A door opened midway down the hall, and she heard Issam’s voice filter out. “That’s not acceptable,” he was saying. “It’ll have to be tighter than that to—” A man in a dark suit came out and shut the door behind him, then took up a position outside the door.
She approached him with a big, friendly
smile, then reached for the handle.
He stopped her with a firm hand on her wrist. “You can’t go in there.”
Mackenzie looked up at the stoic bodyguard. “There’s been some confusion,” she said in a soothing tone. “I’m Mackenzie Peters, Sheikh Issam’s fiancée, and—”
“And you don’t have security clearance,” the bodyguard said firmly. Then he called for another man who was down the hall. He jogged over. “Akim,” ordered the bodyguard. “Take Ms. Peters downstairs.”
Her stomach lurched, and she must have gone pale, because the bodyguard spoke again. “For breakfast,” he said. “We must abide by the government’s systems when it comes to processing clearance applications.”
She lifted her chin. “Could I talk to my fiancé, please?” From inside the room, Issam’s voice rose. “I’m sure he could…expedite this process.” Her frustration battled with her fear. They could mean breakfast in a holding cell, and if Issam were here—
“Akim will escort you to where you need to go.” The guard’s expression softened. “I will tell Sheikh Issam you wish to see him.”
Mackenzie followed Akim to the floor below—to a dining room, not a holding cell. It was an intimate room, filled with light. She’d hardly sat down in one of the plush seats, arranging her folder on the table before her, when someone called her name.
“Mackenzie.”
It was Issam.
She stood up to greet him, and he closed the space between them. Her confidence grew until his very last step. Mackenzie automatically tilted her face up to kiss him, full on the mouth, and Issam did the same as if drawn to her by an invisible bond. Just before they made contact he switched directions and pressed a rather chaste kiss to her cheek.
That was disappointing.
But he straightened up and gestured for her to sit. “I wanted to go over some projections with you.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding. “That’s perfect. I have a lot to say about the land dispute, and if we could just—”
“Not about the no-man’s land,” Issam said as a waiter in a dark outfit appeared next to the table with a gleaming silver coffee pot. “Projections for the wedding.”
So he had been serious about her role in the planning. Well, she’d plan a wedding if that was what he wanted, but she was going to be heard about the land. And the fort. And the people inside it.
“Issam,” she said as the waiter poured her coffee. “I came here to join the team about the land negotiations. I dressed for that, not…not wedding planning. I thought we would need to get started as soon as possible, in light of—”
His gaze raked over her body in the blue suit. “You’re dressed appropriately for many things.”
Her cheeks heated. “Yes, but—”
“Among those things are several wedding planning meetings. They’ve already been scheduled. You’ll have one beginning shortly, right here in the dining room.”
“Here?” Mackenzie needed another breath to process this development. She wanted to do her job as a lawyer, advocating for the people hiding in the fort in the middle of Issam’s no-man’s land. And it was clear, from the way Issam never mentioned them, that he didn’t know anything about them.
“At this very table, if you’d like.” He smiled at her, though she couldn’t see why this was a joke. She was not prepared to begin planning a royal wedding alone.
She stood up. “I should go. I need a few minutes to research traditions before I get into the planning phase.” Mackenzie tucked her folder under her arm. “We can talk about the land dispute later.”
She was only able to take one step before Issam caught her by the elbow.
“It’s not what you think,” he said, his voice so smooth she wanted to lose herself in it. She wanted to lose herself in his hands. Last night—that kiss—it hadn’t been enough. She needed more of him.
And she needed to do her job.
“I need to research,” she insisted.
“The people you’re meeting are more than willing to help you. Sit down, Mackenzie. Have some breakfast.”