Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) (6 page)

Even as tipsy as she was, she looked up at him. They had been introduced at a party held by her editor a few weeks ago, and when she thought back over it, it seemed like the strangest, most perfect thing that they had found each other. It was like a fairy tale. There was so much inside her that she wanted to say, but instead, she only said the first thing that she could think of.

“You called me 'love,'” she murmured.

Another man might have flinched away, or even sought to take back his words. Nasim only smiled at her, tilting his head slightly. They were underneath a streetlight, the harsh sodium yellow rendering him in stark yellow and black. There was something foreboding about him, but she knew that when she looked at him, she would only ever feel protected.

“I did,” he said. “I think, and I think, and that is the only word that means anything to me at all when I think of you.”

“Only that?”

“That is the only right one,” he said, and on the first day of the New Year, under a streetlight on the street where she lived, he kissed her. They had kissed before but this one felt different. She could feel it in her bones.

Silently, they walked to her apartment, taking the rickety elevator up six stories to her tiny space. It was cluttered with manuscripts that she still needed to read, and the sheets weren't as nice as they would have been at the hotel, but still she pulled him into bed with her.

When he stripped to his skin, the lights from her barred window made deep black stripes along his side. He looked like a tiger coming out of the darkness of the city, but he opened her dress with the tender reverence of a man who has found something precious. He kissed her flesh gently as he bared every inch of her, and when she lay naked beneath him, he fell upon her as if he were starving.

They made love that left her trembling and crying out with pleasure, and when they were done, he tucked her next to his side, stroking her damp hair back from her face.

She was just drifting off to sleep when he spoke again.

“I want you to come to Khayyam with me,” he said. “I want you to see my home. I want you to see where I am from.”

Ella was no fool. She knew what it meant when a rich and wealthy man took an interest in a girl who worked for a living. She thought she was ready to have a grand affair that she could look back on with a smile and a sigh. She hadn't been expecting this.

“To Khayyam?”

“If you will come, yes,” he said, squeezing her a little. “I have seen the books you prefer to work with, and they all describe places that are very similar to where I grew up. Wouldn't you like to see what those places are really like?”

She couldn't deny it. Her interests had always been in modern Middle Eastern literature. Belatedly, she wondered if he thought that that was why she was so interested in him. It wasn't true; her growing need for him had nothing to do with anything but him, but she squeezed him extra tight anyway.

“Of course I will,” she whispered. “If you want to take me, I will go.”

 She fell asleep in his arms, as sure of her way forward as she was of the stars in the sky.

Less than four months later, she would look back on that sleep as the sleep of a fool, someone who knew little about the world and even less about the man that she was seeing.

***

Now … now it was all going to change again, and all she could do was pray that she was no longer the little fool who had fallen asleep so trustingly in the first hours of the New Year.

Chapter 5

Ella's head might have been full of dreams and fantasies, but the next day, her life filled up with manuscripts and appointments.

“You must have made some impression,” Amira said, alerting her to another working brunch that she simply could not miss. “You're booked for the next three weeks.”

Ella groaned. “They can't decide if I'm the competition or if I'm the next hot thing,” she said. “Either way, they need to check me out. Am I at least cleared to do some manuscript reading sometime soon? That's actually why I came to Khayyam.”

Amira grinned. “I've got a few for you to at least skim this afternoon, and if you are very nice to me, I will even make sure that no one who is looking for you can find you.”

“You're a gem, thank you.”

That was the way things went for the next fourteen days. Though the rest of Khayyam took its weekends on Friday and Saturday as the United Arab Emirates did, she worked straight through, barely lifting her head.

Nasim texted her, of course, and she responded with increasing frequency and regrets. Every time a message came through, she felt a deep pang about having to disappoint him yet again. She knew that if she kept this up, he would quickly lose interest, but what could she do? Her work came first.

On Thursday night, Amira poked her head into Ella's office. “Hey, boss lady, make sure that you are here bright and early tomorrow morning. There's an investor who wants to make sure that he's getting what he's paying for, and he wants to meet you personally.”

Ella frowned. A local partner could make all kinds of things easier in Dalal, but she wasn't sure how much she liked the high-handed summons.

“How long is he going to need?” she asked.

“Full day, he said,” Amira paused. “I think you want to give this particular investment a serious consideration.”

Ella sighed. “All right. I defer to your judgment. Thank you.”

She gazed regretfully at the stack of manuscripts she had to go through. Perhaps she could work late in the evening tomorrow to make up for it. She noted with regret that Nasim hadn't texted her that day. Perhaps it was for the best. She didn't think that she could disappoint him again.

***

The next morning came earlier than she wanted it to, and she stumbled out of bed. She felt excited about having someone be that invested in the work that she was doing with Quill Publishing. She chose her clothes carefully, realizing that she might be dealing with quite a conservative man. She chose a blue tunic and black swishy trousers. There were no sparkles on the tunic, but it was heavily embroidered, creating a lovely swirl of texture over her body.

“All right, here I go …”

Amira had said that the investor was going to meet her at her office, so a few minutes before nine, she was downstairs and waiting. Just a few moments after that, there was a knock on the door, and for a moment, she thought that there had been some kind of mistake.

“Nasim? What are you doing here?”

He was almost absurdly good looking, dressed in dark jeans and a T-shirt that showed off his arms and his lean torso to its best advantage. He was carrying a white paper bag that was full of delicious smells, and when she stepped back in surprise, he swept in.

“I was told that Quill Publishing was the new literary hotshot, so I wanted to do some investing,” he teased.

Ella frowned. “Nasim …”

“I'm actually quite serious,” he said, turning to face her. “My family has always been invested in the arts, and though over the last few years, our focus has been on the visual arts, I know that we cannot ignore the literary arts as well. If it makes you feel any better, I am actually here as my mother's representative. She has had her eye on Quill Publishing since it appeared, and you will be getting the investment whether I see you today or not.”

Ella bit her lip. She knew that the smart, virtuous thing to do would have been to thank him for his support and to get back to her real work. On the other hand, now that she was looking at him, now that she was seeing the way he moved and the slight mischievous smile on his face, she wasn't sure of anything.

“What's in the bag?” she asked, giving in, and he beamed with the brightness of the sun.

“Breakfast. I got hungry on my way down here, and I stopped by this little shop that has always been a family favorite.”

They sat in the tiny sitting area, and Ella's mouth watered when Nasim started spreading out the croissants, complete with homemade jam pots and drizzles of plum syrup. She brewed them up some tea to have with their breakfast, and the sweetness of the meal made her smile.

“This is delicious,” she said, finishing off her second croissant with a sigh. “This also feels terribly indulgent. I'm pretty sure this isn't how you treat all of your prospective partners.”

“You'd be surprised,” Nasim said smoothly. “Throughout the whole world, people love breakfast, and everyone feels a little more agreeable after good croissants.”

He had been sitting next to her, but now suddenly he felt as if he were much closer. His arm came around her shoulders, and maybe he was right about the croissants because when he bent his head to hers, she tilted her chin up so that they could kiss more deeply. He tasted of sweet tea and apricot jam, and she thought that she had never tasted anything more delicious.

Their kiss grew deeper, and she became aware of his hand stroking lightly against her hip. There was nothing she wanted more than to let that continue, but she knew that she couldn't, not now, not when they were so new to each other.

Regretfully, but firmly, she placed her hand over his; understanding, he pulled back.

“I hope you know I had more planned than just breakfast.”

The call of duty was still there, but it seemed very minor in comparison to the pleasure and warmth she was feeling right this moment.

“All right. Today. You get today, and in the future, I will make more time for us, but you cannot simply bulldoze my schedule, do you understand?”

“Perfectly,” he responded. “So do you want to hear where I am taking you?”

Ella thought for a moment, and then she surprised herself by shaking her head. “No, I don't. I trust you. I know that you wouldn't have planned anything without thinking about whether I liked it or not, and I trust your taste. So let's … let's just get in your car and go. There's nothing I want more than to be with you today, right this moment.”

He kissed her again, but this time it was Nasim who broke the kiss. He rose to his feet, offering her a hand up.

“You won't regret this,” he promised again.

***

An hour later, they were in an ATV, making their way out of the city and into the deserts of Khayyam. Ella had always been a very urban creature, living her life under city lights. She was startled to see that less than an hour's drive could take her away from the sights and sounds that she knew and into a desert that seemed empty in all directions.

“This is the real Khayyam, in some ways,” Nasim said as they drove. “The desert was here when my ancestors gave up their nomadic ways and started to carve a city out of the sands. When we give up and lie down forever, it will be the desert again.”

Ella shivered, looking out over the vast sands. The sky above was a blinding blue, and once in a while, black birds would cross it, high overhead. She wondered if they ever landed in the sands or if the sands were just something to be crossed.

“You don't think Dalal is the real Khayyam?”

“There are many real Khayyams,” Nasim said easily. “The desert is real. The city is real. What I am about to show you is real.”

They drove a little further, and out of the dunes in front of them, Ella could see a shape rising up. They drove a little farther, and she realized it was some kind of stone structure.

When Nasim pulled the ATV to a halt, she could barely wait to get out of the vehicle.

Nasim had brought them to what looked like a stone fortress that was sinking slowly into the sands. It was gently tilted, and she could hear a faint whistle as the winds rushed through the tall empty towers.

“What is this place?” she whispered. There was something sacred about the fortress, a sense of time and history and lives long lost.

“The researches learned that it was the fortress of an unnamed warlord who lived some eight hundred years ago, but it has had many inhabitants. We're currently trying to get it listed as a World Heritage Site, but that's fairly slow going. Most people cannot get out to it, and we've been keeping the location quiet due to fear of robbers, but we can go in if you’d like.”

Ella turned to Nasim with wide eyes. “Are you serious? We can go in? It's safe?”

He nodded, a slight smile on his lips. “We can. It is quite safe.”

The moment she walked into the ruined courtyard, Ella felt a deep sense of wellness and belonging. She could see how thick the walls were, and she knew that they had protected the people within from the depredations of the bandits outside. Without thinking of it, she looped her hand through Nasim's arm, standing close to him.

“It's beautiful,” she murmured, “but so sad.”

“The scientists tell me that it was abandoned some two hundred years ago. Something drove the people away, and they never came back. Plague is the guess, though there are some writings that suggest that it was a voluntary abandonment.”

“A voluntary abandonment?”

“I can tell you more, but first come here. I want you to see something.”

He led her through the courtyard and up a set of sunken stairs. The wooden gates had long since rotted away, and they could simply step into the main hall.

“Oh my gosh …”

Ella looked up and up towards the vaulting ceiling. In places, it was missing entirely, sending rays of strong light through the hall. It was enormous, cathedral-like in its grandeur. She could almost sense the people who had passed through it, loud, quiet, good, bad, and everything in between. It made her want to weep for their passing, and it made her want to laugh because she was alive.

Instead, she stepped closer to Nasim, wrapping her arm around his waist. As naturally as if they had been doing it for years, he dropped his arms across her shoulders, bringing her snug against his body.

“This is real as well,” he said softly. “This place, where my ancestors decided that they would wander no longer. They felt something, and they built, and centuries later, they gave it up.”

“Do you see yourself here?” she asked. “Do you wonder what it would have been like if you had lived in this place six hundred, seven hundred, eight hundred years ago?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But not here. Let me show you something else.”