Page 5 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“I definitely will.”

“All right, you will, but it won’t be a problem. I promise I’ll be less annoying than you’re worried about. I really just want to understand what goes into an event like this — what someone like you needs to do in order to keep it running smoothly.”

Keira hesitated for a moment, torn.

On one hand, she really didn’t want to give this man what he wanted. God knew he didn’t deserve it. He had handled this all completely inappropriately, and she should really be calling security to drag him out of here.

But something was stopping her.

She didn’t want to believe it was the fact that he was good-looking, although thatwason her mind. She couldn’t help noticing him — but then, she told herself, nobody could have helped that. It didn’t mean that she was forgetting how to be a professional.

No, there was something else about him — something that enticed her to let him stick around in spite of the fact that he was deeply annoying, had bribed his way in here, and was definitely going to get in her way today.

It was the way he was looking at her, she decided after a moment’s consideration. She wasn’t proud of it, but he had won her over by looking at her as if she was interesting and by talking to her like her job was important. When was the lasttime someone had paid more attention toherthan to Kevin? Whoever this guy was, whatever he was doing here, he hadn’t even made an effort to try to meet the drivers. He wanted to know about whatshedid.

Keira knew her reaction to that was a little vain, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good to be seen.

“All right,” she said. “You can shadow me today. But you better not make a nuisance of yourself.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said, but he was grinning as if the whole thing was a joke, and Keira had to turn away so that he wouldn’t see her roll her eyes. He wouldn’t do that? That was all he’d done so far!

“You’d better tell me who you are if you’re going to be following me around,” she said.

“My name is Kareem,” the man said.

“Where are you from, Kareem? That’s not a Nevada accent.”

“No, it isn’t.” He smiled. “I come from a country called Qalmar, but I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t heard of it.”

“I haven’t,” she admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know much about geography.”

“Even if you did, you might not know Qalmar. It’s very small. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve dreamed about motorsports coming to Qalmar, but of course nothing like that has ever happened — so in the end, I decided to come here.”

“You came all the way from Qalmar to see the Spritzer Cup?”

“It’s one of the biggest races of the spring.”

“There aren’t many big races at this time of year. It doesn’t have a lot of competition for that title.” She looked at him, more confused than ever. “If you’re that interested in racing, why wouldn’t you buy a ticket? Why wouldn’t you go watch the races instead of hanging around here with me?”

“I will,” he said. “But I’ve seen races before. What you do — that’s something I’ve never gotten a look at, and I’m interested. That’s all. I’m sure it won’t be any trouble for you to show me around.”

“You’re sure of that, are you?”

“Oh, relax.” He smiled at her. “Come on, what were you doing before I came in?”

“Setting up the press area. Which you then proceeded to barge your way into.”

“Well, fortunately, the press aren’t here yet, so no harm done! What will happen when they arrive?”

“They’ll be able to interview any of the drivers who are willing to give up a little bit of their time.”

“They’re not required to do that?”

“Not unless they have endorsement contracts that require them to, and that really has nothing to do with me,” Keira said. “If they have sponsorship deals, part of those deals might include a requirement to give an interview and mention their sponsor.”

“Oh, I’d love to know more about how those deals work,” Kareem said. “How does someone connect with a potential sponsor?”

“For drivers, that generally happens through their agents,” Keira said. “As for me, when I look for sponsors for the race each year,it involves calling around to past and potential donors. I keep a list.”

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