by Holly Rayner
“You’re not thinking about stealing anything, are you?”
Nicole started at Kadeen’s question. When she met his gaze, she noticed a teasing glint there.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because you’re looking at this place like you want to catalog everything in it and put it in a museum.”
Nicole’s grin was guilty as she glanced up at him. “Is it that obvious?”
“Only to me, I imagine. I’ve known you long enough to know that your passion for art transcends normality.”
“Are you calling me weird?”
Kadeen placed a wounded hand to his chest. “I would never.”
He was clearly teasing her, and Nicole found that she was liking this side of Kadeen more and more with each passing moment.
A waiter arrived and offered them some specials, or at least Nicole assumed that’s what he was saying. He spoke entirely in Arabic, and Kadeen responded in kind.
He looked at Nicole. “Do you like seafood?” he asked.
She nodded, and he continued speaking with the waiter until the man nodded and walked away.
“I think you’ll enjoy what I’ve ordered. They catch everything fresh each morning. That’s why this place is so spectacular.”
“I can’t wait.”
A moment later, a waitress appeared, carrying a large silver basin which she placed between them. Nicole stared at it, unsure of what to do.
“This is for cleaning our hands before the meal,” Kadeen explained.
The waitress draped towels over Nicole and Kadeen’s shoulders then asked them to place their hands in the basin, fingers down. Nicole’s fingers were centimeters from Kadeen’s, but she forced herself not to touch him. Even the smallest of touches threatened to make her lose her cool.
The warm water streamed over their hands as the waitress poured it into the silver basin. It was the most refreshing experience of Nicole’s life. The girl then gestured for Nicole to dry her hands on the towel, which she did as the basin was removed. They were then served an appetizer of meat—lamb, perhaps—baked into a flaky pastry crust and topped with a cinnamon sugar powder. It was an interesting combination, but one Nicole found that she instantly loved.
“Ahem,” Kadeen said, and Nicole looked up from her piece of pastry.
“What?” she asked, unsure what he was getting at.
“You’ve just got a bit of cinnamon sugar there,” he said, running his finger over the same spot on his own face.
Mortified, Nicole began fervently wiping at her face, and Kadeen started laughing again. How much had he laughed since they’d left the office? Perhaps they needed to do it more often.
“All right, you’ve managed to wipe every spot but that one. Come here.”
He reached his hand out, and without thinking, Nicole leaned in and looked up into his charcoal eyes as he ran a thumb along the crease of her lip, successfully removing the offending sugar. Did she imagine it, or did his finger linger just a smidge longer than was necessary?
She realized that they were staring at each other, his hand caressing her face, over a table in a public place.
Clearing her throat, she pulled back and looked away. She would need to find a new topic of conversation, and quickly. His lips looked far too delectable from that angle.
“So tell me about your childhood here,” Nicole said, changing the subject.
Kadeen shook his head almost imperceptivity, and once again Nicole found herself wondering if the attraction was mutual. Was there meaning in these glances and words, or was she reading into something that wasn’t there?
“There’s not much to tell, really,” he hedged, and Nicole lifted a skeptical eyebrow.
“Really? You grew up as the cousin of a king and there’s not much to tell? You can’t be serious.”
“I am, though. My childhood was perfectly normal. At least, what I would consider normal. I realize that’s not exactly in line with what a lot of people experience.”
“I imagine not. Give me one example of a childhood memory, and I’ll tell you if you’re normal or not.”
Before Kadeen could answer, the waitress returned, carrying two huge plates of fresh seafood. There were mussels steamed in their shells, scallops decorated with edible flower petals, and enormous, bright-red lobsters served with butter on the side. It smelled incredible.
They shared the food, family-style, and Nicole took a succulent bite of lobster as the Sheikh worked to find a childhood memory worth sharing.
“Okay, how about this? Once, when I was about thirteen, I was staying the night in the King’s palace while my parents were away on vacation. The servants were stationed outside my cousin’s door, meant to keep us from getting up to mischief, but we tied a bunch of sheets together and climbed down the balcony. We ran to the ocean and swam under the full moon until nearly dawn. When the sun began to peek over the horizon, we climbed back up the sheets and replaced them, but we couldn’t stop laughing when the maid arrived in the morning to find our sheets covered with sand!”
Kadeen was laughing heartily at the memory. When he collected himself, he gazed at Nicole directly. “All right, now you tell me. Am I normal or not?”
Nicole took a sip of hot, sweet tea as she considered her answer. “Well, on the one hand, not many of us have a cousin with a palace, so I have to dock you for that. On the other hand, what teenager hasn’t gotten into trouble for sneaking out of the house? I think I’m going to have to peg you for normal on that one.”
“Excellent news. Here I was thinking I might be too exceptional.”
“Humble, too. Don’t forget your extreme humility,” Nicole smirked.
“I never do. That’s one of the things that makes me so great,” Kadeen said, returning her smile. “Now how about you? Tell me a childhood story, and I’ll tell you if you’re normal or not.”
Nicole paused, thinking about growing up with her twin sister in farm country. She hadn’t been a particularly mischievous child, and her stories all tended to be a little dull.
“I vandalized school property once,” she hedged.
Kadeen’s eyes widened in surprise. “You? Miss top-of-her-class at art school?”
“I know, I know,” Nicole said, laughing. “But it was elementary school, and we had just been told that recess would be cut in half, to make more time for math.”
“That sounds like a great injustice,” Kadeen observed, and Nicole nodded.
“You better believe it. We were beside ourselves with rage. One day, after school, I went behind the dumpsters and wrote ‘leave recess alone’ on the wall.”
Kadeen laughed heartily at her admission. “That’s priceless! Were you ever caught?”
“Of course not. But if I had been, my twin sister would have taken the blame for me in a heartbeat. We looked a lot more similar when we were younger, so we got away with a lot.”
“I didn’t know you had a twin sister,” Kadeen said.
Nicole nodded. “Yeah. I still miss her every day, but moving to New York was the best thing I ever did.”
“Well of course it is. It led you to me.”
Nicole gulped as she watched his expression, wondering just what he meant by that. She decided to keep it professional.
“And the best job I ever could have asked for, yes. I’ll always be grateful to you for that.”
Kadeen looked down, waving a hand as though to dismiss the thought. “You only have yourself to thank, Nicole. You’re the one who worked hard and developed the talent to work for the best fine art dealer in the business.”
“And there you go being all humble again. You really must learn to have confidence in yourself, Kadeen.”
“I’ll certainly have to try,” he grinned, taking a sip of tea.
After a pause, as they stared at one another without realizing it, Nicole cleared her throat again.
“Well, it sounds like you had a nice upbringing here, anyway.”
Kadeen blinked, rejoining the conv
ersation. “I did. My parents were loving and kind, though they had ambitions for me that extended beyond the art world.”
“What do you mean?”
Kadeen shrugged. “I grew up under a lot of pressure to enter a reliable industry, like oil or engineering. When I told my parents that I intended to go into art dealership, they were less than thrilled.”
“But there’s certainly success to be had, as you’ve proven.”
“Sure, but in the beginning I think they thought I was being foolish.”
“Is that why you left for New York? To prove them wrong?”
Kadeen hesitated, as though weighing his words carefully. “Perhaps that is part of it. New York was the best place for me to build my business, not to mention being far away from the pressure they put on me to do otherwise, so it was really the best move at the time.”
There was something hidden in his words, but Nicole thought better than to pry into his personal affairs any further. She swallowed the hundred questions rising to the tip of her tongue with her cooling mint tea.
A bowl of fresh fruit was brought out, then, containing some items that Nicole had never seen before.
“What’s this one?” she asked, eager to try something new.
“This tastes kind of like a kiwi, only it’s a little tarter. You eat it like this.”
He peeled back the green skin of the fruit. The inside was bright red. Nicole found it hard to believe that it would taste like kiwi, but when Kadeen handed it to her she didn’t hesitate to take a bite. When she did, she laughed in surprise.
“It really does! I didn’t believe you!”
“Why, because the color doesn’t match what you know?”
“I suppose so. There’s so much of the world I haven’t yet opened my eyes to.”
“Well, I am more than happy to share the experience with you any time you’d care to explore.”
“That sounds lovely, but I think Imogen would have a heart attack if I took her place.”
“Never mind Imogen,” he said, dismissing the thought.
For quite some time, Nicole had assumed that there was something going on between Imogen and Kadeen; the woman was wildly possessive of him, after all. The way he talked about her, though, made Nicole second guess that assumption. Perhaps that affair was entirely one-sided, after all.
When their dessert was cleaned up, Kadeen paid the bill. Though Nicole wasn’t familiar with the currency used in Al Qazar, based on the number of bills the Sheikh placed on the table, she imagined he had been quite generous with the tip.
She stood and stretched as they made their way back outside to the car. “Thank you for that. It was delicious.”
“I’m so glad you thought so. Seafood is one of my favorite things on earth.”
“Same here,” Nicole agreed.
She liked connecting with him. The more she learned, the more she realized they had in common, which, coming from backgrounds that were worlds apart, was a fascinating observation. It made her want to learn even more about his culture, if only to continue finding common ground with this man who had grown up in an entirely different world than her own.
They found the convertible and slid inside. Nicole clicked her seatbelt and glanced at Kadeen.
“Where to next, boss?”
“Are you too tired to perhaps make our way to the location of the piece?”
“Of course not. I know how badly you want to see it. Drive on, and let’s go see if this is the painting you’re searching for.”
Kadeen’s gaze was intense as she spoke the words, and Nicole wondered if he had plans on grabbing and kissing her then and there. After a moment, he turned back to the steering wheel and started the engine, speeding them on their way.
Nicole gazed at waves crashing along the sandy shore as the car zipped further up the coastline. She thought about a young Kadeen, causing havoc in a beautiful palace somewhere nearby. Only days ago she would have found it hard to imagine the stoic businessman as a rambunctious child, but as she spent more time with him, she supposed it wasn’t terribly difficult at all.
Kadeen was a dynamic and interesting man. She recalled some of the things she had read about him in the New York press, about the string of broken hearts he had left behind, and the extravagant purchases he occasionally made to show off. None of that seemed to fit with the man sitting next to her, in spite of the fancy car they were traveling in. There was so much more to Kadeen than Nicole could possibly have read in a gossip blurb, and she was annoyed at herself for having believed the first bit of news she had read about him.
The road curved away from the coastline, and Nicole was treated to a view of inland Al Qazar, which was essentially desert peppered with patches of oasis. It reminded her of images of Arizona, though the coloring was a shade lighter.
They entered another village, this one totally different from where they had stopped for lunch, with one well in the center surrounded by squat, wooden houses. Kadeen pulled over to look at his phone, making sure he’d gotten the directions correct before driving over to a small shack on the outskirts.
Several tumbleweeds blew by as Nicole exited the car and joined Kadeen, who was making his way to the front door of the shack. When he knocked, the wood creaked under his knuckles.
“Interesting location,” Nicole murmured, glancing around.
Kadeen said nothing, waiting in silence as they heard approaching footsteps from inside. A portly man in a loose white shirt and trousers opened the door, his salt-and-pepper moustache dotted with breadcrumbs. He was still chewing as he observed his visitors with a wary eye. He asked them a question in Arabic, and Kadeen responded.
Whatever the Sheikh said certainly woke the man from his stupor. He stood up straight and gave them both a respectful bow before gesturing for them to come inside, which they duly did.
The inside of the house smelled of mint tea mixed with earth. The man gestured for them to sit at his small kitchen table and Nicole joined Kadeen in taking a seat. The chair creaked unnervingly beneath her, and she thought about grabbing onto Kadeen just in case she fell, then dismissed the idea.
As the man spoke, Kadeen began to translate for Nicole’s benefit.
“He says he inherited this house after his father died. He moved in a few weeks ago and found the painting in the basement. Curious to find out if it might be worth something, he did some research online, and a few days later, a contact of mine pointed him towards our firm. He’d like to take us to the basement so we can see if this is the piece we’re looking for.”
Kadeen’s excitement was palpable even as he kept his face straight, and Nicole did her best to act equally nonchalant as the three of them scooted their chairs out and headed towards the cellar.
As they took narrow steps down one at a time, Nicole felt she already liked the basement much better than the main floor. It smelled of earth and history, which just happened to be two of her favorite scents.
The room was pitch black, and the man walked ahead of them, pulling a string to turn on an exposed lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Nicole felt like an archeologist, about to make a major discovery. She wanted to reach out and hold Kadeen’s hand, so to stop herself she placed it in her pocket instead.
The room was small, and it didn’t take long for them to reach the corner where a large rectangular object lay covered in a dirty sheet. The man made short business of tearing it off to reveal what was underneath.
Kadeen audibly choked when he saw it. Nicole had never seen him behave this way, but it was as though everything in him fought to keep from falling to his knees before it.
Before Nicole could even get a good glimpse, Kadeen looked at the man and spoke two words.
“How much?”
Chapter 8
Nicole
Kadeen had to ask the question again in Arabic, as the owner didn’t understand at first. The man’s eyes widened at getting an open offer, and he mumbled as though unsure of what to ask for the portrait. Kadeen thr
ew out some numbers that clearly had the man’s head spinning, and it didn’t take long for him to accept the exorbitant sum.
He shook Kadeen’s hand enthusiastically, his smile stretching clear across his face, and Kadeen patted his shoulder with a smile of his own before removing his hand.
The man breathed out something Nicole didn’t understand before dashing up the stairs, two at a time.
“What did he say?” she asked.
Kadeen’s grin was sheepish. “He’s getting some of his best wine to celebrate finding the lost portrait—though I imagine he might be a little more excited about his newfound wealth.”
“That was very generous of you,” Nicole observed, but Kadeen just shrugged.
“The price was nothing compared to the find. This,” he said, turning back to look at the portrait, “is worth all the gold in Al Qazar.”
Nicole turned back to the painting, then, getting a better look at it. It was difficult to see much in the dark, dank basement, but even with the dirt and grime, she could tell that there was a beautiful picture underneath.
It was, indeed, the Portrait of a Princess. A beautiful woman with caramel-colored skin wore a sheer lace veil over her head and shoulders. Her dress was red and gold, and it draped down into the bottom of the picture. There was a border around it which ended in a curled point at the top, like many Middle-Eastern paintings Nicole had seen from the same period.
In short, it was utterly stunning. The woman looked oddly familiar, too, though Nicole couldn’t quite figure out why.
The man returned to the basement and held out three wine glasses filled with red liquid. He handed them out before raising his glass and making a toast which Kadeen translated.
“To lost treasures being found. Cheers!”
Kadeen clinked his glass against Nicole’s, and they all took a sip. The wine was delicious, and Nicole instantly felt giddy. When she looked up into Kadeen’s eyes, she saw raw joy there—something she had never seen in him before.
When all three cups were empty, their host took the glasses and moved to go back upstairs, gesturing for Nicole and Kadeen to follow.