Bought For One Night: The Sheikh's Offer

by Holly Rayner

Amity drew her head back from the monitor, blinking madly. Her first thoughts were fearful. This almost certainly had to do with all the emails she’d been sending him, begging him for reassignment. She brought her palms to her face, igniting curiosity from Flora.

  “You don’t need another coffee, do you?” she asked, her voice bright.

  “I’m caffeinated enough, thanks.”

  Amity sighed, tugging her skin down with her fingers. Did she have more skin than she used to? Was she aging? Was she getting fat in her cheeks—and was that why Flora had suggested weight loss?

  She needed to calm down, to order her thoughts. She would apologize to Flora later. She inhaled and exhaled, concentrating on the way her heart beat in her ribcage. She needed to go upstairs immediately, Charlie had said. But she hadn’t been upstairs in months, and the thought of getting in that elevator chilled her to the bone. She could imagine Charlie’s words already. “You’re too much, Amity. You’ve pushed it too far. We need you to pack up your things. There’s no New York for you, and now—there’s no L.A., either.”

  Finally, Amity rose from her desk and brushed her fingers through her long brown hair. She readjusted her blazer. Her gaze was steady, strong. She marched from her office, under the watchful gaze of each and every intern and employee who worked beneath her. To them, she was a queen, a goddess. They couldn’t understand why she’d sacrificed so much for her career, but they respected her for it. And they hushed as she waited for the elevator, eyeing her as the elevator doors cinched closed.

  As she moved upward, toward the sky and the directors, she prayed with earnest, inner words that she wouldn’t be fired. She’d given her entire adult life to this industry. And if they couldn’t see that, she didn’t know what she would do with herself.

  TWO