Sheikh's Revenge

She was confused and in debt and definitely in a tailspin, but she knew her worth. Addison knew she was better than what both Zahir and his sister had dismissed her as.

“What’s going on?” he asked, concern seeming to color his words.

She had to hold back all her anger then because it would come out as a torrent of tears, hot and fresh on her cheeks. “You know what’s wrong. I was sleeping, and your sister comes storming in. She clearly couldn’t be happier, and can you guess what she was buzzing about.”

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Miss Amun tried to explain that as well, and she failed miserably,” Addison continued, her words coming out in a fearsome torrent, so fast that she was beginning to lose track of them. “You were using me this whole time, doing all of this to find the great weakness for Clayton McDermott. I told you so much, about what a jerk he’d been, and how stupid was I to think that you were any better.” She started to pace, throwing her hands up in the air and wishing she had more at her disposal to wear than her rumpled dress from last night. “You know what? It has to be true. You all think you’re masters of the universe, that you’re all so ready to move people around like chess pieces on a board. Well, guess what, my sheikh, I’m not playing anymore.”

Zahir moved forward and grabbed both of her shoulders. She tried to pull away, but he held her there forcefully. She knew he wasn’t trying to hurt her, just stilling her so he’d have a few more seconds to spin whatever bullshit he was going to try peddling her way today, but she could no longer deal with any of this. She’d heard every pretty lie and half-truth, one after another. Addison was just no longer interested.

“I’m serious, Addy. Just let me explain. I did hire you because of your connection to Clayton. I’m trying to arrange a merger with his company, and at first, he was backstabbing me. I needed the right…”

“Leverage?” she asked, her voice keyed up. “Is that the word you’re looking for?”

He looked away, those gold eyes burdened with sadness and regret. “At first it was business. I wanted to take you to dinner that first night just so I could get you to speak more freely, but then we connected so well in the limo.”

“Oh I’ll say!”

“And I can’t even explain it. You’re going to think it’s a line,” he said, loosening his grip on her shoulders, at least enough so that Addison could wriggle free of him again. “But I swear it’s not. After we first started kissing in the limo, it felt like I’d known you from before, like I’d even known you my whole entire life. Then I fell for you so hard, especially by the time we left Al Ain. I didn’t want to get the information from you, definitely not in bed and not like it happened.”

“But you still got it, and you couldn’t wait till even the next day to run off to your sister so she could start the calls and all the subterfuge, right?”

“The final deadline for the merger—if it’s going to happen at all and help keep us competitive in certain areas—well, yes, it is drawing rapidly near. If there were more time to deal with it, I’d have done the reporting of the facts more covertly. I’m so sorry. I just need you to understand that you weren’t some deal, Addy. It wasn’t all about machinations and collusion,” he said, stroking her chin with his hand.

Addison pulled back and scrubbed hard at the skin there, as if it could remove the heat of his touch. “Don’t.”

“Addy, please.”

“No,” she said, feeling the tears flowing furiously down her cheeks now. “Just don’t. I’m going back to Boston, and if you care about me at all, then you won’t try and contact me. Good-bye, Zahir.”

Chapter Eight

“You might want to shower sometime soon, sis,” Will said, offering her a cup of cocoa.

She grumbled a bit in bed but sat up anyway and gladly accepted his treat. Addison didn’t know who she was kidding with her surly guest act. Will was a godsend for her. He’d welcomed her home with open arms and an offer he couldn’t deliver on to hunt Zahir down—security be damned—and deck the other guy. Or maybe it was possibly beat him with a shovel. Either revenge fantasy sounded great to her right about now. However, she’d been home two weeks and had maybe left her bed all of eight times, and none of those times had been to even journey as far as the fridge. And, yes, now that he’d reminded her, she was pretty sure that she hadn’t showered in two days, at least.

Wait, it was still Monday, right?

Oh crap, what day is it?

Frowning up at her brother (she dared not incriminate herself by giving her body a test sniff), Addison sighed. “I don’t reek that badly, do I?”

“You do know it’s Friday right? You smell beyond ripe, sis, and that asshole doesn’t deserve it.”

“I got duped big time by him. You don’t understand at all. It was like every fairy tale I’d ever heard of. I was suddenly Julia Roberts, and he was Richard Gere. It was the best experience of my life, and yet all of it was a lie. I can’t even breathe. I don’t have a job or a boyfriend and now I’ve been used utterly. You must think I’m the biggest idiot,” Addison finished, taking a deep sip of the chocolatey goodness he’d brought for her.

At least that would make her feel better. It felt these days like nothing would make the pain in her chest stop. Just as she set the mug down on her bedside table, the agony erupted again, like a gaping wound in her chest that just wouldn’t let her go.

Will shook his head. “I feel like the biggest idiot. I never should have let you take the job.”

“Excuse me? You let me?”

“No, but I was worried that he had an interest in you that was more than about your secretarial experience. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to undermine your confidence. I know now that I should have. Maybe I could have kept you from leaving the States, from being torn up so badly by all of this. But I was with you, Addison. I thought that for once you were having your Prince Charming come for you, that you were getting that happy ending. Besides, you were so sad and this huge company seemed legitimately interested in you. I wanted that ego boost for you because you are worth a lot more than you know.”

“Oh I know that I am now because I’m the best leak that Zahir ever found. Now he has every secret or, well, enough of those compiled secrets in order to get exactly what he wanted…and it’s just so much worse,” she hiccupped. Addison didn’t know what else to do. She’d carried the burden of the secret from Club Rouge for over a month, and her desire and need to follow that lust had led her to ruin. She needed someone to know just how deeply drawn to Zahir she was, how fully linked they were. “You don’t even know.”

Her brother offered her a pained smiled and squeezed her shoulder. “I will know if you tell me more about it.”