Page 7 of Hiding in the Sheik's Arms

Khal gestured to the file in front of them. “Well, according to Tasha, I work myself to death.”

There was a long silence, then Joran sighed, getting back to the original topic. “About Tamia.”

“Her daughter,” Khal filled in, staring at the floor in shock.

“Our half-sister,” Joran agreed with a nod and tensed. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as he considered all of the issues their step-mother’s passing created. “We need to get her. We should bring her back here. She’s not safe out in the world alone.”

Khal nodded and leaned back against the plush, leather cushions. “I agree. Can you bring her here? I’d like to meet her.”

Joran stood up with another heavy sigh. “One Princess…” he hesitated, pulled out his phone and read the message again, “…Marianna, coming up.”

A knock sounded on his door and Joran turned as Tasha opened the door. “Prime Minister Ilick is here to speak with you,” she announced.

“Send him in,” Khal replied, gesturing to the man standing behind Tasha. Khal couldn’t stop his eyes from moving over Tasha’s curves, appreciating the…uh…blossoming health and vitality…that had come back to his aide. She still needed a good ten pounds, maybe more, to bring her back to a healthy weight. But the sparkle of life in her eyes created a dramatic change in her.

“I’ll have coffee and tea for you gentlemen in a moment,” Tasha announced, offered a smile, then left Khal standing in stunned silence for a long moment. He’d never seen Tasha smile before. Had he? If she’d smiled, he hadn’t noticed. But no, he would have noticed that bright expression. It had completely transformed her from lovely to stunningly beautiful!

“Your assistant is very impressive,” Minister Ilick interrupted Khal’s stunned reaction.

Khal glared at the man, a sudden, almost choking sense of fury surging through him. His mind raced with indignant thoughts: “How dare this man notice Tasha!” The intensity of his jealousy caught him off guard, his fists clenching at his sides as he struggled to maintain control. His vision seemed to narrow, focusing solely on the man's audacity to appreciate Tasha's smile. It took several moments of intense internal struggle to restrain the overwhelming urge to punch him, to make him pay for noticing someone so precious and private to Khal.

It wasn’t that he was interested in his assistant, Khal told himself. It was merely that Tasha was finally…recovering. Yes, that was the right word. Tasha was recovering from whatever had driven her here to Lativa. Something horrible had happened to his lovely assistant and she was finally finding herself, getting her legs under her, so to speak. Tasha definitely didn’t need obnoxious come-ons from a man old enough to be her grandfather!

“Ms. O’Connor has been a positive addition to the administration,” Khal said with a hint of steel to his voice. “Let’s discuss the road construction projects,” he suggested, getting the man on track.

Chapter 5

Senator Nathan King was furious at the incompetence surrounding him!

“I’m paying you a small fortune to find my fiancée,” Nathan snarled. “And all you’ve come back with over the past year is that you have another lead! Every damn month, all you tell me is that you have a lead and, so far, none of them have delivered that bitch to my office!” Nathan couldn’t believe that Tasha had slipped away from him! She’d been in a freaking hospital bed! The last time he’d seen her, the bitch had a tube stuck down her throat! How in the everlasting hell had Tasha managed to get away from him?

Breathing in slowly, he forced his muscles to relax. Nathan knew that he had a temper, but he’d learned to control it over the years. Except when a lovely woman was around. Yes, he preferred to expend his violence on the soft, beautiful skin of a lovely lady who dared to defy him. Or not defy him, he thought with a mental chuckle.

Pushing those arousing thoughts away, Nathan focused on the man sitting in front of him. He had to get Tasha back. She knew…too much!

He'd considered just killing her after he’d discovered she’d recorded that conversation more than a year ago. However, he’d lost his temper and, instead of calling up one of the goons who could get the job done quickly and efficiently, Nathan had struck her. A few times. Maybe too many times, Nathan thought as he rubbed his knuckles, thinking about how good it had felt to finally release his frustrations that day. He could still remember the sound of her voice as she’d pleaded with him to stop hitting her. She’d begged and it had sounded sonice after a long, frustrating day, that he’d had to add a few kicks. By that point, she’d been on the floor, so why not?

Still, he should have controlled his temper and called Evan. Evan was his fixer. Whatever Nathan needed, Evan was the man who could make it happen. Or create problems when he needed an issue to distract the voters. His constituents were so gullible, all he had to do was manufacture some horror, some boogeyman and, bingo, the suckers rallied around him, voting him into office for another six years. Hell, Nathan was so popular with the voters that the opposing party hadn’t even bothered to offer a viable candidate for the past two elections.

But if that video ever got out, Nathan knew that his political career would be over. He couldn’t even order Evan to manufacture some evidence against Tasha to discredit her because Tasha could just release the recording to the press.

Why hadn’t she done it already? Originally, Nathan had assumed that the bitch was just afraid of him. She should be, but if she’d stuck around, he would have married her. Then she couldn’t testify against him. Problem solved!

If she hadn’t agreed to marry him, he would have created some “tragic accident” and, poof, no more Tasha problem.

But Nathan hadn’t been able to do either of those things. He thought about the note she’d left him. “If you leave me alone, I won’t release the recording. If you come after me, if anything happens to me, I’ve left instructions with five different people that they should release the recording to the press.”

“Where the hell is she?” Nathan King bellowed, his temper getting the best of him. He didn’t need to lower his voice since his office was carefully constructed to be soundproof. “She’s been gone for over a year! The press aren’t believing the story about the bitch recuperating privately any longer!”

Evan didn’t appear cowed in any way, Nathan realized. The man simply shrugged as if he didn’t give a damn. “If you’d told me to watch her at the hospital, you’d be married by now.” He kicked his booted feet out in front of him, stretching long legs as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Nathan ran an impatient hand over his hair, knowing that it would fall right back into place. He paid over six hundred dollars for a haircut. It damn well better look good all the time!

“If I’d known that she wasn’t as badly hurt as I’d thought, I would have ordered you to the hospital! She was on a freaking breathing tube when I left her the last time!” He huffed, glaring at the killer-for-hire. “How the hell was I supposed to know that she could still walk?”

Nathan paused, thinking back to that night. He actually smiled at the memory of how badly he’d beaten Tasha. He’d just had a frustrating meeting with another senator that afternoon, only to find out that Tasha, the bitch, had been recording the conversation. How much she’d recorded, Nathan didn’t know. But that conversation…! Hell, it didn’t matter how much she’d heard. All of it was damning.

“Well, don’t get pissed off at me because you didn’t bring me in fast enough,” Evan replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

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