The Sheikh's Purchased Bride

by Holly Rayner

  TEN

  The next morning, after breakfast, the pair left Ali and Selma’s home for a camel ride across the plains of Giza, southwest of Cairo. Giza was a necropolis for ancient pharaohs, and a tourist haven for tombs and historical tours. The journey to the three famous pyramids took Amie by surprise, as they moved from bustling city to stark, beautiful desert.

  The desert was hot, but no discomfort could take away from the feeling Amie got in the pit of her stomach when they started approaching the pyramids. The ancient structures towered over them, and the closer they got, the less real everything seemed.

  These ancient tombs had been around longer than most other things on the planet. The tallest standing at 481 feet, these living monuments told a story.

  Malik hopped off his camel and, with a bit of assistance from their tour guide, Amie soon followed suit. They began walking closer to the largest pyramid, Khufu, where they could see tourists climbing on top of the rocks and taking photos. It seemed wrong to her, somehow, that just anybody could touch such a sacred thing.

  “I find it unusual that you don’t take many pictures,” Malik said suddenly; his voice cutting through the hot air.

  Amie smiled. “I like to keep special memories to myself. Forgive me if I don’t want to have a milestone in my life graded by how many likes it gets.”

  “Hey, I was being serious!” he laughed and came up behind her, grabbing her hand gently before letting go.

  They stared in wonder at the monuments and Amie’s thoughts drifted away from the view, to Malik. She had been trying to hide it from herself, but she just couldn’t ignore her feelings any longer. Everything about this trip was making her head spin. She knew the horrors of mixing business with pleasure, but everything about her new boss made her feel welcomed, wanted, special, and full of anticipation for what would come next. No one had ever kept up with her the way he did. And his mother. What a ridiculous thing to adore, but… she had felt an instant bond with her.

  And this would all be well and good… if this weren’t all a job. If Amie hadn’t made a paycheck out of deceiving this hopeful mother. Even more so, she began to feel ridiculous every time she looked at Malik, or felt a blush form across her cheeks when he smiled. Why would he bring her here, and act this way around her, she wondered, even though none of his family were around to see?

  Everything in her mind screamed that her feelings were a terrible idea that should be buried, so she was trying her best. It was amazing, not to mention irritating to her, that the affections of a guy she had really only just met could overwhelm her, even when she was literally looking at one of the wonders of the world.

  Men.

  She sighed inwardly and turned to Malik with a smile, wanting desperately to think about anything else. Pulling herself back together she demanded, “Now, give me all the dirt.”

  “They’re made of sand, not dirt,” he said mockingly.

  “Ha-ha,” she said, rolling her eyes. “No, give me the dirt on the pyramids. Tell me about the conspiracies!”

  “Oh no,” he laughed, walking closer to the age-old monuments. “You’re not one of those, are you?”

  “Oh, stop,” she laughed. “Just tell me what people think they are, and then tell me what you think they are.”

  The pair walked over to where their camels now stood with the tour guide, and they circled around the pyramids to get different angles to marvel from. Malik explained that it was believed that they were put together when rocks were brought from Aswan, some 600 miles away, over raft or makeshift boat. The rocks were carried down the Nile and removed onto makeshift sleds or rolling logs and slowly built up into the not-so-mystifying ancient wonder of today.

  “Then they just… dragged them up, block by block. Tens of thousands of workers, blah, blah, blah,” he said pithily. “Imagine the unions on that nowadays.”

  “Well, I think it’s amazing!”

  He laughed. “Well, I didn’t say they weren’t. They’re beautiful.”

  She nodded as if she’d won some non-verbal argument. “Now tell me the crazy theories.”

  “If I must,” he laughed tiredly, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “Some people say the three pyramids are in the same place a couple of rocks are on Mars. Then there’s the alien theory, of course, and the story that Noah built them…”

  “As in… Noah’s ark, Noah?”

  “The very same,” he nodded; a smile forming at the corner of his lips. “Some say they came from Atlantis, some say they were hills that got flooded; trying to explain away why some of the other pyramids in Egypt have crumbled away to nothing.”

  “Couldn’t possibly be time, age, or wear, or anything,” she said sarcastically.

  He held his hand to his mouth in mock surprise and began to lead her closer to the next pyramid. They watched as some young tourists went wild with their cameras, climbing up the sides of the pyramids and shouting with excitement.

  “So disrespectful,” Amie sighed.

  “They’re just having fun,” Malik shrugged, jumping in front of her to bring a smile to her face.

  She frowned. “Hey, that’s someone’s tomb”

  “Yes, and his three wives were all buried there with him.” He paused, grinning wryly. “Still feel bad for him?”

  She stared at him for a moment and laughed. “Maybe not to the same extent.”

  “No, I didn’t think so.”