Page 6 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“Can I see the list?”

“No!” She burst out laughing. “What would you need to see that for?”

Kareem shrugged and said nothing.

And Keira was left thinking,There is something more about him. Something I haven’t figured out yet.

She didn’t know what he was doing here, what had caused him to travel all the way from Qalmar — wherever that was — to attend a race he wasn’t even watching. But whatever his reason, there was something very unusual about him, and if he was going to spend the rest of the day shadowing her, she was going to need to keep a close eye on him.

CHAPTER 3

KEIRA

“So this is the concession stand?”

Keira took a deep breath to steady herself before she answered. Of course this was the concession stand.What gave it away?she wanted to ask.The popcorn? The soda fountain? The hot pretzels?

But she was determined not to be rude, so she hoisted a smile back onto her face. “It’s one of them,” she said. “You might have noticed, as we’ve been walking around, that this venue has several concession stands, which enables us to better care for the needs of the guests. We don’t want the lines getting too long, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

“It seems to me that it wouldn’t matter very much,” Kareem said. “If people want something, they’re going to wait in line for it.”

“Sure. Why didn’t you buy a ticket to get in here, again?”

He grinned, which confirmed what Keira had begun to suspect.

“You just didn’t want to wait in line, did you?” she asked. “You thought that by bribing your way in, you could skip it!”

“Which did work,” he said.

“You’re real proud of yourself. I could absolutely call security and have you dragged out of here over that.”

“Yeah, but you would have done it already,” he pointed out.

“Anyway, you can see how people are going to be unhappy if they have to wait in line. And that’s not even the most important part of it. It’s a crowd control issue. That’s what I really need to keep top of mind. If this concourse fills up with people waiting in line, it becomes a fire hazard. We need to give them multiple places to get food. And that’s why I hire food vendors.”

“Food vendors? Are you still talking about concessions?”

“No.” Keira put a hand on his arm to draw his attention and pointed to a pop-up cart that was selling Mexican food on the other side of the concourse.

The moment she touched him, she felt her heart skip a beat. It had been a very long time since any man had had this effect on her, and she had to admit, she was enjoying it a little. It definitely wasn’t going to go anywhere — she didn’t evenlikehim very much, on a personal level — and that fact took the pressure off. She could just enjoy her attraction to him as if it was an interesting exhibit in a museum — something to be regarded and enjoyed for its superficial qualities, maybe something to ponder, but certainly not anything to worry about.

If Kareem had a reaction to the touch, he didn’t let it show. He was looking at the Mexican foot cart. “What is that?”

“Tacos and burritos.” Couldn’t he smell them from here?

He shook his head. “I’ve never had that before.”

“You’ve never had a taco?”

“We don’t have them in Qalmar.”

It made sense, she supposed. If she’d estimated Qalmar’s location correctly, it was about as far away from Mexico as you could get. “Come on,” she said, leading him over. “We’ll get a sample.”

She didn’t know the man who was operating the cart — her dealings had all been with the owner — but when she showed him her badge, he understood at once who she was. “What can I get for you?”

“Just two tacos,” she said. She looked at Kareem. “Steak or chicken?”

“Oh. What’s better?”

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