Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) (13 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Six Months Ago, Dubai

The nightclub was loud and hot, crammed to the gills with dancers pressed hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder. Zayed hauled himself out of the crowd, making his way up to the private seating area that overlooked it all. He grinned at the blonde tourist who gave him her best shot at a sultry look, as he disentangled himself from a girl who had wrapped her arm around his waist.

“Send up some lime water and maybe a doner kebab, all right?” he called to the bartender, who nodded immediately.

The club was one of his family's properties, one of his favorite when he came to Dubai. They knew him well there, and he knew that in general, word of what he did wouldn't get back to his family.

He took the stairs up to the private room two at a time. It was barely one yet. After this, there would be plenty of time to hit a real place to eat, and then perhaps another club after that …

Zayed came to a dead stop when he realized that there was someone in the room waiting for him.

“Come in and close the door,” Kazim said.

Kazim looked as grim as death itself. Any protest he was going to make about his uncle interrupting his evening died on Zayed's lips. He did as he was told, cutting the life and the noise of the club off as neatly as a pair of scissors cutting a ribbon. Later, he would think about that gesture and flinch a little.

It was easy to tell that the two men were related. They were both tall, their hair was as black as ink, though Kazim's was cut military short and Zayed's was rather long. They were both fair, though anger or passion could bring color to their faces, and they both had the startling green eyes that cropped up from time to time among the royal families of the United Arab Emirates. Where Kazim's build was slightly bulky, Zayed's was lean, more like that of a fencer than a wrestler.

“I cannot think that you come bearing good news,” Zayed said warily.

“You're right,” Kazim said abruptly. “Your father has fallen ill.”

Zayed frowned. His mother was the frail one. His father was like a cliff, silent and eternal. He couldn't imagine a world where his father had fallen ill, or even one where he was unable to exert his iron nature.

“Be serious …”

“I am quite serious, nephew. He has been hiding this for some time, but your mother has put her foot down. He was resistant on bringing you home for quite some time, but now you need to come and take your place in the family.”

Zayed drew in his breath, and let it out again, breathing deeply. The club, his expensive apartment in Dubai, it wasn't that they were so appealing to him, but there was something deeper at work here. His entire life was going to change, and it was going to do so in a way that was nearly too great to contemplate.

“It is time to put this all behind you,” Kazim said bluntly. “All things change, and this is happening now.”

“All right,” he said. “All right. Let's go.”

Walking through the club, it already felt very distant to him. This was the life of a man he could no longer be, and he was a little startled to realize that he would not necessarily miss it. He might miss the freedom to do as he wished and to come and go as he pleased, but now he was a man whose family depended on him, whose loved ones relied on him.

“Do you think I am ready, uncle?” he asked Kazim in the car.

Kazim reclined against the plush leather seat as the driver started the engine. He regarded his nephew with bright, sharp eyes. Zayed knew that whatever his uncle told him, it would be the plain and unvarnished truth, nothing more and nothing less.

“I see a man who is ready to take on his family's concerns,” his uncle said finally. “However, I also see a man who is unrooted. I see a man who has only lived for himself thus far, and who now needs to live for the family who gave him his birth and his place. I do not yet see a man who is going to protect the future of the family, the one that he will create himself. That man does not yet exist.”

Zayed simply nodded, but his uncle reached out to take him firmly by the shoulder.

 “I believe that man will exist in the future,” he said. “I am looking forward to meeting him.”

The city lights flashed past them through the tinted windows of the car. Zayed could feel the world changing for him. He welcomed it.

He was ready.

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