being in Pathology class, taking notes, and thinking that just because I could do something wasn’t reason enough for me to do it.”
“Did your parents put a lot of pressure on you?” Khaleel asked.
Aurora took a sip of her cocktail. “Yes and no,” she said. “They definitely told me over and over again that med school would be the best option for someone as smart as me—their words, not mine.”
“Have you ever given any thought to what you really want to do with your life?”
Aurora shook her head. “I've sort of been avoiding the issue ever since,” she admitted. Aurora sighed. “I was so wrapped up in making my parents happy that I never gave myself the chance to think of what I might want to do instead of becoming a doctor.”
“Well, what are you good at? Other than sneaking aboard ships.”
Aurora chuckled and finished off the food on her plate as she considered the question. “I’m pretty good at art,” she said, pushing her plate aside. “I’m decent at writing, but not great at it. I’m good at throwing parties...” Aurora shrugged. “Other than that, I don’t really know.”
“And you love other cultures,” Khaleel pointed out. “You could study anthropology, maybe. Become a researcher, studying people all around the world.”
“I could do that,” Aurora said, faintly surprised. She remembered the one Cultural Anthropology class she had taken to fulfill one of the general education requirements when she’d been working towards her degree. “But you have to have like, a PhD to do anything with studies like that,” she said, shaking her head.
“That isn’t so terrible a requirement,” Khaleel pointed out. “You could get into a program at a school. I assume you got good grades for undergrad, to get into medical school.”
“I did,” Aurora confirmed. “But I have no money. I can’t even imagine trying to apply for grad schools, disappointing my parents with the news that I’m not going to be in the hard sciences.”
“Do you think it would be less disappointing to them for you to just drop out and disappear?”
Aurora smiled again. “I haven’t really told them,” she said. She looked out over the water. “I’ve been avoiding telling them anything about the situation. I think they probably know that I've dropped out—really dropped out, not just taken a sabbatical. But I haven’t told them that I’m not planning to go back.”
“You said you needed to run away,” Khaleel said after a moment’s silence. “Was there anything in particular? Or was it the situation with your parents?”
Aurora smiled, shaking her head. “It wasn’t the med school thing,” she said. She hesitated for just a moment before speaking again. “When I went traveling,” she began, licking her lips clean of the last traces of her cocktail. “I borrowed some money from an ex-boyfriend.” Aurora scrubbed at her face, remembering the way her dream had turned into a nightmare. “What I didn’t know was that Brandon had borrowed money from…kind of an unsavory person. When I came back a few weeks ago, he asked me to dinner, and introduced me to this loan shark who was after him, and by extension, me.”
“Ah,” Khaleel said, nodding slowly. “I take it this loan shark has something to do with your need to get out of the city?”
Aurora smiled ruefully. “Brandon sold my debt to the loan shark. In exchange for forgiving the loan he had—bigger than what I borrowed from him.” She sighed. “That asshole. I guess there was a reason he was an ex.”
“At least you weren’t in a relationship with him at the time,” Khaleel said. “I assume you’re not involved with anyone right now?”
“No,” Aurora said, shaking her head. “I’ve been trying to stay under the radar while I figured out how to pay back the money I now owe the loan shark instead of Brandon.”
“That's good to know,” Khaleel said absently. “Have you gotten any ideas about how you’re going to handle him?”
Aurora shrugged. “I spent the morning thinking about it. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that I just have to face him, and deal with the situation head-on.”
“Do you have the money to pay him now?”
Aurora shook her head. “No, but I’m hoping at least I can get him to agree to something. I can’t just keep running the rest of my life. Somehow I think that Jon would follow me for years to come.”
“That's very brave of you,” Khaleel said. He looked at her for a moment longer. “Let’s go swimming.”
Aurora chuckled and shook her head at the abrupt change of subject, but she was more than willing to go along with the program.
As they swam together, Khaleel asked about her favorite music, books, movies, and Aurora found herself opening up to him more and more—about more than just her troubles. She realized as they spoke that she was more at ease with Khaleel than she had been with any man she’d ever dated. Apparently, it takes almost stealing from a billionaire and sneaking onto his yacht for me to find someone I feel halfway comfortable with, she thought as they took a break to sip another cocktail.
“Why were you so nice to me about sneaking onto your yacht?”
Khaleel shrugged in response. “No reason to be cruel about it,” he said. “You weren’t doing anything harmful to me. You didn’t have any plan to hurt me or any of the crew.” He took another sip of his Rum Runner. “You didn’t seem to think I was that nice yesterday.”
Aurora grinned. “Trying to prank me into cleaning your entire suite by hand wasn’t very nice,” she pointed out. “But the fact that you haven’t called the coastguard to report me, that’s pretty nice of you.”
“The prank was just so that you would out yourself,” Khaleel told her. “Once you got to organizing my closet, I'd have told you the truth.”
Aurora chuckled, shaking her head. “I’ll admit I kind of deserved it,” she said ruefully. “Maybe someday I'll be able to laugh about it.”
“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” Khaleel said.
They went back to swimming and the afternoon flowed away as they talked and relaxed. Aurora sunbathed for a while, coated from head to toe in a low-SPF lotion so that she could tan without burning. Chris, the bartender, made sure she had cocktails and water to her heart’s content, and eventually the buffet table was cleared, and replaced with a selection of fruit and chilled sweets.
“It’s a wonder to me that you’re not fat,” Aurora said, watching Khaleel work through a big bowl of gelato.
“Really? I exercise, and most of the time I eat very sparingly,” Khaleel told her.
“Except when you’re on your yacht,” Aurora said, gesturing around them. “Then you have food around constantly.”
“I'm on vacation,” Khaleel said with a shrug. “Why not indulge myself? I make up for it the rest of the year.”
“Well you definitely don’t look like you have any problems with your metabolism,” Aurora said, looking him over again.
Khaleel grinned slowly. “Neither do you,” he said. “Especially in a bikini.”
Aurora blushed and changed the subject, badgering Khaleel about his favorite foods and his own preferences for music and books. She was shocked to discover how well read he was, until he told her that his parents had invested heavily in his education when he was younger.
“I didn’t really have a choice. I was given my allowance based on the reports from my tutors. I read extra books to get extra marks.”
Aurora duly revised her opinion of the Sheikh, realizing for the first time that he was unlike any man she had ever met before, and that whatever happened next, she didn't want this journey to end.