“You don’t see a place like this very often.” She took a deep breath of the desert air. “Maybe you do,” she said with another laugh. “But not where I’m from.”
“The States?”
“Kansas City, originally,” she said, “but I moved to New York when I came to work with Clifton after graduation.” She waved a hand in the air. “You don’t care about all that, though.” She looked at him with unguarded interest and an open, genuine smile. “I’m sure you’ve got enough on your plate, being a prince. And here I am, going on and on like you’re another developer. You can stop me anytime.”
He didn’t want to stop her. It was rare that anyone talked to Malik like this. Exceedingly rare. Vanishingly rare. Exhilaration ran through his veins like a plane taking off from a runway. “Quite the opposite,” he said. “I do care.”
“Do you?” Her eyes danced. “Because you really don’t have to stay here for me.”
“What if I want to stay here for you? Hmm? What then?”
Her smile deepened. “Then I guess I won’t stop you. You did bring champagne, after all.”
“And questions.”
“Questions?” She leaned in a few inches, her expression somehow coy and confident at the same time. “Are you sure you don’t want to question my boss?”
Malik pretended to look around for Clifton. “He’s not here. That means you’re in the hot seat.”
She burst out with a belly laugh then. “Ask away.”
“Tell me your thoughts. On the projects,” he finished, though the development sites across Qadir were the furthest things from his mind.
“Oh, I think there’s a ton of opportunity here.” Holly’s eyes narrowed, and she swung an arm across the pool. “I’d clear some of the trees on the opposite bank. The shape of the land doesn’t lend itself to a massive structure, so I’d go with several smaller ones. Or maybe not.” She cut a glance at him. “Maybe a large one. In the end, it would be quite the destination. And I think adding a manmade waterfall would bring it all together. That would be the first few years, of course, with additions around the bank at five and seven years. And on this side—”
Malik’s stomach went cold, his throat tightening like he’d swallowed a block of ice.
He’d been wrong. So wrong.
She didn’t understand at all.
They had been explicit in the invitation materials that the oasis was not available for development. Yet here she was, talking about clear-cutting three quarters of it and making it into a place for tourists.
It was the last thing his mother would have wanted.
It was the last thing Malik wanted.
Holly’s voice trailed off. “Sheikh Malik?”
He forced his eyes back to hers, feeling his face fall into a rigid mask. “Very interesting,” he said. Malik gave her the ghost of a nod. “It was good to meet you, Ms. Remington. I have to get back to the gathering.”
He walked away, feeling her eyes on his back with every step he took.
She’d been attractive. That was all. Attractive enough to blind him to her true nature. Holly Remington would bulldoze her way into the future at any cost. She had no regard for the past.
That jolt when he first saw her had been a mirage. He wouldn’t be tricked again.
That’s what he told himself all evening. That’s what he told himself all night, when visions of Holly wouldn’t leave his mind. And that’s what he told himself two mornings later, when the invitation to a reception hosted by her company arrived.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking of her.
There was only one way to get her out of his head.
Grab your copy of The Sheikh’s Surprise Twins (Qadir Sheikhs Book One) from
www.LeslieNorthBooks.com
The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three Page 16