The Royal's American Love (11 page)

“Good morning!” she blurted out. “How are you!”

 Amir blinked, and then he grinned at her. “Doing quite
well,” he said. “I hope the accommodations are to your liking?”

“They're amazing,” she enthused, momentarily forgetting
that she was wearing only a robe. She let go of the lapel of the gown to
gesture, then remembered the robe right away when she felt it opening.

“Oh! Um, come in! Have a seat, and as soon as I get some
clothes on, we can talk about whatever we need to.”

She turned, but not before she caught Amir's eyes wandering
momentarily down her form. The thought of him checking her out made her whole
body warm, but she told herself there was no way that was happening. Men who
looked like they could be on the cover of fashion magazines didn't look over
random women in their ratty old bathrobes like that.

“I'd say I'm sorry to bother you first thing in the
morning, but this is something that you'll have to get used to, I'm afraid,” he
said, raising his voice to be heard from her living room. “The job has us all
on call at all hours, and sometimes, the hours we work can be a little
strange.”

“Oh, I'm ready for that,” she replied.

Estelle was glad she had her outfits for the first few days
picked out. She had done some serious research into the business culture of
Dubai and how women fit into it. She was relieved that Kalil Enterprises was
more liberal than most; she did not have to wear an
abaya
to work except
perhaps on special occasions, and in general, she could dress on the
conservative side of practical.

Still, she was herself, and the suit she pulled out was a
striking green silk. It was a luxury, but she couldn't resist it on her way out
of New York. It was completely appropriate, but the color itself was a deep
green only a few shades off from her eyes.

“I have breakfast, if that's any consolation, and after we
eat we can... we can...”

Estelle blinked as Amir's sentence trailed off. She glanced
down at her outfit, looking over the low practical shoes, the skirt and the
creamy white blouse.

“What's the matter? Am I committing some kind of fashion
taboo?”

“You... you simply look lovely.”

Estelle looked at him, and she burst out laughing. Shaking
her head, she came to sit next to him.

“Wow, I must have looked quite a fright getting off that
plane,” she said. “If you're that stunned over what a pizza and a night of
sleep can do for me, I must have been fit to frighten children.”

Amir shook his head, and now there was a rueful smile on
his face. It made her heart beat a bit faster, but she pushed it away because,
after all, he likely smiled at everyone like that.

“I thought you were striking coming off the plane, but you
simply look more... more calm, today, perhaps? Still, I think you are being a
little ingenuous. No woman who looks as you do can be unaware of it.”

“Honestly? I think you're teasing me,” she said, opening
the bag of food he had bought. It gave her something to do so that she wouldn't
have to focus on the things he was saying.

“Am I?”

“Yes. I think you're teasing me, because I worked in New
York, and I've seen the women here in Dubai. I'm cute enough, but I'm not a
model. I'm short, I'm spotty, I move too fast, and I get these enormous
lavender circles under my eyes when I'm overworked or not rested, both
conditions that I'm sure you'll be seeing a great deal.

“Honestly, Amir, I think my best qualities are that I'll
work hard for my bosses and that when I latch on, I don't quit.”

She spread the small beautiful pastries out on their paper
wrappers, looking up at Amir with a smile. He wasn't smiling at her, however.
Instead, he was watching her, a dark speculation in his eyes. He examined every
inch of her, as if judging her worth from the crown of her head to the tips of
her toes.

Estelle fought the urge to squirm, but she met his gaze
steadily. Let him look. She was not ashamed of not being beautiful. In this
charged moment, as they looked at each other, she could see that his eyes,
while dark, were not the black she had immediately assumed that they were.
Instead, they were a deep beautiful rich brown, ringed with amber in a way that
she had never seen before.

He's the beautiful one
,
she thought, feeling a
sudden want crash through her.

 
“You really do believe that's true,” he said
softly, and at the resonance of his words, something inside her shivered.

“Don't you?” she found herself asking. In another moment,
with another man, she would have made a joke or passed it off. Instead, she
found herself whispering the question as if it were important, as if everything
hinged on his response.

He didn't speak, either to correct her or to agree.
Instead, keeping his eyes locked on hers, he bent close, so close that she
could feel the warmth of his body, could smell the brisk and slightly smoky
scent of his cologne, could see the amber of his eyes even better.

“I...”

Her words stuttered off into silence as his big rough hand
came up to cradle her face. Without thinking about it, she nuzzled him. Later,
she would hear about how he worked with horses, how he had spent large chunks
of his childhood on horseback. Right then, all she was aware of was the fact
that his hands were far rougher than she would have expected from an office
worker, and how good that truly felt.

With a commanding presence that felt like a physical
weight, he tipped her head back so that he could see her face.

“You have no idea how you look,” he said, and his mouth
came down on hers.

Estelle had been kissed, of course. She’d had a boyfriend
in high school and another one in New York before she got wise and got rid of
someone who was only interested in her for her so-called exotic looks.

She had never been kissed like this before, by a man who
knew how.

He took his time with her. His mouth rested gently on hers,
brushing her lips with his own over and over again. She could feel how soft his
skin was and delighted in how sweet and warm his breath felt against hers.

There was something amazingly sensual about the way his
thumb stroked over the roundness of her cheek over and over again. She couldn't
get enough of him or the heat of his body or the gentle way he was touching
her. She never wanted it to end. She would do this forever with this man if he
wanted to do it with her. Just this...

Then she felt the soft touch of his tongue against her full
lower lip, and she jerked away as if a switch had been thrown. They both sat
bolt upright, staring at each other in shock and dismay.

“Oh my god, I shouldn't have done that,” she blurted. “I'm
so sorry, I don't—”

“You did nothing wrong,” Amir said, cutting through her
protests with calm authority. “The fault was mine. I was the one who thought my
advances were welcome. Now that I see that they are not, we will not repeat
that.”

She nodded numbly, still shaken to her core. He looked utterly
calm, as if she had not simply had one of the most shockingly sensual moments
of her life with him. No matter what she felt, however, they could not repeat
it. He was her employer, and on top of that, he was her only friend in this new
country. She couldn't ruin it.

“All right,” she said, more bravely than she felt. “As long
as we're still friends?”

His face had been unnervingly calm before this, but now he
smiled, a little surprised. “If you wish to be, nothing would please me more.”

They ate the pastries with something like relief, and less
than twenty minutes after that, they were back in Amir's car, heading back to
Kalil Enterprises.

This is for the best
.
I don't have a chance with
this man, so it's way, way better to nip this in the bud right now.

*

As they drove, Amir could feel a restlessness inside him he
could name altogether too well. Once or twice during the ride, he glanced over
at Estelle, who was occupied with looking out over the gorgeous life of Dubai
in the daytime. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her lush curves, her beautiful
brown skin, the curls that fell so artfully down around her shoulders.

So beautiful
.

It was more than beauty, though. There was a careless grace
to her, a true freedom to her movements he had always secretly longed for. It
was what had driven him to expand Kalil Enterprises' interests into the United
States a handful of years ago. Perhaps at the bottom of it, he had always been
looking for a woman like Estelle.

Now though, they were friends, and he resolved to keep it
that way.

She laughed a little at something out of the window, and
his hands tightened on the wheel. It might not be easy, but he would respect
her wishes. He had to.

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