Chapter 26
DEJA
After spending most of the day evading what felt like everyone in Cairo, I sat behind the dressing table in my suite, more relieved than ever that night was finally falling.
Colin was still stuck with Dad and the men, but the constant echo of voices and laughter from downstairs had been fading for the last hour or so, the ebb and flow of family and friends arriving and leaving all day long seemingly easing for the night.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean that it was quiet in here. Jasmine stood in front of my closet with her arms crossed and her eyes wide with exasperation. “I’ll only borrow it.”
“No.”
She sighed. “Come on, Deja. I’ll bring it back tomorrow. First thing.”
“No, you won’t, because you’re not borrowing it.” I looked up at her in the reflection of the oval-shaped mirror in front of me. “You have an entire wardrobe of your own. Why do you even need one of my dresses when you have enough clothes to outfit a small nation?”
“I’ve worn everything I own.”
I rolled my eyes. “So have I. Why does that matter?”
“Because I’ve been photographed in all of it.”
“By whom?” I snorted. “You’re not a celebrity who can’t be seen in the same thing twice. The press doesn’t care about us enough to be concerned about what we wear.”
“They don’t, but my Instagram does.” She turned to face my open closet and started rifling through it. “I don’t get why it’s such a big deal. I’m just trying to go out for the night. I won’t flee to a remote island and keep your dress on for the rest of time.”
“That’s what you said about my white blazer.”
She sighed, pulling out a navy blue cocktail dress and holding it up in front of herself. “Can you please just let that go? It’s ancient history.”
“It was two months ago, and you brought it home covered in stains. From what? Only God knows.”
“But I did bring it home,” she said like that was checkmate.
“You might as well not have. I had to throw it out. No one could get those stains out, so it’s gone. For the rest of time.”
Jasmine tugged the dress closer, getting that pinched, puppy-eyed look on her face that told me she wasn’t going to let this go, but then my bedroom door burst open without so much as a courtesy knock and Rami walked in.
Tarek, Jasmine’s twin, followed right behind him, neither of them looking even remotely surprised to find her attempting to rob my closet.
“Are you going out?” Rami asked, glancing at the sequined dress she’d tossed on my bed as soon as they’d appeared.
She lifted her chin, looking straight into his eyes as she shook her head. “No.”
“No?” He arched an eyebrow at her. “What’s the dress for, then? You were just admiring the craftsmanship?”
She shrugged. “It’s damn fine work.”
Tarek snorted. “You’re going out.”
“You should learn how to knock,” she shot back.
“It’s our house,” he argued. “Our sister’s bedroom.”
“Exactly,” I finally interjected. “It’s my bedroom and you should all leave now. Seriously, don’t you losers have lives?”
Rami leaned against the wall, looking between the two of us before focusing on Jasmine again. “So, where are we going?”
“We?” She scoffed. “We’re not going anywhere. I am going to a club. You can go f?—”
“Is it that new place Omar is working the door at now?” Tarek interrupted. He grinned at Rami. “You know, I’ve been meaning to check it out.”
Jasmine narrowed her eyes, her arms folding tightly over her chest. “No. You can check it out another night.”
Rami chuckled, pushing off the wall and moving closer to Tarek. “Why wait? We’ll all go.”
“All?” I shook my head, realizing that the time had come to make my stand. “You’re not dragging me into this. If you want to go, go, but I’m staying right here.”
The horror that flickered across Jasmine’s face was priceless. “No, if they’re going, you’re coming too. You’re not leaving me alone with them.”
“She’s right.” Rami turned to smirk at me. “We’ll bring Colin too. It’ll give us a chance to get to know him better.”
“Feel him out a bit,” Tared agreed without skipping a beat. “We have to know whether he’s serious enough for you some time. It might as well be tonight.”
My heart skipped. “No, you’re not making him go to a club on his first night in Cairo. That’s horrible.”
“It’s strategic,” Rami countered. “He’ll be tired. His guard will be down. It’s perfect.”
“No, it’s cruel,” I said, but they kept running ahead with the plans as if I wasn’t even there anymore.
“We should ask him embarrassing questions,” Tarek said, smiling like he’d won a freaking teddy bear at a fair. “Oh, and make him dance.”
Rami nodded enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear. “I like it. We’ll see if we can get him to loosen up around us.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “My opinion doesn’t matter at all in this conversation, does it?”
“Of course, it does,” Rami said, winking at me. “It’s just that we’ve already considered it and voted you out of the fun-time planning team.”
I groaned. “Nightclubs are not fun.”
“See?” Tarek shot me a genuinely pained look. “That’s why you can’t be part of the planning team. You have no idea what fun even is.”
I stood up from behind the dressing table and faced off with them. “I know that my idea of it doesn’t include sweaty bodies, deafening music, and the smell of desperation.”
“Wow,” Jasmine said, rolling her eyes. “Thanks for that. I happen to love nightclubs and I’m not desperate.”
“Then you can go,” I said. “I, however, am not.”
“Fine, then we’ll just take your fiancé without you,” Rami said with victory sparking in his onyx eyes. “Is that really what you want, for us to take the poor guy out without you being there to protect him?”
“Colin can handle himself,” I said flatly, but my brother knew he had me beat. “He doesn’t need me to protect him, but I don’t even know where he’s been all day and he must be exhausted.”
“Dad took him around to see the GlobalStar offices and some of our manufacturing facilities,” Rami said, finally taking just a shred of pity on me.
“He survived, Deja. He’s fine, and it’s not like he flew over here cattle class.
I’m sure he is tired after the day, but he would’ve gotten some sleep on the jet and I’m not suggesting we torture the guy.
We’ll just take him out for a few drinks. ”
I exhaled a slow, relieved breath. “Where is he now? Are they even back yet?”
“Yep, he’s downstairs.”
“With Dad?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “It’s worse. He’s with the aunties.”
I winced. “Shit. I thought they’d all left.”
“Most have,” Tarek said cheerfully. “The others are still here, though. I’m pretty sure they’re moving in.”
As if the universe had wanted to drive home his point, a chorus of laughter floated up through the house and I groaned. “He’s never getting out, is he?”
“Nope,” he replied, still sounding way too happy about it. “Unless we save him, he’ll be force-fed until midnight.”
“They’ve probably already asked him about grandchildren,” Rami said. “Mom was talking to him in the kitchen earlier and I’m pretty sure I heard her ask about fertility issues in his family.”
My eyes slammed shut. “She did not.”
“Oh, she did,” he said, motioning toward the door when I looked at him. “I’ll go rescue him, but only if you agree to go out with us tonight.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“It’s business.”
I looked from him to Jasmine, but she wasn’t about to help me, already nodding so enthusiastically that her earrings were swinging. Tarek seemed so delighted by the prospect of interrogating my fiancé in public that I didn’t even try to change his mind.
There was only thing for it. While I wasn’t particularly fond of nightclubs, Colin had spent the better part of the day with my father. If a night out bought him a few uninterrupted hours away from that nonsense, it seemed like a small price to pay.
“Fine,” I said eventually. “I’ll go.”
Jasmine squealed, clapping her hands together like she hadn’t been vehemently opposed to our brothers coming out with her just minutes ago, but Rami grinned and starting backing out of my room. “Alright. You guys get ready. I’ll go get lover boy.”
My brothers walked out. Tarek trailed behind Rami like he planned on being the muscle in this endeavor.
Jasmine grabbed the dress I’d said she couldn’t borrow, and she rushed down the hall too.
I sighed, but knowing that I was going to get to spend the night with Colin made me a lot less inclined to race after her to steal it back.
Instead, I went over to shut the door they’d all left hanging open like freaking barn animals.
Then I wandered to my closet, already mentally flipping through my options.
This was the first time Colin and I would be going out together—and his first time out at night in Cairo at all—and I wanted to look good.
If I was going to be his wife, I wanted him to feel proud to have me on his arm. I also wouldn’t feel bad if me being all dressed up affected him in other ways, too. A flush spread across my cheeks at the thought, my heart suddenly racing.
God, I have such a crush on my future husband.
I felt a bit like a schoolgirl, but it was weirdly nice to feel this way, all giddy and excited to spend time with him.
It had been a long time since I’d felt anything like it, but with Colin, the anticipation of seeing him again, of getting to know him better, and of our first kiss—and first other things—was practically intoxicating.
I wanted it all so, so badly, and the fact that this was the man who was going to be my husband?
Don’t squeal, Deja. Do not do it.
Barely managing to suppress the sound, I opened my closet and started getting ready.
Jasmine eventually reappeared in my doorway. “We’re leaving.”
I glanced up at her, fastening an earring. “Now?”
“Yep. The night’s not getting any younger.”
I decided against giving her any flack for being in my dress. “Are the guys even ready? It hasn’t been that long.
“Rami convinced Dad to let Colin loose for the night and save all the rest of the formal engagement talk for later in the week. But come here.” She pressed a finger to her lips, crossing the room and slipping out onto the balcony that overlooked one of the inner courtyards.
With my earrings now in, all I had left to do was put on shoes, so I followed her on bare feet, silently joining her on the balcony.
The evening air was warm and still, without so much as a breeze to obscure the familiar voices drifting up from below.
I couldn’t see them, but I heard Dad, Rami, and Tarek loud and clear.
“It’s a splendid idea,” Dad was saying. “You’ll use it as an opportunity to vet him?”
“Yep,” Rami agreed immediately. “We’ll take him out with us, talk about stuff that isn’t business or the engagement, and we’ll see how he fits in.”
My father nodded. “Good boys. Let me know how he does.”
“We will,” Tarek assured him. “If he does anything to embarrass the family, we’ll know about it.”
“What about the girls?” Dad asked. “They’re staying home?”
“Yes, sir,” Rami said firmly. “It’s just the boys tonight.”
I turned toward Jasmine, who smirked as she jerked her head back toward my room, mouthing, “Come on.”
“No,” I whispered as soon as I straightened up and followed her back in. “What was that all about?”
“We’re supposed to be staying home.” She shrugged, sliding the balcony door shut before speaking in her normal voice again. “We have to go now or our cover will be blown.”
She grabbed my wrist, but I didn’t budge. “I’m not sneaking out like a teenager. We’re in our late twenties.”
“That’s exactly why we’re sneaking out,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to stay home just because Dad said so.”
“I’m not?—”
My mother’s heels clicked against the tile in the courtyard and both Jasmine and I immediately flattened ourselves against the wall just in case she looked up. Layla Saad would not believe that we were both dressed up to stay home if she saw us like this.
We stayed perfectly still until she disappeared, and I sighed once she was gone. “I hate that that instinct took over. I pay taxes. I’m basically running the company. Why am I hiding from my mother?”
“Because you’re sensible enough to know that you have to if you want to see Colin tonight.” She headed to other side of the room, sneaking out onto the second-floor balcony that overlooked the driveway. “We’re scaling it.”
“We are not,” I objected, but I was already following her anyway. Because she was right. Escaping really was the only way I was getting to see Colin without a whole bunch of drama. “This is ridiculous.”
And yet, when Jasmine swung a leg over the decorative railing, I was right behind her, both of us having done this too many times before. She stepped onto the thick stone ledge, grabbed the branches of the sprawling jacaranda tree that reached the balcony, and disappeared.
Once she was gone, I grabbed my shoes and took my turn, ignoring the branches snagging at me on the way down. I landed in a shrub, brushing leaves from my dress as I straightened up and glared at my sister. “Next time, we’re using the stairs.”
She smiled at me but didn’t say anything. Two security guards standing near the outer wall had watched the entire performance, but neither of them tried to stop us, so used to our antics at this point that they’d long since stopped getting in our way.
The bigger problem wasn’t the human security. It was the electronic eyes we would have to avoid. Our cameras were highly monitored, and those guards would absolutely tell our father if they caught us.
Jasmine and I skirted around the side of the house, carefully picking our way across the lawns to stay out of sight until we reached the driveway, where a black SUV was already waiting. My brothers were climbing into it. Colin stood beside the door, his features softening as soon as he spotted me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked quietly when I reached him. “I saw you fall into another bush.”
“No you didn’t.” I grinned at him and dared him to contradict me.
“Right, my mistake.” He took a step closer, looking me over from head to toe with concern lingering in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m feeling better now.” Without really thinking about it, I reached for his hand and squeezed it. “I promise.”
His fingers closed around mine, but we still had one more escape to make, and once that was done, I really would be feeling better.