ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (13 page)

He’d never been quite so taken by surprise by a person before. It was alarming, but beautiful. In his experience, women were always interested in him just for his money. Sometimes they found him attractive physically as well, which was always nice, but nine times out of ten, when they found out he was a billionaire, that’s when the hot jets flared on. A woman was only unsure about a man until she found out her life would be secure with him, then there go the fires!

At least that was how it always felt.

As he always had to do before, Xavier stopped what he was doing and froze his thoughts. That wasn’t fair. He couldn’t compare every woman in the world to one another just because he’d had some bad experience. He was sure, somewhere out there where normal people lived, there were beautiful well-rounded women that accepted a man for who he was regardless of his bank account. Those women existed, he had to insist to himself, regardless if they didn’t exactly exist in his world. It sure would be nice to meet one of them, though.

Xavier leaned back in his office chair and drummed his fingers along his desk as he stared out the window at the city he basically owned. What if. Those two words were a dangerous thing, but to a business man like him, they were often the spark that ignited great thoughts.

What if this girl, this Aimee were one of these rare specimens? Perhaps that would explain why everything felt so natural and joyful around this girl? Because she was a natural and joyful person instead of a soul-sucking lifeless demoness from the bowels of…

No, there he was doing it again. Not every woman was like that.

He anxiously tapped his thumb against his desk twice before pushing himself up to stand and stare at the window. Maybe she wasn’t like that, but it didn’t hurt to play it carefully, did it? He could take it easy in the beginning and reveal to her who and what he really was later, once he was sure she accepted him for who he was first.

Of course, that begged the question: who was he? If he wasn’t the business tycoon the upscale denizens of the city knew him as, then who would he be? That stumped him. It was a shameful thing. He should’ve been more imaginative than this. His parent company owned nearly every major corporation working out of the city, yet here he stood completely lacking in ideas of who he would be to this woman.

After five minutes of blankness as he stared into the sun kissed distance, he just rubbed his forehead with his thumb and decided to go for a ride later to think about it. That was when he hit his forehead against the window. Of course! The bike. She knew him as a biker already. All he had to do was maintain the persona. It wasn’t entirely a lie, anyway. He did enjoy a good ride and their meeting had been a very genuine one. All he had to do was omit the fact that he could buy and sell her little café a dozen times with just his pocket money. Easy. He was a fantastic liar. How much easier it would be to simply not tell the truth, instead?

That very day he left work early to go home and change into his riding leathers. Then, firing up the ol’ hog, he set off on the highway toward the little township. When he arrived, he pulled up in the little parking area out in the front of the café and killed the engine.

Xavier was an admittedly impatient man, and when he set his mind to something he wanted it done right then and there. So when he walked into the café and didn’t see her, his heart sank a bit.

“Just have a seat anywhere,” the cook called from the back.

“Is she working today? Uh, Aimee. Is she working?”

“Aimee?” the cook asked. “Yeah, she’s here. She’s out back on break. She’ll be with you in a minute.”

“Great, thanks.” Xavier went and picked the same booth he’d been sitting in when they first met. He sat there for all of two minutes before getting up and leaving to go find her.

Impatience wasn’t necessarily an attractive trait to have, but it was him to a very defined point. He just couldn’t wait to talk to her.

That thought made him stop and laugh. He really couldn’t wait to talk to her. Remarkable.

As he rounded the corner of the small building, he saw her. She stood there in the arms of another man. He was large, much taller than her and looked to be made of equal parts fat and muscle. A force to be reckoned with if he ever saw one. The man was kissing and pawing at her, and she didn’t look exactly like she was unwelcoming towards it. Though she smiled up at the big man, when he moved to kiss her neck, the smile would fade immediately, her eyes glazing over as she went to another place.

Xavier pulled back and went inside once more to wait for her. It was another ten minutes before she came back inside.

“Hey, you came back,” she said as she approached his table.

Xavier did his best to smile up at her. “I did indeed. Never pass up a place with excellent service.”

She giggled at him. “What can I get you?”

“I don’t want to seem weird, so I apologize if this creeps you out. I saw you back there just now.”

“What?” Her arm holding the notepad dropped.

Xavier pointed back toward the cook. “He said you were on break and I was hoping to catch you so we could chat a little, but I saw you were with…?”

“John. He’s my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend. Got it.” Xavier nodded and drummed his fingers on the table. “Anyway, I didn’t want to interrupt, so I came back inside. Should I go, then?”

“You’re asking me?”

“You’re the one with the boyfriend.”

“Oh,” she said, her eyes lighting up as it dawned on her what they were talking about. “Well I don’t know. I guess that’s up to you.”

“I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted.”

“You’re not unwanted… exactly.”

“Good enough,” he said with a smile. “Good enough for me.”

Things were a bit more complicated than he originally thought. Good, he liked a challenge.

To Aimee’s surprise, that hot biker came back. And back. And back again! Over the course of two weeks he must’ve come in just short of every other day. He requested her table every time, and ordered a cup of coffee. Sometimes he had a cake or pie, but it was usually just the coffee.

She was pretty sure that after their little talk when he’d seen her with John would’ve scared him off. She wouldn’t have blamed him. John was a big guy and intimidated just about everyone in their town. It was part of the reason she was with him. Not only did being John’s girl afford her a bit of security, since no one would mess with anyone in John’s circle, but it was also better to willingly be at his side than forcibly so. John wasn’t known for his gentle side.

Yet, Xavier kept coming back. Sure he said it was just for the coffee, but he found a way to chat her up every time he was around. If she was being honest with herself, she was glad for the attention. She knew he wasn’t from around here, so the fact that this guy — whoever he was — came all this way just to talk to her was flattering beyond anything she’d ever experienced. The least she could do was talk to him, right? There wasn’t any harm in that.

Then, one day, he stopped her just as she was leaving his table. “When’s your next night off?”

This was it. Her heart pounded. Would she say yes? Could she? If John found out, he’d kill them both. Yet she couldn’t say no. Just looking into his eyes, she couldn’t even imagine him not coming into the café to talk to her anymore. How could she say no to spending more time with him? Their conversations were always so easy, so funny. He made her feel special, and safe.

“The café closes around 7pm every night, so I’m kind of free every night. I have tomorrow off, though.”

“Can I take you out?”

She smiled coyly. “Yeah? Where would we go? The mechanic over there has a great crème brulee I hear.”

He laughed. “Is that right? Well, we may have to check it out. But no, I was thinking of something even higher class, if you can imagine that.”

“I don’t believe such a place exists.”

He smiled at her, and somehow just that simple expression melted her all the way down to her toes. “Let me prove it.”

“Okay.” The word slipped out before she’d even had a chance to think about it.

“Great,” he said with a grin. “Tomorrow then? I can pick you up here if you want. Say around five o’clock?”

It was too late now. She was doing this. How could she say no after she’d already said okay? “Sounds good,” she said.

He handed her his phone and she put in her number. After a quick goodbye, he took off. It was almost as if he was giddy and wanted to get a head-start or something. How could a grown man be so powerful yet adorable at the same time?

There was something about him. She would never underestimate him. The way he held himself, she knew he could handle himself. Yet, at the same time, he was so sweet with her. No one in this damn town was ever so nice on purpose. If anyone was being nice, they wanted something, pure and simple.

Not Xavier. She didn’t have anything he wanted other than herself. She smiled to herself and went back to start a fresh pot of coffee, thinking about how nice it was to actually be wanted.

Tomorrow both couldn’t come soon enough and came too quickly. It felt like she spent the whole time wishing it was five o’clock already, yet when five actually started rolling around, she couldn’t get ready fast enough. Time was sabotaging her!

She was late, and as she walked down the small dirt road toward the café she didn’t see his motorcycle anywhere. She checked her phone and saw she was a full twenty minutes late. How could this have happened? Was he late too, or did he show up and leave when she wasn’t there?

Her hands were sweating, she was sure her makeup was running, and she felt sick to her stomach with nervousness. As she rounded the side of the building, she saw a black sedan parked along the street. It shined like a black jewel in the light of the low sun. She couldn’t ever recall seeing a car look so fresh and new.

Why was it here? Her question was quickly answered as the back door opened and out stepped her biker. He wore the sharpest suit she’d ever seen. All at once she understood the difference between a tailored suit and something bought in a department store.

“Wow,” he said, “you look great.”

She looked down at herself in the sundress and flats she wore. “You’re a very handsome liar.”

“No, really,” he said as he approached her. He took up her hands in his and looked in her eyes. “You look beautiful.”

Aimee took a deep breath and released it slowly. It was all she could do. She tried to think of something to say back, but her mind was completely blank. All she thought about, all she could see was the way he looked at her.

After a moment, he gave her a wink and led her back to the car. They didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. A man was there and opened her door for her.

“Oh, thank you,” she said with a faux curtsy and a giggle. The man smiled and closed the door for her, then rounded the back of the car to let Xavier in. “You have a driver?” she asked when he’d settled.

“I do,” Xavier said. Then to the driver he said, “Let’s switch cars, and we’ll go from there.”

“Yes sir.”

“Switch cars?” she asked him.

“Well, I want to take you around in a limo tonight, but I figured that’d be just a touch too conspicuous in a town like this, so I opted for the town car.”

Aimee laughed. “A limo? Wow, you’re really going all out tonight.”

The driver snorted, then tried to cover it up by clearing his throat. Aimee caught it though, and she looked from the driver then back to Xavier who was trying desperately not to smile.

“What? What am I missing? Are you rich or something?”

“Let’s just have a nice night,” he said as he tried to not laugh.

“Oh my God, you’re rich, aren’t you? Like, how rich?”

“Roland,” Xavier said to his driver, “how rich would you say I am?”

“He paid off my mortgage as a tip one day.”

Aimee sat frozen and looked from Roland the driver to Xavier. “That was nice of you.”

“Roland is an exceptionally good driver.”

“What, I don’t pour your coffee well enough?”

Roland barked out a laugh and clapped his hands twice. “Oh I like her, sir.”

“I’m so glad you approve.” He then turned to Aimee and poked her belly playfully, “And you are currently in the backseat of my car about to have the night of your life. Where do you get off complaining?”

“That is a fair point,” she said and relaxed into the chair. “This is a really nice car.”

“Just wait,” Roland said, grinning.

They drove to the city, the first time Aimee had ever been in her life. Once Xavier discovered this fact, he became even more excited for their evening together. They switched from the town car to the limo, and Aimee was blown away by the difference. There was champagne and roses. They played music in surround sound back there, movies. She could’ve spent the whole night just in the back of that car.

It was a good thing she didn’t, though. Xavier took her first to a restaurant on the fortieth floor of a skyscraper. The view was amazing, and there weren’t any other customers.

“I bought out the place for the night,” he said. “I wanted us to have a nice quite chance to talk.”

After that, he took her to a movie, again he’d bought out the auditorium. The screen was at least twice as big as the theater she’d been to once. It was incredible. He took her for a ride around the city, showing her the lights of the park, and all the people hustling up and down the street in the shopping district.

She’d never seen so many people in her life. He walked with her, arm in arm, to each store. She was happy to just look in the windows, but he insisted she at least go in and have the experience. The smell, the feel of the fabrics between her fingers. It was so beyond anything she’d ever done before.

Beyond her as a person.

This was like stepping into the life of someone else, someone famous or, well, rich. This wasn’t her life. As wonderful as it was, she couldn’t take it seriously. He offered to buy her things, but she refused. She was worried he would be offended by this, but instead he seemed almost amused. It just wouldn’t feel right. She imagined owning one of those dresses, or maybe a piece of jewelry and wearing it around town.