The Sheikh's Baby Scandal by Carol Marinelli

Author:Carol Marinelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THEIR DEPARTING FLIGHT from Zazinia was very different from their outward flight. Despite the pilot’s best efforts to climb above it, turbulence carried them home.

Kedah tapped his diamond, cursing the missed opportunity with his mother, and Felicia looked out of the window to the seemingly black lake of desert below. She was still angry about being ignored and dining at her desk alone, while cross with herself for expecting it could be any other way.

As they bumped through the sky she decided to try to do some work and put on her headphones. She would look at the presentation that she had been asked to send to Hussain. But, without thinking, she opened the file in the first email that Kedah had sent her.

Realising it was the one he had sent in error—the one he had told her to delete—she was about to exit from it when she paused.

She had sat through a lot of presentations these past weeks. She had expected to see a proposal for the Dubai hotel and the walkway, and to label a few files, but instead she saw magic.

It was Zazinia, she quickly realised.

It was Kedah’s vision of Zazinia.

With each passing frame the bare skyline was filled with graceful buildings, and each was a work of art in itself. Instead of gleaming silver or gold with mirrored windows, the buildings blended with the ancient surrounds. There were delicate artistic murals on the walls that faced the palace, and the city spread gently outwards rather than up. There were carefully thought out roads, railways and bridges to link communities, while the desert retained its remote beauty.

He had poured everything into this, Felicia knew.

It was a life’s work in the making.

And she knew he had never meant her to see it.

She snapped off the presentation and then looked over. His eyes were waiting for hers to meet his. She pulled her earphones off, wondering if he somehow knew what she had just seen.

The truth proved to be just as disconcerting, and it troubled her how deeply he could bore into her heart.

‘I apologise for the way I treated you back at the palace.’

Despite being strapped in, she almost fell off her chair in surprise. The apology jolted her, even if her expression barely faltered.

‘I have never brought a woman there. Colleagues, of course, but...’ He gave a tense shake of his head. ‘If there had been even a hint that we were involved then it could have made things awkward for you. I didn’t handle it well.’

Please don’t be nice, Felicia thought, because her feelings were so much easier to deal with when she was cross.

‘Well, it’s done now.’ She shrugged. ‘And I shan’t be back there again.’

‘I doubt there would be any reason...’

‘No,’ Felicia said. ‘You misunderstand. I shan’t be going back there again, Kedah. We all have our limits, and your treatment of me in Zazinia far exceeded mine. Anyway, there’s no need for me to be there.’

‘No.’

It had been too far out of her comfort zone.

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