Modern Romance September 2016 Books 5-8. Natalie Anderson

was the very first person who had not immediately derided his vision for his homeland.

      Here was someone who did not instantly reject nor dismiss his ideas.

      Even Hussain, to whom he had entrusted his visions, constantly told Kedah that he dreamed too big for his home.

      ‘It’s complicated, Felicia.’

      ‘Life is.’

      ‘We should get back,’ he said, and he took her elbow to guide her back towards the car.

      ‘What time are we meeting the surveyor?’

      ‘Two,’ Kedah said, and his voice was suddenly brusque. ‘Though I won’t need you there. Go back to the hotel and use some of the facilities.’

      ‘You’re giving me the afternoon off?’ Felicia frowned. ‘Why?’

      ‘I can be nice.’

      ‘I never said you couldn’t.’ She gave him a little nudge.

      It was just that—a playful nudge. But Felicia did not play like that and neither did Kedah.

      It was a tease—a touch that would have gone unnoticed had they been more familiar.

      Yet they were not familiar.

      They just happened to ache to be.

      And so instead of walking they stood there, on an empty man-made island. His driver was some distance away, endlessly on his phone, and as the hot wind whipped at one of her loose curls Kedah resisted tucking it behind her ear.

      ‘Will you tell me something, Felicia?’

      ‘Maybe.’

      ‘Do you flirt with all your clients?’

      ‘I don’t flirt.’

      ‘I disagree.’

      He was rather too direct.

      ‘While I accept,’ Kedah continued, ‘that you don’t tip up your face or bat your lashes—in fact you don’t invoke any of the more usual tactics—you do flirt. And I just wondered if it was the same with all your...clients?’

      She heard the implication. ‘You make me sound like a whore.’

      ‘Please forgive me for any offence caused—absolutely none was meant. I am just curious as to what you are here for. I employed you as my PA and yet you don’t seem to want that job.’

      ‘I’m tired of the games, Kedah, and I’m tired that even after eight weeks you still don’t trust me with the truth.’

      ‘Okay—here it is. I believe the Accession Council will meet soon, and that there will be turbulent times ahead as my suitability for the role of Crown Prince is called into question.’

      ‘I know all that,’ Felicia said. ‘So where do I fit in?’

      ‘I need someone who knows the business—someone who, when it all kicks off—’

      ‘Kicks off?’ she checked.

      ‘I believe my brother will have the backing of the elders. More troubling for me is that I believe my father may support him also. If that is the case I shall be forced to take it to the people to decide. That would cause a lot of unrest and bad publicity...’

      ‘You’d want me to convince your people that just because you’ve run a bit wild...?’ She paused as Kedah smiled—a lightly mocking smile.

      ‘Felicia,’ he said. ‘My people love me.’

      She didn’t get it. She could not see where she might fit in to all this. ‘They love you regardless?’

      ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I would never expect them to support me regardless. They love me because of what I stand for, what I can do for them.’

      ‘Oh.’

      Kedah did not want to tell anyone—unless he was forced to—that the scandal that was looming was not one of his making.

      Correction.

      Sometimes he did want to tell her.

      Back in the restaurant, when Felicia had spoken of her father, he had wanted to share his own truth. But that was an unfamiliar route for Kedah and so still he’d held back.

      He held back from revealing the full truth now.

      ‘I am spending time in Zazinia. You can deal with the empire I have built and answer with ease the many questions that will be hurled.’

      ‘That’s it?’ Felicia frowned. ‘That’s all you want me there for? To deal with the press? I don’t believe you.’

      That had been it.

      Kedah had wanted someone tough and strong to take care of the press as he devoted his time to his country. He knew how bad things were likely to get if the elders and Mohammed called his parentage into question.

      Never had he considered revealing that to another—especially not a lowly PA.

      And he wasn’t now.

      Instead he was considering discussing it with Felicia—the woman who had held him entranced since she had stood outside his office eight weeks ago.

      He was supposed to marry soon. He did not need her tearful and scorned. And yet with every minute that passed between them he felt as if they were falling slowly into bed, into sex, into want. She could deny it, yet he felt it. And if they were about to cave then he needed to know she could remain strong, that sex could be separated from the vital tasks ahead.

      And possibly, Kedah pondered as she stared back at him, Felicia was the one person who would be able to do that.

      It irked him that she considered him a client.

      And it troubled him that she might have been involved with some of her clients in the past.

      Then again, if he wanted the toughest of the tough perhaps it should not.

      There was no polite way to ask.

      ‘Your eyes were the shade of the sea at the restaurant. Now they are hooker green.’

      Her breath tightened and she flashed him a look of fire.

      ‘It’s an actual shade,’ he said. ‘And you are flirting, Felicia. Your eyes invite me closer at times.’

      ‘Perhaps I’m just responding in kind.’

      ‘I want you,’ he told her.

      He just stated his case.

      Her clothes felt as if they had disintegrated again. She felt as if she were standing there stark naked even though his eyes never left hers.

      ‘I am thinking now that unless you go I shall cancel the surveyor and take you up to my suite...’

      ‘And you presume that I’ll join you? You just assume I want you too?’

      Felicia tried—she really did. But had his driver got out and started clapping she’d have joined him. Because it was a joke that she didn’t want Kedah. She was so turned on.

      Click your fingers and I’ll come turned on.

      And he smiled that arrogant smile that told her he absolutely knew she would join him should he so choose.

      ‘The thing is I need you working for me more than I need you between the sheets.’ Right now that was debatable, but although Kedah regretted little, he knew that this he might. ‘I don’t want tears in the morning, and I want you to continue to work for me rather than moping about in Mustique, so I suggest that you go back to the hotel and have a think. I don’t want you agreeing to something you might later regret.’

      ‘You’ve got a nerve.’

      ‘I know I have.’

      ‘Kedah, I’ve booked