The Sheikh’s American Love - A Box Set

by Holly Rayner

  “Hey!”

  Aurora snatched her hand out of her pocket as if the watch had burned her and turned around to see the same woman she’d run into earlier—the dishwater blonde who’d called her Steph. Her heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to try and come up with some kind of excuse for being on the ship.

  “Are you that new maid, Aurora?” the woman asked.

  Aurora blinked, startled at hearing her correct name on the woman’s lips. How had that gotten around the yacht so quickly?

  “Yes,” she said, instinctively standing straighter. Her mouth and throat felt dry.

  “The Sheikh asked for you,” the woman said. “He’s still in his quarters; wants to talk to you.” The woman seemed utterly unconcerned by the situation, and Aurora wondered if that was because she didn’t know that Aurora was a fake—or if she did know, and simply didn’t care about the outcome of the discovery.

  “Oh, sure—I’ll head right over,” Aurora said, resisting the urge to curtsy or bow her head. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  She moved quickly for the entrance into the body of the ship, swallowing against the tight feeling in her throat. The watch weighed down her pocket, and she wondered if maybe the Sheikh had left it in his suit jacket on purpose, as some kind of test. Had he expected her to immediately come back to his room and tell him he’d left it there? Aurora shivered at the change of temperature and the dread that worked its way through her spine. If he had been testing her, she’d already failed. This is going to be bad.

  It didn’t take her as long to find the Sheikh’s room as it had the first time. Aurora steeled herself as she reached the double doors, straightening her shoulders and closing her eyes for a moment to summon what little courage she could find inside of herself. She would have to brazen it out, whatever it was the Sheikh wanted from her. I don’t even know his name. I should know his name, if I’m one of his employees. But that shouldn’t come up, should it? Aurora pressed her lips together, took a quick, deep breath, and knocked on the door in a brief, staccato burst before opening the door.

  “Sir?” She stepped into the stateroom to find the man she’d brought breakfast to seated on the couch. To her disappointment, he wasn’t still wearing just a towel, but was dressed in a lightweight, designer suit that seemed tailored perfectly to fit his body. His hair was dry and brushed back from his face in wavy curls, and he looked at her with a pleasant, neutral expression on his face.

  “I like to take a few moments to introduce myself to all of my new employees,” the Sheikh said, gesturing for Aurora to come closer.

  She stepped away from the doorway and approached reluctantly, wondering—irrelevantly—if she had some kind of splotch or blob on her face or clothes, something she might not have noticed but which could stand out under the man’s intent gaze.

  “First of all, let me formally introduce myself; my name is Khaleel Al-Mohammedi.” Aurora nodded slightly. “I own this yacht, as you might have guessed, ” Khaleel smiled. “My father passed away six months ago, leaving me in charge of the family business. I spend a lot of time on this yacht; I find being on the sea is a good escape.” Khaleel paused. “Now, tell me a little about yourself.”

  “A-about me?” Aurora raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes,” Khaleel said, smiling slightly. “I like to know a little bit about the people working for me. How did you find out about the job opening? How are you finding the work and your coworkers?”

  Aurora smiled tightly, her mind spinning as she tried to come up with something she could tell the man who was watching her so intently.

  “Well,” she said, “My name is Aurora Evans, I’m twenty-five,” You’re not introducing yourself to a therapy group, here, she thought. “I found the job listed online,” she added quickly. “I don’t remember exactly where.” Aurora tried for a charming laugh. “I’m sort of in-between careers at the moment, so I’ve been looking for anything I’m capable of doing, and when this posting came up it seemed like a really good opportunity.”

  “That’s a refreshing attitude, wherever you find it,” Khaleel said. “So you haven’t been a maid for very long?”

  Aurora shook her head. “No, but I’ve been cleaning for most of my life,” she said brightly. “My parents insisted on it.”

  Khaleel laughed. “I’m glad that you were able to get through the interview process, then,” he told her. His dark brows knit together slightly and he leaned forward. “That’s a very lovely flower,” he said, gesturing to the pocket on her blouse where it was pinned.

  Aurora smiled, thinking of the woman who’d remarked on it as a potential demerit if the Sheikh saw it. “Thank you, sir,” she said, inclining her head towards him slightly.

  He shrugged, dismissing the need for gratitude with a brief wave. “Now—I’m not sure if anyone informed you that I also ask all of my new housekeeping employees to undergo a preliminary evaluation?” Aurora’s eyes widened slightly and she shook her head. “Most people think that cleaning is a pretty straightforward task—you use some cleaners, a rag, maybe a mop or a scrubbing brush, right?”

  “I understand that there's a little bit more to it than that,” Aurora said hesitantly.

  “I’m glad that you do,” Khaleel said, smiling more broadly. “And I’m sure you’ll be just fine at what I ask of you. But I do like to have a feel for a new employee’s basic level of skill, you understand?”

  “That makes sense,” Aurora said, her heart starting to beat a little faster. It’s just cleaning. How hard can it be?

  “I’m so glad you understand,” Khaleel said, giving her another winning smile. “Just so you're aware, I’m going to be watching during the entire time you’re undergoing your initial evaluation. Keep in mind, if you don’t do well, it’s not like you’re going to be fired right off the bat, but I will be critiquing your performance.” Aurora nodded, feeling a lump of cold dread starting to form in her stomach. “I will give you a list of chores to do in this stateroom and around the boat, and then I’ll evaluate how well you do at them.”

  “Okay,” Aurora said. She glanced around surreptitiously; the room was already clean. She couldn’t imagine how much Khaleel could really give her to do in order to prove her chops as a maid.

  “First I'd like you to clean out the bathroom, top to bottom. You’ll need to polish the mirrors, scrub the shower and the bathtub, clean the floors by hand, disinfect the toilet, take the trash to be incinerated, and polish the granite wall tiles.” Aurora swallowed, staring at him in shock at the lengthy list of tasks just for the bathroom. “Then in here, I will want you to organize my closet, strip and remake the bed, dust and polish all of the surfaces, clean the upholstery, polish the wood on all of the furniture—including the posters, headboard, and footboard of the bed…”

  Khaleel glanced around as if thinking. “Also, you’ll need to sweep and hand-polish the floors, vacuum the rugs, and scrub down the balcony; it does tend to get a bit messy out there, what with the salt water constantly blowing up onto it.” Aurora’s mind spun at the lengthening list; the tasks were seemingly endless. “Finally, of course, I’ll want you to clean the doors and the corridor leading into the space, and bring in some fresh flowers for the vases.”

  “That sounds like quite a…comprehensive evaluation,” Aurora said, trying her best to look calm and composed.

  “I want to give you as much chance as possible to demonstrate your skills,” Khaleel told her, the smile never wavering from his face.

  “That’s very kind of you,” Aurora said. She took a deep breath and looked around the room. “I guess I’ll start in the bathroom, then.” She swallowed, visions of the mammoth task ahead of her dancing through her mind. “There’s a supply closet with all of the cleaners nearby, right?”

  “Right in the room,” Khaleel told her. “Off to the side of the bathroom.” He glanced at a clock set on one of the low tables in the room. “I’ll be keeping track of the time as well.”

  “Better get started t
hen,” Aurora said, forcing a brighter smile onto her face than she felt.

  FOUR

  Aurora opened the cleaning supply closet and took stock. She had never been particularly enamored of cleaning chores; her own apartment was mostly neat, but she tended to clean things on an as-needed basis, rather than on any kind of routine, and while she had taken the “deep clean” shift at the café twice in the few weeks since coming home from Southeast Asia, Aurora had taken them more for the money than out of any delight at the prospect of chemicals and dirt.

  She grabbed item after item, cradling them in one arm as she picked through the options available in the closet. She went through a mental checklist of all the things Khaleel wanted her to do in the bathroom. Why on earth would he need it to be so thoroughly cleaned? Didn’t someone do it before he got on board? If they didn’t, why would he have taken a shower? She glanced over her shoulder to see that Khaleel was, true to his word, watching her, and closed the closet door awkwardly before moving into the bathroom.

  The bathroom was just as incredible as she had imagined it, based on the quarters she had already seen. It was as large as her bedroom at the apartment, and boasted marble tiling from the floor to the ceiling, as well as both a bath and a shower. The shower was enormous on its own, open, with a solid marble bench and no fewer than four shower heads positioned around where the occupant would stand.

  Aurora shook her head slightly to herself, glancing at the big, deep bathtub on the other side of the bathroom. He must go through an insane amount of water. The wall behind the sink was dominated by a floor-to-ceiling mirror, and Aurora looked at herself in it for a moment, taking in her dark hair smoothly swept back from her face in a braided ponytail, her big dark eyes, her curvaceous body covered by the skirt and blouse she’d put on that morning for one job and then used for her cover in the new position she’d taken. He’s keeping track of the time. Get started already.

  Aurora took a deep breath and sighed as quietly as she could, setting the cleaning supplies down on the floor and surveying the room with her mind focused on the tasks Khaleel had given her. Her parents had taught her to clean from the top down to the floor; that way, she wouldn’t end up having to clean the floor again when she knocked down dust or dirt from higher levels.

  She thought that the bathroom looked clean enough that the risk of knocking any dirt down was practically nonexistent, but she thought that Khaleel might be watching for her strategy nonetheless. If he was the kind of man who wanted his employees to face an initial “audition” after they’d been hired, it was easy to think that he would also have some kind of interest in the process an employee used.

  She decided to start on the walls, and Aurora found the marble cleaner and a rag for the purposes of scrubbing and polishing. She sighed again and started to work, burying her resentment in the depths of her mind as she sprayed and scrubbed the already-clean walls. There was no noise from the living room area of the stateroom, but Aurora knew better than to look and see whether Khaleel was still observing her.

  Aurora hummed quietly to herself as she scrubbed and polished, wondering what kind of man would make someone clean an already-cleaned room. Maybe he’s a germophobe, she thought as she moved from the top of the wall to the bottom, slowly working around the room inch by inch. Or maybe he’s just a jerk and this is some kind of new employee hazing.

  She struggled to keep her mental state at least a little bit compliant; she needed to maintain her cover. She needed to blend in and be one of the members of the crew at least until the boat arrived somewhere, and then she could duck off and disappear. Did she have her passport in her bag? Aurora thought about the closet, the shelf where she had left her things. For that matter, she didn’t know where the ship was going, or how long it would take to get there; she didn’t have anywhere to stay on the ship, no bunk to sleep in, and no clothes to wear. Her uniform was obviously going to get dirty quickly; what would she do then?

  Aurora pushed the worried thoughts aside as she moved onto another task, ducking into the vaulting shower stall and finding the spray bottle of shower cleaner.

  Surely he doesn’t have just one person cleaning his rooms, she thought idly as she sprayed all of the surfaces down and then stepped out of the shower to grab the scrubbing brush. The rooms that Khaleel had to himself were too big to have just one maid assigned to them; it wasn’t realistic, especially if his standards were so high. It would take her hours to do everything he had listed for her—and it was plain to Aurora that Khaleel fully intended to sit there in the main area of his suite and wait for her to finish every last thing that he’d listed. How was his “initial evaluation” realistic?

  He has like twenty people crewing this thing, Aurora thought resentfully. Did he do this with every last one of them? Did he ask the chef to prepare a twenty-course meal for him all on his own? The image of a chef hurriedly attempting to prepare dozens of courses for the capricious Sheikh made Aurora smile for a moment as she moved from the shower to the bathtub.

  The fact that the rooms were already clean, and that she was being told to do the work of at least two people, began to reassert itself more and more firmly in Aurora’s mind as she went from one task to another, breathing in caustic fumes. It’s not fair, she thought bitterly as she moved to take the trash out of the room before sweeping and polishing the floors. The bathroom had taken her an hour, she estimated, feeling the ache in her back and wrists and knees from the concentrated labor. She tied the garbage bag closed and hefted it; there was next to nothing inside, but she would—as Khaleel had commanded—take it to the incinerator, and shove it in. What other choice did she have?

  Khaleel was still seated on the couch in the main area of the suite when Aurora emerged, carrying the trash bag. “You’re making good time,” he said, glancing up from his laptop.

  “Thank you,” she said quickly, striding to the door and opening it.

  Stepping into the corridor, Aurora tried to think of whether or not she could remember where the incinerator was. An incinerator on a boat. Is that really safe? She walked up the hall until she saw the sign proclaiming the disposal unit with a caution sign next to it, advising her not to attempt to retrieve anything once she'd put it in.

  Once she had gotten rid of the trash, Aurora took a moment to stretch, twisting and moving in the space next to the incinerator chute until the aches and pains in her muscles began to abate.

  She felt slightly lightheaded; it was an effect of not eating for hours, she knew, but there was not much that she thought she could do about that particular problem for the moment. Maybe later, once she had established her bona fides, she could duck into the galley and snag something to fill her stomach. Add that to the list of things I need to figure out, including a place to sleep, she thought.

  Aurora went back into the stateroom and Khaleel barely glanced up from his computer as she went back into the bathroom to finish off that part of her list of chores. She followed the instructions on the bottle of marble floor cleaner and made a batch of the mixed solvent, leaving it for a few moments as she began to sweep.

  There was next to no dust or dirt on the floor. Aurora could picture two—maybe even three—maids hard at work in the quarters that very morning, before she had ever even thought of stowing away on the yacht. It wasn’t fair of the Sheikh to expect her to do all of the work herself, especially when she could tell that the work had already been done.

  Despite her aching back and knee, she managed to finish the floors, and Aurora gathered up the bottles and brushes to carry them back to the supply closet. She knew she was supposed to organize Khaleel’s closet next, and the idea of that—and the long list of other items that would come after it—sent a flush of anger through her. He probably has an assigned wardrobe person, or at least someone whose special task it is to organize his laundry. He probably has someone whose sole job is to do the floors in all the rooms on the boat.

  Aurora emerged from the bathroom and turned away from Khaleel t
o put all of the supplies back into the closet next to the room. She tried to regain her sense of composure and calm, but as the enormity of the “test” Khaleel had assigned her began to assume a larger and larger proportion in her mind, Aurora’s sense of how unfair it was, how demanding a test and how ridiculous the pretext—when the room was already pristine—intensified.

  “You’ll be working on my closet next, right?”

  Aurora turned and closed the closet door behind her. “You know,” she said quickly, keeping her voice carefully level as she looked Khaleel in the eye. “This seems a little extreme for an initial evaluation of my skills. You have an entire staff of people; I can’t believe that you ever just leave it to one person to clean your entire stateroom.” Aurora’s cheeks burned and she took a deep breath, realizing that her tone was bordering on insolence.