Page 7 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“It depends what you like.” She shrugged and turned back to the man in the cart. “One of each.”

The tacos were pre-made and sitting in a warmer. He pulled them out and handed them to her. “Add it to the tab,” she told him. She’d put extra money on their invoice at the end of the day to compensate.

“Wait a moment,” Kareem objected. “I can pay for this.”

“Don’t start being financially responsible now,” Keira said. “These cost three dollars each.” She pushed one into his hands. “Go ahead.”

They unwrapped their tacos and bit into them. Kareem chewed thoughtfully.

“That’s a complex flavor,” he said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had this sort of cheese before. Would you say that this is a standardchoice for an event such as this one? I mean to say, would you ever hold a race without including this menu item?”

Keira couldn’t help it — she laughed. “It’s just a taco,” she said. “I bring in these food carts so people will have more options, and people around here like Mexican food, but it’s not like you can’t have a motorsports event without tacos.”

“All right, fair enough,” Kareem said. “You’ll have to pardon me. I’ve never put on a motorsports event before.”

Keira shook her head. “I’ve got to go check on the pit crews, so maybe you and I could go our separate ways now.”

“Oh, I’d very much like to see the pit crews,” he said, falling into step alongside her again. “I mean, that must be such a big job, figuring out who you’re going to hire for that. Is it very difficult?”

“Most of the drivers make their own choices,” Keira said, resigning herself to a little more time in his company. Kareem was difficult to shake. It was a good thing he was as cute as he was, otherwise she would have felt nothing at all apart from her irritation at him. “I have a small team of house crew members in case any emergencies come up, but drivers tend to be most comfortable with people they’ve worked with before, people they’ve selected themselves.”

“It’s so nice of you to allow me to get this look behind the scenes,” Kareem said as they headed down to where the pit crews were set up.

I didn’t exactlyletyou, Keira thought but didn’t say aloud. She didn’t want to let on how annoyed she was. There was something about this man that still had her confused, and it made her feel as if it might not be a good idea to offend him, even though she couldn’t put her finger on why she felt that way.

But she was nothing if not a good hostess. People like Kevin had the freedom to act like jerks because everyone would admire them no matter what they did. Keira wasn’t like her brother, and in this way, she was proud not to be. She would always treat people with respect and dignity, even if they were annoying and intrusive. Even if they had bribed their way into the event when they could have just bought a ticket like a normal person.

She didn’t think she’d ever get over that. He had bribed his way in, spending — according to him — more money than the ticket itself cost? Who would do such a thing? Nobody liked waiting in line, but could anyone possibly dislike it so much that they were willing to do that?

Add it to the questions that I’ll probably never get answers to about this guy.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Allie, her best friend and one of the house pit mechanics. “Hey, K,” she said, coming over to meet Keira. She looked Kareem up and down. “Who’s this guy?”

“Kareem is my guest for the day,” Keira said, wishing that she could give a more enlightening answer. “He’s here to see how our operations work. Kareem, this is Allie. She heads up the house pit crew.”

Allie folded her arms across her chest and said nothing.

Keira knew what was happening. Allie could be very defensive when she was introduced to men professionally, and if Keira was honest, she didn’t fault her for that. Plenty of men made comments about how surprising it was to see a woman — especially a pretty young woman — as a pit mechanic. Some of them even insinuated that Allie wasn’t good at or qualified for her job.

But Kareem didn’t do that. “It’s nice to meet you, Allie,” he said. “Show me what you do down here, please.”

He didn’t frame that as a request, so even though he’d been respectful of Allie as a person, Keira simmered. “She really doesn’t have time to play tour guide,” she said. “She has a job to do.”

“I don’t mind showing him around a little,” Allie said. “I really wasn’t doing anything right now.”

“I wouldn’t want to keep you from your work.” Kareem flashed her a winning smile, and Keira’s blood went from a simmer to a boil. He didn’t want to keepherfrom her work? But interrupting Keira’s day was totally fine?

She wished she could walk away right now, leave Kareem here with Allie, who obviously didn’t mind tending to him. But she knew she couldn’t do that. As much as she would have liked to get back to what she ought to be doing right now, she couldn’t pawn this man off on her pit crew. They really did have work they needed to be focused on. And if something went wrong in the pit, it could be a matter of life and death. As important as Keira knew her job was, nobody was going to crash and die if she wasn’t paying attention to something.

“We’re actually on our way up to my office,” she told Allie. “I do appreciate your offer, though.”

“All right, well, come check in with me after the race,” Allie said. “You promised we would get drinks later.”

“And we will.”

“Maybe you can join us.” She smiled winningly at Kareem.

Keira shook her head. “He has somewhere else he needs to be,” she told her friend firmly.

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