One of the crew yelled something at the man and he hurried away, leaving her and Chase alone on the upper deck.
“I have mixed feelings about this.” He searched her face for any of the same regrets but he saw nothing but excitement.
“Are you serious? We could have easily died on the island.” The breeze blew her hair all around her head. She wiped a lock away from her mouth.
He tamped down an urge to kiss her, afraid things had shifted between them now that they’d been rescued. The thought left him feeling nostalgic and empty. “I guess you’re right.”
The trip to the sheik’s island took less than an hour. They disembarked at a marina where three other luxury yachts were moored as well as what looked like a small cruise ship with the sheik’s logo emblazoned on the side.
A golf cart carried them to a palace that resembled a museum, complete with works of art, antique furniture and servants at every turn.
A man who introduced himself as Mohd led them to a long hallway on the second story. “The sheik wishes for you to relax before dinner.” He let Diana into a room then showed Chase to the one next door.
“Thanks.” He waited until Mohd had shut the door to take a good look around the opulent suite. The room and bathroom had soaring ceilings, gold fixtures and a closet outfitted with clothes and shoes in his size.
“Damn.” He could have sworn his voice echoed in the cavernous space. It had everything—except Diana. He wished they’d had a chance to talk, alone. But he heard the shower go on next door and decided to wait.
Now that they were back in the real world, would things go back to how they’d been before they became castaways? The sex with her had been the best, but they’d shared more than that. And he wanted to explore where the relationship could go.
He prayed she’d feel the same way, but judging by her demeanor during the rescue, he had a bad feeling about it.
* * * * *
“Falah el-Tayid. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” The sheik had a British accent and was way more handsome in person than in the photos Diana had seen of him. His skin was the color of rich caramel and his eyes sparkled like polished topaz. He offered his hand and a warm smile.
“Diana Weston.” She expected him to shake with her but instead he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. Heat rose to her face as she back-stepped. “Nice to meet you too. I didn’t think I’d ever make it here. Thank you so much for sending out a search party.”
He gestured for her to sit on an elegant sofa in the expansive parlor next to the dining room. “I heard about your ordeal. I’m so sorry that your first trip to my country started off with such an unpleasant experience.”
Not completely unpleasant. Her heels clacked on the polished marble floor. She sat down, smoothing her gown over her lap. “How did you know where to look?”
“When neither of you showed up for your appointments, my secretary checked with the hotel and learned you’d left early yesterday morning, heading here. I had one of my men retrace your steps. You’ll be happy to know the men who hijacked you and Mr. Cunningham are now in the hands of law enforcement.”
“Wow. That’s impressive.”
He took a seat in a nearby chair that resembled a throne. “I hope your accommodations are satisfactory.”
“It’s perfect, wonderful. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“It’s the least I could do after all you’ve been through.” He swept his gaze over her. “I had no idea you’d be so lovely. May I offer you a drink?” He snapped his fingers and a servant appeared in seconds. “What would you like, Miss Weston? I have whatever your heart desires.”
She swallowed hard and wondered if he just had a flirtatious nature or was this all on her behalf. “White wine would be wonderful.”
He spoke Arabic to the servant then the woman disappeared.
“There you are.” Chase entered the room wearing an expensive suit and tie. He made a beeline for the sheik and the men shook hands. “I got lost almost as soon as I left my room. This is quite a home.”
“Home sweet palace.” The sheik chuckled as he shook with him.
Chase gave her a covert wink then joined her on the sofa. “That had to be the best shower of my life.”
She nodded her agreement.
“Khalid, one of my yacht crew members told me about the hijackers dumping you in the middle of the gulf. You’re quite fortunate the men didn’t kill you and that you were close enough to an island to find refuge.” The sheik tipped his chin at Diana. “Attractive women like yourself are often kidnapped then sold into slavery.”
A chill slithered up her spine. “How awful.”
“Yes. Someone as beautiful as you would fetch a high price as a…concubine.”
The servant brought a tray with three glasses and a bottle of white wine and set it on a Baroque table next to the sheik.
“This Pinot Grigio is from my vineyard in Italy. I hope you enjoy it.” The sheik filled the glasses then handed them out.
Diana tasted it and smiled. “Very nice.” Although it was fair, at best.
“To your safe return to the world,” the sheik said, offering a toast. “And to the beautiful lady. I look forward to hearing your presentation, and yours too, Mr. Cunningham.”
They all drank. Diana refused to meet Chase’s stare, which she felt more than saw.
“Please pardon my manners, but I have an important business meeting on the mainland. My chef has prepared you a sumptuous dinner. You can each make your pitch to me in the morning. For tonight, please make yourselves at home. There are many things to keep you occupied here.” He shook Chase’s hand then kissed Diana’s again. “Enjoy your evening, Miss Weston.”
Chase’s cheek muscles ached from the effort of smiling at that lecherous bastard. Who the hell did the sheik think he was? Just because he was a billionaire he assumed he could come on to Diana. Although she looked beyond stunning in an emerald-colored gown.
“He’s a charmer,” Diana said as soon as el-Tayid was out of earshot.
Chase downed the remainder of the swill the sheik called wine and set his glass down hard on an end table. “He’s an arrogant asshole.”
“Oh really?”
He got the distinct impression she was laughing at him. “What’s so funny?”
“You. You’re jealous.” She got up and started out of the room. “I guess I should be flattered.”
“Are you serious? I don’t have a jealous bone in my body.” It was true. Even when Adrienne had flaunted the fact she was having an affair right before they separated, it wasn’t jealousy he felt so much as anger—and relief. He followed Diana into the dining room.
“Whatever you say.” She sat at the head of a table the length of his entire apartment in New York.
He thought about taking a seat next to her but changed his mind and went to the opposite end. “You should celebrate. Looks like you’ve got this account in the bag.”
Two male servants came into the room and placed salads out for them. “More wine, sir?” one of them asked in heavily accented English.
“No, thank you. I’ll have a glass of water please.”
As soon as the men left, Diana narrowed her eyes at him. “I will win the sheik’s account, but it’ll be because he likes my ideas better. Don’t you dare set this up like some sort of popularity contest.”
“Popularity contest? Not at all. But let’s see how long it takes him to get into your panties.”
She shot out of her chair, tossed her napkin onto the table and marched from the room, leaving him feeling like a jerk.
“I’d like my dinner brought to my room, please,” he heard her tell someone before her footsteps grew distant.
Aw hell, maybe he was jealous. His disdain for the sheik had started the moment he saw the guy flirt with Diana. He slumped in his chair as he picked at his salad. Hungry as he was, the food tasted like cardboard. But he didn’t have the luxury of self-pity. He had a pitch to practice so he cou
ld win a multimillion-dollar account in the morning.
* * * * *
Diana set her barely touched dinner tray on a table outside her room. She glanced toward Chase’s door but noticed no signs of life.
Why did he have to be such a jerk downstairs? He’d been so awesome on the island. For heaven’s sake, he’d saved her life more times than she cared to count. Why couldn’t she look past his bullheadedness? She should be flattered that he was jealous of the sheik, but when he assumed she’d get the account based solely on her feminine assets, her blood had boiled.
Too many people in the ad business had made similar assumptions about her and she’d fought far too long to prove it was her talent that got her where she was.
She headed back inside her suite and paced the floor. Maybe she’d given Chase the wrong impression after they were rescued. Sure, she’d kept her distance, but she’d been embarrassed at being discovered by the rescuers in such a compromising position with Chase. Plus there was the shame factor since she’d obviously enjoyed being tied up and teased by him. They hadn’t had even a second to discuss where things were going between them before the rescuers delivered them to the sheik’s island.
Once they arrived at the palace, she’d been focused on calling her mom and sisters, telling them how much she loved them and making plans for a long overdue family reunion.
How had this all gotten so messed up? She stepped out onto the balcony and inhaled the sea air. But the beautiful setting only made her pine for someone special to share it with.
Chase.
She leaned over the railing toward his room and glimpsed him through the sheer curtains covering his window. He looked as if he was having a conversation with himself. But she recognized his behavior for what it was—he was practicing his pitch and she should be doing the same if she had any hope of winning the account.
She considered withdrawing from her pitch session. She owed Chase so much, maybe she should just let him have the account by default. But the more she thought about it, the more she was sure she couldn’t do that. She was too damn competitive. And in truth, if the tables were turned, she’d hate to get an account that way.
Perhaps after the sheik made his decision—whichever way it turned out—she and Chase would be able to make a fresh start. After a good night’s sleep, she was sure they’d be able to work it all out. She was ready to take a chance on him, something she’d never have envisioned doing, but Chase had come through for her like no man ever had before. He wasn’t her father. He was a good man and she yearned to give their fledgling relationship a try.
* * * * *
Chase was already in the dining room by time Diana got there the next morning. “You’re up early,” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table.
“I ran into the sheik a couple hours ago when I took a run on the grounds. He joined me and I gave him my pitch.” He scrubbed his hands together. “So you’re up after breakfast. He’s on a conference call now but I’m sure he’ll be through by the time you finish eating. Everything’s delicious. Try the pancakes.” He gestured toward the buffet table set up with platters and bowls full of all sorts of yummy-looking food.
Chase looked way too confident for her comfort. “So how’d it go?”
“How’d what go? Oh, my pitch?” He gave her a coy grin. “One of my best yet.”
“About the account, Chase—”
A server walked in with a chafing dish and set it on the buffet. Diana waited until the woman had left before continuing, but she hadn’t gotten two words out when Mohd came in and handed her a large gift-wrapped box.
“From the sheik,” he said. “He’s been called to a meeting on the mainland, but he’ll be back in a few hours.”
Chase looked just as confused as she felt. “Okay.” Sitting at the table, she opened the package and pulled out a purple leather purse, identical to the one the kidnappers had tossed into the sea. “What…how did he know?” She ran her fingers over the butter-soft leather.
Mohd took a backward step. “Sheik el-Tayid arranged the kidnapping to test your resourcefulness and watch your actions under pressure. You were never in any real danger.”
Her chest tightened and uncomfortable heat stormed through her. “He…this was all his doing?”
Mohd smiled. “It’s not unlike him to do such things.”
Chase’s chest rose and fell but he wouldn’t meet her stare.
Red-hot fury rose inside her. She wanted to rip that bastard sheik to shreds, but she knew she was on his turf in a foreign country where women weren’t exactly cherished. She drew a calming breath. “Please have a boat or a helicopter or something to take me back to my hotel. I want to leave right this instant.”
Mohd’s eyes widened. “You don’t wish to wait for the sheik?”
“Definitely not. Right now, please.” She glanced at Chase, but he seemed to have withdrawn into himself. Screw him. Screw them all.
She stormed from the room and went straight out the front door of the palace.
Less than an hour later, a motorboat dropped her at the dock where her odyssey had first begun exactly two days earlier. Before she disembarked, she turned to the pilot. “Give el-Tayid a message for me. Tell him Diana Weston said fuck you.”
Wide-eyed, the man just stared at her.
She walked the short distance to her hotel and had a bellman let her into her room. Collapsing onto the bed, she let the tears flow.
* * * * *
Chase paced the marble foyer of the palace with his hands fisted at his sides. By the time he’d absorbed all the implications of what Mohd had told them, Diana had already left the island. He’d considered going after her but before he did, he was going to give that son of a bitch a piece of his mind—and maybe something to remember him by.
One of the servants entered the area and asked him again if there was anything he could get for him.
Chase stopped walking. “Yeah. You can tell me when el-Tayid will be back from his meeting.”
The man gave him a blank stare. “The sheik in his office.”
He must have come inside through another entrance. Damn it. He’d wasted precious time waiting. “Where is it?”
“This way.” The man turned and started down a hallway. He stopped near the end and pointed to the door.
Chase barged inside without knocking. The sheik and another man stopped speaking.
“Ah, Mr. Cunningham, I was going to send for you. I understand Miss Weston has left. But no matter. I was so impressed with your presentation that I’d planned to give you my account.”
“Is it true that you set up the entire kidnapping? That you planned the whole thing so you could test us as if we were your personal lab rats?”
The other man in the room cleared his throat and took a step toward them, but Chase didn’t care.
“If I am going to throw millions of dollars in business at someone, I want to know how they will do under pressure. I had cameras set up in various locations on the island. You were never in any real danger. You did a brilliant job.” He clapped him on the back. “And I enjoyed watching Miss Weston prance around in her underwear almost as much as you must have. How about joining me for a scotch?”
Every muscle in his body tensed. “You were watching us the whole time?”
“Sure. We even had you in our sights for part of that long swim to the island. Very impressive.”
“So what? You had a camera on the hammerhead shark’s back? The one that almost killed us?”
The sheik’s smile slipped.
“You’re a bigger asshole than I thought.” He didn’t hesitate to swing at the bastard’s face. He managed to get in two powerful punches before the other man grabbed him. It took only an instant for an army of bodyguards to appear and start pummeling him.
He didn’t care. He’d taken that son of a bitch down a few pegs and that was all that mattered. No, it wasn’t really. More important was getting to Diana to apologize f
or his delayed reaction.
He closed his eyes as the goons dragged him from the room and beat him until his world went dark.
* * * * *
Diana found her airline ticket home in a dresser drawer. Thankfully she’d left it and her passport there when she’d left the room on her way to the sheik’s island two days earlier but the rest of the important items in her wallet were somewhere on the bottom of the gulf.
Hopefully the American Embassy would be able to help her get a replacement ID before tomorrow’s flight. She headed downstairs to the lobby to speak to the concierge about helping her get started.
She couldn’t wait to get out of the country and as far from Sheik el-Tayid as possible.
And Chase.
God, she’d surely run into him back in New York at the gym. She’d have to find a new place to work out. But that was the least of it. The hurt was so intense. She’d been right to avoid relationships.
Her sister Suzanne, a sex advice columnist, had the right idea. Even though Suzanne herself was happily married, she’d always held that relationships hardly ever worked out.
Diana had foolishly thought she might have found one of those rare gems in Chase. Until he’d showed his ass by not standing up for her—for them—when he learned what the sheik had done.
She stepped off the elevator in the lobby. The place was massive and decorated to look like a jungle with tropical plants and trees everywhere. It almost made her miss the island where they’d been castaways for a day. Almost.
She started toward the desk but saw someone speaking to the concierge ahead of her, although he hardly looked like one of the guests. More like a vagrant.
His clothes were ripped and dirty and his face was all bruised and bloody. He only had one shoe on, for heaven’s sake. Poor man.
She leaned against a column and waited.
“You have to believe me. I was kidnapped and…oh hell. I need to get into my room. How am I supposed to give you proof that I am who I say when they took my wallet?”
Chase! She gasped. What the hell had happened to him?
“Can you tell me if Diana Weston returned to the hotel?”
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