Auctioned To The Sheikh

by Lara Hunter

  “What?” she asked, “No! No, no, no. Of course not! I’ve just been…overloaded with work. It’s been crazy here what with the auditing and everything. I’m on a major deadline.”

  “Right…” It seemed like he wanted to believe her, but his tone still wavered. “Are you sure, though? I’m pretty good at knowing when I’m being avoided. You seem a little…withdrawn.”

  “Just busy,” she said lamely. “Still incredibly charmed, but busy.”

  “Whew,” he joked out in a breath. “Well, consider me relieved. How about I return the favor and cure your stressful woes with a movie tomorrow night, if you’re able?”

  “Ugh, I’m really sorry, Tariq, but I just can’t. Please don’t take it personally, I’m just basically on lockdown for the next couple of weeks.”

  “Weeks?!” he repeated.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “My boss is being a real pain, scheduling me for double shifts, lots of overtime. Work is conflicting with…basically everything.” She tried to make her explanation as lighthearted as she could as she continued. “Consider me un-datable for the month, unfortunately.”

  “Okay, well, did you want me to talk to Mike? I could probably have him lighten up on some of your—”

  “No!” she interrupted, half in frustration and half racked with guilt. “No, please, it’s okay. This is what I get for taking an extra day off, I guess.”

  She’d meant the sentiment as a joke and felt awful as Tariq began telling her how sorry he was for getting her in trouble. He said he hoped Mike wasn’t taking their weekend getaway out on her. Emily tried to assure him it was just the usual work stuff, but couldn’t help but feel awful with every new lie she told.

  “All right, Emily,” he said finally, defeated. “I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it. All I can say is I can’t wait for this month to be over so I can be in your company again. If you get any free time, you know my number.”

  Though he couldn’t see her, she nodded. “I do.”

  “Hey, Em?” he said suddenly. “I miss you. Don’t leave me out for too long, okay?”

  With that, Tariq hung up the phone and Emily felt a rush of sadness creep into her throat and constrict her airways. She felt like she had been stabbed in the heart. His words were slicing through her, cutting her soul until her whole body felt numb. She felt like she couldn't move. Mike was ruining everything.

  Correction: her big mistake was ruining everything.

  She felt a wave of emotions wash over her: anger, pity, and desperation. Every hope she had of being happy with the Sheikh suddenly seemed to shatter and evaporate before her eyes. She couldn't do this to the man she loved, but she couldn't afford not to, either. The fact that he was blaming himself for her inability to see him hurt even more than the lies. She just wasn’t sure what to say to him when she did see him. Was she supposed to try and talk him out of the buyout like she had before?

  Everything was so wrong.

  FIFTEEN

  It had been two weeks since Emily’s late-night conversation with Tariq. She still hadn’t seen him since their wonderful weekend away; since her whole life had become consumed with work and trying to make up for her past mistakes.

  She’d managed to do a handful of video chats with the handsome Sheikh, but only for a few minutes at a time. It was nice to see his face, hear his voice, and banter with him for a few moments to forget the day, but it was too hard not to tell him what was going on.

  Maybe it was better that they called the whole thing off, she thought. It wasn’t exactly healthy to continue their relationship now that she’d put all of her time and energy into ruining his business deal. Plus, Mike knowing about her embezzlement would be hung over her head forever, she assumed.

  It was all too much. Her stress level was through the roof. She’d spent practically every night for weeks working overtime. She barely had time to go home and eat before passing out from sheer exhaustion. Every morning, coming into work was like walking right into a tornado. Mike always had something he wanted her to fix, or new e-mails detailing new and increasing demands on her.

  She felt like she was working herself to death, being pushed to the brink. Emily liked working hard, but this much overtime was just ridiculous, not to mention the lying. She could hardly handle how much lying and backtracking she had to do just to try and sabotage the buyout.

  Once again, it was half past nine on a Thursday evening and Emily was hunched over in her chair, coffee in hand, working the numbers. She was going back and forth from fudging the math on certain accounts, to completely legitimizing other ones. She was sure that by the time the audit was over, the Hasan Group wouldn’t have a clue what to do with Salt River Resorts, or how to fix it.

  That being said, she wasn’t exactly sure what Mike wanted her to do if her plan did work. Was she supposed to un-fudge the numbers to make the company look great again? She sighed inwardly; she supposed it wasn’t really her problem.

  Working late had taught Emily one thing: that those who worked overtime, worked hard for the company. Commonly it was just her, Lawrence and Jackie, who stayed behind. Tonight, however, it was just her and Mike.

  Mike wasn’t a big fan of late nights at the office. Emily didn’t know why he was staying late today, and frankly, she didn’t care, just as long as he stayed away from her.

  Emily tried to keep her head down and look hard at work, hoping her boss would leave her to it. This approach worked for several hours, until finally, she heard him call her name from across the office.

  She sighed and picked up her mug, bringing it with her as she leaned in the doorway of his office.

  “You rang?”

  “Yeah, come have a seat with me,” he said casually as he began pouring himself a bourbon. “You want a drink?”

  “I have coffee.”

  “You’ve been working above and beyond what I ever could have expected, little lady,” he said with a flirtatious condescension to his tone. “I know we’re in a bit of a bind and you’re working like mad to get us out of it, and I appreciate that. Don’t think that will go unrewarded when this all blows over.”

  Her brows perked up slightly. “So, you’ll be keeping me around after the buyout falls through?”

  “Keeping you around? Listen to this girl!” he said to no one in particular. “Of course; Emily, you may be a thief and a liar, but you’re a hard worker.”

  “Thanks?” she said, cocking an offended brow.

  “Hey, it’s the truth.” He pointed a finger at her and then sat at his desk, watching carefully as she did the same. She wasn’t lost to his eyes lingering on her as she sat. “So what in the world happened, Emily?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, how did we get here? I thought I was a smart guy, did my job well, you know? Now here I am, getting robbed by a 20-something girl and having to ruin the company’s reputation just to keep my job alive.” He sighed and went to pour himself another drink. “How in the world did this happen.”

  She shrugged. “I ask myself that every day.”

  “Hey, I’m a good listener if you ever want to talk.”

  She stared at him for a moment and waited for the come-on, and when none came she felt taken aback.

  “Do you want to talk?” he repeated hesitantly.

  “Not really,” she said. “Thanks for the drink offer, but I have a couple more things to do before the meeting tomorrow.”

  “Right, right, understood.” Mike exhaled once more and stared down into his glass; melancholy.

  “Well, I’m gonna head back.” Emily took a breath and stood to leave, but was surprised to see Mike standing up. Within an instant he was in front of her, blocking the doorway.

  “You wanna get out of my way?” she said, still trying to maintain a joking tone.

  “You know I want to, I really do, but my corporate pride is telling me that I have other plans with you. I mean, really, what did Emily do to put herself in this situation? Beautiful brunet
te like yourself? Could have done anything, really.”

  “What,” she frowned deeply, “Are you recording this, or something?”

  “I would never do that,” he paused, and then continued with a wink, “You know, unless you asked me.” He sighed. “Emily, I think you’re amazing.”

  “Mike, I—” She shifted awkwardly as he reached in and brushed a curl away from her face.

  “And sexy,” he said, his voice turning husky. “Did I mention sexy?” Before she could speak he continued, “You and I could do very good things together—professionally speaking, of course.”

  “Just professionally,” she said uncomfortably.

  “Hey, who am I to deny us a tryst together?” He said, his passions becoming more and more noticeable as Emily tried to squeeze by him. “You owe me that much.”

  Emily felt the color drain from her face. “Excuse me?”

  “I said,” he repeated loudly, “You owe me that much. I think denial is a little beneath you at this point, Em. I saved your job, I let you gallivant around with that Sheikh without saying a word to the other shareholders, and now I’m waiving my right to press charges against you, the thief.”

  “I’m pretty sure who I gallivant with is none of your business.”

  “Uh,” he interjected, “when it breaks nearly a dozen rules on a waiver you signed when you first came aboard? Yeah, it does. So what do you say? Oh, wait, wait, wait…”

  Emily scowled. “What?”

  “You don’t really have a choice in the matter, do you Em? I mean, come on, do you want to go to jail or do you want to do what I know we’ve both been dying to do together?”

  Emily stared at him in disgust. The closed distance between them made her sick to her stomach, the heat of his body so close to hers and the way she could feel his breath, smell it.

  She ripped her wrists from his grasp and pushed against him, causing him to stumble back into his bookcase. “You disgust me,” she spat and made her way to the elevator.

  She tapped the elevator button over and over, her fight or flight response finally kicking in as she entered the elevator and quickly hit the ‘door close’ button.

  And that was it. Emily had finally found a line she wouldn’t cross.

  SIXTEEN

  Emily sobbed the entire way down to the parking lot, anxiety taking over and causing her to gasp for one breath after another as she relived what had just happened.

  She slammed her car door shut and buckled her seatbelt before starting the engine. She could hear her phone ringing furiously. She checked the display on her car and could see the incoming caller was Tariq.

  There was no other voice she would like to hear at that very moment, but her mind couldn’t think of a logical explanation to tell him why she was crying so hard. Not without implicating herself and revealing all the awful things she’d done.

  He could never know her like that.

  Tapping the ‘ignore’ button, Emily sped home in a rush.

  Back at her apartment, she paced and sobbed, picking up her phone and going to dial her mother, Lindsey, or Tariq, before hanging up in frustration. She didn’t know who to reach out to. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone.

  Tears streamed down her cheeks endlessly. She laid on her bed with a record playing—slow, orchestral music. Her guilty pleasure. She’d always teased her mother for listening to orchestra; strings and violins seemed so old. Yet she’d bought a record player and a set of orchestral collections as soon as her mother got sick. She would play them every night and in some strange way, they became a source of comfort to her.

  She curled up in her bed and closed her eyes before her Siamese cat, Alfie, jumped up beside her and stared at her curiously before flopping down beside her with his belly exposed. She couldn’t help but chuckle at this before giving the cat a long stroke down his tummy. Seeming satisfied, Alfie jumped back onto the floor, and she was alone again.

  So that was what it felt like to have your world come crashing down on you, she kept thinking. The jig was up. If Emily had any hopes of keeping her job, they had all just flown out the window. As far as she was concerned, there was no point in going to work the following day.

  Just when Emily was starting to feel calm again, she heard a knock at her apartment door. She approached hesitantly, worried that it might be Mike, but it wasn’t. It was Tariq.

  She inhaled deeply and opened the door to the man who had stolen her heart away.

  Tariq stood with a yellow rose in his hand, wearing a handsome smile that faded quickly as he studied her face. Emily exhaled in something like a whimper before collapsing into his arms.

  “Emily,” he said firmly, his voice thick with emotion. “What happened?”

  She shrugged helplessly and shook her head into his chest.

  “Please, Emily, tell me what’s wrong.”

  This was it. It was now or never.

  Emily took one last selfish moment to relish being in his warm embrace before she backed away from him and kicked the door shut behind them. She stared at the ground and sighed heavily, tears now spilling forth. She tried to keep her voice as even as she could, but the more she spoke, the more her voice gave way to cracks and cries.

  “My mother was sick,” she began slowly.

  “I remember,” he nodded, tilting his head down to get a better look at her.

  “She was in all this debt from her medical bills and I had no idea what to do so…” Emily looked up at the man she loved and saw that the truth was already dawning over his face. “So I stole money from the company. A lot of money, which you ended up discovering. And then Mike found out and blackmailed me into sabotaging your business deal.” The sentence came out as one giant ramble until she collapsed into a heap of tears, her body now racked with sobs as she sank down onto the floor.

  “Hey, hey,” Tariq cooed and joined her on the rug.

  But she didn’t stop. The whole story came flooding out. Emily detailed every single thing she’d done to help her mother, and to subsequently cover it up by trying to ruin the business deal.

  As soon as the last of it had come out, she began to feel sick to her stomach. She felt waves of white, shooting pains going through her heart as she finally made eye contact with Tariq. She thought for sure she would see hatred in his eyes. But no. He was smiling.

  “Oh, Emily,” Tariq whispered, taking her into his arms. He kissed her cheek and smiled down at her, brushing her hair out of her face. He rocked her back and forth for a moment before rubbing her arm with his hand as he asked, “So you weren’t avoiding me because you couldn’t stand me?”

  “What?” Emily stared at him in shock for a moment before letting out a genuine laugh. “No, of course not! Give that until our fifth date, at least.”

  “Well yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”

  “So…” She frowned, now feeling utterly puzzled. “You’re not mad?”

  “Family is forever,” he said simply. “We do desperate things when we feel like we’re losing someone. Hey, look at me, I’ve been turned down several times now and I just randomly showed up at your apartment. That’s desperate.”

  She sniffled and blinked in surprise. “Why are you here?” she asked with a chuckle.

  “You weren’t answering your phone,” he said simply. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “You don’t hate me?” she asked, her brows cupping into a U-shape as she looked up at him in wonder.

  He laughed. “Impossible. Frankly, I’m baffled you didn’t tell me about all this sooner.”

  “You know, ten thousand dollars may not seem like much money to you, mister billionaire, but to the rest of us folk, it’s a lot.”

  He leaned in and rubbed his nose against hers. “I know,” he said softly.

  “And you forgive me?”

  “Of course I forgive you,” he said sweetly. “Emily, we’ll fix this. And I promise, with me as your boyfriend,” he paused suddenly and marveled at how red both their fac
es had gone. “I mean, if it’s okay to call myself that…”

  “Yes!” she cheered. “Yes, of course!”

  He leaned in and kissed her gently, cupping her cheek in his hand. “Then I promise that with me as your boyfriend, you’re not going to have anything to worry about ever again.”

  SEVENTEEN

  Weeks had passed since the Hasan Group had officially taken over Salt River Resorts. Going into work each day was like entering a little slice of heaven for Emily. The buyout had put The Hasan Group as one of the top five travel companies in the United States.