Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) Read Free Page B

looks and taut frame would have been afraid, but Marid had been his friend since they were boys. Instead of being afraid, Marid took a seat in Nasim's desk chair, the picture of casual humor.
    “She's only grown more beautiful than she was before. I have done a little reading, and it seems that success agrees with her. She managed to find a writer who will almost assuredly be taking the Pulitzer this year, and now she has been sent to Dalal to work her magic.”
    “I don't care—” Nasim started, but Marid continued as if he hadn't heard.
    “I saw her today at the antiques fair. She was moving through the city as if it already belonged to her, as if she had already decided to make it her home. She fits here in a way I don't remember her fitting in in New York …”
    “This means nothing to me,” Nasim said, forcing his voice to a growl so that Marid wouldn't hear it shake. He started to walk past his friend, but his next words stopped him.
    “I wonder if she would like to come to dinner with me, perhaps fly out to Arana for the weekend?”
    Nasim reacted almost before he knew what he was doing. In one bound, he had come up on top of Marid, and his hands were clenched in Marid's T-shirt, dragging him up.
    Far from being incensed at such rough treatment, Marid laughed in delight.
    “ There it is,” he said triumphantly. “That's what it took. I knew you weren't as cool as you were pretending to be.”
    “If you wanted to know how seriously I take this, you could have asked instead of trying to bait me,” he growled.
    Now that Marid was out of his chair, he dropped back down into it. He rubbed his eyes. He wasn't even thirty-five yet, but he felt a hundred years old. When he thought back to that night when Ella had met his family, he felt ancient, as if he were half-dead.
    “I can't see her,” he growled, almost to himself. “I don't … I don't deserve her …”
    Marid made a scoffing sound. “My mother always told me that we should all be very lucky that we do not get what we deserve in this life, but when it comes to Ella, it's not a matter of who deserves who. It's a matter of love and of passion. My friend, no one has ever touched your heart the way this woman has, and now fate has brought her back to you. Do you think that everyone is so lucky? Do not waste this.”
    “She was humiliated by my family, and even worse, I did nothing to defend her. I stood there while Azim took her to pieces and while Mumin watched.”
    “You are not that man anymore,” Marid said bluntly, “And now, you are the sheikh. You want the woman? You want to see if there's anything left between you? Now you go find her.”
    At Marid's words, Nasim felt something open in him that had been locked away five years ago. It felt like a breath of cold night air sneaking into a still and closed room. He realized that it was hope.
    “I will call her,” he said finally. “I will speak with her, but if she wants nothing to do with me, that will be it. I love her too much to harass her.”
    Marid quirked an eyebrow at him. “So, you love her still?”
    Nasim looked at him, and Marid shivered. On the other sheikh's face was a lifetime of sleepless nights and recriminations.
     “Of course I do. I always have. I always will.”
    ***
    She hadn't exactly been lying when she cut herself away from Marid. There were things she wanted to get to, but when she got home, she couldn't concentrate on them at all. Instead, she paced her apartment, checked her email a dozen times and finally gave in and called her sister.
    “H'lo?”
    “Emmaline? Are you good to talk?”
    “Ella? Is everything okay?”
    There was a hint of panic in Emmaline's voice, and counting backwards, Ella realized that she had likely startled her sister out of a dead sleep. It was barely seven in the morning in New York.
    “Oh, god, I'm sorry. Yes, everything's fine, except … well …”
    “It's Nasim,” Emmaline said, already sounding more awake. “Did you run into