical crush on the gorgeous, wealthy prince—and even when she’d had a crush on him, she’d been singularly naive to what that meant. But Amir had quickly shown her that he was more than a rich and pretty face.

He cared about his family. He cared about the people of Zorha. He cared about the people of his adopted home, giving more to charities than most businessmen ever dreamed of doing. He was also kind to children and old people. It was such a cliché, but true. Not to mention, he was patient and generous toward his nondescript PA. Not patient and generous enough to consider her for the position of his convenient wife though.

For a mad moment, right at first, she had let herself imagine it was possible.

After all, hadn’t he made a point of saying he didn’t expect or even want to love his future wife? Even the idea that his wife must be able to move in his different worlds had fit Grace. She might have spent her entire life until she came to work for him being socially backward and tongue-tied in any situation that included more than two people, but she’d found her niche with him and learned to function as his personal assistant no matter where they were or who they were with.

Couldn’t she have done the same as his wife?

Oh, sure, she mocked herself. Grace Brown, future princess. She could just see it. Not.

Ignoring the hot wetness tracking down her cheeks, she replayed the moment in the limo when she’d realized she could never put herself forward as a candidate for him to consider. Right up to that second, she’d still been harboring secret, crazy fantasies. Only when he had said he wanted to be attracted to his bride—so his vows of faithfulness did not create a purgatory for him to live in—had she known. One thing Grace was absolutely certain of, Amir did not want her sexually.

It was as that reality came home to her that her ill-conceived dreams shattered around her, leaving her already battered heart hemorrhaging.

Now, she sat, unable to sleep, considering what the future held for her. Pain. Yes. She saw no way around it. The man she loved with every fiber of her being was going to marry another woman. If she loved him enough and was strong enough, she was going to help him find that woman.

Why?

Because it was the one chance she had to ensure as much of Amir’s future personal happiness as she could. If she continued to refuse to help him, he would end up marrying some beautiful icicle and think that was exactly what he wanted because it did not put his heart at risk.

Grace was not a fool, at least not a complete one. She knew he was avoiding any chance of being weak like he had been when he was eighteen. He did not want to hurt and she understood that. What he didn’t understand was that loneliness within his marriage would chip away at his warm heart until it was as cold as he thought he wanted it to be.

She could not stand the prospect of such a thing happening to him. The only way she could help him avoid it was to find him a convenient wife that had the potential to be so much more.

If her own heart lost the final fight in the process, she would survive…somehow.

Amir sat down to the breakfast Grace had ordered them. Dark circles painted the skin below her eyes and her skin was even more pale than normal.

He frowned, concern making his voice edgy. “You look tired. Didn’t you sleep well last night? Are you coming down with something?”

“I’m not sick, but I didn’t sleep much, either.” She smiled, a muted facsimile of her usual expression.

“Because of what I asked you to do?”

“Yes.”

“If it causes you such concern, I withdraw my request.” He did not want her losing sleep over this project. She worked too hard as it was. She had no more of a life outside his business than he did.

“That won’t be necessary.”

“What do you mean?”

“I decided to take on the assignment.”

“But if it makes you like this…” His words trailed off, but he swept his hand toward her, leaving no doubt what he was talking about. “You look terrible.”

She grimaced. “Thank you so much, Amir.”

“This is no time for false modesty. Are you sure you are not ill?”

“I am positive. I am also certain that I am willing to help you find a wife.”

Something inside him jolted, but he ignored it. “That is a relief.”

She smiled, this one more genuine. “I’m glad.”

“Thank you, but I do not want you making yourself sick. Tell me if it is too much.”

She laughed. “Right. Like you won’t be demanding the list in twenty-four hours.”

“I am not that impatient.”

“Yes, you are.” But humor, not irritation, laced her voice.

Gratitude for her surged through him and he found himself standing up and walking around the table to pull her into a rare hug.

At first, she stood in rigid shock in his embrace, but then she relaxed, clinging to him. Her warm feminine body pressed tightly to his and inescapable arousal surged through him.

He did not let go.

She did not step away.

His head tipped down of its own volition as he instinctively sought to take in more of her scent. “You smell like cinnamon,” he said against her yet-to-be-put-up mass of red curls. “And jasmine.” The fragrance reminded him of home.

“Your mother sends me handmade soaps and hair products from her herbalist.” Grace’s face was buried in his neck and her voice came out a husky whisper.

He lifted his head and then tilted her chin up with his finger until their eyes met. “My mother sends you things?”

“Yes. Since after our first trip to Zorha when I remarked that I loved the soaps and shampoos I found in the palace baths.”

“She likes you.” He wondered why he had never noticed that before. Perhaps because he assumed others would like her. There was nothing unlikable about Grace. She could be shy and stubborn even, but she was not annoying.

“I like her, too.”

“It pleases me that you do.” She worked too close with him for it to be comfortable for anyone involved if she did not. Why hadn’t he let Grace go yet? This hug was becoming something more, something he could not afford for it to become. He willed himself to step back, but his arms remained stubbornly around her. Now that she was looking up at him, her lips were an enticing few inches from his. They parted, her delicious-looking pink tongue just barely visible.

Her breathing increased and if he looked down and drew her suit jacket away, he knew he would see hardened nipples. Her response to his presence was one reason it had become so difficult to fight his own desires. He didn’t do it. He had that much sanity left.

She was strangely silent, very unlike his Grace.

Even in her sensible inch-and-a-half heels, she was taller than most of the women he dated. Tall enough to be just the right height for him to tilt his head slightly and be kissing her. The temptation was growing by the second and her hazel eyes going dark and unfocused with desire were not helping.

She wanted him, but it was the desire of the innocent. She did not know how it would end. She was not one of his women. Grace was a far more permanent fixture in his life and he intended to keep it that way.

But right now, the temptation to taste that innocence was overwhelming.

His PDA’s alarm went off, reminding him of an upcoming meeting at the same time that Grace’s started beeping from the other room.

The interruption of the discordant beeping was what he needed to find the wherewithal to let her go and step back. “Potential candidates should probably be taller than the princess. You fit well in my arms.”

He couldn’t believe he’d said anything so easily misconstrued, but Grace didn’t look triumphant.

Rather, her expression became carefully neutral as she turned away. “I’ll make a note of it.”

As she left to retrieve her electronic diary and briefcase, Amir castigated himself for coming so close to disaster. What was he thinking? Why had he hugged her when he was on such a sexual edge? Others might look at his no-nonsense assistant and think she was anything but seductive. Amir knew better. He knew just how dangerous the sweet innocent was.

And for that reason alone, he deserved the painful erection in his trousers and the sexual frustration he would be feeling long after it subsided. He knew better than to do something so stupid as to hug her.

If he had kissed Grace, it would have led inevitably to bedding her.

And then losing her.

She was too valuable a PA and friend to do something that idiotic.

This whole marriage thing needed to happen quickly.

Grace tried not to stare at Amir as he spoke to the software developer about investing in the man’s company. It was harder than it usually was. For one thing, she’d done her research. This was a good deal only a fool would pass up and her boss was anything but a fool. But for another, she kept getting sidetracked by the way his designer sport-coat fit his muscular body. Which, for whatever weird associative reason, kept taking her mind back to what had happened earlier in the hotel room.

The problem was, she still wasn’t sure what had happened.

Had he almost kissed her? It had certainly seemed like it. He’d definitely held her longer than your average hug between employer and employee. Did other employers hug their personal assistants? Certainly, Amir did not do so often. The last time had been her birthday two years ago. Why had he hugged her? At first she’d thought he was saying thank-you for agreeing to help him, but did a thank-you hug last that long? Did the hug fall under their “friendship?”

And if so, why do it now? Why not before he’d asked her to find another woman for him to marry?

But what she really wanted to know, thought she might die if she didn’t figure out was: had he almost kissed her?

Was the hardness against her stomach a figment of her imagination or irrefutable proof that as impossible as it might seem, she turned him on? Or was she sliding into mad dreams again that were going to leave her crushed in their wake as any other she had woven around her too captivating employer? He’d pushed her away with further requirements about his future wife. Perhaps he had only held Grace that long to test the theory that he would prefer a tall woman. Most of the women he dated were at least two inches shorter than Grace’s five foot nine.

How incredibly demoralizing if that was indeed the case. Then, what could be more lowering than to be asked by the man you were crazy in love with to help him find his future bride?

“Grace?”

Her head snapped up at the impatient tone in Amir’s voice. Both men were looking at her.

“Did you get that?”

Heat climbing into her cheeks, she had to admit she hadn’t and asked the other man to repeat himself. That was so unlike her efficient self, she knew she’d hear about it later from the sheikh. Jerry, the software developer, was awfully nice about it, smiling at her and asking very politely if she’d gotten it all the second time around. She found herself relaxing under his kindness and responded a bit more warmly than was her usual wont. She had a feeling they were going to end up being friends. She was sure she would have lots of opportunities to interact with him as she would be the liaison to Amir.

“It’s too bad you are headquartered here,” she said without thought.

“Or that the sheikh’s office isn’t here,” Jerry said without missing a beat.

“I do not see either as a tragedy.” Amir’s tone was frosty and Grace had to stifle a sigh.

She smiled apologetically at Jerry. “He’s still angry I wasn’t paying attention just now.”

“He does not appreciate being spoken about as if he were not sitting right beside you.”

“My apologies.” Jerry looked worried, so Grace did not say what was on the tip of her tongue.

In fact, she didn’t say anything.

A few minutes later, when Jerry and Amir were making plans to share dinner and a drink to celebrate the deal, he asked if Grace would be joining them. Before she could get a word in edgewise, Amir said she had things to work on and wouldn’t be able to.

She couldn’t believe his effrontery and was ready to blast him the minute they got to the privacy of their suite, but Jerry had already dealt with enough of her boss’s crankiness.

As soon as the door shut, she whirled on him. “What exactly is so pressing that I’m supposed to be skipping dinner to work on it?”

He glared at her. “You have agreed to find me a wife. Have you forgotten already?”

“I’m not headed toward dementia yet, though goodness knows working with you will send me there early.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I find it beyond rude that you turned down a dinner invitation on my behalf simply because you think I should spend my off-hours working on your pet project.”

“You’ve never minded putting in overtime before.”

“You’ve never dictated when it should happen, and for your information, I had no intention of starting the great wife hunt tonight.”

“Are you saying you want to have dinner with Jerry?”

“I thought that was obvious.”

“Maybe I should just stay here and let the two of you make a night out on the town of it.”

Had he lost his mind? “What in the world are you talking about?”

“You and Jerry. You appear to have gotten quite chummy.”

“You’re basing this on the fact I wanted to eat dinner with you?”

“You were flirting with him.”

“I never flirt.” She had no idea how.

“You smiled.”

“And that is a crime now? You were smiling, too.”

“I most assuredly was not flirting.”

She took a deep breath and tried another tack. “Name the last business dinner I did not accompany you to.”

“Last month, when I had dinner with Sandor Christofides regarding using his ships for importation of certain goods to Zorha.”

This was getting beyond ridiculous. “I was in Seattle setting up for your arrival at the business conference!”

“You made no stipulation of where you were at the time…you simply told me to name the last dinner you had missed. So I did. Now, I expect you to work on my project.”

“I’ll work on it when I decide to work on it, and that is not going to be tonight when I could be having a pleasant dinner with a business associate.”

“He is my business associate.”

“What is the matter with you? You’ve never acted this way about me sharing dinner with you and an associate before.”

Wasn’t it bad enough he was planning to marry another woman, was he trying to ease Grace out of other areas of his life as well?

“I did not like the way Jerry looked at you.”

“What? Like he pitied me for having such a churlish boss?”

Amir drew himself up and positively glowered. “I am not churlish.”

“Dismissing me from your dinner plans without a by-your-leave certainly doesn’t constitute polite behavior.”

“So, we are back to that.”

“We never left it,” she said with exasperation.

“We are leaving it now.”

“And that leaves me where?”

He had enough sense to look chagrined. “Would you like me to call and cancel so you will not be forced to eat alone?”

She was not a charity case. She might have been shy and backward when she first came to work for Amir, but she’d grown a lot in five years. “Of course not, then Jerry would consider you inconsistent and that is hardly the impression you want to give a business associate.”

“So, you will stay here and work on my personal project.”

“No. I will find my own dinner out there.” She pointed out the window. “I will no doubt return far too late to work on anything. Now if you will excuse me, I need to change into something besides business attire.”

It was her turn not to give him a chance to answer as she marched into her bedroom, making mental plans for the evening as she went.

Amir stood in dumb transfixion as he listened to the silence left behind after Grace’s door slammed shut. “I would prefer a wife who does not slam doors,” he said loudly into the empty room.

The sound of another door, this one Grace’s bathroom, shutting with noisy force was his only answer.

Damn it. What had happened? One minute he had been closing a lucrative deal and the next he was verbally fencing with a termagant. Had she been serious about going out on her own? Perhaps not as active as New York, Boston nevertheless had a distinct nightlife. And Grace planned to participate in it?

Never!

It was time for a trip home where the only nightlife was listening to the nocturnal sounds in the desert. Yes, definitely…he and Grace needed to go to Zorha. He could meet with his father and brothers and discuss their new business ventures while she cajoled his mother into sending her more fragrant soaps.

What to do about tonight? Clearly he had two options. He could include her in the dinner with Jerry, who had spent the latter part of their meeting all but drooling over Amir’s dowdy assistant. Had the man no taste…or was he more discerning than most? Amir feared the latter. He feared even more that Jerry saw Grace as an easy mark and that she would prove to be one. She was ripe to be plucked from the tree of her virginity.

His other option was to allow her to go out for an evening on her own. In her current frame of mind, she was likely to do something she would regret later. As her friend, he was conscience-bound not to allow that. At least if she came with him to dinner, he could keep an eye on her.

And if Jerry thought he would be taking Grace home for a nightcap, he had a rude awakening ahead of him.