The Sheikh's Forbidden Mistress

  The Sheikh's Forbidden Mistress

  By: Ella Brooke and Jessica Brooke

  All Rights Reserved.

  Copyright 2015-2016 Ella Brooke Lynn

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  Table of Content

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

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  The Sheikh's American Surprise

  Chapter One

  Trudy Yoder had never been to Dubai before.

  Well, last week Trudy Yoder had never been to Dubai before. As of this week, she was fully settled into her new Dubai apartment. She was also running about twenty minutes late to her first day of work. While she’d scoped out her new office over the weekend, she hadn’t anticipated how much longer it would take to get there during the terrible morning rush hour. This was completely unacceptable, and she knew it. It was her first day working at her internship for Tahan Oil Subsidiaries, and the first time she’d be meeting her new boss, Sheikh Barakaa Tahan. While she’d only interviewed with his main assistant, Omar Kaiyam, her boss’s strict reputation preceded him.

  She knew the sheikh demanded perfection for both himself and his employees, so swanning in twenty minutes late was never going to fly. Even though the internship barely paid her enough to get by after graduating college, it was the best option Trudy had found in this tough job market. Besides, Tahan Oil Subsidiaries was a legendary enterprise in the petroleum engineering business. If all she did this summer was fetch coffee and make Xerox copies, Trudy would still learn more by osmosis than some of her fellow graduates would learn in two years at a lesser company.

  But that was assuming Sheikh Tahan would forgive her lateness.

  Rushing from the elevator, Trudy hurried past the secretarial staff and to the sheikh’s office. As one of the top five tallest buildings in the city, Tahan Towers reached dizzying heights. Normally, she’d love to take a minute to admire the spectacular views through the massive plate glass windows overlooking the far off desert lands of Dubai, but today she was on a mission. One that hopefully would keep her from being fired from her internship before it even began.

  Clutching her bag close to her chest, Trudy steadied herself outside Sheikh Tahan’s door. She was supposed to be there by 8:00 a.m., but fervently hoped the sheikh—despite his reputation—might be lenient with a new and very confused American intern. At least, maybe he could be just this once.

  She tentatively knocked, but there was no answer. Exhausted and overwhelmed, Trudy leaned heavily against the door, thunking the back of her head against it. She was desperate to collect her breath and to hide her panic behind a calm facade. But the universe must have decided that now was the perfect time to truly humiliate her, because Sheikh Tahan chose that moment to open the door and send Trudy crashing to the floor. Arms and legs akimbo, she struggled to her feet and wished she’d worn slacks and not a pencil skirt. It would have made her rebound faster. Besides, what if she’d flipped into a more compromising position?

  Flustered, Trudy struggled to her feet and tried to remember how to breathe. She’d researched Sheikh Tahan more thoroughly after earning the internship, but even Getty Images hadn’t done him justice. He was so tall and imposing, with broad shoulders that seemed to take up the entire door frame. Sheikh Tahan was a force to be reckoned with. His sharp, aquiline nose gave a classical look to his features, while his olive skin shined like liquid gold under the overhead lights. His tawny eyes appraised her with an intensity she’d rarely experienced and, instantly, warmth flared through her belly.

  He’s gorgeous.

  Trudy quickly pushed that thought out of her mind, but she struggled to banish it completely. She had no place thinking that. Besides, she’d never act on those stray needs. He was her boss, for God’s sake. Besides, she’d never…

  The point was she wasn’t going to sabotage her career any more than being a klutzy and very late first-day intern already had. Thoughts about Sheikh Tahan that were anything but professional fell into that category.

  “Who are you?” He demanded, hovering over her.

  Swallowing hard, Trudy tried not to panic. Not only was he broad-shouldered, but the sheikh had to be well over six feet. Granted, everyone seems imposing when you’re five foot three, but the sheikh seemed especially strong and in charge. Again that traitorous heat curled through her belly, and Trudy forced it back.

  Try not to set a record getting fired, Trudy.

  “I…my name’s Gertrude Yoder. I’m your new intern and junior assistant.” Her voice was low and quiet, and she felt like a tiny, scared mouse before a mighty lion. Rarely had her voice wavered so much, even with the humility drilled into her back at the farm.

  He regarded her as he stroked his black goatee, so like the color of midnight. “My intern was supposed to be here half an hour ago.”

  She nodded so vigorously that she felt like a darn bobble head doll. “I know, sir, and I am so incredibly sorry. I’ve only taken the metro on weekends, and I had no idea how congested Dubai was on Mondays.”

  “I suppose that you’ve never heard of making alternative plans. I’m already struggling to understand what Omar could have seen in you…what could you possibly bring to the table as an assistant?”

  This reminded her of back home in Pennsylvania, and all the scorn of her elders. Most of her wanted to curl into a ball, to take the condemnation and agree. After all, she had left him waiting, and being in a new city wasn’t an excuse.

  “Well,” she said, drawing on that same courage and fire that had propelled her to leave the boredom of the desolate Pennsylvania countryside in the first place. Trudy stood taller. Yes, she was in the wrong here, but if she didn’t fight for her job, then she would be on a plane back to the States. “I did graduate valedictorian of my class, and my professors recommended me as one of the best petroleum engineering students they’d ever seen. I speak Arabic, and I’m a compulsively organized human being. This is my first time being late because I’m in a new city. For that, I do apologize, but I’m not an ignorant undergrad.”

  Sheikh Tahan stalked across the room and loomed over her. Trudy swallowed hard, even as the scents of turmeric and something musky and deeply masculine enveloped her.

  “Compulsively organized? And yet you’re here a half hour late. I could have engineers from any college in the country or assistants with a few years under their belts already.”

  “I suppose,” she said, brushing down her blouse, trying to get the last bits of dust off. “But maybe you should trust your chief assistant. I’m worth it, and I promise I’ll be fifteen minutes early every day from here on out, even if I have to sleep in my office.”

  There was just the tiniest twitch at the corner of Sheikh Tahan’s mouth. Trudy wasn’t sure if he was cultivating a tic or if he’d tried to smile and stopped himself. Considering the glower he was aiming her way, she assumed she was imagining the slight hint of levity coming from him.

  Or maybe I’m just nuts.

  “Then that will be your new start time for work, Miss Yoder. I hope you enjoy seven forty-five in the morning.”

  “Yes sir,” she said. “Now, what can I do to start my internship?”

  “You can go and see Omar. For today, you’re his problem. As for right now, I need competent people around me. Tomorrow, when you
show me you can read a clock, then we’ll truly get you started.”

  Trudy nodded and glanced once more at the sheikh, feeling captivated by his hazel eyes and his well-trimmed beard. If he weren’t such a domineering jerk, she could almost think he’d be cute.

  But those are very dangerous thoughts, Trudy, just try not to mess up any more.

  * * *

  “So! How was your big day, sweetie?” her cousin, Sonia, chirped at her over the Skype connection. Grinning widely, she pushed her dark curls over her shoulder. “Come on, don’t scrimp on the details. How is being the next intern at the oil company of the Middle East going? Did you get a lot of coffee or did you get all the coffee?”

  Trudy sighed and leaned back in her office chair. Her shoes were already off her feet. She’d have to invest in some cute ballet flats, because even a day in kitten heels was leaving her with aching feet. She was fine with sacrificing fashion for comfort. She was an engineer; it wasn’t as if fashion had been a huge concern of hers before.

  “I didn’t get coffee.”

  “Really? So what did you do?”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Trudy said, rubbing at her temples. She could feel a headache forming, and it was going to be a doozy.

  “Then were you in the mail room? It’s just a fact that internships are not always the best. They’re great a stepping stone, but they’re the work no one else wants to do and for free.”

  “I get room and board and a modest stipend.”

  “Which would be illegal for anyone else to receive and still get called a salary. When I started with that fashion boutique in Oklahoma City, I know I was crying over my paychecks and sorting through fabrics late into the night. It’d be okay if this wasn’t Disneyland, cuz.”

  Trudy sighed and set her head in her hands. Her cousin was the only close family she had who hadn’t shunned her. Sure, it was Yoder tradition to take Rumspringa, but only she and Sonia had actually abandoned the constrained life of the Amish. They were all they had out in Oklahoma. So maybe her cousin was hoping, just a little, that Trudy would come back home early, and that she wouldn’t spend all summer in Dubai. Of course, everything depended on Trudy’s ability to stop making terrible impressions on her boss, and at this rate she’d be on the next plane home!

  “Seriously, Trudes, I can tell when something is bugging you, and it looks like the weight of the whole damn world is on your shoulders. What’s wrong, sweetie?”

  “I was late.”

  “Well, it’s your first day commuting in a city you’ve never been before. A week is not enough time to get used to public transit.”

  She grinned at that. Her cousin was sensible, so why couldn’t a certain sheikh have been more understanding about her problems, realized that she’d tried and underestimated the traffic on the metro trains? “That’s what I tried to explain to Sheikh Tahan.”

  “Oh!” she said, raising one eyebrow back at Trudy. “Do you work directly with Sheikh Tahan? That’s way better than being in the mail room.”

  “There’s no mail room. Today, I helped organize oil well bids with his chief assistant. The two of us worked on checking the credentials of the bidders and master mapping them out on a spreadsheet.”

  “So it was tedious.”

  “True, but it was no less important.”

  Sonia nodded and her blue eyes brimmed with concern. “Well, maybe tomorrow will go better with the sheikh. If you’re on time…”

  “Now my start time is fifteen minutes earlier than it should be,” Trudy grumbled. “The sheikh’s so aggravating. I fell over and into his office and all he did was watch me struggle up. I know that the country has a bigger emphasis on propriety and personal space, but it’s just rude not to help someone sprawled out on the floor.”

  “Maybe he was shocked. First days are always hard. I accidentally spilled Coke on a five hundred dollar fabric swatch and only tears and the promise to buy it out of my tiny, pathetic non-salary saved me. That and I think no one else had applied for the job,” Sonia said. “I have a feeling that tomorrow will be better.”

  “He’s so tall, and he does this thing where he looms over me. Then it’s all ‘Well you have to do better, Miss Yoder’ and ‘See that you do.’ Insufferable.”

  “Insufferable, huh?” Sonia asked, twisting a strand of long, dark hair around her finger. “That’s not code for something else, is it?”

  She blushed and hoped that the camera on her laptop didn’t pick up her flushed cheeks. Yes, there was that overwhelming musk of someone so masculine that had made her heart race, and yes, she felt caught by his piercing hazel eyes that had studied and evaluated her at the same time. Those were eyes she’d see in her dreams, that much Trudy could tell already.

  “Trudy Yoder! I’ve never seen you as red as a lobster before. Now you have to tell me everything!”

  “He was tall, dark, and handsome…the complete cliché,” she told her eager cousin.

  “But it was appealing?”

  Trudy blushed again and then rubbed feebly at her cheeks—as if that would help her situation at all. “He’s cocky and easily annoyed, cold and condescending, but he has these eyes and these razor sharp cheekbones. He’s one of the most, uh…” The best word she had was “insufferable” but by now her cousin had figured out her secret code.

  For Trudy “insufferable” was the same as “rocked her world.”

  “Sure, then if he’s so insufferable,” her cousin cooed, “maybe there are perks to this job after all.”

  “It’ll get easier.”

  “But will you still feel that way working directly under the sheikh? I… Trudy, it’s okay to be attracted to someone. You left the Amish so fast…you left everything behind with our family…and then you ended up basically living in the library at college.”

  “Engineering is hard.”

  “True, but there were still sororities you could have joined. Even engineers date.”

  Trudy sighed. “Only other engineers, and the guys were nice enough, but they weren’t what I was looking for.”

  “Then what were you looking for?”

  “I’m still not sure,” she admitted, biting her lower lip. “When I figure it all out, I’ll let you know.”

  “Then maybe, you need to figure out the best way to impress your sheikh so you can find out.”

  Chapter Two

  Sheikh Barakaa Tahan was not looking forward to the day’s affairs. It was nearing seven thirty, and he had a huge meeting at a local restaurant with the zoning staff for the local government. About fifty kilometers outside of town, Tahan Oil Subsidiaries was going to start drilling a new well. They had a promising lead on a new outlet for a supply that would increase TOS’s already substantial wealth. However, that meant the necessary papers had to be filed, the right I’s had to be dotted and that everything else was done perfectly in between. It was a by-the-book meeting, and it shouldn’t be difficult, but he was still very unsure about Miss Yoder.

  Which was why he’d called Omar Kaiyam in a half hour before his faithful assistant usually started work to grill the old man on what was going through his head when he hired one Gertrude “Trudy” Yoder.

  The other man leaned back in his chair, the remarkable girth of his growing pot belly rounding out as he crossed one leg over the other. Advanced middle age and a craving for baklava had not been kind to Omar’s physique. With his long beard going from gray to white and his advancing waistline, it was no question why the other man seemed far older than his fifty-five years.

  “I don’t know why you’re so upset,” he said. “You approved the hiring. I had the Skype meeting with her, and her teacher recommendations and her GPA were far higher than anyone applying for the post-graduate program.”

  “Perhaps we never should have started such an initiative.”

  “There was a reason for that too, or do you want to relinquish the tax incentive that starting an intern program has gifted us?” Omar replied, grinning. “Besides, I wor
ked with her yesterday and she has a keen eye for organization and details. You’d be pleased to see how far she and I have gone with organizing the bidders’ offers and track records. We’ve had a few new ones this time, and the comparisons will help us optimize.”

  “So you say, but you should have seen her,” Barakaa continued. “Not only was she here late, but she was spread all over my office. I realize that she must be very klutzy, but what kind of woman ends up flashing her employer as she struggles to her feet? It was unseemly.”

  Omar chuckled, and Barakaa hated that he trusted his old friend so dearly. If he didn’t, Miss Yoder would already be dismissed. Yet, the older man had always been in his court, had shown him everything about running the company when Barakaa’s father had died unexpectedly over a decade ago. He’d been a twenty-one-year-old kid with hardly any clue about anything…

  And fresh out of college yourself, if you remember.

  And if Omar hadn’t been there to fix his father’s impossibly messy and, frankly, corrupt books, then all of Tahan Oil Subsidiaries would have folded. His assistant had some of the keenest business sense that Barakaa had ever seen so, by process of elimination, it must also follow that Miss Yoder had something else to offer, but he was hard pressed to see it. Of course, he could fire her by the end of the week. It wasn’t worth dismissing her now, if he’d just end up hearing a barrage of “I told you so” from Omar for months to come.

  That would be more annoyance than the bumbling, late girl already was.

  “You have a lot to say about unseemly now?” Omar said, reaching for his mug of coffee and sweet bread. “My sheikh, you need to learn to value first impressions less. For example, I once saw a wild child of twenty-one who was more interested in the women pursuing him than the needs of his empire.”

  Barakaa smirked at that allusion. “To be fair, old friend, I still enjoy the pleasure out there. So many gorgeous women roam Dubai.”

  “But perhaps you need one of substance. Surely you grow tired of girls like Fairuza and…well the list goes on and on. You’re almost thirty-two, and you have yet to truly solidify your position as a sheikh. There is no true future for the Tahan line without heirs. You of all people know that better than anyone.”