What? “I usually get off work well after the other bars have closed, and I’m tired, so I go to bed. I haven’t done any partying here,” she said dryly.
“Do you drink?”
“I have a license, and I do make use of it.” Her eyes narrowed. “I would never drink at work, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Rashid opened his mouth to shoot another question, but Amira cut him off. “This is not a good idea,” she warned.
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Rashid said, and it seemed to Mila as if he suddenly relaxed. “Mila, I’m about to offer you the job of a lifetime.”
“Does it include travel?” she joked.
“You want to travel?” he asked, a note of curiosity in his voice. “That could probably be arranged. I’m offering you a m
arriage of convenience. We’ll marry by the end of the week, and as sheikha, you’d certainly be able to accompany me on business trips. You’ll be compensated well—as long as you do exactly as I say.”
Stunned, Mila stared at him. He was offering her the same thing that Asad had offered Liyah. Obviously, the competitive streak ran deeply in him. She let his offer sink in as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. She needed to handle this as carefully as possible.
Finally, she stood and tugged on her blazer. “I appreciate your willingness to speak to me, but I applied to be a waitress, not to sell my body and my future to a wealthy asshole who thinks that such a thing is an acceptable offer to make.”
Amira stood, guilt written all over her face. “Mila, please hear us out.”
“Does Liyah even know that you’re doing this?” Mila demanded.
Rashid’s features shuttered closed.
She had her answer. “We’re done here.”
With as much dignity as she could, she marched out and tried not to think about the consequences her actions might have.
Rashid gritted his teeth as he watched the beautiful woman walk out the door. He couldn’t even remember the last time someone had spoken to him with such disrespect—someone outside his family, that is.
“I told you this was a horrible idea,” Amira grumbled as she perched on the table. “She’s going to tell Liyah, and Liyah is going to kill me. Why couldn’t you pick some other woman, someone we don’t know, to marry you?”
“I want her,” Rashid said simply. He couldn’t explain it. At first, he’d thought that she might make the perfect docile wife, but now he had seen the fire inside the woman. She was wild, and he wanted to tether her to his side and keep that fire all to himself. It was a feral reaction that he’d never felt before, but he knew that what he’d offered Mila wasn’t even close to what he wanted now.
When he married her, he intended to take her to bed until she was screaming his name.
“The idea was for you to have someone quiet and malleable. Mila is none of these things,” Amira pointed out.
“She can learn,” Rashid stood and pushed the chair in. “I’m hungry.”
“She can learn?” Amira repeated in disbelief. “You’re talking like she didn’t just walk out before you’d even finished laying out the terms! She’s not going to marry you.”
He turned his head and gave her an amused smile. “Is that a challenge, sister dear?”
“Someone save me from my braggart brothers,” she snapped. “All three of you think you’re just so irresistible.”
Rashid shrugged and opened the door. “I haven’t met a woman yet who turned me down.”
“And what do you call what Mila just did?”
“I didn’t bring my A game,” he admitted. “But I’m not through with her just yet. I promise that before the month is over, she’ll be my wife and staring at me with adoring eyes.”
“And you? Will you be staring at her with adoring eyes?”
Rashid didn’t answer her as he stepped out into the hall. He knew that he wasn’t the kind of man to fall in love. Mila would have him at night, and that would simply have to be enough.
4