Page 8 of Her Prince in Disguise
The dog perked up, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth as his ears twitched. Laith chuckled. “You know we’re talking about you, don’t ya?” he grumbled, lowering his hand to the side of the chair. Immediately, the dog leapt up and came over to lick Laith’s dangling hand.
“How did your meeting go?” Rafi asked, sipping his scotch.
Laith wasn’t sure how to answer. They’d always shared everything, but somehow, telling Rafi about Andi felt…wrong. Maybe because he knew that the lovely, fiery woman was off limits. Or perhaps it was because…he wasn’t sure.
So instead, he concentrated on the business side of the meeting, which was most likely what Rafi meant anyway. “The meeting revealed that the financials are worse off than we’d thought. At least in some areas.”
Rafi grimaced. “We knew it would be bad, but how bad was it?”
Aida nudged Laith’s hand impatiently, then grumbled happily when fingers dug into his thick fur. “I don’t know yet. I’m putting together a team to visit the various production sites and sift through the financials, evaluate any legal issues, fix theengineering problems, and resolve personnel difficulties.” He stopped scratching and Aida sighed before wandering back to Rafi. “I’ll start in Singapore next week.”
Rafi nodded, ruffling the dog’s ears, then his belly when Aida rolled over. “There are some great products coming out of the production line soon. But whoever is in charge of ordering and supplies, they’ve lost control. Something isn’t right in that office.”
“I agree, but we won’t know what’s off until we’re there in person.”
“Yeah,” Rafi replied, running a hand through Aida’s rough hair. “I’m not sure what is going on around here, but it’s weird.”
“And probably will become a bigger problem if we don’t find the source soon.”
The brothers shared a look, then sighed in silent agreement as Aida nudged Rafi’s hand again, silently begging for more attention.
Chapter 6
Andi smoothed a hand over the black wool skirt of her suit. Armani. She’d never considered wearing an Armani suit before, but she had a newfound appreciation for designer clothes. Not that she could ever afford an Armani suit on her salary, even with the substantial raise she’d received with this new job. But apparently, good wool doesn’t wrinkle! Who knew?
Andi glanced up, watching her new boss—Laith Al-Sintra—converse with one of their teammates. She had finally learned his name after fourteen suits and several pairs of shoes were delivered to her apartment Saturday morning, and now she was boarding a flight to Singapore with him.
She was just about to look away when the man glanced up, meeting her eyes. She saw a flare of heat in his eyes. Andi’s body reacted immediately. She tried to look away, but couldn’t pull her eyes from his. She felt trapped, manacled by that look as her heart pounded against her ribs. She shouldn’t be looking. She should pull her eyes away and…ignore the tingling sensation.
Thankfully, someone stepped up to Laith and he looked away, breaking the eye contact. Andi turned away, relieved to be released from the power of his gaze. She shifted again, then smoothed a hand down her hip…as a reminder of her role? Or as a self-soothing gesture?
“Don’t mess this up!” she whispered firmly to herself.
“Hey, Andi!” a man greeted her. Tom. She knew Tom because he worked in the marketing department with Carys.Occasionally, Tom came to the Friday evening happy hours, but Andi hadn’t talked much with him. He was a nice guy with an easy smile, about five feet, nine inches tall with sandy blond hair and an intelligent glint to his hazel eyes. The man was in his mid-forties and generally wore a dark suit with a blue tie. Bland. That was all she could say about him. Tom was bland.
“Hey, Tom,” Andi replied, smiling in greeting. Thankfully, no sparks shot through her body at his greeting as they joined the other team members.
Their team had four members: Andi as the financial analyst, Jennifer as an engineer, who would review factory equipment for efficiency, Tom as a marketing specialist, who analyzed products and developed initial marketing strategies, and Lawrence, a legal expert, who would review vendor contracts and any other legal issues that cropped up.
Jenny was a pretty woman with thick, dark glasses that covered her chocolate eyes. She pulled her blond hair back into a tight bun and wore a similar outfit to Andi’s. Immediately, Andi felt a spark of jealousy at the possibility that Laith had selected Jenny’s outfits as well. But there was no way that Andi could ask the other woman how she’d obtained such a beautiful suit. That would be an intensely awkward conversation!
And then there was Lawrence. The fourth member of the team came across as the stereotypical corporate lawyer. He wore the expensive suit with a silk tie and had soft brown hair with a side part. The only adjective that came to Andi’s mind when she looked at Lawrence was “ambitious”.
Andi recognized everyone on the team. She had seen them around the hallways of the headquarters occasionally, butshe hadn’t actually officially met them before. It was interesting to be traveling across the globe with relative strangers.
Andi was the youngest in the group, but thankfully, none of them treated her as less-than. Since they’d be working together late into the evenings, it was a good idea to get to know them.
“Everyone ready?” a male voice asked.
Immediately, Andi recognized that voice. It had echoed through her dreams over the weekend. It had been in her every thought as she’d packed her new suits last night. She pretended to be unconcerned as she turned to face her new boss, but as soon as she faced him, she felt it again. The pull to gaze into his eyes was nearly overwhelming. Lifting her gaze, she tried to focus on his chin. But that wasn’t enough. Her traitorous body wanted to look into those dark eyes, to experience again the tremor that she’d felt last week.
Sure enough, as soon as his eyes landed on her, Andi felt it. The heat was intense. Did his eyes linger on hers a touch longer than the other team members?
Probably not, she warned herself. But Andi couldn’t pull her eyes away from his gaze. The sound of the plane’s engines faded away as she stared up at Laith Al-Sintra. It was…heart-poundingly intense.
And then it was over. An officious looking shorter man, who was almost bald…shoved a tablet into Laith’s hands. Apparently, there was a vitally important message on that tablet.
Andi looked around, taking a deep breath, only to realize that the other members of her new team were already headingfor the stairs to the plane. How long had she stood there, staring into Laith’s eyes? Had the others noticed? Andi felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. “Don’t do that!” she whispered to herself. “You don’t even like the man!”
