The Sheik's Mysterious Mistress (Friends Forever) (2 page)

Hassan sat back, amused but trying to hide it. He’d never interviewed someone who was trying to dissuade him from hiring them. “Please continue.”

She glanced down at her notes, looking very earnest and confident that she shouldn’t do the job. “I don’t know the first thing about diplomacy. You work with so many people and my honesty might slip out and ruin a plan you’ve been working hard to develop.” She realized that he was listening to her and not getting angry. Was she convincing him? “I really don’t get out much, I’m a horrible introvert and you need someone who is good around people, someone who prefers to be surrounded by others and gets energized by being around people. I actually avoid crowds, preferring a good book. Or even a not so good book,” she said with complete honesty and a grimace because most of the books she read were what she called “brain candy” and Dana was unapologetic about her reading preferences. “So all the parties and functions you need to attend, well, I’d be trying to get out of them as much as possible not to mention being unable to converse intelligently on the latest best seller or cerebral tome of which the media thinks is the next best mind game to success.”

“Is there anything else?”

“My language skills are only passable,” she explained lamely, worried about the amusement she was starting to detect in his voice and those damnable grey eyes that kept luring her out of her focus. “I’m pretty good in French and English and of course I can speak Arabic,” she admitted. “But other languages I struggle with.”

Hassan nodded, paying more attention to her dancing brown eyes than her words, although he was still amused by her approach. “Anything else?”

“Well…” she couldn’t think of anything else. Glancing down, she read through all of her notes and nothing else made sense. She glanced up at him, wishing this were true but it was all she could think of. “I don’t really like you.”

Hassan was stunned at first. Then threw his head back and laughed, delighted with her refreshing attitude.

Dana grimaced and thought quickly. “Okay, so it isn’t that I don’t really like you so much as I disagree with several of your policies. Number one is the fact that your country’s wealth is resting on the oil underneath your ground and that’s a fossil fuel that is changing the whole weather pattern of the earth and I’d much rather drive an electric vehicle than damage the environment any longer…” she knew she wasn’t getting through to him and her voice slowly faltered to an awkward halt.

“You start immediately,” he said and stood up. “There are several meetings this afternoon. You will sit in on them and take notes. Talk to Omar about the other issues with the meetings and he’ll fill you in,” he replied.

With that, he walked over to his desk, picking up several documents and handing them to her with instructions on what to do with each. Dana listened, stunned and horrified for several minutes before she realized that she should be writing down everything he was telling her. She’d already missed the first few instructions but scrambled quickly to turn things around, writing as fast as her fingers could move.

Ten minutes later, she walked out of his office with her arms filled with files, contracts and instructions that she dumped onto her already crowded desk in her miniscule office. As she stood back and looked at everything, she was stunned that the man had so much to do. Okay, so he ran a country. Literally ran a country. But doesn’t he delegate anything?

And why in the world had he hired her? Hadn’t he listened to anything she’d said? She was completely inappropriate for the job. Good grief, she’d more than convinced herself that she was an idiot so why hadn’t he even blinked at the problems she’d presented to him about her taking on the role.

With a sigh, she started with what she thought were the highest priority items and worked her way through each, referencing his instructions over and over again, unsure what to do in several situations but since she couldn’t find anyone to ask, apparently everyone was in some important, private meeting, she was on her own. She’d have to catch him when he’s thinking more clearly and then maybe he would let her step back into her previous position.

Dana did the best she could but knew that she was probably missing the mark on several issues. Lunch time came and went and she didn’t even realize that it was almost dinner time until Hassan came out of the meeting. With barely a nod in her direction, he disappeared once again into his office with his advisors and she clenched her teeth in an effort to not scream out that she hadn’t asked for, nor wanted, this job that was now making her stay late to get through all the worked he’d piled on top of her narrow shoulders.

By nine o’clock that night she finished the last of his instructions. As she turned off her computer, she poked her head out of her office and looked at the other desks, wondering when everyone else had left the office.

“You’re here very late,” Hassan said from the doorway to his office. He slowly walked down the hall until he was standing in front of her. “I hope you had dinner.”

Dana glanced down at her watch and sighed, all her hunger suddenly appearing now that she wasn’t frantically trying to get the work accomplished. “I’ll grab something when I get home.”

He pushed away from the doorway and shook his head. “One of the perks of this position is having the kitchen on speed dial.” He looked down at her phone and lifted the receiver, pressing a button. A moment later, he instructed that a sandwich be delivered immediately to her desk.

She tried to protest, not wanting to hang out here any longer, especially if he was going to be here as well. All she wanted was to go home, curl up on her soft bed and fall asleep. She didn’t even care if she had dinner, because fatigue was her overwhelming issue right at the moment.

“Tell me what you’ve accomplished today. Where are you on all the items we discussed this morning?”

Dana picked up her notebook and glanced down at her notes, with all the additional scribbles she’d notated throughout the day and accepting that she wasn’t getting out of here very soon. She went through the issues, describing what she’d done for each. When she was finished, she took a deep breath and set her notepad back down on her desk, then glared back up at him, daring him to tell her she’d done something wrong after all that.

She saw the surprise on his face but wasn’t sure what it indicated. “You finished everything from this morning?”

She blinked, confused. “Of course.”

He smiled slightly and shook his head. “The deadline for most of those items was the end of the week.”

Her mouth dropped open, shocked at the news that she’d worked this hard for nothing. “Are you kidding me?”

He laughed softly. “I never joke about work.”

A knock on the door revealed a man with a tray and Dana’s mouth immediately started watering at the sight of food. “That looks delicious,” she sighed happily.

The man set the tray on the desk and Dana ignored the gorgeous man standing there watching her eat. She was too hungry to care at this point. “Why didn’t you tell me that stuff didn’t need to be done by the end of today?”

“You’ll start to understand the deadlines a bit more as you gain experience.”

“In the meantime, I’m just going to have to guess?”

“Or ask.”

“Who was I supposed to ask? No one was here.”

“You are my personal assistant now, Dana. Feel free to interrupt me for further guidance.”

She watched him carefully, wondering where that interruption line would be drawn.

Her cell phone rang and she glanced down at the number but didn’t recognize it. She tucked it back into her purse, then wrapped up the rest of the sandwich after eating only a few bites. “Thank you for dinner. That was delicious.” It really had been a crazy day and although the sandwich hadn’t filled her up yet, it at least pushed the hunger pains away until she could create some space between herself and this man who made her body tremble slightly.

As she stood up, she was struck again by how tall the man was. “I’ll try very hard to do a good job.”

“Even though you don’t like me.”

She blushed and glanced down. “Okay, so maybe I don’t really know you and I admitted that it isn’t you that I disagree with but some of your policies.” She grimaced and shook her head again. “And maybe I’m just too tired to realize that this is one of those moments when I really shouldn’t speak out loud because I’m too tired and worn out and I’ll probably say something I shouldn’t. I apologize Your Highness. I was out of line.”

He smiled, watching the soft pink blush stain her porcelain cheeks. “I’d like to hear what you disagree with besides burning fossil fuels. We’ll discuss those and other topics another time. You look exhausted from today’s efforts but I’m impressed that you finished an entire week’s worth of work in one day. Just goes to show that Omar was right in selecting you for the role,” he said and chuckled at her grimace as he started walking out the door.

When her phone rang again, she glanced at the number and frowned, pressing the “ignore” button. It was the same number as before.

She looked up nervously and stuffed her phone into her purse.

“Boyfriend wondering why you are so late in coming home?” Hassan asked.

Dana shook her head. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said and stood up.

“Why not?”

She stepped around her desk, pretending to be busy looking for something in her purse. “I was just promoted and my boss is a slave driver,” she joked.

He didn’t laugh. “You’re a beautiful woman. I can’t believe that a man hasn’t captured your attention.”

Another blush, she really wished she could stop doing that. If it were anyone else other than this man with his dark, mysterious eyes, she might be able to brush off the questions. But this man made her nervous, which made her mind clumsy. “Oh, I’ve dated in the past.”

“Just not anyone special right now?” Hassan was both intellectually and personally intrigued that some man hadn’t already snatched up a woman with Dana’s spirit and beauty, not to mention her intelligence and integrity.

“No. Definitely not,” she replied, thinking of all the men who were chasing her, unfortunately not for the reason she wanted. “I’d better get home. You start work pretty early each morning.”

Hassan watched her leave, his eyes appreciating her slender waist and cute bottom once again. There was just something about her bothered him. He could tell she was hiding something, although what that was, he had no idea. He wasn’t concerned that she was doing something illegal or unethical. In order to work in the palace, all employees had to go through a rigorous background check so if there was a criminal or even questionable past, she never would have been considered for employment, much less allowed to enter the palace grounds.

Shrugging away the mystery for now, he called the front gate. “Make sure Dana Miller is escorted home safely,” he said. Then as an afterthought, “She might not like the interference so make sure she’s unaware of the escort.”

He had no idea why he’d done that. Employees and guests left the palace late all the time and he never ordered an escort for any of them. Why he’d chosen to do that for his new assistant was yet another mystery he was too tired to figure out at the moment.

Chapter 2

Her cell phone rang once again and this time she was too distracted by the chaos of the morning to be cautious. Instead of checking the number first, she reached for it automatically. “Hello,” she said and grabbed the next contract for review, slapping it onto the center of her desk.

“You’re a hard woman to find,” a masculine voice whispered in her ear. “Where have you been, little girl?”

Dana’s fingers froze and she dropped the highlighter she’d been gripping. Her hand clenched the cell phone and her lips tried to form a reply, but she was too frightened.

“So are you going to tell me where you’re hiding? Or am I going to have to do this the hard way? The more I have to wait, the worse it’s going to be for you, dearie.”

Dana snapped the phone closed and tossed it onto her desk, pushing away from her desk and staring at the phone as if it were poisonous.

“Dana?” Hassan asked as he was walking out of his office. Since she’d been promoted, her office was now right outside of his and he stopped by often when coming or going from meetings to inform her of the next step or to give her additional instructions.

Today, he stopped in front of her, concern in his eyes. She didn’t notice his look though since she was still staring at the phone. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, his voice strong and confident.

Dana reacted to the tone, her mind reaching for the strength and authority. She needed him right now, so much she had to restrain herself from running into his arms and asking that he hold her tightly in his strong arms. That would be completely inappropriate as an employee, she told herself even as she looked up at him longingly.

Hassan had never seen her so frightened. Except in battle, he’d never seen anyone as frightened as she was at the moment. He tossed the papers he’d been carrying onto her desk and walked around, taking her in his arms and holding her tightly against him. He stood there until the shivers stopped and he heard her breathing return to normal, rubbing her back and soothing her with soft words and reassurance that everything would be okay.

This woman, with all of her feminist logic and soft heart, had gotten under his skin over the past two weeks. Every time she walked into his office, carrying the files in front of her like a shield and her soft cheeks blushing that gorgeous color when he looked at her, he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. He’d never dared, reading the signals she was sending out that she was trying to be very businesslike about the situation. And he respected that. At least intellectually he respected that. His body didn’t really like it a whole lot though. His body had very different ideas about the kind of relationship he wanted with her and lately, his body’s priorities were gaining in ascendancy while his mind controlled the situations only by a thread. Holding her like this, with her slender waist, soft breasts and silky cheek pressed against his chest and her unthinking trust that he would keep her safe, was making his gentlemanly instincts hard to maintain.