They went full tilt into the palace, and Raed swept Jake into his arms, both of them laughing. But he felt a lot better when Lise came through the doors and they closed behind their group, shutting the world out.
5
“Everything is going well here,” Lise said breezily to her mother, who lived in London and could only be reached first thing in the morning, before she went into work running the UK branch of a German pharmaceutical company. “Very well. Jake is happy with the change of scenery.”
Her mother laughed. “I doubt he notices a change in scenery. Have you done what you need to do to get that promotion yet?”
“I’ve been here a week, Mother,” she said, keeping her voice light and her laughter lighter. “I don’t think that’s long enough to get a promotion.”
It was, however, long enough for her to discover that the father of her child was a prince and settle into palace life. That was happening faster than Lise was comfortable with.
“You can’t let having a child hold you back.” This was a familiar refrain from her mother, who had been saying it to her from the moment she discovered Lise was pregnant. “Don’t allow yourself to be put on the sidelines, darling.”
“I won’t.” Lise didn’t mention that things would have been significantly easier early on in Jake’s life if she’d had a live-in nanny back then. “I love you. Talk soon?”
“Of course we will.” Her mother made a kissing sound into the phone, and Lise ended the call with a deep exhale. She loved her mother, but the fact was that Ingeborg was a human dynamo who wouldn’t even let a natural disaster stand in her way. Nothing had ever “derailed” her career—not even Lise.
She slipped her phone into her purse and slung it over her shoulder, heading for the golf cart, which she had managed to not crash more than once. Raed had come by an hour earlier to take Jake to have breakfast with his grandmother. What a life they were living. In London, Jake had gone to the daycare at the university until lunchtime, and then they’d have lunch together until Lise’s cousin showed up to watch him in the afternoon. Now he breakfasted with his grandmother and spent his days with Jana, having swimming lessons and visiting the stables and playing whatever games came to his mind. They still had lunch together, provided by the palace chefs.
Lise spent the morning meeting with people from around the palace and city about what they would need out of English language instruction, then went to meet Jana and Jake in a private dining room in the palace’s family wing. Jana handed him off with a big grin and went on her break, but before Lise could sit down, Raed came into the room.
“May I join you for lunch?”
Jake clapped his hands, cheering, and then what could Lise do? She wanted lunch with her son, but not so badly that she was willing to break his heart. The three of them sat down at a table by the window together. It was like a current, sitting next to Raed. Like a strong current. There was the old habit she’d been in—nursing more than a little resentment—and then there was the pull at the middle of her chest, the one that drew her to him whenever he was in sight and when she couldn’t see him at all.
Raed had bent to talk to Jake about lunch, the little guy settled in a high chair, and Lise felt a pang at the sight. Oh, man. She’d not wanted to bend, not wanted to give in to this lifestyle—it had always been her plan to make it on her own. But Raed had accepted them into this life as neatly as he’d offered her the job.
The two of them talked about nothing important while they took turns feeding Jake and eating their own lunches, and the hour melted away like cotton candy. It was time for Lise to get back to the professional wing. It must have shown in her face, how little she wanted to leave her son, because Raed stood up and took Jake into his arms. “What do you say?” He spoke to Jake, but his eyes asked the question of Lise. “Do you want to come to the stables and see my pony?” Raed repeated the word pony in Arabic, and Jake echoed him, trying his very best.
How could she not melt? Lise barely resisted putting a hand to her chest. “You two go visit those horses,” she said. “Have a wonderful time.” She kissed the top of Jake’s head and left before Raed could work his charms on her and convince her to go to the stables, too. Lise could imagine where that would lead. A quick look at the horses would turn to a quick ride on the horses would turn into the whole afternoon.
And she couldn’t risk that.
She put her head down and worked straight through to the end of the day. There was no way Raed had spent the entire day with their son, so Lise went looking for him in the usual spots. He was not in his playroom with Jana. He wasn’t in the second bedroom at the cottage, in the middle of a nap. He was not with Nenet. He was not swimming.
Panic rose in her chest. He could be anywhere in the palace, and the palace was enormous. Where was her son? Where was Jana? Lise turned in place, trying to think. She could run all over the grounds and not find them. Her phone waited in her purse, and Lise dialed Jana’s number. No answer. Straight to voicemail.
Okay. Okay. Next person—Raed.
She hurried back into the palace and down the series of hallways that led to Raed’s office. By the time she got there her heart was pounding, leaping, so anxious to find her boy that she couldn’t calm down, couldn’t catch her breath. Lise burst into the office with only a shred of embarrassment.
“Raed,” she gasped.
He looked up at her, a phone pressed to his ear, and gave her a thumbs-up.
What did that mean?
Then Raed grinned, pointing down at the floor. Lise rushed around to the other side of the desk and crouched low. There was Jake, hunched under the desk with a notepad in his hands, scribbling with fierce concentration.
She stood up, relief making her bones feel like jelly, and took the seat across from Raed’s desk. Maybe it would have been better to sit somewhere else, out of sight, but Lise couldn’t get that far.
Raed ended his call and turned to her. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She leaned back against the chair. “I couldn’t find Jana anywhere.”
The prince wrote something down on a sheet of paper, then met her eyes. “Jana needed to run a family errand during business hours, so I volunteered to watch Jake for an hour. I also have some news for you.”
That made her sit up straight. “What kind of news?”
Raed smiled, sending a shockwave of want through her that Lise struggled to pin into an acceptable place. “Just that you’ve made a lot of fans in the palace. My mother loves you. Staff members keep telling me that you’re always looking for advice and letting them know their contributions mean a lot.”
Lise’s face heated. “It’s almost dinner time,” she said. What? “Thank you for the compliment. Thank you for—for watching Jake. Would you like to have dinner with us? You don’t have to.” Great. Her face had to be on fire by now. “I know you probably have more work and business dinners, but—”
“I accept.” Raed stood up in one smooth motion, and Lise couldn’t help but let her eyes skim over the muscled line of his shoulders, the neatly nipped-in waist, and the powerful legs. “What do you think about dinner, Jake?”
“Go!” cried Jake, scrambling out of his spot under the desk and reaching for Raed. “Home.”
Home they went, in the golf cart to the cottage Lise was now living in. Her cottage on the palace grounds. Her fairy tale cottage. Raed came into the kitchen with them, and her face went even hotter.
“I don’t have anything very fancy,” she admitted, looking in the fridge. “Mostly just child-friendly food.”
“I could call the palace chef.”
“Oh, don’t bother him for this.” Lise realized what she’d said a moment later. “Unless you want to.”
Raed was smiling at her, obviously amused. “We can eat whatever you have.”
She went about making a simple dinner—couscous, flatbread, and dip—and the three of them sat down at the table in the dining area. Lise’s skin hummed with anticipation. It was only a dinn
er. Only a regular, run-of-the-mill dinner. Yet she felt like she was sitting in the glow of a celebrity—a celebrity who looked just like her son and who delighted in handing him bites of food.
When they were finished eating, she put Jake on the floor to roam free and took the dishes to the sink.
“Okay,” said Raed, scanning the setup at the sink. “Let me help.”
“I think you’re already helping,” she mused. “This pilot project already looks very promising. Is it something you’d want to fund with your foundation, if it ever—you know. If it ever got big enough?”
“Yes,” Raed said instantly. “Yes. I’m invested in education. Education is going to underpin everything that happens at the foundation, because that’s the only way to make lasting improvements to the world.”
She rinsed the plates and basked in the warmth of him. “Mama,” said Jake, rushing in from the other room. He had a piece of paper clutched in one fist and a crayon in the other, and he’d used the crayon—red—to scribble all over the page.
“Oh, look, you’ve been drawing.” Lise took the paper from his hand and unfolded it. “Ah! My work. Well, this is much better than boring black words on white paper.” She smoothed out the paper and attached it to the fridge with a magnet.
She and Raed talked about drawing, talked about the foundation, and came back around to her project while the evening slipped away. He talked about the world. The entire planet shone in Raed’s eyes when he talked about his projects and his goals. She saw cities. Neighborhoods. They went back and forth about it, and Jake’s eyes started to get heavy. He rubbed at them with his fists. Raed noticed and stood up from his spot on the sofa, going to pick up his son.
“How can I help?” His voice was soft, urgent. “I think it’s bedtime.”
Lise fought the urge to take over. She could take Jake right out of his arms, if she wanted—it would be within her rights. But the way Raed cradled him so confidently gave her pause.
“You can take him upstairs, if you’d like. Pajamas are in the top drawer.”
Oh, it was weird, not having to do anything at bedtime. She checked on the dishes—drying—then poured herself a glass of wine. No sound came from upstairs. Lise perched on the edge of the sofa and sipped at the wine, on alert. But then—footsteps on the stairs. Raed appeared a moment later, a satisfied smile on his face. “He’s down.”
“He went down for you that easily?”
Raed shrugged. “I’m still a novelty.” He came and sat next to her on the couch, letting out a sigh of relief. “It was a good day.”
“You’re sure Jake didn’t distract you from your work on the foundation?”
He cracked a smile, and Lise’s heart leapt at the sight of it. “No, of course not. The foundation is in its beginning stages. Even a toddler as busy as Jake couldn’t knock it down now.”
She sat back on the sofa, drinking her wine. “And it’s going to be about education, this foundation of yours?”
“Yes, and much more. The concept is venture philanthropy. When it’s all in motion, we’ll be investing capital into parts of the world that need it most and helping them create value. Monetary value, of course, but also educational value. Pride. That’s what the foundation will do.”
“Tailored education, like what I’m offering, would be good for that,” Lise mused. It was so nice having an adult to talk to, outside of her colleagues. An adult who smiled at her son. Who played with him easily. Who was so handsome that it stole Lise’s breath.
“I agree.” Raed leaned forward. “We should talk about it over the course of our time together, don’t you think?”
She laughed. “Was there something else you wanted to do?” The words were out of her mouth before Lise could stop them, and only then did the double entendre hit her. “I mean—like watch a movie.”
It had been years since she watched a movie with someone else, on a sofa like this.
His eyes burned into hers. “Yes. I would love to watch a movie with you.”
Raed chose one from the selection on the TV. An action movie, by the look of it. Lise made a small sound in the back of her throat, and he studied her face intently.
“Not an action fan?”
“The plots are so convoluted,” she said. “But I’m game.”
“I’ll tell you all about it.” And with that, Raed put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. The warmth of him had her heart pounding. It was like the way they’d cuddled together two years before—so like it. Her body relaxed into him. They weren’t like that now, but it felt so right, it felt so good—she couldn’t resist.
Raed dropped a casual kiss on the top of her head and took a deep breath. “All right. This is our hero, coming up on the screen right now. And his mission is to—”
She let herself sink into his voice, and her eyelids grew heavy. It was so hard to stay awake, even with the sounds of battle washing over the room. Raed was close. She was safe. The movie dropped away, and all that was left was a pleasant darkness.
Lise woke with a start. The TV had been turned off, but the light in the kitchen was still on.
Raed was nowhere to be seen.
She pushed off the blanket and a note fluttered to the floor. Lise grabbed it with a yawn.
“Thanks for dinner,” it read. And it was accompanied by a drawing. A silly one, of her sleeping on the couch, a trail of Zs above her head. She rubbed a hand over her face, mortified, but then she found herself smiling into the dark.
He’d kissed her.
And it had felt so good.
6
The video conference was going as smoothly as a video conference could. Raed sat straight in his chair, trying to keep his eyes on the camera. It wasn’t his favorite when people stared too long at their own videos on the screen. At this meeting, he wanted to look as engaged as possible. Because he was engaged. The screen in front of him was filled with images of several of the high-ranking board members from Georgetown University, which he’d attended as a young man.
“We’re so honored to be considered for your first initiative, and we have some ideas,” continued one of the board members, whose eyes shone with excitement. “The first item for funding would be a set of scholarships for students in need. I’ve been working with my staff on coming up with criteria, but we’d like to take a holistic approach. We would take into account financial need, academic excellence, and of course socioeconomic diversity. And the second item for funding—” The man flipped a page in binder on his desk, glancing at the screen. “That second item would be founding a center for international education and development. And I want mentoring and counseling included in that to maximize success. These students shouldn’t just be left on their own once they arrive here.”
Afternoon sunlight streamed in from his office window, and Raed resisted the urge to bask in it. This was going well. He had Lise and Jake living on the palace grounds, where they’d be safe, and things were proceeding as they should be for the foundation. No one would ever be able to say that Raed hadn’t left a legacy of good when he stopped being a working member of the royal family. This foundation would outlast him. It would be a credit to his family. To the country, even.
Which was why he had to keep his focus on this meeting, and not on the memory of Lise sleeping so peacefully on his shoulder the previous night. Her body had molded to his, relaxing so completely, and when the movie ended, Raed hadn’t wanted to leave. He’d spent a good fifteen minutes allowing himself to play out the fantasy in his mind. Picking her up in his arms. Taking her up the stairs to the cottage’s master bedroom. Undressing her...
Lying down next to her. He’d imagined the rest he’d get just sleeping next to her, and the pull had been intoxicating.
But no. That wasn’t the plan. He’d been invited for dinner, not to spend the night.
Focus.
“Yes.” Another board member leaned into her computer. “Support is essential once students reach the collegiate level, especially
if they don’t have strong family bonds or other people willing to step in. If you’ll let me be so bold, Sheikh Al-Qasha, these types of initiatives seem to be a perfect fit for the stated aims of your foundation.”
“I agree with you.” He smiled into the screen. “Give me more details.”
They went through the binder page by page, each board member pitching in. The excitement was palpable even from across the city.
“We’d publicize the scholarships via multiple channels,” said the first board member. “Newspaper ads, so that parents of eligible children would have a chance to hear about it. Online advertising. Social media. All of it will be co-branded as the university and your foundation, and we’ll include that information in our materials.”
“I think we should also discuss—” One of the men on the call cut in, then waved it off. Raed searched for the man’s name. Bradley. Bradley Taylor. He’d been in Qasha for a couple of weeks. Board members had mentioned him several times, but although he was supposed to be the official liaison between Raed and the university, they hadn’t been able to schedule a meeting. “Perhaps for another meeting.”
Raed snapped his attention to him. He looked mildly conflicted. About what? The meeting had gone so well so far. “No, please,” he offered, putting on a welcoming expression, the same one he used for visiting dignitaries. “Mr. Taylor, go ahead.”
Bradley blinked, a relieved smile spreading across his face. “It’s so good to be in a meeting with you at last, Sheikh Al-Qasha,” he began. “I’m hopeful we can have a face-to-face sit down soon. My only concern is that we’ve heard that a first project has already started up. But we can discuss it at another time.”
Another member spoke up then. What had Bradley been about to say? Raed forced himself to focus on the next item they wanted to discuss. At least until Bradley’s voice cut across the meeting. He was holding a phone to his ear, a separate phone call.
He hadn’t muted himself on the video conference. Raed added up the ways he was being rude, and then he heard what the man was actually saying.
The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three Page 4
