The Sheik's Beautiful Intruder (The Friendship Series) (3 page)

She paced around her cottage anxiously.  There wasn’t much room to move around, but she had too much nervous energy to just sit down. 

What would the police do in this situation?  What would James Bond do?  She actually smiled at that because James Bond would probably seduce some fabulously glamorous woman to get information. 

Biting her thumb nail, she paced through her kitchen, then back to her living room, the only two rooms on this level besides the powder room.  Staring out at the dark night, she didn’t see the trees that were mostly bare or the leaves that needed to be raked up in her tiny front yard.  All she saw was the man’s dark eyes, his broad shoulders….

Shaking her head, she whipped around and moved back to her kitchen.  Putting the tea pot on, she started making herself some tea.  She had to do something.  Sitting down at her computer while she waited for the water to warm up, her fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to come up with ideas.  But what she really came up with were more articles on the enigmatic sheik.  She found herself staring at images of him, ignoring the women latched onto his arm, which were never the same one.  She couldn’t believe the jealousy that curled up in her belly at all the women he accompanied to one place or another.  They were all beautiful, tall and looked amazingly sophisticated.  Her one accomplishment to sophistication was putting mascara on before school.  Being around a bunch of high school kids didn’t push one’s fashion sense very high. 

Several hours later, a cold, untouched cup of tea at her elbow, she realized that she’d only been reading about his policies, the changes he was making and accolades about what a fabulous leader the man was.  She didn’t believe any of it! 

The man was a criminal and, the more she read, the more convinced she was that the man was trying to hide something.  No one was this good, this altruistic.  The man was just better at hiding his illegal activities. 

She smiled as she considered what Brianna would say about her line of thinking.  The woman always saw the best in everyone, never believing anyone did anything wrong.  Even when someone from their old neighborhood was arrested, she would come up with excuses as to why they were really good people “inside”.  No matter how many times Rachel and Nikki tried to argue with her that some people were simply inherently evil, she refused to believe it. 

“Power corrupts,” Nikki whispered to herself as she stared at a close up of the mysterious sheik.  “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” 

Chapter 3

“What am I doing?” she whispered to herself as she adjusted the maid’s uniform, tightening the apron.  “Think of Brianna!” she told herself.  “Brianna is probably scared and wondering how she’s going to get out of this man’s clutches.”

She pushed the cleaning cart down the hallway, her knees wobbling.  “He’s not even here,” she told herself.  “He’s down in the conference room with a bunch of big wigs discussing oil prices or buying another country.”  She took a deep breath as she turned the corner. 

There were two body guards standing sentry outside the doorway.  When they saw her approach, one of them lifted his hand, talking into his wrist.  She looked him right in the eye and flashed her newly minted security badge.  Hopefully, the guy wouldn’t look too closely at the badge because she wasn’t so sure it would pass a close scrutiny.  She’d snagged the badge out of the employee locker room only twenty minutes ago, along with the maid’s uniform she was currently wearing. 

It wasn’t like she stole anything, she told herself.  She’d just borrowed the uniform.  And the badge had been sitting on the bench, completely unattended.  In a way, she was helping out the maid who had misplaced her badge.  If someone less ethical had swiped it, the prince or sheik or whatever he was called, might be in more danger.  All Nikki wanted to do was search the penthouse suite and see if Brianna was inside, trying to get out somehow. 

Surely this was crazy, she thought as the man looked at her with a strange light in his eyes.  He said something into his wrist then turned to nod at the other guard.  Was that a smile they passed to each other?  Surely body guards weren’t allowed to smile, she thought as she was waved into the suite.  Body guards needed to maintain an aura of meanness – otherwise, people might not respect them as tough, kick-butt-and-take-names-later kinds of guys. 

She shook her head as she closed the door behind her.  This wasn’t the time to be worrying about body guards and smiles.  If they wanted to smile, what did she care?  It seemed strange to her, but she hadn’t done a whole lot of research on the character traits of a body guard.  She had to search the suite and get out as fast as she could.  Preferably with Brianna in tow. 

But as she looked around, Nikki was stunned at how large this place was.  Of course, it was the penthouse suite.  But good grief!  It wasn’t just one floor.  There was a magnificent spiral staircase off to the left and an enormous sitting room, baby grand piano, a dining room that looked like it could seat…she had to count the chairs…twelve people!  Not to mention all the doors that obviously led to somewhere. 

Shaking her head, she pushed the opulence aside.  She didn’t have time for this.  “Get going girl!” she told herself. 

Leaving the cleaning cart in front of the doorway so she could search more effectively, she started out with the nearest doorway, opening and closing everything.  The closets here were larger than her bedroom in her house!  She couldn’t imagine how much one night in this place must cost.  Door after door, she methodically searched the suite.  There was a library, an exercise room, a smaller parlor area, a solarium, an outdoor pool complete with outside dining area and a veritable forest of plants, a game room with a massive pool table…how much space did this man need? 

There wasn’t anyone on the first floor, nor even any indication that someone had been here.  She quickly raced up the stairs and stopped cold when she saw the stunning bedroom.  The bed was huge!  But besides that, two full walls were floor to ceiling glass that looked out onto the beautiful Washington, D.C. skyline.  She could see the Capital Building as well as the Washington Monument and even off in the distance, National Cathedral.  She stood there for a long moment, just amazed at the incredible view.  Then she shook herself and forced her mind to come back to the present.  Brianna! 

She raced from the bathroom to the closets once again, through three other bedrooms, all of which had their own bathrooms as well. But no Brianna!  Beautiful clothes, perfectly tailored suits…but no Bri. 

Leaning against the bannister, she bit her lower lip, trying to decide what to do.  Obviously Brianna wasn’t here.  Had she completely gone off the deep end?  Had she misinterpreted the look at the press conference yesterday? 

Bri was beautiful and sweet and kind.  But surely women threw themselves at this guy.  He wouldn’t need to kidnap her and hold her prisoner.  Except for that memo Bri had photographed.  Nikki wasn’t sure how, but her gut was telling her that Bri’s disappearance had something to do with that memo.  And this man knew what was going on.

She had no other evidence though.  She couldn’t even go to the police with such flimsy accusations. 

She ran a hand through her curls, trying to figure out her next move.

Obviously, her next move needed to be getting out of this man’s suite.  She couldn’t get caught in here. 

And then she heard the noise!  A door? 

No!  The man was scheduled to be in a meeting for…she glanced at her watch…another hour.  This must be one of his minions, she told herself and forced her feet to move forward.  “Just pretend like you do this all the time.  You’re just a maid replacing the towels.  Just a maid.”

She walked down the stairs, trying to pretend to be casual about her presence in the suite.  She could do this, she encouraged silently.  “Just be casual.”

She made it all the way down the stairs and halfway across the room when the deep, sexy voice stopped her. 

“You are a hard woman to track down,” Nazar said as he watched the beautiful woman almost trip over her feet in her hurry to leave the suite. 

Nikki froze and spun around, her eyes wide as she took in the very man she’d been trying hard to avoid.  “You’re supposed to be in a meeting!” she said with an accusatory tone. 

He moved forward until he was about a foot away from her.  “I should be in a meeting.  But a beautiful intruder snuck into my suite with a fake security badge.  The same woman who stole someone’s press credentials yesterday.  Which made tracking said woman very difficult.”

Nikki squared her shoulders, trying to hide her nervousness.  “I wasn’t doing anything malicious,” she told him, trying to be reassuring, but not sure what to tell him.  How does one accuse a powerful man of kidnapping?  Especially when trapped in his domain?

“How did your guards know my badge was fake?” she asked.

Nazar chuckled, thinking she looked adorable with that disgruntled look on her face.  “First of all, you ran out on me yesterday.  So my guards were watching for you.  They are under orders to find you.  Every one of them has memorized your face in their efforts to find you.”  He laughed softly as he pulled a soft curl that had slipped out of the knot on the top of her head.  “We weren’t expecting you to fall into our hands.”

Nikki snatched the curl away from his fingers.  “So I basically walked into your trap.”

He grinned.  “I hadn’t laid a trap.  Since we didn’t know who you were, we couldn’t analyze your moves and discover how to trap you.  But yes, in answer to your unspoken question, we would have figured out how to get you back into my clutches.”  His finger ran along her jaw and down her neck, causing her to shiver delightfully.  “Are you going to tell me your real name?” he asked.  His fingers snaked out and snapped the badge off of her waist.  Looking at the picture, he smiled slightly.  “The name fits you,” he commented, his eyes taking in her appearance.  “I’m not sure the maid’s uniform does your exquisite figure justice though.”

Nikki stiffened, her eyes glaring back at him.  It was her only defense in the face of his overwhelming sexuality.  How did he do that so well?  It was almost as if she could smell something about him, something that made her toes tingle – and everything higher up as well. 

“I’m thrilled that you approve of my name, sir.  And since I’ve been caught, I’ll just get out of your way.”

He laughed when she tried to walk away, but before she’d taken one step, he’d grabbed her hand and spun her around.  “Oh no, my little invader.  You disappeared on me once.  I don’t think I’ll allow that to happen a second time.  I’m smarter now.”

She looked back up at him, one brown eyebrow raised as if to question whether he was smarter, or if he was going to fall for another of her tricks.  Nikki knew a few moves.  She’d been in similar situations with other men when she didn’t want them touching her.  Although, this time, the feelings were dramatically different!  Not that she would admit that to him.  Not that she fully understood it herself!

“I really have to go,” she told him firmly, not pulling her arm away because she knew it would be useless.  “There’s no point in continuing this conversation.”

He chuckled and moved closer.  “We can either converse here in the comfort of this suite, or I can call the authorities and we can converse in their less than opulent surroundings.  The choice is yours.”

Nikki’s mouth fell open.  “Why would you call the police?” she demanded.  “I haven’t…”

“You entered my suite under false pretenses.  I believe that is considered breaking and entering in your country.  I suspect that you also broke a few laws in your attire, not to mention the interesting security badge you somehow managed to obtain.”  He lifted the badge up again, looking at her picture.  “How did you falsify this so quickly?” he asked.  His thumb flicked the edge of the card and, sure enough, the plastic film she’d quickly plastered over the top of her picture came loose.  “Ah.  Not such a good forgery job, my little beauty.” 

He tossed the badge onto the table behind her but pulled her over to one of the deep sofas.  “So tell me why such a beautiful woman wants to be in the arms of a man like me,” he asked, looking like a casual conversationalist, but Nikki wasn’t fooled.  She could see the strength in his eyes, knew that he wasn’t relaxed.  He was like a predator, just waiting for his prey to spring for freedom so he could swoop down and capture her. 

And then his question hit her and she gasped, looking at him askance.  “In your arms?”  She snorted and shook her head.  “You have a very high opinion of yourself, don’t you?”

He shrugged.  “I can see no other reason why you would sneak into my hotel room.  It has been attempted many times before.”

She crossed her arms over her chest.  “It didn’t seem very hard to me.  You have pretty poor security, sir.”

He chuckled again.  “My guards were under strict orders to let you in if you were brave enough to test the lion’s den again.”

Her mouth fell open with that announcement.  “You were waiting for me?” she asked in a whisper. 

He shrugged again.  “Waiting is too mild a word.  My team has been scouring video tapes of the press conference, trying to find clues as to your identity.  Since you snuck into the press conference, and I suspected you hadn’t gotten the information you wanted, I also suspected you would try again.  So my approach to finding you wasn’t necessarily simply waiting.  It was more multi-faceted.”  His fingers captured a shiny curl again.  “Just as I suspect is true of your personality.” 

She was transfixed by his words as well as his touch.  She wasn’t sure what to say or do, but her eyes dropped from looking into his dark gaze to his lips.  They weren’t full lips, they almost looked mean.  But something about them drew her gaze.  Her mind started wondering what it would be like to be touched by those lips, to feel his lips kissing her.  She wondered what he tasted like. 

“I’m going to kiss you,” he warned. 

Nikki started, surprised to find his words echoing her own thoughts.  “I don’t want you to kiss me.”