“You came!”
Steph laughed as she rested in the circle of his arms. She lifted a hand to stroke his cheek.
“Of course I came. Did you really think I wouldn’t?”
Mehdi looked sheepish as he placed his fingers on top of hers, which still rested on his face.
“I thought for sure you would stick with duty and do as your parents asked. I’ve been in that position… I know what it means to have to make that choice.”
Steph stared lovingly into his green-speckled eyes, doing her best to memorize his features, to capture the moment with perfect clarity.
“I choose you, Mehdi. You’re the one I want.”
At her words, Mehdi smiled so deeply that both his dimples showed. He tightened his grip around her as he dipped his head to claim her lips in a kiss, sealing their fate, once and for all.
The sun finally set, and a few pinpricks of stars poked out against the night sky before Mehdi was willing to release Steph from his arms so they could walk along the beach together, hand in hand.
“So, what do we do now?” Steph asked.
Mehdi looked ahead, swinging her arm a little as they walked.
“Well, that’s the beauty of it, I suppose,” he said, glancing down at her with gleaming eyes. “Anything we want.”
NINETEEN
Steph
“I think I see them!”
Stepping out from the cabana, Steph cupped her hand over her eyes to stave off the glaring light of the midmorning sun. Mehdi joined her shortly afterward, his eyes searching the skies. A small helicopter came into view, and he grinned.
“Yes. That should be them!”
Steph could hardly contain her excitement. After meeting Mehdi on the beach that day, several months ago, the two of them had gone to her parents and asked if she could stay in El Farah while she got to know the Sheikh better. Jerry and Elora hadn’t taken much convincing, though it had been a tearful farewell when Steph saw her parents back to Vermont. Her father still had a job there, and he didn’t want to shirk his duties. Mehdi had surprised them with a private jet for the plane ride home, much to Steph’s delight, and from that moment on her world had completely opened up.
Not wanting to break with tradition even more, Steph and Mehdi had opted to live separately while they dated.
“Where is a good place to stay?” Steph had asked at the time.
Mehdi had smiled, pulling a set of keys from a pocket and handing them to her. “I’ve got a tidy little apartment downtown that will do just the trick. It’s not the palace, so you can renovate it however you’d like. Just tell them to put it on my bill.”
Steph had taken one step inside the place—an expansive penthouse with a beautiful view of the city—and decided not to change a single thing. It was clear that the clean, classic style was much more in line with Mehdi’s personality than the palace’s decor, and that made her like it all the more.
Next, Mehdi had introduced her to some of El Farah’s greatest fashion designers. At a meeting with a notable couture house, the owners were thrilled with Steph’s sketches and immediately took her under their wing. At first, Steph had been skeptical that they were only helping her launch her own line because of her connection to Mehdi, but he laughed that suggestion off.
“You think I have any power over the fashion industry here? Hardly. Believe me, if they didn’t think you had what it takes, you would know. Those women do not mince words. It’s one of the reasons I like them.”
Steph’s new line would be coming out in a few short weeks, and she had been living in a whirlwind, working to get everything made and ready for the big launch event. Somewhere in between design meetings and seamstress discussions and drawing sessions, Steph slowly acclimated to life in El Farah, which was so different, but really only in the best of ways.
That might have had a little to do with dating the Sheikh, though.
The new couple had spent countless evenings out at the theater, more on the beach, and had even made some desert excursions. Mehdi took the courtship process very seriously, and he did everything in his power to ensure that they enjoyed themselves together, doing fun things and getting to know one another as their love blossomed more every day.