Page 15 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“I’m not going to be living in a palace,” Keira said. “I’m going to be living in his estate. The palace is where the king lives.”

“You’re going to meet a king,” Allie said, her voice breathless. “Can you believe it?”

“He’s not going to like me,” Keira said. “That’s a part of all this. We know he won’t like me. We’re planning for him to not like me.”

“You might be able to win him over,” Allie said bracingly. “And by the way, Keira, I don’t know whether you noticed, but you’ve decided to do this. You’re talking about it like it’s something that’s going to happen, not like it’s a crazy idea that you want to be talked out of. You’ve made up your mind. It’s a good think you know what you want, isn’t it?”

Keira hadn’t even been aware of the shift in the way she was speaking, but now that Allie drew attention to it, she saw that her friend was right. What was more, the difference was there in her thoughts as well. Shehadmade up her mind.

She was going to do this. She was going to marry Kareem and go to Qalmar with him.

“Oh my God,” she realized. “I’ve been so worried about what his father is going to think that I almost forgot about my own family.”

Allie burst out laughing. “Kevin is going tofreak,” she said. “He’s going to absolutely lose his mind, Keira. He still thinks you’re his assistant.”

Keira nodded. She had worked in that capacity for exactly three months, when she and Kevin had both gotten their start on the racing scene, before accepting a marketing job that had eventually led to her current position. But the intervening years hadn’t prevented Kevin from treating her as if she lived to serve him. “You’re right,” she said. “He’s probably going to try to forbid me from going or something. As if he could.”

“It’ll be worth it for that alone,” Allie said. “Just for the moment he tries to tell you that you can’t go and has to deal with the fact that it’s not up to him. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when you havethatconversation. Do you think you’re going to tell your family that you’re getting married?”

“No, I can’t see how that would do any good,” Keira said. “Itisa pretty crazy move, and if I tell them that they’ll probably think they have a good argument for trying to stop me. It’s better if I just tell them it’s a business opportunity and handle the rest of it without involving them at all. After all, the marriage will end before it could possibly be relevant to them, so there’s no reason they need to know about it.”

Allie nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “And I think that’s the right decision. I promise, they won’t hear a word about it from me.”

“Because they’re definitely going to come to you for answers once they realize I’ve skipped the country, even when I do tell them I’m trying to establish a race in Qalmar,” Keira said. “They’ll know something’s up. They’re not used to me doing things like this — being so spontaneous.”

“That’s true,” Allie said. “Ordinarily, if you were going to go to Qalmar, you would have planned it out for months in advance. If we weren’t having this conversation about it right now and Ifound out you had gone, I would be worried. If your family asks me, I’ll just say I don’t know any more about it than they do.”

“Good,” Keira agreed. “That won’t satisfy them, but at least it will make them come to me for answers instead of bugging you about it.”

“So you’re really going to do this, Keira?”

“I really am.” Keira could hardly believe the words were coming out of her mouth, and yet she knew as she said them that they were true. “I’m going to marry the sheikh.”

CHAPTER 7

KAREEM

“Tell me that’s not the way most Americans do weddings,” Kareem said as they boarded the jet. They had been married for all of an hour, and were now headed to Qalmar, wasting no time in enacting the next stage of their plan.

“Of course it isn’t,” Keira said. She had just stepped off the stairs that led into the plane, and now she turned a slow circle, taking it in. “And I’m assuming this isn’t the way most people from Qalmar do air travel?”

“It’s not the standard, no,” Kareem admitted with a smile. “I can’t fly commercial for security reasons — nobody in the royal family can. But also, I can’t think why anyone would want to. Commercial planes seem horrible.”

“Have you ever been on one?”

“No, but I’ve seen them in movies. They look like torture devices to me. All those people packed into such a small space, practically sitting on top of one another. I don’t understand why anybody does it.”

“For most people, it’s the only realistic way to travel,” Keira said. “Most of us can’t afford private jets with plush interior carpeting and wide, comfortable chairs, you know?” She looked around. “Which seat is mine?”

“Whichever one you want.” Kareem settled in one of the seats. “Make yourself comfortable. It’s a long flight to Qalmar, and you’re going to need to meet my father when you arrive, so you’ll want to be rested.”

“Wait. I’m going to meet the king? Right away? I thought I would have some time to adjust, Kareem.” She planted her hands on her hips, and Kareem was both pleased and impressed to see that she was more annoyed than she was intimidated. A reaction like that boded very well for how she might handle herself in front of royalty. Of course, she wasn’t going to be able to act indignant around his father — she would have to be more respectful than she was currently. But the worst thing she could possibly be was cowed, and that didn’t seem like a risk.

“You’ll have to meet him first thing, because if I take you back to my estate, the staff will let him know that I’ve moved an unknown person onto the premises, and he’ll start to draw his own conclusions.”

“Wow,” Keira said. “I thought my family was bad. You really don’t have any privacy at all, do you?”

“More than just about anyone else in my family does, actually,” Kareem said. “I’m under less scrutiny than either of my brothers. And it was worse for me when I was younger, because everyone wants to take pictures of the king’s adorable children. Every time we left the house, flashes would go off in our faces. There are pictures of me all over the internet, if you search for them. It’s different now.”

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