tanding.
He strode across the room and handed her back her resume. Extending his hand, the sheikh added, “It was a pleasure, Miss Morgan.”
Again, his voice was like velvet and her knees almost gave out on her.
“The pleasure was mine.”
Chapter Five
She was beautiful.
That was the thought that kept fluttering through Zahir’s mind as he watched the buxom redhead file through the papers on his desk. She’d been working for him for about two weeks now at his offices in Dubai, and he was struck every day by her beauty. From her luscious curves to her wild, unruly hair and blue eyes, so like the waters of a clear lake, Addison was certainly lovely to behold. However, Zahir couldn’t shake the feeling that he also knew her from somewhere else, that there was something familiar about her.
The biggest problem he had, though, was that he hadn’t gotten her to say too much yet about her former employer. He’d hoped that she’d be tempted enough with thousands of miles between her and Clayton McDermott to spill all of the other man’s secrets. He had definitely had some secretaries and past staff who were never shy about making their feelings known. Addison wasn’t like that. She was always early to work, always had a hot mug of coffee sitting on his desk, and always had his daily schedule ready to hand off to him. Once they started their day, she was focused one hundred percent on the business of Amun Petrol, and nothing she discussed with him was ever off-topic.
In any other employee, he would have appreciated the professionalism, but that wasn’t going to help him one damn bit in ferreting out any secrets he could use as leverage.
He coughed politely to get her attention back from the files. “Miss Morgan, I wanted to speak more freely with you.”
She looked up at him and gulped. “Oh God, I’ve moved all the way to another time zone and continent, and you’re already firing me? This is the worst month ever. I can’t even tell you how embarrassing it’s going to be to have to go home and then I’ll have two firings on my resume and is there anything at all I can do to make you rethink all of this?” she asked.
He wondered when she even stopped to catch her breath.
Does she need to breathe? After that display, I’m not even sure.
Zahir laughed and stroked his chin. “No, Miss Morgan, you’ve completely misunderstood me. I actually have been nothing short of impressed with your professionalism, dedication, and overall efficiency.”
“Really? My old boss always made me feel like I was dumber than a box of rocks,” she admitted, blushing as bright as her hair color.
Zahir secretly enjoyed the way her blush colored those pale and fine porcelain cheeks of hers. Part of him would love to trace kisses over those soft patches of skin, but that wasn’t what he needed to be focusing on. She was a good employee, and he was already using her quite a bit to get the information he needed. It was unlike him to just keep taking from the people who worked for him. Still, Miss Morgan was utterly distracting, and it was hard for him to speak with her without having his mind wander over to exactly what else he would like to be doing with her.
“Then Clayton McDermott was an idiot.”
“I did ruin his suit. It’s not like he was wrong about everything,” she admitted, crinkling her nose in a way that Zahir could only describe as delectable.
“And you still are one of the only secretaries I’ve ever heard of in his employ to last more than six months. It’s a shame that someone would spend so much time breaking you down. You really have helped make me better and more on top of things these last two weeks, and I wouldn’t have thought that possible,” he admitted, setting his hands on his hips. “I did have something I’d like to ask you, though.”
“Name it. If there is an area I can tweak to be a more effective assistant, then you know that I’m going to try and work my butt off on that,” she said, biting her lower lip. “Okay, maybe I won’t mention my butt next time in front of my boss.”
Oh, I love thinking about that.
He stifled his own urge to be far too honest with her before he continued. “Actually, I was thinking that after two weeks of good, solid work that I could take you out to dinner to celebrate. There’s a great restaurant, very unique to Dubai, and I’d love for you to be my guest. I know the chef personally and—”
“No.”
He paused and frowned. At first, Zahir thought he’d misheard her. After all, no one ever said no to him. It went along with being both a CEO and a sheikh. His word was law. Besides, not to put too fine a point on it, but it wasn’t as if women had ever refused him before.
“Excuse me, I thought you said ‘no.’”
“I did,” she said. “I think that it’s not…people might whisper about me, and I just want to do a good job. That’s all.”
“Nothing has to happen that you don’t want,” he said, even though he desperately wanted her to explore many options with him. “However, I don’t feel I have a good grasp of you yet. I just want to get to know you better when there’s not a lot of pressure from the day job or anything else.”
Addison considered him, her blue eyes searching his own. He wasn’t exactly sure what she was trying to find there in his face, but he hoped that whatever she saw would lead her to accept his offer. Seeming to have found her answer, she shook her head a bit. Zahir couldn’t escape the feeling that some part of his request had disappointed her. He just didn’t understand what he could have offered her in his request that would have pleased her more.
“Alright, I’ll go, but just…I’m not easy,” she stammered, and now her cheeks were as red as a tomato.
“I think you’re so nervous around me because you expect me to be like Clayton McDermott, to yell at you because it makes me feel big or to set up arbitrary games for you to maneuver through daily because it’s some sick, masochistic fun for me. I assure you that I’m not, and I truly believe that getting to know me off of the clock is exactly what you need to do.”