Sold To The Sheikh Bidder

“Hakim?”

He stepped out where she could see him. “I think I’d prefer Romeo tonight, although a rose by any other name does smell as sweet.”

“Really?” Although she tried to sound annoyed, Hakim could hear the laughter in her voice.

“It seemed appropriate,” he said and shrugged.

Lauren shook her head. “You can’t be here.”

“You don’t have a watcher right now. He’s chasing after my limo, which as you can see, I am currently not in.”

Her clear laughter soothed his soul. She wasn’t mad at him.

“Do you want to come up?” she asked.

“I think you’re getting your stories mixed up. That’s Rapunzel.”

She laughed harder. “Then what do you want, fair Romeo?”

“Come out with me tonight. I’ve got something fun planned for us.”

“Hakim, I can’t. If my mother finds out…”

“Ah, but you can. She’ll never know that you’re gone. I have a plan to sneak you back in, too.”

“How am I supposed to sneak out?”

“I suppose you could jump and I could catch you, but if I were you, I’d take the stairs.”

He heard her laugh harder and then the door slid shut. Hakim leaned against a tree while he waited for Lauren to—hopefully—come downstairs. Her lights didn’t go out, but after a minute he heard her call to him. She was stepping off the bottom stair when she saw him, and the way her face lit up assured Hakim that he’d done the right thing.

She was wearing jeans and a simple white T-shirt with a black leather jacket thrown over it. Hakim thought she’d never looked better.

Raised eyebrows and a curious grin was all he got from her, so he held out his hand and jerked his head toward the same landscaping he’d walked through. Hakim led her through the grounds and to the car he’d parked on the other side of her apartment complex. It was a sporty red convertible, and at the sight of it, she laughed again.

“That’s, um, not what I call inconspicuous,” she said.

“No, but it’s not my car. It doesn’t even look like any of my cars. Hide in plain sight, I always say.”

He realized he sounded positively giddy, but Lauren didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seemed quite happy herself, giggling and leaning up to kiss his cheek as he opened the door for her.

“Where are we going?” Lauren asked when he got into the car.

“It’s a surprise. I had to get a little creative since this was a last-minute plan.”

“Okay, now I’m definitely intrigued,” she said.

As they drove, Hakim said, “Tell me about your day.”

“The part where I discovered my mother was having me followed and confronted her about it, or the normal chaos at work?”

Part of Hakim wanted to hear about her confrontation, but he also didn’t want to push, so he let her make the call.

“Honestly, I want to hear about your day, good and bad. But I totally understand if you don’t want to talk about Patricia right now.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but it really hurts, you know? That she doesn’t trust me and doesn’t think I can manage things on my own. Even though that’s what she raised me to do, which just makes it worse, I think.”

“Did she explain why she did it?”

“I think she really is concerned that you’re using me, which is absurd. You’d never hurt me.”

Hakim was silent, touched that Lauren trusted him. By her words, she’d completely forgiven him for the way they met.

He realized he’d been quiet too long when she turned to give him a quizzical look. He smiled at her.

“But I was using you. And I would have hurt you, maybe not directly, but by hurting your mother’s company. She has a point, Lauren.”

Lauren sighed. “That was before you knew me. You wouldn’t do that now.”

Hakim nodded wearily. “True. And for the record, it’s not just because I want to be with you.”

“I know. I can see that you don’t want to be part of this feud anymore. I tried to tell Patricia that, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“She hasn’t seen it for herself, so that’s not surprising.”

“But if she really trusted me, she wouldn’t need to see it for herself. It’s like I’m ten again and she’s telling me I’m too young to know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m sorry, Lauren.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. No more talk about my mother or work or any of that. I don’t know what I’m going to do about her, but I think I know where we’re going and that’s all I want to talk about right now.”