Page 12 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

The unfortunate thing was, every time she looked at him, all the reasons she needed to tell him no slipped right out of her head.

And there was a good reason to do it, even if she only focused on what was practical. It would be an opportunity to show her family how good she was at her job. If this race in Qalmar got off the ground, Keira would have her first international event under her belt. She would stamp her name on the world stage of motorsports. Even Kevin hadn’t done that.

If I do what he’s proposing, the family will finally have to take me seriously.

“Say for a moment that I go along with this idea,” she said.

“You’ll do it?” He sat up straighter.

“I’m not saying I’ll do it. I’m saying I’m thinking about it. Itwouldbe nice to travel.” She took a sip of her martini, inviting the looseness of thought that came with having a drink. By the time she reached the bottom of the glass, she knew, she would be free of her tendency to overanalyze everything. “The problem is, if your father isn’t okay with this… I know you’re saying you’rethe one he’ll hold responsible, and it’s not that I don’t believe that. But I’ll be on my own in a foreign country.”

“You’ll be under the protection of the crown. It’s not as if you’re going to be on your own in some discount motel. You’ll stay with me in my estate.”

“I’ll staywith you?”

“It’s a big estate,” he assured her. “You’ll have several rooms to yourself, if it’s your privacy that’s worrying you.”

It was, but that wasn’t the only thing she was concerned about. “Kareem, how is your father going to fail to notice that something is going on if you bring back an American woman and move her into your estate? He’s going to catch on so fast. And there won’t be any point to my having traveled all the way to Qalmar, because we won’t be able to get the event off the ground. Even if I don’t get into any trouble over this, it’s not going to be worth the effort we’ll have to put in. I’ll be on a plane back home in three days.”

“Well, I thought about that,” Kareem admitted.

“You did?”

“Yes. And I have a solution… but it’s a bit of a strange one.”

“It’s not going to be any stranger than anything else you’ve said to me today.”

Kareem laughed. “Wait until you’ve heard me out before you say that,” he said. “You’re right about how my father is going to respond. The moment he gets a clue that I’m moving forward with this race, he’ll do whatever he can to shut the whole thing down. And having you around is going to be a major clue that wedon’t want to deal with. So here’s my solution — you and I get married.”

He had said it so quickly, so matter-of-factly, that for a moment it didn’t even register with Keira just how odd that statement was.

Then it hit her.

She lowered her drink slowly. “What did you just say?”

The question sounded hollow in her ears, as if she was hearing herself speak underwater, and she wondered if she was starting to dissociate. Or maybe this whole thing had been a dream. Because surely this couldn’t be real. Surely a handsome sheikh hadn’t walked into the Spritzer Cup and asked her to marry him. Even with context, the whole thing was ridiculous.

“It wouldn’t be permanent,” Kareem said quickly. “I’m talking about a temporary arrangement. Something to explain to my father why I’m moving a woman into the estate.”

“He’d believe that you just randomly married an American he had never met before? Is that the kind of thing you ordinarily do?”

“I’ve been known to be impulsive,” Kareem said. “And my father will have no trouble believing the worst about me. No, I’ve never been married before. But this won’t shock him at all.”

“Why don’t we justsaywe’re married?”

“The crown will demand that paperwork be filed. They’ll want proof.”

The hair on the back of Keira’s neck stood up. “And what’s that going to mean for me? Will I be… royal? Will I have some kindof responsibility I have to fill? Oh, God, they’re not going to want me to produce an heir, are they?”

“Nothing like that,” Kareem assured her. “Remember, I’m not the heir either. My brother Amir is the one who has to worry about an heir. And you and I will go our separate ways long before you’d have to worry about royal duties of any kind, I promise.”

“I don’t know, Kareem.” The martini glass was empty now, but Keira was feeling less sure of herself than ever. Why was she even considering this?

“I’ll pay you for your time,” Kareem said.

Her eyes widened. “You’re going to pay me to marry you?”

“Of course not! What do you take me for? I meant I’d pay you a consultation fee,” he said. “You’ll get a percentage of what we earn on the event — say, thirty percent?”

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