Sheikh's Hired Mistress (8 page)

“The ads!” she exclaimed suddenly.

Aziz tilted his dark sunglasses down and looked at her. “Pardon?”

“The advertisements. They aren’t littered
everywhere
.” She looked up and around the space. Men and women streamed past them on either side, chattering on about their own business.

“This is not a bad thing.” He brushed a hand over the front of another bicolored shirt. Even without the suit, he looked as though he expected to see the king any moment.

“No, it isn’t. I’m just noticing…In America, we’re bombarded with advertisements practically from birth. They’re everywhere. Malls, airports, schools. They even slip them into television shows. You’re watching some teen drama and suddenly people all have superpowers based on the chewing gum they’re trying to sell.” Laine raised one hand holding an invisible drink. “Enjoy a cool, refreshing Cherry Snork.”

“That cannot be effective. You must stop noticing them after a while.”

“Oh, we do. So they get more aggressive. But the thing you have to know about selling to people these days is that it’s less about the product and more about everything
else
you’re selling them.”

“As in other products?”

“No. As in the experience. As in the lifestyle. Clothing stores name their lines after the type of woman their customers want to be seen as. It seems weird outside of Western culture, but people’s tastes are shaped by the idea that they can select who they are through their purchases.”

Aziz nodded and frowned seriously as they passed a clothing store. “So what lifestyle is being sold when the ad has a scantily clad woman eating a burger while washing a car?”

Laine opened her mouth and tilted her head to the side. “Um, hedonism, I suppose.”

“The burger would get soap in it. You would get sick,” Aziz said with an earnest smile.

Laine laughed. “I wouldn’t take any lessons in dining from burger commercials.”

They spent a little more time looking around, but as nice as it was and as much as Laine liked the graceful architecture of the shopping center, it wasn’t showing her quite what she needed. Aziz signaled to Faruq, and their car came around to meet them at the exit. Twenty minutes later, they strolled together through the city’s
souk
.

The outer wall of the market was almost impeccably white, but when they stepped inside, colors inundated Laine. Flags were strung above their heads between each side of the street. Each shop was crammed up against the next, spilling over with clothes, jewelry, pots, rugs, and other goods.

Very quickly, Laine noticed the difference in how Aziz held himself. He was much less relaxed, and he moved in close to her. She raked her eyes over the crowd. The people didn’t seem so different from those at the mall, but Faruq made himself visible as he followed them. It was an interesting shift, definitely.

Aziz remained by her side as they looked through local wares. Laine positioned herself so that Aziz towered behind her, and she pulled out her notepad to scribble down a few ideas and make some sketches.

“Ah, this inspires the artist!” Aziz said

“I could have used the internet or something,” Laine muttered.

“I can’t imagine that would be enough.”

“No. Not even close.”

Laine took in the ambiance of the market. A musky, human smell mingled with the scent of spices and meat cooking and heavy perfume. The dress code here was much like the mall: very little skin shown, but everyone dressed very well. In fact, the market-goers may have been dressed even better than the people at the mall. The men passed in Western-style suits or in locally popular
dishdashas
. The long robes hung to the ankles and though mostly white, also came in other light, cool colors. Most, but not all, of the women covered their hair with lovely, ornate scarves in the way Hadiya did. Either way, being well-groomed seemed to be a point of pride. Laine was glad that Hadiya had given her a selection of garments that were appropriate to wear in public.

The people went about their business, barely noticing the two of them, although one or two seemed to notice Aziz and his bodyguard. She supposed most of them didn’t
necessarily
recognize Aziz, just as most Americans didn’t recognize the top one percent of American businessmen, unless they made huge clowns of themselves in the media. Now that she thought about it, the few glances they got might have had more to do with Aziz’s recent outing to New York and the subsequent videos than anything else.

“Oh, these are nice.” Laine walked over to a wall of hanging lamps. They sparkled in the sunlight and from a light glowing within. Likely, they caught the eye more easily at night, but the patterns, the way the little tile fragments of mosaic came together to reflect the light,
that
caught Laine’s attention.

“You like these?” the shop owner asked Laine as she looked over the dozens of hanging lamps, each one a little different. “I can give you an excellent price.”

“They
are
eye-catching.” Laine looked back at Aziz. “You have so much direct light with the lamps on the walls and the natural light coming in. There are rooms where it would be better to have some recessed or even covered lighting.”

“These are very common to have around,” he said.

“Hm. That’s one of the reasons we would put them in a room that your business associates might see. Go modern with the furnishing, but keep these touches that would make them feel at home.”

“Note what you like. I doubt they even have enough here to cover one room,” Aziz said, slipping his hands in his pockets.

He turned away for a moment. Art appealed to him, but it seemed like general domestic decorating was probably beyond his capacity for personal investment.

“I’m not exactly interested in hanging a lamp or two around the study.” Laine took a step back and took in the lamps, with all their colors.

“We have a good amount of stock, miss,” the shopkeeper said.

“Could your manufacturer do something custom? Like this?” Laine showed him a sketch. “I like the idea of a chandelier, but not hanging symmetrically like that. Instead, have them descend downward, in a curve?”

The man scowled at the picture. “I would have to speak to the artisan himself.”

“Well, I suppose we could buy the lamps individually and hire someone to put the piece together,” Laine said after a moment. She looked to Aziz.

He shrugged. “Cost is no object.”

“Ah, these magnificent lamps here, seventy-five dinar,” the shopkeeper said.

Laine raised a brow skeptically. At last check, the Bahraini dinar was worth about two dollars and sixty-five cents. “What, each? No way. Maybe for
seven
of them. I can get one of these on eBay for forty bucks, American. There’s no way these are worth two-hundred dollars!”

Okay, she was lowballing the price she’d seen online just a bit. But haggling was supposed to be a common activity in these markets, and locals tended to gouge Westerners if they could. And Aziz’s comment hadn’t helped.

“The craftsmanship, miss, you have to know what you are looking at!” The man took down one of the lamps for her to see.

“I promise you that when I have put Turkish lamps in the homes of upper class New Yorkers, I never charged them that much, and the craftsmanship was just as good as this.” Laine pointed up to one of the lamps. “That one is even
missing
a tile!”

It wasn’t, but he looked up in astonishment anyway.

“Will these even hold together?” she asked.

“How dare you!” the man exploded. Laine jumped back as he began a tirade about the quality and worth of his stock.

Aziz stepped between them. “You do not speak to her in this way!”

“I stand by the quality of my stock! We do not sell cheap goods here, sir!” the man protested.

Laine regathered herself. “We’re not paying that much for these! I would
maybe
give you eighteen dinars a piece!”

The man’s reaction was practically apoplectic, but he didn’t step any closer to her with Aziz looming over him.

But as she started to turn away, he called out, “Fine! Fine! Take the food from my children’s mouths! Thirty dinars.”

Laine sucked in her cheeks. “Twenty-five.”

The man stared at her. She stared back and swiveled her head. Aziz was just starting to reach for her, when the man nodded and told her to pick out which lamps she wanted.

Laine smiled like a Cheshire cat.

“I don’t know that was worth the effort,” Aziz told her as they walked away from the booth. He had ordered someone to collect their purchase for them and take it to their car.

“Oh, I could have gotten them somewhere else. We got a little bit of a discount in cost, mostly on what we would pay for shipping, but I really need to get used to haggling here.” Laine pressed her hand to her chest. “My heart is racing, though.”

“You offended his honor, by pointing out the flaw in his work.”

“I was lying. There was no missing tile.”

Aziz looked at her with admiration. “You lied.”

“Distributors and manufacturers are always trying to gouge you. They don’t usually get quite so…explosive. I think in the end, you’ll like the effect of those lamps. They’re a little different in style than the ones I usually see, and once we have them mounted, it’ll have a good effect.”

“I should take you to the capital with me,” Aziz said in a teasing tone. “You have a more cut-throat attitude toward business than many of my CEOs.”

“I’m not entirely sure what a CEO does, or how it’s different from a CFO, COO, COW…”

Aziz chuckled.

“Fly me in to argue with people,” Laine said. “I can get a deal, but I’m not that interested in running a business and all the tedious nonsense that goes with that end of it.”

He looked terribly pleased with her. “My tiger likes to
fight
!”

Laine nodded. It was true, though sometimes she found herself getting into arguments before she’d considered the consequences of her temper. She reached for Aziz’s hand, intending to thank him for stepping in for her. When he pulled away from her and put a few steps distance in between them, she looked up at him startled.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“We are in public,” Aziz admonished. He sped up and walked in front of her now.

Laine hesitated for a moment, wondering what the difference was between holding hands here and the things they had done together in New York.

Chapter Nine

Laine walked through the long hallways of the palace. Her shoulders felt lighter this morning. The new materials were coming in, she’d contracted out work for the creation of the grand hall’s lamps, and she felt confident that while all of the work wouldn’t be done by the time she left, renovations would be well underway. She was still deciding on some critical details, but the work crew she’d hired had begun on several of the rooms that, while not currently being used, Aziz would want available soon for business.

With a large mug of a sweet, spiced coffee that Hadiya had turned her onto, Laine made her way to Aziz’s office. Then she paused at the sound of shouting. Both voices were male, and both sounded
very
angry.

“You bring dishonor to our entire family when you act this way!” barked an unfamiliar voice.

“You have nothing to say about how I act!” Aziz said.

“She makes you act a fool!” the unknown man continued. “Dancing! Swimming in fountains! Getting into fights! Your behavior reflects on
all of us
, you know!”

“It was hardly a fight,” Aziz scoffed. “A small disagreement.”

“Everyone sees your actions. Everyone sees you with this…” He made a disgusted noise. “American woman.”

“You only admit to my being head of this family when it pleases you!” Aziz challenged. “Who has consulted with the parliament? Who has used our investments to keep our family fortune from dwindling? You live off of
my
scraps, brother!”

Laine’s eyes bulged. His brother Amin!

“Arrogant, blasphemous—” Amin snarled.

“Father gave the reins to
me
for a reason,” Aziz shot back. “Go back to Manama with your family!”

“Your good works do not excuse the dallying you do—playing the clown for these low, foreign women!”

Laine could hear something shatter forcefully against the wall. She touched her lips and wondered if she should go back to Hadiya. This was a family conversation, after all—

“You
will not
speak ill of her!” Aziz roared.

Laine jumped, almost spilling her coffee. She’d never heard him sound like that. Yes, he’d confronted those who denied his wishes before, but he’d never truly sounded more than idly indignant.

“And what of this one?” Amin continued. “Why should I consider her of any value? A Western woman of no importance, no status—”

“I warn you, Amin!”

“And no faith. What are you doing with her? More fun, another plaything.”

Laine swallowed at a lump in her throat.

“You cannot even marry her,” Amin said cruelly. “You can only pollute her further!”

Laine felt as though she’d been struck. Marriage? Who was talking about marriage?

“You go too far.” Amin’s voice was a growl deep in his throat. “Your wife was not Shia when you married her, and I said nothing!”

“How dare you!”

“I do not dare; I did not. Because the affairs of your heart are yours to keep! And I will thank you to afford me the same privilege!” Something slammed loudly. “You will not speak of Laine again so disrespectfully, or you will find yourself out of this house and out of my graces, Amin. I do not expect anything but strict adherence to this rule.”

Aziz stormed from the office, running a hand through his hair angrily, and disappeared down the hall before Laine could call out to him. That had been intense. Laine had known Aziz took on a lot of responsibility in the family, but not that he was effectively in charge. He’d spoken of his father as though he were alive, but if that were true, then Aziz would have been given the reins early. Did sheikhs retire?