Sheikh's Stand In Read Free

incredibly awkward," she said. "Not really my type back then. Sweet, though. Mostly, after you told me that you were marrying his brother, I wondered what the heck that might have been like growing up. Aladdin is, well … everything that Mikal's not."
    Charlotte looked startled, and then thoughtful. "So I guess you've not really kept in contact with Mikal?"
    "I suppose I should have at least became Facebook friends with him at some point? But no, not really. Why do you ask?"
    Charlotte swept her daughter up into her sack again, grinning as she stood up. "No reason at all, dear Sister. I'm going to leave you to get settled now. The showers here are amazing, and dinner is at seven. I'll see you then."
    Viviana was immediately suspicious of her sister's look, but she quickly forgot all about it as she started to unpack and explore her space. The more she thought about it, the more she could see herself living here, getting to see her sister more, and getting to watch her niece grow up.
    She and Charlotte had really only had each other growing up. There was some distant family that she was fairly certain had all but forgotten them, and after that, there was only Aladdin, Mikal, and their family.
    It might be good to be with people she cared about and trusted for at least a little while, she thought. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

CHAPTER TWO
    Despite having done nothing but travel all day, Viviana felt as if she could sleep an entire week. She set her alarm, and stripped down for a nap. She woke up refreshed, but there was more to it than that. The sun had sunk low in the sky, bathing the room in a warmer glow. She felt good here, safe in a way that she didn't often get to experience.
    Viviana's life was usually a whirlwind of rental houses and penthouse apartments. They were luxurious to be sure, but they were not places where one truly lived, not precisely. She had compensated in her own way, learning to be at home in herself, to take pleasure in the small things that always stayed the same.
    However, she had to admit that there was something different about this place, about Khutal's palace. It was a gorgeous place, but it went far beyond that. This was a place that had history, and thanks to Charlotte, it was a place that had welcomed her. She still wasn't sure about the idea of staying, but it was growing more and more attractive by the moment.
    Viviana padded over to the closet, pulling things out to spread on the bed. It would be a fairly casual dinner, so she chose a light cream cotton dress that skimmed along her slender frame and lent a lovely softness to her complexion while making her russet hair shine. She slipped on a pair of light sandals, and after running a brush through her long hair and braiding it, she was ready for dinner.
    She remembered vaguely that Charlotte had told her she was in the family wing. It was a smaller section of the palace, a place where the bulk of the living actually happened. She realized that she wasn't quite sure where the dining room was, but with almost twenty minutes to spare, she was relatively certain that she would find it.
    About ten minutes later, she had ceased to be so sure. Though the palace had many modern accoutrements, there was an old-fashioned twisting to the corridors. One path that had looked promising took her straight to a small indoor courtyard filled with lush flowers, and another lead her down to what she supposed must be a gaming room.
    She opened a third door, ready to use her phone to call for help if necessary. She found to her irritation that it was a library, but then she realized that there was someone occupying it.
    The man stood up from his armchair as she came in, revealing himself to be of a rather imposing height. He was well-built with sharp arresting features and the gold-rimmed spectacles he wore gave him an air of scholarly distinction.
    Viviana, whose career involved her assessing men of power, immediately assessed him as a