Sheikh's Hired Mistress (5 page)

“Might I borrow your shower?” Aziz asked.

“Oh, sure.” Laine pointed Aziz to the bathroom and watched as he sauntered off, enjoying a doughnut with the ease of a person with zero concerns about his waistline. When she looked back to Emma, her sister gave her the smuggest look she had
ever
seen. “
What
?”

“God, Laine. You snagged the biggest catch at that party!” Emma leaned over the table. “
And
you sealed the deal! What, was this like you first one-night stand ever?”

“I don’t do that sort of thing.” Laine took the other coffee and sipped it. “To do that, you have to go
out
.”

Emma laughed. “But you did! You tore it up, huh?”

“We didn’t tear it up. We didn’t even drink much. I had a couple appletinis, but that was it.” Laine bit her lip. Having gotten drunk might’ve excused her actions. “We got kicked out of a club for swimming in their fountain.”

“Oh, my god. You got kicked out of Las Llaves?” Emma clapped her hands together in joy.

“How did you know that was the club?”

“Because that’s the one with the huge fountain big enough to swim in. That sitcom star Johnny Right got caught fucking two girls in there.”

Laine recoiled in horror. “God, I hoped they cleaned it!”

Emma shook with laughter. “I’m sure they did! Oh, this is awesome, Lainey. This is so good for you. And he’s
rich
! That’s so cool. I wondered what that creepy Middle Eastern dude was doing, just standing there outside your apartment.”

“That’s just Faruq. He’s Aziz’s bodyguard.”

“So casual,” Emma teased. “I never thought you’d be the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, sis. Especially not to a royal with a bodyguard.”

“I’m
not
. I just…I guess I just wanted, for once in my life, to let something good happen to me.” Laine selected a cake doughnut and dipped it in her coffee. “
He’ll
probably be out of here by lunchtime, though.”

That would be fine, she told herself. He was an important man. He had things to do, and Laine had her job and her family.

It would be better if they went their separate ways.

***

Though Laine hadn’t expected to hear from Aziz again after he’d left her apartment, she saw him again only a few days later. She had a meeting scheduled in a lavish hotel across town. It happened occasionally—although Laine had never before been given those accounts—that the lifestyles of the rich and careless resulted in their living spaces being unlivable. Laine had been surprised to see it on her calendar, but the appointment had been made by request, so Laine didn’t have to worry about it being snatched off her plate by a senior project manager just yet.

The concierge made Laine wait to be escorted up to the suite, where the staff member encouraged her to have a seat at a circular conference table. She took out her planner and skimmed over her to-do list while she waited.

“Morning, tiger.”

Laine looked up and felt her heart skip a beat. “Aziz! What are you doing here?”

“Well, I made an appointment to hire a decorator.” Aziz strolled up with his hands in his pockets and sucked in his lower lip as his eyes looked her up and down.

“A decorator.” Laine stared blankly for a moment.

“Yes. I’ve been looking for one for some time. Imagine my surprise when I happened to run into the very woman I was to meet this week?”

Laine leaned forward incredulously. “And you happened to, purely by accident, pick
me
?”

“Not at all.” Aziz strolled around Laine and leaned against the wall. “I picked you quite deliberately. I know that you helped to design the club we went to this weekend, and your designs have made it into several home magazine features. Not to mention the Northeastern Interiors Award you won last year. Darling, of
course
I know who Laine McConnell is.”

Aziz spread his hands. “Going to that party where you happened to be,
that
was the accident. A happy one. As I said, it must be fate. How different would our relationship be if we had only just now met?”

“Our relationship would be a lot more appropriate for work if we had,” Laine informed him.

“I will pay incredibly well for a job well done,” Aziz continued, ignoring her concern. “My home is quite large, and we’ve much to do in the way of updating it. I would oversee more of the work, but as you can imagine, I am a very busy man. I am on a bit of a working vacation at the moment, but at home, I cannot spend the time to make these decisions.”

Laine rose from the table slowly. “Are you saying you want to hire our company?”

“I want to hire
you
. Laine, I have seen your work. We swam in it.”

Laine couldn’t help but laugh a little at that.

“You have the very flair for style that I need! The way you select color—art, even! I implore you to consider my offer.” Aziz went over to a cabinet underneath a flat screen television. There, he pulled out a folder, set it on the table, and took out several photographs of large rooms.

“It is you I want, Laine, not your firm,” Aziz continued. “But as you work for them, I will abide by their rules…if you so demand. I would much prefer to simply hire you and turn the redesign of our home over to your capable hands.”

Laine stared at him and then looked down at the photographs. His home was simply enormous. It seemed to be much more of a palace than a house. Laine had to admit that the challenge of designing for such a tremendous space was very alluring. Not that she disliked decorating apartments for people in the city, but there was only so much to do, and she’d been doing it constantly and well, for a while now. Her creative muscles wanted stretching. With this canvas and Aziz’s budget, this job could be the very thing to satisfy her.

Laine stood as she looked over the rooms in front of her. “I would need a lot more detailed pictures.”

Aziz turned to her and touched her chin with two fingertips. “No, no, Laine. I want you to come back to Bahrain with me.”

Laine took a moment to let that concept sink in. Come back with him? Go half a world away from her home, just to decorate his house? Could she get away from the office for that long? Other designers traveled. They took on accounts in Chicago, Maine, Florida. But would Mr. Brandt be okay with
her
doing it? Laine thought that he should be. She’d proven herself more than reliable, but knowing that she was owed that respect and demanding it were two different matters.

“I…I can’t just take off work here, Aziz. I have other accounts,” Laine sputtered after a moment.

“I would pay you handsomely to hand those off to someone else and focus on my home.”

“And I don’t really need to be
there
to pick out patterns.”

“But you must live in the place. You must feel its energy and learn more about us, if you are going to do what you do best.” Aziz brushed his fingers through the bit of white hair falling over her forehead. “I have considered this. I can convince your boss that this is the best thing to do.”

“I don’t want you to talk to my boss!” Laine snapped, pulling away from him. “
I’ll
talk to him.” She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, I could come for a week.
Maybe
two. Check out the place, really assess your needs. I’ll have to get back to you, though. I can’t just pick up and go!”

I don’t know if I can go at all,
she thought to herself.
What if Mr. Brandt says no? What if Dad needs something while I’m away?

“I understand this. Although if you could be on the plane with me when I head back, it would make things much simpler.” Aziz crossed his arms. “Will two weeks be long enough to do a job such as this?”

“It’ll have to be. Just…give me some time to think…” Laine moved over to the window, trying to put more distance between herself and Aziz. The chemical attraction between them was almost too much, sometimes.

“Take some time,” Aziz allowed. He moved behind her and hugged her waist. His chin rested on her shoulder, and Laine almost couldn’t breathe. “But please, Laine, come to my home. Bring it to life for me.”

Laine closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his strong arms just for a moment. She felt torn. Going with him would be a
huge
boost for her status and for her career. One that she might need, if she were ever to move forward. But if she went with him, there was so much she would be leaving behind. There would be so much she was
risking
. What if her designs just weren’t good enough for a project of this scale? And ultimately, Laine was afraid that if she went, there would be no escaping falling in love with him.

Chapter Six

Laine walked into the staff meeting the next day with a heart full of anxiety and a head full of ideas. She had been thinking over the offer carefully. She’d spent an hour on the phone with her father the night before talking about it. Of course he’d encouraged Laine to take the job. He’d always encouraged his girls in their careers. That didn’t mean he’d be all right if she left him all alone, with only the occasional, random visit from Emma.

Laine set down her coffee and iPad and settled in. She liked being at meetings early. It allowed her to observe people as they came in and prepare herself for the conversations to come.

“I saw a little video of our Miss Lainey,” Adrian Ramos said as he entered and sat across the table from her.

Laine rolled her eyes. “Right. From the party.”

“Nooo. At the club you and I designed together.” Adrian leaned forward on the table. “Who knew our Lainey could cut it up on the dance floor? And with such a
hot
guy.”

“Hush. I was…wooing a potential client.” It was kind of true, now.

Adrian looked dubious, but others started to fill in, and he turned to talk to Richards when he walked in. Soon Mr. Brandt arrived, and the meeting started. Everyone presented on their current accounts and prospective leads. When it was Laine’s turn, she discussed the several smaller accounts that she’d finished up the week before and then went over the various upsells she’d made to the Madison account.

“It will take a few more months to execute, but the designs are finished and approved. In the end, the Madison account is going to do very well by us,” Laine concluded.

“Nicely done.” Mr. Brandt bobbed his head. “All right. From here, I’d like Joel to take over the Madison account. Cross the T’s, dot the I’s, make sure they stay happy. You got that?”

Mr. Brandt looked to Joel just as Laine did. Joel seemed to shrink under the scrutiny, since Mr. Brandt was appraising, but Laine’s look was downright murderous.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Laine said with as much politeness as she could muster. “I brought in the Madison account. I’ve seen them through all their designs and convinced them to do much more work than they’d originally come in for. I even arranged for a local artist the family loves to paint a mural for their kids’ room.”

“And you’re suggesting,” Mr. Brandt breezed with a shrug, “that it’s ‘yours’? The company has my name on it. Everything we do here is for Brandt Interiors.”

“Of course not, sir, I just…” Laine felt at a loss for words.

How could Mr. Brandt do this to her? She had been unwaveringly loyal since her first day here! She had passed up other opportunities to keep working here, because the Brandt reputation was one that attracted the kinds of awards that she won. With Joel’s name closing the Madison account, he would get half the credit for a job in which she’d done 97% of the work,
and
he would get half the commission!

And it wasn’t even as though Joel had seniority. He’d come in six months ago. Mr. Brandt had just handed the whale she’d reeled in over to a damn baby.

“So this
isn’t
a problem, correct?” Mr. Brandt tapped his pen on the table. “I need team players here. I need everyone to be thinking of what’s best for Team Brandt, not Team McConnell or Team Ramos.”

Adrian looked up from his nail polish and caught Laine’s eye as if to say, “What did
we
do to get signaled out for the sports metaphors?”

Laine pressed her lips together in a fine line and narrowed her eyes. The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and she could tell that Joel was terribly uncomfortable.

Good
.

“Actually, sir, this is excellent news,” she said with frosty confidence. “With Joel tying up all the loose ends and doing the paperwork, I can get started on the next big lead that I hooked over the weekend.”

“Oh?” Mr. Brandt raised a brow. “How big?”

Laine caught the look he was casting over to Richards. She could tell that he was considering making this a “team” effort, if the client was big enough.

“The Amirmoez estate in Bahrain.”

“Amirmoez?” Mr. Brandt’s brow furrowed. “That name sounds familiar.”

“They have large holdings across economic sectors internationally,” Richards said.

“Sounds like a bit of a big job for you, little lady,” Mr. Brandt said. “Why don’t we team you up with Richards and Jenkins for this? They can work on location, and you can coordinate from here.”

“Aziz asked for me personally. He’s not going to book us if you send two strangers to his house,” Laine said.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Brandt straightened his shoulders. “Who is Aziz?”

“Aziz is the head of the Amirmoez estate, with whom I met yesterday. I’ll have to be on location for the initial planning, but I’m sure in the end, with what Aziz has promised in way of my fee, it will be worth it
to the team
,” she added.

Mr. Brandt seemed to be torn between anger and flashing dollar signs in his eyes.

“Maybe we should have a meeting with Mr. Amirmoez,” Richards suggested.

“Maybe you should, John,” Laine snapped. “Maybe if you heard it from him, then you would believe what I am telling you. If I am not the one on that plane with him, he
will
go with another company. He made the appointment looking specifically for
my
work
, not my secretarial skills. So while it seems like none of you can bear to acknowledge the success I’ve brought to this business, Aziz is more than willing to see it.”