Chapter 6
“No!” Tasha gasped, staring at the news article that had popped up on her tablet. “This isn’t…!”
Tasha stopped the incoherent flow of words as she skimmed the news article. “She’s an evil witch!” she hissed. “And that woman…he’d hate her within a month of the wedding!”
“Who is an evil witch and who would hate whom within a month?” a deep voice inquired.
Tasha jerked to attention as Khal stepped into her office. She stood up so quickly, her office chair nearly tumbled backwards. “Your Highness! I thought you were in a meeting for another…” she blinked at the time on the corner of her computer monitor and realized that his meeting had ended five minutes ago. “I’m sorry!” she gasped. “I didn’t realize what time it was.” She gathered up the papers she’d been working on. “I made notes on the environmental issues for the new–”
“What were you reading before I walked in?” Khal interrupted, ignoring work for once as his firm lips pulled into a tight line.
“Nothing, Your Highness,” she replied, unable to look him in the eye as she lied. “It’s nothing at all.”
Tasha dumped several file folders on top of her tablet, hoping to hide the article that was still open on the device. “How was your meeting with your brothers?”
“Boring,” Joran drawled, walking into Tasha’s office and standing right behind Khal. “Big brother is working too hard.”
Tasha’s lips twitched as she fought back a smile and glanced at Khal. It was true. Khal worked twenty hours a day and hadn’t taken any time off during the year she’d worked for him. He was dedicated to fixing all of the problems he’d inherited from his father’s rule.
“He’s become boring,” another voice agreed.
Tasha blinked when she saw Prince Raj, the youngest of the three brothers, stepping into her office. What had previously been a perfectly sized workspace, now felt tiny and cramped with three muscular men, each standing over six feet tall, in it.
Rallying quickly, Tasha remembered her palace protocol and turned to the youngest member of the royal family. “I don’t think we’ve met, Your Highness,” she said, performing an awkward curtsy as Prince Raj looked around her office.
“Why the hell does Raj get a curtsy and not me?” Joran teased, reaching out to shove Raj’s shoulder playfully. The youngest brother didn’t even sway, though he did roll his beautiful, mischievous eyes.
“Because the lovely lady knows that she’s in the presence of greatness,” Raj explained, moving around his two older brothers to take Tasha’s hand. “You must be the magical Tasha,” he said, kissing her knuckles. “If Khal had mentioned how beautiful you are, I would have come here sooner.”
A menacing growl came from behind Raj. Tasha ignored Raj’s antics as she looked to Khal. When she noticed the angry glint directed to his youngest brother, she quickly snatched her hand away.
With a teasing look back at the man, she said, “If I’d known that you’d bring your playboy ways back home, I would have kept you away even longer.”
Raj laughed, punching his oldest brother’s shoulder. “Can I help it if I’m naturally charming?”
Khal rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “Has she arrived yet?” he asked.
It took Tasha a long moment to realize what her boss meant. When the answer registered, she stiffened, nodding efficiently. “Yes!” she hissed. “I mean,” Tasha looked around, distracted by his dark, fulminating glare, and pushed several stacks of files out of the way. Finally, she uncovered her tablet and started to tap on the screen, but a big hand snatched the tablet away.
“What the hell?” Khal hissed, as he quickly scanned the article. “They’re betting on my marriage?”
There was a long, stunned moment of silence, with both Raj and Joran peering at the article over Khal’s shoulder. A minute later, Raj burst out laughing. Tasha wasn’t able to ignore his contagious humor, but tried to suppress her amusement while shaking her head at the glint in the handsome man’s eyes. “You’re trouble,” she murmured.
She hadn’t meant for Raj to hear her, but he winked at her, confirming her thought.
Joran was too busy looking over his brother’s shoulder, his dark eyes skimming the article. “You’re dating Princess Marjorie?” the middle brother asked. “I guess I really have been out in the mountains for too long.” He smacked their oldest brother on the back as if congratulating Khal. “Obviously, I’m out of the loop.”
“You and your spy games,” Raj joked with a shake of his head. “There are so many more interesting things to do with one’s time. I don’t know why you prefer to jump out of planes and push yourself through all of that grunt stuff with the special forces.”
“It trains the mind and body,” Joran replied distractedly as he reached out to shift the screen so he could read the rest of the article. “What’s this about Countess Balari?” he demanded. He looked over at Raj. “I thought you dated her last summer.”
Raj’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “I wouldn’t call what Balari and I were doing ‘dating’ per se. She was…interesting.” Then he shuddered, his handsome features shifting to disdain.
Joran ignored his younger brother’s comments and looked at Khal. “Why the hell would you date two women at the same time?”
Khal sighed impatiently. “I’m not dating anyone! I don’t have time to date one woman, much less two!”
“Three, apparently,” Joran interjected, pointing to the screen. “There’s also Mia DiAsssimo.” He looked at Raj. “She was brilliant in that movie…what was it called?” he asked, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember the name of the film.
“The Epiphany,” Tasha provided. “I loved that movie.” She didn’t realize how sad her tone came across until she looked up, startled by the sudden silence and found all three men staring at her. “What?”
When they continued to stare at her as if she’d just said something vile, she impatiently plucked her tablet out of Khal’s hands. With a tap to the screen, the news article disappeared. Good! She wouldn’t admit it to them, but the thought of Khal dating someone, especially one of the three women mentioned in the article, caused a painful ache in her chest that didn’t make sense.
She schooled her features into a professional expression. “Your sister is scheduled to arrive in a few minutes, Your Highnesses,” she said. She turned to Khal. “And after her arrival, you have a meeting with the interior minister,” she continued, tapping the file underneath Khal’s arm.
“Right,” he grumbled. “We’ll discuss this later. We need to head over to greet this new half-sister of ours.”
Joran rubbed his hands together. “A sister. What a novel idea! Do we get to play big brother to her little sister?” he asked.
Raj rolled his eyes. “She’s sixteen, you moron. She doesn’t need a big brother anymore. Her playground days are over, so we don’t get to beat up the stupid boys who think it’s okay to pull her braids.”
Tasha tried not to laugh at the imagery of these three, large, overly protective men beating up a small boy on the playground.
“She’s sixteen,” Khal interjected. “We’ll have other big brother issues to deal with. But our first priority is to make sure she feels welcome and get to know her.”
“Agreed,” Raj said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s do this!”
“Your Highness!” a frazzled-looking man rushed into Tasha’s office. He looked at the two other brothers, not sure how to handle the ruler, the crown prince, and the younger prince, all in the same room. It wasn’t common for the brothers to be together.
“My apologies, Your Highnesses!” the man gasped and performed a perfunctory bow. “I just…,” he looked around, glanced at Khal, then at the other two men and swallowed painfully. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” he finally blurted out, pulling himself together enough and jerking his robe back into place.
Tasha took pity on the poor man. She understood how intimidating these three men could be. “Minister Hozan, do you have some information?”
The man’s eyes finally focused as he took a deep breath and started again. “There has been an explosion at a utility plant in the Dishan district, Your Highness.”
“A bomb?” Khal demanded, immediately shifting from “brother” mode into “ruler” mode.
The older man shrugged. “We don’t know yet, Your Highness. It could have been a malicious incident, or it could have been an accident. The explosion happened less than five minutes ago. I got the news and rushed to update you. I knew that you’d want to hear about this immediately.”
Khal hid his frustration behind a clenched jaw. He looked over at Joran and Raj. “Could you convey my greeting to our sister? Tell her…?” he started, only to hesitate, frustration lacing his voice now. “I don’t want her to hear about this incident. I don’t want her to be scared of Lativa on her first day in our country.”
Raj held up his hand. “We got it covered. Go do your thing and we’ll greet Marianna for you. We can all have dinner tonight, as a family.”
Khal hesitated again, but in the end, everyone knew that he needed to take care of the explosion incident. If the explosion was a bomb, if it was a terrorist threat, Khal would need to react quickly. And he’d need minute by minute information to decide how to react. If the explosion was simply an accident, then he’d need to know about injuries and organize help for the victims and their families.
Either way, the explosion was going to completely disrupt his schedule for the day, and most likely his night as well.
Tasha shifted slightly, drawing Khal’s attention back to her. “I’ll shift everything on your schedule today, Your Highness.”
He looked at her with an unexpected expression and, for some reason, she felt a happy, warm glow flush over her. That wasn’t admiration, she told herself. Khal simply respected her flexibility. That was all. Nothing more.
Tasha watched him walk away, unable to keep her eyes from admiring his broad, powerful shoulders. She might have sighed a bit as well, but….
That’s when she remembered the two other abnormally large men still standing in her office. “Your Highnesses!” she gasped, straightening and praying that her cheeks weren’t as pink as they felt. “Do…do you need something else from me? Is there some way I can help either of you?” she asked, looking down at her tablet.
There was a long silence, and Tasha finally looked up only to find Joran and Raj smiling down at her with identical expressions.
“What?” she asked, feeling as if she should explain. But what could she say? She had the hots for her boss? Nope, that wasn’t going to happen. First of all, it was beyond cliché. And secondly, she didn’t want to be part of the man’s fan club. Even the press was talking about the hordes of ladies around the globe who lusted after Sheik Khal. Tasha had never been one to participate in group sports.