With a mock gasp, she gently punched him. “I do not fuss.”
“Nitpick?”
“I will uninvite you.”
“I live here. You can’t uninvite me.” He closed the door to his suite and followed her down the hall. Although he was upset by what Amira had said, he was still looking forward to se
eing Katie again. If he was lucky, maybe he’d actually get to see her smile at dinner.
If he was even luckier, maybe that smile would be for him.
11
Katie tried to seem engaging at dinner. She chimed in when she could and laughed at the jokes, but mostly, she spent the greater part of her energy trying not to stare at Khalid.
He sat next to her at dinner, and occasionally, their thighs would brush together. It was enough to make her heart beat erratically, but he didn’t do more than that.
To hide the trembling in her hands, she drank.
Too much.
By the end of dinner, her head was spinning.
Liyah had been watching her with concern. “Katie, of course we can have a driver take you home, but if you want to spend the night here at the palace, I can let you borrow some clothes.”
The last thing she wanted to do was spend the night at the palace. She didn’t think that she could make it through the night, knowing that Khalid was under the same roof. “No, that’s okay. But I appreciate the offer. Dinner was amazing, Amira. Thank you so much for the invitation.”
“We don’t see nearly enough of you,” Mila complained. “Khalid is a slave driver!”
Katie laughed. “He’s not, although the gallery does keep me busy. The truth is that I have met another friend, and I have dinner with her once or twice a week.”
Fatima called her frequently, sometimes several times a day, but she seemed more interested in Khalid than in Katie.
Katie was starting to feel uncomfortable having dinner with the woman, but it was the one time she could talk with someone who wasn’t directly related to Khalid. Although she hadn’t come out and told Fatima that she was sleeping with Khalid, she could vent about him without actually telling the whole truth.
It was almost cathartic.
“Well I demand that we do this once a week,” Amira declared. “I have far too much fun with you guys.”
“Me, too!” Smiling, Katie stood—but wobbled just a bit. “Okay, it is definitely time for me to go home. It was really good to see you guys. When the Greek collection is live, we’ll all have to go see it. It’s rather enticing.” She winked, and the table laughed.
She hoped that Khalid would walk her to the door, but it was Asad who offered. She wasn’t so drunk that she couldn’t walk down the hall, but she was pleasantly buzzed.
“You and your brothers are so interesting,” she murmured as he opened the door to the valet station for her.
“I assume you’re talking about Khalid,” Asad laughed. “He’s a good man. I just think that he’s not allowed to be himself.”
Turning her head, she stared at him. “Because he doesn’t paint?”
“A lot of things.” Asad bowed his head as the driver pulled up. “Have a good night, Katie.”
“You too, Asad.” On impulse, she hugged him before climbing into the car.
To her surprise, rather than taking her home, the driver simply drove around the block before heading back to the other side of the palace.
“What are you doing?”
“Following orders,” the driver said in a neutral tone. “Sheikh Khalid wanted me to drop you off at his door.”