Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) by Sophia Lynn Read Free Book Online Page B

opened her dress with the tender reverence of a man who has found something precious. He kissed her flesh gently as he bared every inch of her, and when she lay naked beneath him, he fell upon her as if he were starving.
    They made love that left her trembling and crying out with pleasure, and when they were done, he tucked her next to his side, stroking her damp hair back from her face.
    She was just drifting off to sleep when he spoke again.
    “I want you to come to Khayyam with me,” he said. “I want you to see my home. I want you to see where I am from.”
    Ella was no fool. She knew what it meant when a rich and wealthy man took an interest in a girl who worked for a living. She thought she was ready to have a grand affair that she could look back on with a smile and a sigh. She hadn't been expecting this.
    “To Khayyam?”
    “If you will come, yes,” he said, squeezing her a little. “I have seen the books you prefer to work with, and they all describe places that are very similar to where I grew up. Wouldn't you like to see what those places are really like?”
    She couldn't deny it. Her interests had always been in modern Middle Eastern literature. Belatedly, she wondered if he thought that that was why she was so interested in him. It wasn't true; her growing need for him had nothing to do with anything but him, but she squeezed him extra tight anyway.
    “Of course I will,” she whispered. “If you want to take me, I will go.”
     She fell asleep in his arms, as sure of her way forward as she was of the stars in the sky.
    Less than four months later, she would look back on that sleep as the sleep of a fool, someone who knew little about the world and even less about the man that she was seeing.
    ***
    Now … now it was all going to change again, and all she could do was pray that she was no longer the little fool who had fallen asleep so trustingly in the first hours of the New Year.

Chapter 5
    Ella's head might have been full of dreams and fantasies, but the next day, her life filled up with manuscripts and appointments.
    “You must have made some impression,” Amira said, alerting her to another working brunch that she simply could not miss. “You're booked for the next three weeks.”
    Ella groaned. “They can't decide if I'm the competition or if I'm the next hot thing,” she said. “Either way, they need to check me out. Am I at least cleared to do some manuscript reading sometime soon? That's actually why I came to Khayyam.”
    Amira grinned. “I've got a few for you to at least skim this afternoon, and if you are very nice to me, I will even make sure that no one who is looking for you can find you.”
    “You're a gem, thank you.”
    That was the way things went for the next fourteen days. Though the rest of Khayyam took its weekends on Friday and Saturday as the United Arab Emirates did, she worked straight through, barely lifting her head.
    Nasim texted her, of course, and she responded with increasing frequency and regrets. Every time a message came through, she felt a deep pang about having to disappoint him yet again. She knew that if she kept this up, he would quickly lose interest, but what could she do? Her work came first.
    On Thursday night, Amira poked her head into Ella's office. “Hey, boss lady, make sure that you are here bright and early tomorrow morning. There's an investor who wants to make sure that he's getting what he's paying for, and he wants to meet you personally.”
    Ella frowned. A local partner could make all kinds of things easier in Dalal, but she wasn't sure how much she liked the high-handed summons.
    “How long is he going to need?” she asked.
    “Full day, he said,” Amira paused. “I think you want to give this particular investment a serious consideration.”
    Ella sighed. “All right. I defer to your judgment. Thank you.”
    She gazed regretfully at the stack of manuscripts she had to go through. Perhaps she could work late in the evening tomorrow