The Sheik's Beautiful Intruder (The Friendship Series) (7 page)

She blinked, surprised by his question as well as by the use of her full name.  Wasn’t he going to challenge her accusation?  Wasn’t he going to deny that he’d done something to Brianna?  “Why don’t you deny it?” she asked, more curious than angry all of a sudden. 

“Would you believe me if I denied even seeing your friend?”

“No.” 

“Then what’s the point?  Perhaps I have a plan to get you into my bed and it requires you thinking I’m a villain.” 

She laughed despite the seriousness of the subject.  “That sounds very nefarious.”

He looked at her curiously.  “You have an excellent vocabulary.  I guess that comes with being an English teacher.”

She quickly looked down and twisted the stem of her wine glass.  “I try to set a good example for my students.”

He raised an eyebrow at her telling body language.  “You don’t look like the picture on your press pass.  It is similar, but not the same person.  I’m assuming that your friend, Brianna Stewart, is the reporter and you used her press credentials to get close to me?”

She couldn’t believe he’d deduced the truth so easily but then again, it wasn’t such a hard leap.  “Right on the first guess,” she told him. 

“That begs the question, why do you think she is missing?”

“As I mentioned, she didn’t show up for our usual Saturday morning run last weekend.  And she’s not answering her phone, she didn’t call to cancel, she hasn’t checked in with me in over a week.”

“Perhaps she’s just busy.”

Nikki had already heard this tale from the police.  “She wouldn’t do that.  We grew up together.  We’ve been through a lot.  We are closer than sisters and she wouldn’t do anything to make me worry unnecessarily.”

He nodded his head, accepting her statement.  “When was the last time you heard from her?” he asked.

Nikki looked up, startled by his question.  The lack of a sexual innuendo told her that he wasn’t joking.  It sounded like he was really going to help her.  But why would he do that?  Why would he even care?  He didn’t know Brianna and probably had many more issues with a higher priority on his mind.

Of course, if she accepted that he didn’t know Brianna, that meant that he hadn’t done anything to harm her.  She rubbed her forehead, not sure what to think anymore. 

“Look, the last time I heard from her was about ten days ago on Thursday.  She sent me an e-mail with your family crest on it and the text of the letter sounded like you were doing something illegal.  Rich people always think they can get away with whatever they want.  If you’re actually doing something like price fixing or manipulating markets, then fine.  I don’t care.”  She hesitated, then corrected herself.  “Well, I actually do care but I can’t do anything to stop you.  But I won’t let anyone harm Brianna.  She’s a sweet, gentle kind person who is way too trusting.”

“Unlike you, correct?’

She shifted in her chair, her mind shuttering at the stupid things she’d done when she’d trusted someone other than Brianna or Rachel.  “No.  I don’t trust many people.”

“Including me.”

“Especially you.”

He chuckled, still not offended.  “Fair enough.  You don’t know me well enough to accept that I wouldn’t do anything to harm your friend.  So here’s what I propose…”

She sat up in her chair, excited by what he might say.  “You’re going to release Brianna and we can go back home?” she asked hopefully.

“Why don’t you tell me why you think I harmed your friend?”

Nikki sighed.  “I need my cell phone.”

At that same moment, a knock sounded at the door.  After Nazar called out a sudden, “Enter!” a man walked in with her purse and her suitcase in tow.

She stared at the bags as if they were now foreign objects.  “I didn’t even give you my room number!”

The man disappeared and they were once again left alone with Nikki staring at him suspiciously. 

“You have to understand that this is not The United States.  I am ruler here, my lovely.  I don’t need a search warrant to enter a room.  I don’t even need cause.”

She gasped and pulled back.  “That’s horrible!”

“It is,” he agreed.  “And at times in the past, that power has been abused.  But in my case, I don’t abuse the power of my office.”  With that, he reached into her purse and extracted her cell phone.  “Now that you have your device, perhaps you could show me the evidence against me?”

Nikki took the phone, glaring at him the whole time while she unlocked the screen then scrolled through her messages.  When she came to the one that Brianna had sent, she turned it around and showed it to him.  “This is it.”

Nazar looked at the screen, thinking he would just see a message about her friend going out on the town or something similarly endearing.  But when his eyes focused on the message, he was no longer amused.  In fact, he swore under his breath, his mind working in ten different ways to figure out how to contain the problem. 

He stood up abruptly, sliding her phone into his pocket.  “I have to make some calls,” he said.  “Why don’t you get some rest?” With that, he walked out of the room, leaving Nikki to

“His Highness has gone to his office.  An urgent business matter has come up stare after him as if he’d lost his mind.  And then it hit her.  He’d taken her cell phone! 

She started walking out of the suite but there were two burly men standing sentry outside.  “Where did he go?” she asked angrily, trying to focus her anger on the man in question and not these two guards who probably had no idea what was going on.  She could empathize!

“His Highness has gone to his office.  An urgent business matter has come up.”

She blinked, not really understanding what that meant except that he had disappeared.  “I need to speak with him.”

The man on the right spoke into what was most likely a microphone, waited a moment, then nodded his head.  “His Highness is making a phone call.  He will be with you shortly.  He asked that you remain here and he will give you news as soon as he has anything.”

Nikki thought about that for a moment, not sure if she should trust the man or run screaming from the building.  Although, she wasn’t really sure she would be allowed to run anywhere.  She’d gotten into the palace, but she suspected that she wouldn’t be allowed to leave.  At least, not without some stealthy moves on her part. 

“Fine,” she said but with ill-humor.  She didn’t really have a choice, she thought, and huffed as she went back into the suite.  She sat down on the soft sofa, trying to figure out what she should do.  She pictured Brianna trapped somewhere in this palace, scared and lonely, trying to figure out how to get herself out of a mess. 

As she paced through the suite, something about the soothing colors drained her anxiety away.  Or maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t really slept in the past few days, or perhaps it was the release of her anxiety over actually getting into the palace being eliminated.  But whatever the reason, her fatigue was not something she could ignore any longer.  By rights, she should be scared out of her mind because she was now in a more precarious position than she’d been in yesterday after sneaking into the country.  But she didn’t feel worried for some reason. 

After prowling around the suite, she stopped in front of the enormous bed covered in luxurious, dark coverings.  The bed looked amazingly inviting and she sat down on the massive space, trying to figure out what her next move should be.  She didn’t want to stay here, mostly because she was terrified of Nazar’s intentions and what might happen to her next.  But also because she didn’t trust him to help her.  He might have taken her cell phone, but that didn’t mean she was going to get anything from him.  He’d already admitted that he had powers beyond what she was used to.  He could do just about anything he wanted and no one would question him.  Good grief, no one would even know!

It suddenly occurred to her that she was in the exact same position as Brianna.  She might be in a nicer dungeon but she was still trapped, not sure what to do or how to get out of the pickle she’d gotten herself into. 

She slipped onto the bed, leaning only slightly against the ultra-soft pillows.  She didn’t want to fall asleep, but the stress of the past few days plus the lack of sleep caused her to become drowsy against her will.  “Just a few minutes,” she told the silence of the room.  Then she’d get up and find a way out of this latest little dilemma and find Brianna.  Surely, a ten or fifteen minute nap wouldn’t hurt, would it?

The next thing she knew, she was being woken by a soft caress against her neck and she wanted nothing more than to curl into the feeling. 

She woke slowly, trying to figure out what was going on, her body on fire and eager for more of that caress.  “Don’t stop,” she whispered, still trying to wrap her mind around the feeling.  “Please don’t stop.”

“I wish that was really you talking,” Nazar said in her ear.  His body was in pain, wanting to bury himself inside of her, but he knew she wasn’t fully awake and, therefore, her pleading words couldn’t be counted on as her true state of mind.

Nazar watched with growing desire as the lovely woman stretched on the soft, dark bed.  She’d looked so sweet and tempting a moment ago with her long, black lashes resting against her pale skin.  With her eyes closed, he could see the dark circles under her eyes and he realized that she hadn’t been getting enough sleep. 

It was a rare person that cared enough about a friend to go through this much trouble to find her.  Nazar only had one other friend like that and it was an almost insane irony that this sweet woman’s friend was with his own best friend. 

While she’d slept, he’d searched through the rest of her e-mails and hadn’t found anything but the one where her friend had taken a picture of the letter he’d handed to Rocco that night at the nightclub.  How she’d gotten hold of it was probably an interesting story.  Thankfully, she hadn’t gotten a full picture of the details, but she’d gotten enough so that it looked illegal. 

So there was nothing else he could do but keep his little beauty here with him until all of this blew over.  As he looked down at her eyes fluttering open, he knew that it was a sacrifice that he was more than willing to make.   He would devote the next few days to making sure this little spitfire didn’t stumble onto something that would mess up the plan. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, still more than half asleep.

Nazar chuckled as she tried to push herself up onto her elbows, giving him a better view of her voluptuous curves as the fabric pulled back against her chest.  He had a hard time keeping his eyes on her lovely features so, in the end, he simply gave up the fight and let his eyes wander over her delicious figure. 

Nikki tried to wake up but she couldn’t fight the battle with her fatigue.  When she flopped back against the pillows, Nazar sighed and knew that he’d have to get more answers the following morning.  She was simply too tired to answer any of his questions tonight. 

Lifting her up, he carried her through his suite to the room down the hall from his.  The guards that had been stationed outside of his doorway while he’d been gone followed him and opened the door.  With a thud, he kicked the door closed and carried her straight through the elaborate suite and into the bedroom where he laid her down on the soft, white bed with the filmy curtains all around her.  He slipped her shoes off of her tiny feet, almost chuckling at the way her toes curled up now that they were free.  He pulled her jeans off of her long, soft-looking legs and when the temptation was too great, he pulled the blanket up to cover those limbs, not able to endure the sight of such perfect thighs or enticing calves for too long. 

Soon, he promised.  This woman would be in his bed and she wouldn’t be screaming to get out.  He’d have her right where he wanted her, he promised himself. 

Chapter 5

Nikki woke up and stretched, feeling so much better.  But as her eyes opened up, she was amazed to find herself in a strange room.  Looking around, she noticed the gauzy curtains surrounding the bed, the white, fluffy blanket covering her bare legs and the sensuous silk pillows under her cheek.  She didn’t remember pulling her jeans off, but as she looked around, she realized that they were missing from the room. 

She saw a silky robe draped over the back of a white, velvet covered chair and wondered about it, but didn’t move, still trying to get her bearings on where she was.  Slowly, her mind started functioning once again and she remembered the events of the previous night.  Her hike into the country, hitch-hiking to get into the city, the dangerous, terrifying trip through the gates of the palace and her elation when she’d finally found her way into what she’d thought was an unguarded courtyard.  And everything that happened after that. 

She buried her face in the silk covered pillow beside her, wondering what he must be thinking of her after last night’s kiss. 

“Good morning,” his deep voice said from the doorway, startling her off of the pillow.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, pulling the silk sheet up higher over her body.  “And where are my clothes?”

He chuckled as he walked into the bedroom, picking up the satiny material and bringing it closer.  “I’ve been very busy while you slept, my beauty,” he explained conversationally while he sat down next to her on the bed. 

She tried to scoot out of his reach, but he simply leaned over her, placing his hand on the other side of her hip, trapping her.  “I need to go home,” she asserted.  “I have to work.”

He chuckled as he ran a finger down her bare arm.  “Yet another lie,” he commented.  “You are a high school English teacher.  A very good one, from what I’ve discovered.”  He waited and wasn’t disappointed when her eyes widened in surprise.  “And you are on vacation for the whole week, according to your supervisor.  Since you have no family other than your friend Brianna and another woman named Rachel, you are perfectly free to spend the next several weeks in my company,” he said smoothly. 

Nikki had a hard time breathing, not sure what to say when he’d discovered so much information about her.  “What do you want?”