Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 251(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 251(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“What’s a viewing room?” Harper couldn’t help asking. Weren’t those what windows were for?
“I’m glad you asked,” the aide – Melina – answered with a smile, “but I believe it is better to show you, anisdi.”
And so off they went to the viewing room, with Melina opening the door with flourish. “Your magic carpet, anisdi.”
Oh!
The room was small and sparsely furnished, but it was the floor that took her breath away. It was completely transparent, allowing passengers to view what the plane would be flying over. “For security reasons, we press this button here—-” Melina gestured to the switch panel behind a glass cabinet. “And a secondary layer covers the glass floor. It will be available to use as soon as we’re airborne.”
The pilot then announced via the PA that they were readying for takeoff, and Melina escorted her back to the third floor. Khalil was already in his seat, and Harper hesitated by the doorway. “I could just, you know...” She shrugged uneasily. “Downstairs?” After everything she had seen, it just didn’t feel right to stay next to the king. The palace was the palace, but it had never really sank into her mind that it belonged to Khalil. In her mind, it was like a museum that belonged to the people of Ramil, and Khalil simply happened to live in that museum.
But this plane...
This plane was reality, and it gave her hundreds of millions’ worth of reasons why she should not have anything to do with him.
Harper looked at the sheikh. “So...can I?”
Despite the vagueness of her earlier words, the sheikh had understood her perfectly. He smiled, and just as Harper started to tentatively smile back at him, Khalil said pleasantly, “Your place is with me.”
Harper scowled.
He crooked a finger at her.
Her face flamed. She wanted to bite that finger and break it at the same time.
Through the PA, the pilot repeated his request for passengers to take their seats, and Harper stalked to the seat next to Khalil. “Bully,” she hissed at him under her breath.
Ignoring her hiss, Khalil said, “Let me help you with that.”
Harper frowned. Help with what? And then the sheikh leaned towards her, reaching for her seatbelt, and she jerked. “No, it’s okay—-” His arm brushed against her breast as he reached for the other end of her seatbelt. She shut up and focused on breathing instead.
It took him the longest time to secure her seatbelt, with his arm constantly brushing against her breasts. By the time he finally pulled away, she was red-faced, breathless, and turned on.
Their eyes met.
He smirked.
Damn sheikh.
“Are you alright?” he asked politely.
“Better than ever,” she snarled. Damn sheikh.
As the plane sped down the runway for takeoff, the sheikh murmured, “Remember when I said I had something to tell you?”
“No.” She was simply being contrary, and when he smiled, she knew he was letting her know that he knew it was so – and he found it amusing. Damn sheikh.
Grimacing, she grumbled, “Fine, I do remember. What is it?”
The plane took off, forcing them to lean back against their seats, and as she felt her stomach do its tiny customary flip, she heard the sheikh murmur something like, Will you marry me?
Even Harper had to smile a little at that.
Yeah right.
As the noise of their flight receded, she glanced back at the sheikh, saying, “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. What did you say again?”
He smiled at her. “I think you did.”
Oh, that smile. That heart-stopping, jaw-dropping smile. She cleared her throat and told herself to stop being a ninny. “I really didn’t.”
“Very well then.” And with that too-sexy smile still playing on his lips, the sheikh asked in a perfectly casual voice, “Will you marry me?”
Chapter Six
Harper had not spoken for fifteen minutes now. Khalil didn’t mind, and while her silence had initially surprised him, he realized after a while that it was exactly like her to react like this. Although her temper tended to have a short fuse over the smallest of things, Harper was the opposite in the moments that mattered. He recalled a story about her once, the first time she had heard of her father’s injury and the possibility that he would never walk again. She had been silent for a long while, and then – while her father had been in the operating room for hours – she had started reading books. Started talking to doctors. Started asking about the funds that were available to soon-to-be-decommissioned soldiers like Howard.
When Howard had woken up, his daughter was by his side, and she had the answers to all the questions he could ever want to ask.
Looking at her now, with her brows furrowed and her gaze darting to him once in a while, he knew she was thinking things through, considering and dismissing possibilities that did not fit his profile.