A Family Affair by Fern Michaels Read Free Book Online

figure out what it is.”
    “You’ll figure it out. Gotta go, Trish. Showtime. We just got the final call.”
    “Love you. Tell everyone I miss them. I’ll bring presents for everyone, all the way from Dubai.”
    The moment the connection was broken, Trish closed her eyes. Suddenly, she felt lost and all alone. The words ulterior motive kept ricocheting around and around inside her head. She poured more coffee and fired up another cigarette. She needed to think.
    An hour later her thoughts were no different. She was tired of smoking cigarettes she didn’t want, tired of drinking the excellent coffee. She needed to move about. A walk through the garden, sniffing the fragrant flowers, might help. She realized she was still in her bare feet. The mossy, spongy grass felt good beneath her feet. Such a simple pleasure in this land of unbelievable wealth.
    Trish let her thoughts go to Malik and how she’d been attracted to him from the moment he lifted her in his arms. She remembered how safe she felt there. She thought then about all his visits to her sickroom, the inane conversations. She remembered how her heartbeat quickened at the look in his eyes, how happy she felt when he smiled at her. All the dreams she’d had of Malik. Sweet, wonderful dreams. She’d cried when he told her he was leaving to return to Dubai, knowing she’d never see him again. She’d cried into her pillow so no one would know how she felt.
    When Trish finished her tour of the garden and was back on the Adirondack chair, she ignored the cigarettes and coffee. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She shifted her thoughts to her sister back in New Jersey and her friends in Las Vegas. For some crazy reason, she thought about Ernie and how shocked he was when she told him to return the thousand dollars to Malik. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
    Trish looked down at her watch. Hours to go till it was time to meet up with the man who had literally saved her life. Hours till she set eyes on Sheik Malik bin Al Mohammed.
    Just hours.

Chapter 4
    T RISH LOOKED DOWN AT HER WATCH FOR WHAT SHE WAS SURE was the hundredth time. The time hadn’t changed much since the last time she looked, not even a minute ago. The little gold circle on her wrist said the time was 7:31 p.m. Dubai time. She had been awake now for close to thirty hours and was starting to feel it.
    The soak in the massive tub had almost put her to sleep. The heady scent of the bath salts had soothed all her senses. The bathroom smelled wonderful! She smelled wonderful! The world smelled wonderful!
    Trish could see her reflection in all the mirrors lining the walls. While a tad creepy, it allowed her to see every part of her body. She whirled and twirled. The white piqué sundress the girls back home had helped her choose was, in her eyes, perfect. At home, in the summer, she could go anywhere in it. To a summer party, out to dinner, on a movie date, out for a walk in the park . . . with someone. The gold chain and cross around her neck, the last gift from her mother, sparkled in the overhead lighting. She hadn’t applied much makeup; the spray tan had done its job. A little mascara, a little eyeliner, some lipstick, and that was it. What she would do when the spray tan faded, she had no idea. Maybe the spray tan was a bad idea. Too late to worry about that.
    Trish looked down at her white sandals. She’d paid way too much for them, but the girls had goaded her with the “once-in-a-lifetime vacation and throw caution to the winds” argument. And they did match the dress perfectly.
    Trish paced because she didn’t want to sit down and wrinkle her dress. She walked around the suite of rooms and was on her ninth lap when she decided to go outside and smoke a cigarette. She nixed the second half of that idea almost immediately as she didn’t want to smell like cigarette smoke. Instead, she peered at herself in one of the mirrors on her last lap to stare at her hair and the earrings one