Confused, she opened her eyes and saw that Zahir, of all people, was in the office and that he’d wrestled Mr. McDermott into a headlock. She looked up and saw those familiar gold eyes, brimming with concern for her, and she had never been more relieved in her life. She had no idea how he’d gotten here or how he’d known where she was, but he was here, and he was trying to save her.
He had saved her from something unspeakable.
As the two men struggled, they bumped into the desk, causing the Vodka bottle to fall to the ground and shatter into a dozen tiny pieces. Both were grunting, especially Mr. McDermott as he tried to fight the hold. He managed to twist free by elbowing Zahir in the solar plexus, and Addison screamed, worried for her sheikh. Then Zahir moved quickly and slugged Mr. McDermott so hard that the other man spit blood and teeth to the floor. The other man seemed to stop then, wobbling unsteadily on his feet, and she worried he was going to lunge again before he finally fell to the floor in one unconscious heap.
Zahir rushed over to her and gathered her in his arms. Stroking her hair, he shushed her, and she took comfort in the strength of his biceps and the familiarity of his spicy scent. It felt like coming home, even if he’d betrayed her. She’d loved both that night on the Club Rouge rooftop and her life in Dubai. She could tell herself she hated him all she wanted, and she did despise being used, but she couldn’t escape her deepest feelings for Zahir. He would always be her sheikh.
“Are you okay?” he asked, breaking away enough to stroke her cheek. “Did he hurt you?”
“Nothing permanent, but we need to call the cops.”
“Agreed,” he said, pulling his cell from his pocket.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t. I was coming to check one final thing on our contracts and found you here struggling with him. I’m so glad for the timing that I can’t even tell you. I knew he was a bastard, but even I never imagined what a monster he was.”
In the center of the room, Mr. McDermott started to stir and she stomped over there, kicking him hard in the stomach once, letting her fury and frustration out on him in one swift blow. Glancing back over her shoulder at Zahir, Addison said, “Not anymore.”
***
It was the next day, and everything felt like such a flurry of impossible activity. They’d spent the day at the police station, and Zahir had already contacted his lawyers to start on the civil proceedings against Clayton on Addy’s behalf. He was going to ruin every aspect of the man’s life. Even if he somehow still had friends in the justice system, Clayton wasn’t going to skate on the pain he caused. Not this time.
But so far, it had been a parade of police interviews, lawyer discussions, and then letting Addison nap in his penthouse. Her brother would be coming over soon as well, but Zahir had requested that he give Addison more time to sleep. It had taken her till five in the morning to pass out at all, and it had been a fitful sleep, at best. Zahir assumed she might have many more sleepless nights to come, and she’d need what rest she could get. If only he weren’t an honorable man. A pig like Clayton didn’t deserve to breathe after what he’d tried on Addison, but whatever his punishment was, it was up for American courts to decide.
It surprised him when she crossed from the guest room of the penthouse and over to his main quarters, all while blinking those heavenly sapphire eyes back at him. They were beseeching him already, but he wasn’t sure what it was Addy wanted from him anymore, outside of helping her like a friend through the legal battles to come.
“I think we need to talk,” she said, rubbing at her arms.
He nodded. “I know we do. Part of coming back to Boston was that I knew you were screening me and I knew you couldn’t understand everything over the phone or with an e-mail.”
“I don’t know if I understand it now. I just…please explain it to me. Was I always just some pawn in a game between you and Mr. McDermott? Everything in Dubai felt real, but I can’t keep from running it over in my mind, from feeling that I was played completely. It isn’t that way, is it?”
Her voice was plaintive and sad. All he wanted to do was sweep her up in his arms and hold her forever, but he hadn’t earned that right back. If he didn’t choose his words carefully and make her see everything, then he never would.
“I wanted to find someone I could get information from about Clayton McDermott. That much is true, and that’s why you were hired. It’s also why I took you out that first night. I only planned to make you more comfortable in a relaxed setting so you’d say more. I never intended for everything else to happen, but it felt so right—so familiar—in the limo, like we were meant to be together, and I couldn’t let you go. But…”
“You still needed the information,” she said.
“Yes, because I wanted to put him out of business, to make him suffer. He’s hurt so many people over the years, from the secretaries he’s bullied to the ruthless takeovers he’s led that have left thousands jobless. I wanted to make him pay for that, and when I got to know you and saw how badly his bullying had beat you down, I especially wanted to do it for you. I had no idea how deep his depravity went, but I just wanted him to pay,” Zahir confessed, balling his right hand into a fist at his side.
They’d called the police, played by rules, but a huge part of him wished that he’d just wailed on the other man and beat him to a pulp before the officers arrived.
“You could have asked,” she said, her voice so small and weak, so unlike his Addy, and he’d had a hand in that too. It wasn’t just the trauma she’d just faced that had left her this bereft.
“I should have, but we were already in too deep, and I didn’t know how to ask for your help without making you hate me. I guess I didn’t do a good job of that on any front,” he said, raking fingers through his hair.
“No, I think we both fucked up,” she said, her language blunt. “You keep saying that you feel like we’re connected, but that you have no idea how we’re connected.”
“I assumed it was just one of those amazing chemistry things.”
She shook her head. “Well, I think it was that too, but we had met before the job interview. I don’t know why you didn’t recognize me. Honestly, I know I love costumes, but I don’t think that my masks are that good. I figured you’d know that I’d been that cat on the not-so-hot-tin roof.”
His eyes widened, and Zahir could no longer help himself. He was across the room and caressing her cheek then. “You’re the kitten?”
She nodded. “You’re not very creative when you go to a costume party,” she admitted. “But, my sheikh, I was definitely your kitten. Part of why I took the job in the first place was that I wanted to be closer to you, wanted to see if you really had forgotten me.”
He ran his hands through her red hair, so like flames in the morning light. “I could never do that, but I just didn’t know you were the same person. No wonder I felt such sparks. I’ve never in my life loved a woman the way I love you.”