And her son’s chubby hand in hers, waiting for his drink.
She pulled open the door to the cafeteria building, which had the same sweeping lines as the other buildings, but with modern-looking glass windows in the front. A burst of air conditioning cooled her hot cheeks. An attendant at a check-in desk took Lise’s credit card for one lunch ticket—eight dollars—and it felt so delicious to be in the clean, white space that she didn’t mind the cost. She had to buy a lunch ticket, rather than just drinks, so they might as well eat.
Lise took Jake to a snack stand, where a man in a green uniform served them a plate with a brownie on it, and then to the next station, where she got a hot slice of pizza. Last stop—the drink machine. She filled up a small cup halfway and the two of them sat in a sunny table, Jake snugged up to her side in a chair pulled close to hers. Lise settled into the routine of cutting the food and gathering preemptive napkins while her mind wandered.
Raed had left the party so abruptly, signaling for his advisors and stalking toward the garden gates. She couldn’t blame him, really, after the shock of learning that he had a son. Still—Lise had a right to her feelings, too. He hadn’t bothered to tell her his real name. Lise rubbed at her forehead and supervised Jake as he worked his way around the edges of the brownie. It had been so humiliating to try to get his details from the school’s office. She’d been careful not to think of how awful it had been when the school had no information. Neither did the internet, and now, learning that Bahir had been a code name, a nickname—
“There you are.”
That voice. That voice made her toes curl inside her pumps. She looked up into Raed’s face, her mind struggling to place him in this university cafeteria. He wore fine slacks and a white shirt and an unbuttoned suit jacket, looking as sexy as she’d ever seen him. She straightened up, pulling Jake in closer. “I didn’t realize you were looking for me.”
His glance flicked around the table and out the window, then landed back on hers. Lise noticed the security now, hanging back by the food stations, trying to look inconspicuous.
“I wanted to talk to you.” God, his voice was sensual and deep and lovely. “I asked the consul where I could find you this morning. It felt...urgent. I wanted to apologize for leaving the way I did.”
A prickle of defensiveness tapped at her breastbone. “Which time?”
Raed narrowed his eyes. “Both times,” he shot back. Jake reached forward and took another bite of brownie, following it up with a cut piece of pizza.
“Go ahead, then.” He was the prince. Lise knew it. But she couldn’t let herself melt now, not when he was standing there looking so attractive she could swoon.
“I’m sorry for leaving the way I did.” His voice dropped, earnest and searching. “I shouldn’t have done that. And now that I know what I know, I’d like to talk to you.”
She shoved down her defensiveness. No matter how he’d left, he was Jake’s father. There was no denying it. “You’re right. We do need to talk.”
“Do you mind if I sit down?”
It felt monumental, this decision, though there had been so many in Lise’s life that mattered more.
“Be our guest.”
Raed folded himself into one of the chairs across from her, and for an instant she saw him the way he had been in that class two years ago. Somehow, she’d managed to convince herself that he was just an extraordinarily rich and sexy student, the way her students sometimes were. But it was clear now that he was on another level. Her heart beat faster. Concentrate. “So you’re Raed, member of the royal family of Qasha. As in Tali’s brother-in-law.”
“That’s right.” Raed had the grace to look sheepish. “Bahir is my nickname. I use it whenever I’m not looking for the attention of the crown. Sometimes it’s easier that way, but I should have been honest with you.”
I’d say so. “It would have been a kind thing to do, yes.”
“You looked for me?”
Oh, had she ever. “Of course I did. When I found out I was pregnant—” Lise swallowed hard. “I tried my best, but I couldn’t find anything about you. And then time went by. And now...” She motioned at Jake by her side, happily eating his pizza. “Now we’re here.”
“Now you’re here,” echoed Raed. “In Qasha. Planning to work for my foundation.”
“Thinking about working with your foundation,” she countered. “What I do would be a perfect fit, based on what Sir Richard has told me. What we’d like to do is set up an English language program in conjunction with Lafayette College and the local university—and with your foundation—that would take English language instruction into the companies that need it most. These would be tailored to their requirements, and over time it could boost the entire economy for your country.”
There—that was it. That was the pitch.
Raed’s dark eyes searched hers as students moved past the table. Better than the garden party, then. They had a little bit of privacy. But as Raed opened his mouth to answer, someone else spoke.
“What a beautiful family!” Lise looked up into the blue eyes of a woman in a dark gray dress, smiling down at them. A camera strap hung over one of her shoulders.
Beautiful family. Oh, crap. “Thank you,” she said automatically. “That’s so nice of you to say.”
The young woman’s eyes drifted over to Raed and then widened in recognition. “Oh, I’m—Prince Raed,” she said. “I didn’t realize you were here.” Her gaze darted back to Lise. “You have every right to be here, obviously, at the university, but I didn’t think—I didn’t know—how—” She trailed off, staring at Lise and then down at Jake as if their faces could offer her some clue as to why the prince was sitting at a table with them.
“A pleasure to meet you,” Raed said firmly, his shoulders tense, the smile on his face a bit stiff. “Are you a student here?”
“Yes. I’m from the university magazine.” She patted the camera. “I wanted to ask if I could take your photo for our quarterly, but I don’t want to bother you.” The girl blushed deeply, then stepped way. “Thank you,” she called over her shoulder. “Have a good lunch.”
They watched her go, Lise feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She turned back to Raed, who looked far more serious than she’d ever seen him. “That’s the risk,” he said softly. “That’s the risk of people putting one and one together to make two. Or rather, three.” He nodded toward Jake.
It struck her then, the sheer audacity of what he was doing. The royal family of Qasha didn’t just go out in public and have meetings with visitors to the country. They were private. Removed. Protected. That was changing a little lately because of Tali and her enormous heart, but the shift hadn’t finished yet. “Should we go somewhere else to continue this conversation?”
Lise knew they hadn’t gotten to the meat of it yet, not nearly. Raed sat back in his seat. “I’d prefer it if you came back to the palace. Moved into the palace, really.”
Shock tiptoed up her spine. “What? No. I don’t want anything from you. I never came here intending to ask anything of you.”
“It makes the most sense.” He folded his hands on the table. “You’ll need help with your son. I’d like to get to know him. It would be wonderful for him to meet his grandmother, who will love him, and the rest of his family.”
“Raed—”
“And the project you’ve just pitched me? I’ll help with that. You want a pilot scheme, then you’ll be the educational consultant for in-house staff development in English as a second language.”
Lise felt the pull of him, as magnetic as he had been when he was her student. It was a bad idea to be near him. To go home with him. A different future shimmered in her mind. A father, involved with his son. But surely it wasn’t good, surely it was risky to be so close to him when she felt her pulse thrumming toward him, her heart trying to beat next to his. The heat in her cheeks disarmed her.
Focus, she commanded herself. He did have some rights, after all. He was
Jake’s father. And Jake would benefit from having a grandparent’s presence in this new country. And—and—if she pulled off a successful pilot version of the project...
Lise already knew a bit about the needs and keenness of the palace staff, since she’d helped Tali with Hamid’s son Rafiq and a play the palace children had put on. It wouldn’t do any harm to scope out Raed’s offer. And if she pulled it off, the board would be amazed. She’d have the promotion she’d been working toward for years. She’d have security.
But for all of that, she needed her boss’s approval. And how was she going to get that without any details? The only way to know what Raed was really planning was to visit the palace with him. That way, she could find out if it really was a place Jake could be happy.
She almost snorted to herself, avoiding it at the last minute. A prince. A palace. This was not what she’d imagined. Maybe it could be better than she imagined.
“All right,” she managed finally. “I’ll go and see the palace. But I’m not making any promises.”
3
Lise had no idea how they’d gotten to the palace. The technical details, yes—Raed had led her out to a black SUV that waited by the entrance to the university, a car seat already installed in the back. The driver had taken them on a series of winding turns through the city, this way and that, and Raed sat next to Jake the whole time, offering him bites of pizza and telling him about the buildings they were passing.
And then—the palace.
They entered through a set of gates in the back, off a private road that seemed practically silent after the bustle of the city, and parked at the end of the circle drive. The palace sprawled before her, massive and intimidating. Was this really a good idea? Raed stepped out of the SUV and offered her his hand. She took it, speechless. The palace. It was a fixture in the city, of course, but now that she was standing in its compound, it looked much bigger. And the palace wasn’t the half of it. She undid the buckle on Jake’s seat and lifted him out, his weight familiar on her hip.
“This way,” Raed said, and she turned to find him standing next to a golf cart.
“Car,” said Jake, pointing, his tiny finger stretched out toward the cart. “Ride.”
“Yes, buddy,” she whispered into his ear. A golf cart. That made sense, right? The palace grounds were sprawling, reaching out as far as she could see behind the massive building. Lise got in next to Raed, and he watched her carefully to make sure they were settled in before he drove them out of the main courtyard. They took a paved path through landscaping that reminded her of a garden gone wild.
“This buggy is yours,” Raed said casually. “It goes with your cottage. The cottage you’ll stay at if you agree, of course. We have several on the grounds.” A couple of minutes later they pulled up in front of one of them. Lise stifled a gasp. It was no “cottage.” It was a neat two-story house with a manicured lawn. Raed hopped off the golf cart and led them around to the back, which featured a full-size pool. Off to one side was a paddling pool with zero-depth entry. All of it had been surrounded with a safety fence. Jake struggled to get down from her arms, and she put him on his feet. He rushed to the fence as fast as his little legs could carry him, pressing his hands against it, then peering back at her with longing in his eyes.
“House,” Jake said, his little voice twisting at her heart.
“A house,” she agreed.
They went inside—through the living room with its leather sofas and chairs and a wide space for Jake to play in, and into a huge kitchen with brand-new appliances, including an expensive coffee machine. Lise poked a lever on the refrigerator, and a perfectly clear sphere dropped into her hand.
“Craft ice?” Lise said, her eyebrows raised.
“Craft ice,” Raed said. “My mother likes it.”
He led them to the second floor. The master bedroom featured an enormous canopy bed and an en suite bathroom, which was all sleek and marble and modern. It was the most romantic bed Lise could picture sleeping in. And the second bedroom—well, the second bedroom had been turned into a little boy’s room. The only thing missing was—
“If he needs a crib, you can order whatever you wish to complete the room,” Raed said as Lise opened her mouth. “I didn’t know how you did things at home, but it’s important to me that you feel comfortable.”
“Order them from where?”
“Someone from the palace will come by and give you all the information you need. Online stores are an option, but there’s also an interior decorator who can give you guidance if you feel you need it.”
An interior decorator. When she was pregnant with Jake, Lise had bought the middle-of-the-road crib at her local department store and put it together herself. Her mother had been too busy to help her with it, and she hadn’t wanted to ask her work colleagues, who she knew wondered privately about Lise’s decision to become a single mother. They badly wanted to know who the father was, and she hadn’t wanted to admit that he was as good as a ghost—no record of him anywhere, except for the baby in her belly.
Jake moved in a quick circle around the room, making a beeline for a low shelf that had a small collection of books and a big red truck. He took the truck down and rolled it back and forth on the carpet, making soft car noises.
If they’d been in contact with Raed when Jake was born, he would always have had these things. A room just like this. There would never have been a question about daycare or a nanny or the constant struggle Lise faced to keep up with her career and make sure he had as much of her as possible.
She pushed those thoughts out of her mind. What mattered now was that they were here. And even though it seemed surreal to be staying in a royal guest house, it wasn’t bad. No. It was very, very good.
Lise and Raed, with Jake held in her arms, did another circuit of the house. It all smelled fresh and new and painted, as if he’d had the whole thing remodeled on the fly. Perhaps he had. It was the kind of thing a rich prince in Qasha could do, right? Have a guest house remodeled. Everything about the house was well taken care of, and the scent of lemon cleaning solution brightened the air.
“A member of the staff will be here to clean every three days,” he mentioned.
“Oh, I don’t need that,” she said automatically.
“You will, since you’re working on my pilot project.” He patted her gently on the shoulder. “It’s all right to enjoy yourself while you’re here. You don’t have to worry yourself with cleaning. Now, tell me—is there anything you need now?”
There was only one thing missing. Lise didn’t want to say it out loud, but he’d asked, and the worry had been nagging at her from the moment they first came through the house. There was no separate office or classroom space. Guest houses didn’t always have classroom space, obviously, but—
“I—I can’t hold classes or needs-assessment interviews here.” It sounded wrong, almost off-key, the way she found a flaw in it, but it was true. She couldn’t very well teach out of a private part of the palace grounds.
“Of course not.” Raed grinned at her, his smile contagious. “Come see the business wing of the palace.”
“The business wing?”
He laughed. “Yes. We don’t conduct the work of the country in our private rooms. I’ll show you.”
She went and scooped up Jake, who pointed back at the pool with a fierce look in his eyes. At the golf cart she sat down in the first available seat—oops. The driver’s seat. Lise got her feet under her and stood back up. “Here—”
“You can drive if you like,” Raed offered.
Her face warmed again. “Actually, I can’t. I don’t know how to drive.” Lise felt his eyes on her as she made her way back to the passenger side and settled in with Jake in her lap. Raed blinked at her from his spot next to the cart.
“You don’t drive,” he repeated.
Right—Lise remembered now. He loved fast cars. They’d rarely driven themselves when they were on vacation together, since Raed had his driver w
ith him everywhere they went, but when he did get behind the wheel, it was because he’d rented a high-end sports car to show off. “Nope. But if I recall correctly, you’re quite good at it.”
He huffed a laugh and took his seat in the golf cart. “This is hardly a sports car,” he said. Raed took them back to the private palace entrance and parked in the first available space, tossing the keys to a waiting servant as they climbed back out. “The business wing is this way.”
They entered through a set of massive double doors into the cool dimness of the palace. Lise’s eyes took a minute to adjust. Even the air seemed richer here, almost silky on her skin, and she breathed in the light scent of a neutral perfume, as if someone had been here only moments before, polishing everything to a high gloss. Raed led the way down the hall. Inset niches displayed statues and paintings, each with their own lighting setup, but he didn’t seem to notice them as they walked past. A turn this way, then that way, down another long hall, and—
“This is the business wing.” Raed pushed another set of double doors open, and Lise looked down a long, modern hallway bathed in sunlight with many doors on either side. The opposite end of the hall had floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of the city sprawling below them. “Meeting rooms of every size. Down at the windows there’s a public entrance so that anyone who needs to visit for a class can do so.”
It was a lot. The gorgeous floors. The abundance of windows. The new scent of the meeting rooms. Raed led them down the hall and back, people inside the rooms waving to them. “A suite for you,” he said, stopping at one of the doors. It was fully stocked, with its own large meeting room and three smaller offices besides. “Just to get started.”
The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three Page 2
