ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (63 page)

Sloan sighed and sat back in her chair. She and Jay had grown up, running around in the corridors of this magnificent office building, getting under the feet of their fathers. They’d come to love the workplace as much as their homes but somewhere along the way, Sloan had lost the joy in her life. When Jay’s father had died so suddenly, Jay had taken over his position, still only a few years out of college himself and Sloan had lost her playmate. When her own father had taken a step back from the business, early on-set Alzheimer’s taking its toll, Sloan had felt like she’d had to run to catch up. Now, though, she’d finally gotten the Board’s respect and she and Jay had taken their company to successes their fathers could have only dreamed of. They were about to launch their own television company, the workload was insane and now this. Sloan rubbed her eyes.

‘Jay…why now? We have so much on, we’re working every hour.” But she could see his mind was made up. What was the point of arguing? She sighed. “Okay then, I’ll ask Marnie to seek out some candidates for interview.”

Jay smiled. “No need. We have the ideal candidate already. Harvard graduate…”

“Jay, for the love of God, we need to…”

“
Summa Cum Laude
, business major”

“Still, there’s a proper way to…”

“Poached from Marshall Harrington.”

Damn it
. He knew how to shut her up. Sloan loathed Marshall Harrington more than anyone; he was an overrated hack as far as she was concerned. She knew she was beaten. Her shoulders slumped and she threw up her hands.

“Fine, fine.”

Jay grinned that face-splitting, devastating smile of his. “Good. Because she’ll be here in an hour.”

***

Norah fiddled with the hem of her blouse, wishing she had the money to buy a new one. She had very few clothes to begin with and finding something appropriate for an interview was made worse by the fact her only suit had come off the worse in the accident with Jay. Now, though, she was more concerned by seeing him again and not wanting to finish that amazing, limb-shattering kiss.

She closed her eyes, reliving it now; the way his mouth moved against hers, firm, his soft lips shaping themselves around hers, his fingers sliding into her hair, holding her so tenderly yet she was never more aware of his strength, the feral man underneath. The kiss had gone on too long, until, oxygen deprived, she’d broken away, gasping.

“We shouldn’t have done that.”

Jay had smiled and she could help but touch his handsome face, smoothing her thumbs over the big cheekbones, the strong jaw. His green eyes were locked onto hers and she knew if he kissed again, now, in this moment, the night would end in his bed.

And she couldn’t risk it. Her body was yelling, screaming at her to let it happen but there was too much at stake. He’d offered her a lifeline with the job and a one-night stand — however tempting — couldn’t compare.

“Norah?” God, that voice. She opened her eyes and her body reacted without thinking, sending shivers of pleasure down her spine. Damn it, he was even better the second — or was it third? — time around. Jay smiled down at her. “Hey, you. Ready to get started?”

In a daze, she walked beside him to his office. It was a huge glass cube with stunning views over the city.

“Wow.” She went to the window and looked out. “How’d you get any work done? Look at that view.”

“I have a better view now.”

She turned to see him watching her, amused but with a fire in his eyes that was unmistakable. She tried to put a disapproving face. “Mr. McKittridge…there are workplace harassment laws, you know.” Her grin gave her away.

Jay laughed and motioned for her to sit next to him on one of the big leather couches. “Miss Quinn, you’re going to make that difficult. Seriously, though, welcome. I’m really excited about you coming here, I think it will be great for the company, great for you.”

She smiled but her forehead creased in bemusement. “Jay…we’ve known each other for what?”

He checked his watch. “About twenty-four hours.”

She shook her head. “So how do you know I’m the right fit? In that little time?”

Jay’s smile widened. “Most interviews are a lot shorter than that.”

Norah squirmed a little, embarrassed. “I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t because…um…”

“That you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met? That I’m completely entranced with you?”

She flushed, mortified. “God no…”

“Because both of those things are true.” His voice was like melting chocolate and he leaned forward, his face close to enough to hers that she could see the dark blue rings around his green irises. “But that’s not why I hired you. They’re just the reasons that I kissed you. That as soon as the work day ends, I intend to kiss you again…if you’ll let me.”

God,
yes
. She let a long shaky breath. “Okay then.”

Jay sat back and grinned, his finely honed face relaxing boyishly. “As long as that’s clear. Now, you want to come meet some people?”

***

Hell, she was
beautiful
. Sloan ducked away from the door where she’d been watching Jay introducing the girl to Sloan’s secretary, Marnie. The jolt that had hit Sloan’s stomach when she took in the long, dark, waves that nearly fell to the girl’s waist, the large soft brown eyes, the curves of her body in that cheap suit was almost agonizing. But nothing to the pain when she took in Jay’s expression, the way his hand rested on the girl’s lower back, the light in his eyes. Sloan dragged a long breath into her lungs, her teeth locking together.
Jesus
. So Jay was bringing his
girlfriend
in, giving her a job (and, she’d discovered, a
very
generous starter salary). Sloan’s heart hardened. There was no way she’d let all her hard work be tainted by an inexperienced gold-digger.

She heard the soft knock on her door and steeled herself before turning. The young woman stood, obviously nervous, with Jay beaming at her side.

“Sloan Farmer, meet our first member of our Graduate Program, Norah Quinn.”

Sloan noticed the confused look that Norah Quinn shot Jay when he’d said ‘first’. Sloan felt faintly amused.
Just another bimbo.
She held out her hand and greeted the newcomer coolly. She motioned to the chairs across the desk from her own.

“Welcome, Miss Quinn.”

“Norah.”

“Norah. So, Jay tells me we have the privilege of a Harvard graduate joining our team? Why don’t you tell me about your experience.”

Jay shot her a look which she returned evenly, daring him to argue with her. One of them needed to be a professional. Norah Quinn began talking in a low, but steady voice, detailing her time at college, the various part-time internships she’d taken on. As she listened, Sloan found herself impressed with the young woman’s commitment to her career, her obvious passion for her work.

“You did
three
internships at the same time? Did you sleep, at all?”

Norah Quinn grinned wryly. “Not a lot. But it was worth it.”

Sloan studied her. “Why didn’t you stay in New York? It seems to you had no end of opportunities there. Coming back to New Orleans, you had the grand choice of exactly two; us or Marshall Harrington.”

Norah’s face had shut down. “I had to come back…family reasons.” She offered nothing more and Sloan noticed that it was Jay’s turn to look confused. That was interesting. Sloan nodded between them.

“How long have you know each other?”

Norah and Jay looked at each other and grinned. “A day,” said Jay. “She tried to wreck my Mercedes by throwing herself onto the hood yesterday morning.”

Sloan watched Norah nudged him and hissed “Don’t tell her that!”. They both chuckled which made Sloan want to vomit. So they already shared private jokes. She felt her face set in distaste.

“Well, I’m sure Jay will be happy to…mentor you. I hope you’re ready, we have a huge amount of work to do.”

If she was hoping Norah Quinn would be insulted by her inference about Jay’s
mentorship
, she was disappointed. Norah’s eyes glittered with excitement.

“Can’t wait to get started.”

After they’d left her office — she could hear them laughing as they walked down the corridor — she felt like the butt of some joke that she didn’t know had been made. She realized the pain in her chest wasn’t because of Norah Quinn’s beauty, or her obvious intelligence and spirit. It was because Jay had never looked at
her
the way he looked at Norah.

Like he was falling in love.

***

The care home was serenely quiet when Norah walked through its halls much later that evening. Just the occasional murmur of conversation or the soft beep of machinery gave away that the place wasn’t deserted.

Norah, her body, her brain exhausted from the day, let herself into her mother’s room to find her mom sitting up in her chair, gazing out into the evening gloom. The window was open, a warm breeze blowing in from the Louisiana night, occasional breaths of the bayou that lay on the care home’s grounds. Her mother looked over at her with watery eyes.

“Hello, dear. Are you the new nurse?”

It never stopped being painful.

“No, Mom, it’s me. Norah, remember?”

Her mom merely smiled and nodded. “That’s a pretty name.”

Norah sat on the edge of her mom’s bed and took her hands in her own. They were cold and Norah rubbed them to warm them. Her mom went back to looking out of the window.

“How have you been, Mom?”

“I’ve been just nifty, dear. I wish my girl would come visit me but she’s always so busy, she works so hard. She’s at Harvard, you know?”

There was a reason they called it
The Long Goodbye.
Alzheimer’s was the cruelest joke nature could play. A lifetime of love, life, experience gone. Wiped out. Norah swallowed the lump in her throat, felt it settle in her chest. “I got a job today, Mom, a really good job. And I think I met someone. A guy.”

She told her mother all about Jay, knowing that she wouldn’t remember anything. But it felt good to talk about him, the way he’d introduced her so kindly to everyone at the office. They’d all been so welcoming — with maybe the exception of Sloan Farmer but Norah couldn’t worry about her tonight.

When she’d told her mom about Jay, staring blankly out of the window, just seeing his handsome face, his boyish smile, the feel of his hand resting on the small of her back, she jolted herself back into the present and found her mom had fallen asleep. Norah closed the window and covered her mom with a blanket then slipped out quietly.

She caught the night bus back to her apartment and grabbed some cereal straight from the box as dinner. She switched on the t.v., found nothing she wanted to watch and flicked it off, sitting in the dim light of the light from the window. A hard tension had settled in her chest that way it always did when she saw her mom and she knew the only way to get rid of it was to bawl her heart out. Heartache and guilt. Heartache over her mother and guilt for feeling, the last two days, happier than she’d felt in years. Because of
Jay
. As her sobs subsided, she wiped her eyes and grabbed her phone. There was a message from him on it she hadn’t seen.

You rocked your first day, baby girl.

Norah smiled through the tears.
All thanks to you, boss. I mean it, thank you.

A reply came back almost instantly.
It was my pleasure and my good fortune, beautiful. Sleep tight, see you in the morning, J x.

She read it over and over until finally, exhausted, she fell asleep.

***

Jay McKittridge was feeling smug. Very,
very
smug. Sloan glanced at his face and groaned. “Just say it, whatever you are dying to say, just get it out.”

Jay flopped into the couch opposite her. “Come on, Sloan, you have to admit, Norah’s amazing.”

Sloan sighed. “She’s doing…well.”

Jay made a sarcastic noise and she shrugged. “It’s been two months, let’s not get too excited. Yes, she’s made a good start but…”

“Come on. I know you, you’re not that ungenerous. She’s completely taken the strain off us both. There’s a giant brain behind that beautiful face.”

Sloan sat back and jabbed a finger in his direction. “That. That right there is my problem. Are you sleeping with her?”

Jay had been expecting the question. No-one could have missed the chemistry between him and Norah, even when they were just discussing a business project. So far their relationship had been strictly business — friendly business, for sure, but Norah had made it clear she wanted to be judged on her merits — not as the CEO’s latest fling.

Except the more he got to know her, the more they worked on projects together, the closer they got. She could finish his sentences, know what he wanted before he asked, and their shared sense of humor — silly, irreverent— meant whenever she said goodnight, it felt like a bereavement.

“No, I’m not sleeping with her.”

Sloan looked away for a moment and he was surprised to see something in her eyes he hadn’t expected. Relief.

“Sloany…” He reverted back to his childhood name for her, wanting her to open up to him. Sloan met his gaze, something in her eyes hard and unfriendly.

“She never works late Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even if she does stay a little late, it’s never as late as other days. Odd, don’t you think?”

Jay shrugged. “I hadn’t noticed, actually.” Because every moment he was away from her was like a torture.

“Maybe you’re not the only man in her life.”

The jealousy and pain that ripped through him at her words made Jay flinch. “None of our business, Sloan.”

“Say that like you mean it, James.”

He stomped back to his office and slammed the door. He saw his secretary, Kirk, start and waved an apologetic hand at him through the glass. The thought of Norah with another man made his stomach hurt. She’d never said anything about dating someone else; in fact, they never talked about their personal lives at all. It was as if neither of them wanted to break the bubble of ‘them’ they had created with just that one kiss. God, he wanted to kiss her so badly it was painful; every time their fingers would brush, or she would lean across him to grab a pencil, anything. He would breathe in her scent and she would look at him, her cheeks pinking up and they would gaze at the other for a beat. He knew he shouldn’t pursue her but…He looked at his watch. Ten of five. She would be in the tiny office she’d seconded now, shoes off, legs tucked under her, hair spilling out of its clip messily.