by Ella Brooke
Brenda hoped she was right.
Chapter Four
It took a while for Brenda to feel comfortable asking Sheikh Rahal what he wanted when they sat down to dinner. At first, she was confused that the address he’d given her was for a trendy Italian place near London Bridge when she assumed he would want to go to the nearby Mediterranean café. Then again, she hated going anywhere for a burger and fries in England because it never tasted like home. Brenda figured he wouldn’t want to settle for anything less than the home-cooked meals of his native Zomelia.
Still, she smiled politely and nodded at the right moments as they made small talk over the salad and appetizer. Now that his lobster ravioli and her fettuccine alfredo were on the table, Brenda knew that she couldn’t keep skating the issue. They had to discuss whatever was actually on Jamsheed’s mind.
“You said this was a date, Sheikh Rahal.”
He frowned, some light dimming from his golden eyes. “I did, and do you not trust my word, my phoenix?”
She sighed and dug into her food. “I know what you said, but I was nervous even getting dressed. It’s so hard to believe.”
He smirked and gestured with his right hand to the ambience of the restaurant around them. “Do you not feel this is enough? I could have gotten a reservation at one of the premiere restaurants in the city, shut the whole place down except for us, but you were already so nervous. I didn’t know if a grand gesture would help or hurt.”
“I think my head’s still spinning,” she admitted, trying to enjoy things like Anne suggested, desperately wanting to be the perfect Cinderella. Yet, she’d lived through the father of her child walking out on her, and now the lawsuit from Hell. She learned long ago to be wary and cynical. It was the only way to live. “You said you’d explain more about all of this: the dinner, wanting a relationship with me, and your father. How is he by the way?”
Jamsheed’s jaw tightened and he set his fork down to rub ferociously at the back of his neck. “No change. He’s stable in his coma, and the royal doctor was encouraged that he hadn’t suffered any subsequent strokes. To be honest, with the life-saving technology I can afford for him, he could be in that state for years. I hope to Allah he can recover. It’s why I have to fly home soon. Zomelia will need an acting sheikh, and I have a talented team of executives to serve here in London for the company. I just… I hate it so much.”
She nodded and reached out, placing her hand over his on the table. “I didn’t move to England until one of my sisters died. Dana had ovarian cancer and it just came on so much faster than we thought. I mean, she’d been sick, but she was the kind of person who always had to tough things out, always thought that she couldn’t make a big deal out of pain. By the time she broke down and saw a specialist, she had a year left.”
“I’m sorry.”
Brenda nodded and squeezed his hand. “The point is that I’d never even been out of my home state in my life. My daughter, Haley, was just starting college, and that gave me the courage to leave the country, to stop being quite as trapped as I was.” Not that I’m exactly a daredevil now...
“I’m still sorry.”
“Of course, but sometimes when our loved ones are sick, we go where we’re needed and it also clarifies things for us. You have nothing to be sorry about for going back home to Zomelia. You’re right. The company will survive, and I’m sure that the maids for your penthouse here— Anne and I—will find something else as well.”
“I want you to come with me to Zomelia. I’m not kidding about wanting you.”
“You mean to date me?” she asked, her voice going hoarse.
“Among other things. Maybe you’re right and there’s more clarity in my life. Maybe it’s just easier to see what I’ve been missing when I’ve been fooling around so much. I’m in my early forties now. I’m not a kid anymore, and I need to work harder to live up to my father’s reputation and the path he set for me. Besides, I get so tired sometimes of the emptiness.”
“I don’t know if I can just move to Zomelia,” she said, yanking back her hand and trying to ignore the way Jamsheed’s posture went rigid as she did so. “I have something huge going on with my daughter right now, and I’m going to be searching for a new job in London as it is or probably moving back home.”
“That’s why I want this. I realize that all of this is so inopportune. But I admit that I have started to care about you since you came to work for me, and that maybe the way you brushed things off with me a couple days ago, your funny resolve in the face of an awkward situation, helped me crystalize why I like you.”
She gulped, feeling her cheeks flush. “It’s all happening so fast.”
“Or maybe some of these things were inevitable and were sped up by my leaving. If you come with me to Zomelia, not as my maid but as my girlfriend, then I’ll help you.”
“I’m not for sale.”
“I still want you to come with me, and I know that you can’t because you have to care for your daughter. Tell me what is wrong. Is she ill as well?” His voice was like velvet; that smooth exotic accent mixed with the clipped British intonation.
She almost melted at that, at the intense amber of his gaze, of how she was his whole world in that instant. Still, she wasn’t sure what she should say. Would she sound like a materialistic jerk if she dug for the help that she needed? Money wasn’t why she liked Jamsheed. God, the man was gorgeous, brilliant, charming and funny. If he were nothing more than a baker, she’d still have a massive crush on him. But she had no idea how to deal with the ambassador’s lawyer’s or the lawsuit building against both she and Haley. She needed help, and maybe Anne was right. At least for once, she needed to close her eyes and leap, to take a chance.
“No, she’s not sick. She was at fault in a car accident where no one was seriously injured, but she was drinking and that’s opened us up to a lawsuit I can’t afford.”
Jamsheed nodded, his eyes still regarding her earnestly. “Let me take care of it. You come with me to Zomelia, and I’ll help put your mind at ease. It’s only fair. Have any lawyers in the case direct all communications with my staff. It’s no bother.”
Brenda stilled, her nature still defaulting to question everything. “But why? I’m not anyone. I’m not a princess or a celebrity or even a model.”
He sighed. “I agree that I’ve dated…”
“‘Dated’ may be a generous term.”
“...Okay, I’ve dallied with so many of those. But do you know what?”
“What?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
He leaned forward and grabbed her hand, gripping it tightly between his. “The news has been talking of my father’s illness all day. For all the women I’ve known, and even so-called ‘friends’ who have gone on holidays with me, a handful have called with condolences. None of the women have. I admit that I haven’t endeared myself to them, but you asked, and I can tell you care. You see more than just the title and the fortune. Please, come with me. Help me build something real in Zomelia, or at least let me try. For that, the least I can do is help you and your daughter.”
Brenda sighed and looked back at him, at his strong chin and his goatee tinged with the nascent silver of salt-and-pepper. Damn if this man doesn’t put George Clooney to shame. “Thank you, I appreciate that, but I can’t help but feel that it’s too much to ask.”
“I’m the one asking you to come to a country you’ve never seen and be my companion as my father lies ill. I think this is more than a fair exchange.” He paused then and he shifted his gaze, studying the white linen of the table top as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. “There are things I think you’ll need to adjust to when we’re in Zomelia, aspects of culture shock, but I think so far we’ve ironed most things out.”
She quirked her head at him and tried to keep the pain out of her voice. “But I’m more than just another acquisition, right?”
He nodded and brought one of her hands to his mouth to kiss the back of it. �
�You, my phoenix, are more than just a negotiation,” he said. “And I intend to show you that.”
“I hope to let you.”
***
Brenda raised her eyebrow up playfully at Jamsheed. “So, you do rent things out?”
She laughed again, feeling lighthearted for the first time since Haley called her with the bad news. It felt like things were possible again. Here she was with the man she’d fantasized about for months, and he had rented out the entire London Eye, the most famous Ferris wheel in the world and one of the most legendary landmarks in Europe, all for them.
“I prefer some gestures. Besides, have you been on the Eye before?”
She shook her head. “I mostly have time to work. When I have dated, the guys, of course, are local Brits and usually Londoners themselves. They want to do the pub thing and grab a pint. No one does the sights, and I haven’t seen nearly as many as you think. Unless you count from a Metro bus as I go past things to and from my apartment.”
Jamsheed wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they slipped into the carriage for the Ferris wheel. She loved having him near her like this. Not only was the chill breeze of the London air causing goosebumps to rise over her shoulders, but she craved nearness to him. She reveled in the heft of him as he leaned against her, the stubble of the side of his cheek on the side of her temples as he drew her in. God, and the way he smelled, that natural hint of his own masculine musk mixed with turmeric and cloves. Everything about him was as exotic and alluring as the land he was in line to rule.
“Then tonight you get to see everything, just as any proud tourist would. I couldn’t imagine whisking you off to Zomelia without letting you see the Thames and the places that make London one of the crown jewels of the world. Of course, Zomelia is more gorgeous; the diamond above all other stones.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” she admitted as they strode to the windowed walls of the carriage.
Below, the water of the Thames stretched out like black ink between sites she’d seen but never taken time to marvel over since coming to the city: the London Bridge, the houses of Parliament, and Big Ben himself. The Ferris wheel was adorned with blue twinkle lights all over that sparkled around them and cast dazzling patterns on the water below.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Jamsheed said, leaning lower. His breath tickled against her ear, raising goosebumps over her flesh. Heat flared in her belly, and Brenda’s cheeks flushed, as if a riot of heat was blossoming throughout her body. “So few wonders in the world.”
“I wouldn’t call the Thames exactly the pyramids or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.”
He grinned back at her, his teeth gleaming under the light and standing out against his olive complexion. “I’m not talking about the river, my phoenix. I’m talking about you.”
Brenda swallowed a lump down. She hadn’t felt anything close to this much longing in her life, even with Haley’s father when she was young and stupid and thought that summer love would last forever. She’d certainly never had her body burn for a man before; not the way it felt consumed by a veritable forest fire now.
“What?”
Jamsheed shifted her body toward her until he was pressed against her, until she could feel the ridge of his length pressed against her abdomen. “I don’t know how far you want to go with anything.”
“I can’t go all the way overlooking London. I’m not that daring, and it’s the age of YouTube. Someone would catch us, and I can’t explain that to either my mom or to Haley.”
“I wouldn’t ask something so brash of a true lady like you,” Jamsheed confessed. “However, I fear I might explode if I don’t kiss you right now. Would that be all right?” He punctuated his request by stroking her cheek. “For a while now, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind, phoenix. No one else would do. No one was as gorgeous compared to your alabaster skin or fiery red hair.”
She grinned back at him, joy overtaking her in a way it rarely had. At least this type of raw sexual need and exuberance. She had other sources of maternal joy or familial joy in her life, but this was something new, something blossoming in her soul that she’d never missed because she’d never felt it before.
Wrapping her arms around his neck she inclined her head toward his lips. “I’ll combust if you don’t touch me, so I’ll take it as an insult if you don’t.”
“Then I mustn’t disappoint a lady,” he said.
His lips were on her in an instant, soft and beckoning, even as the whiskers of his goatee scratched and tickled her chin. Strong hands, so large they seemed to envelope every inch of her back and rear, held her closely as his length pressed to her belly. Her skirt was too tight to allow her to wrap her leg around his waist but a large part of her wanted to climb him like a tree.
That spicy smell of turmeric tickled her nose again, and she was lost in sensation and the passion between them as his tongue plumbed her mouth’s hidden depths. Her tongue twisted with his in a dance for dominance, and she mewled against him. Caution was thrown to the wind in this embrace. She had nothing to hide from him, and now that they were setting out for Zomelia together, Brenda didn’t see the point in holding back.
She spent far too much of her life holding back. It was as if her life came in waves. She’d been bold and daring one summer and, though she loved Haley and would never trade anything for her daughter, she also had closed in on herself ever since. Brenda had played it safe for over two decades, and she was tired of it. It wasn’t running off to Vegas to bet her (small) life savings on something, but she was willing to take a chance on love.
To be Cinderella.
As Jamsheed kissed her again, Brenda realized how pleased she was with her choice.
***
Now, while she was dedicated to being bold, Brenda also wasn’t going to rush a relationship. The last thing she wanted to do was set the wrong tempo for the attraction building between them. Jamsheed had always been a one-night man with almost any other woman, and definitely with any woman she’d seen him with. Besides, her mother’s old saying was that “men never take home the whole cow when they get free milk.” As she opened her apartment door, Brenda crinkled up her nose at that thought. It made her feel like she was supposed to have four stomachs and udders or something as ridiculous. Still, there was that fear that part of what Jamsheed liked about her was her novelty. There was no need to rush things, to tempt him to chew her up and spit her out quickly in case he wasn’t that far gone from his playboy ways after all.
It meant that after quite the delicious make-out session on the Eye, she asked politely to be dropped off at her apartment. If Jamsheed had been disappointed, then he didn’t show it. She managed, or so she hoped, to explain him that she needed the extra time to pack. He dropped her off, but only after another hot and heavy session on his lap. It killed her to leave him, but this was the best way, the only method to build a lasting relationship. Whatever was happening between them was more than lust, and they needed to let it blossom over time.
Besides, on top of everything else, he was still reeling from his father’s stroke. He needed to think through things. They would have plenty of time to explore everything in Zomelia, and even then she hoped her newfound boldness wouldn’t bite her in the ass.
She had hope. It was a dangerous thing, but also one of the most exhilarating forces on Earth.
Moving to her bedroom, Brenda slipped off her borrowed dress and hung it up, then placed it gently on the top of her bathroom doorway. She’d keep it safe and protected until she could return it to Anne the next day. After all, she owed her friend all the details of her night and a massive thank you for giving her the perfect ensemble to woo her Sheikh Charming. Similarly, she made sure the to-die-for emerald necklace was placed carefully on her dresser.
It wasn’t long before she was lying on top of her sheets in her night shirt and unable to calm herself or, her libido. Her body was still flushed with heat and beads of sweat were pooling over her skin, even though it was still
fairly chilly in London. She was so desperate to cool things off that she turned on the air conditioning in her apartment, full blast. By all rights, she should have frost crystalizing in her bangs. Yet all she could feel was the roaring heat flaring through her belly and up her torso and the pounding need in her most sensitive bundle of nerves.
Trying to take things slow and be smart about all of this was easier said than done.
A fire burned through her for him, for the very feel of Jamsheed in her bed, for the scent of him, that musk mixed with that hint of turmeric and other spices. She needed him; Brenda just needed to be more sure he truly needed her back. Until then, she had other ways to slake her lust, at least for tonight. Sitting up in the bed, she pulled her shirt up over her arms and threw it halfway across her bedroom. Moonlight streamed in through the window, tracing patterns over her pale skin.
Alabaster, he called it.
That made her feel so much more beautiful than she actually was. He made her feel that way. More desirable and more amazing than she could ever be on her own. She reached out with her left hand and caressed one of her nipples between her thumb and forefinger, rolling the peaked flesh there. All the while, Brenda imagined big hands, surprisingly calloused, gripping her nipple with more forceful pressure. As she worked at her nipple, Brenda moved her right hand down to the apex of her thighs. First, she brushed over the soft thatch of hair there, something she kept well-groomed, wondering what would it feel like to have his fingers tracing over her.
She shivered and dug her heels into the mattress. Even the thought of Jamsheed touching her left goosebumps rippling over her flesh in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with her blasting AC. Her right hand moved lower, as if guided by its own accord and mind, until it found her hidden lips. Gently, Brenda parted her folds and pressed her forefinger against her pleasure button. Her movements were slow at first, small caresses and the slightest pressure against her pearl. As she did it, the first rose over her skin, as if dancing flames licked every inch of her limbs. It was beginning to consume her.
