Chapter 5
Laith stared down into his scotch, contemplating all of the ways he wanted to make love to Andi-Andrea. Her soft, full lips tempted him and those blue eyes…they dared him. Laith had never experienced lust like this. He wanted to pin her to any available surface and make her his.
He was startled out of his fantasies by a massive dog. The year old German Shephard nearly leapt onto Laith’s lap, eagerly licking his face.
“Down, Aida!” Laith ordered, pushing the obnoxious dog away.
A chuckle came from the doorway and Laith looked up to find himself staring at…himself.
“Get your damn dog off of me,” he told his twin brother, Prince Rafi Al-Sintra.
Rafi ignored Laith, strolling over to the liquor cabinet. He poured himself a glass of scotch, then brought the decanter over to Laith’s and refilled his glass.
“Good luck trying to get Aida to obey,” Rafi sighed, setting the decanter on the coffee table. Before Rafi could sit down, he had to snatch the glass bottle again, since the overexcited furball leapt onto the table, ready to lick the glass.
“Why the hell did you bring that beast with us?”
Rafi sighed, leaning back and snapping his fingers.
The dog immediately came over, jumped up onto the leather sofa, and laid his giant head in Rafi’s lap.
“Because the security team wanted to train him away from the other dogs,” he explained, scratching behind the canine’s ears and ignoring the drool that was now seeping into his well-tailored slacks.
“If he doesn’t learn to obey during training here, he’ll be–”
“Don’t say it,” Laith interrupted, scowling at his twin brother. “He’ll make it.”
The dog perked up, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth as his ears twitched. Laith chuckled. “You know we’re talking about you, don’t ya?” he grumbled, lowering his hand to the side of the chair. Immediately, the dog leapt up and came over to lick Laith’s dangling hand.
“How did your meeting go?” Rafi asked, sipping his scotch.
Laith wasn’t sure how to answer. They’d always shared everything, but somehow, telling Rafi about Andi felt…wrong. Maybe because he knew that the lovely, fiery woman was off limits. Or perhaps it was because…he wasn’t sure.
So instead, he concentrated on the business side of the meeting, which was most likely what Rafi meant anyway. “The meeting revealed that the financials are worse off than we’d thought. At least in some areas.”
Rafi grimaced. “We knew it would be bad, but how bad was it?”
Aida nudged Laith’s hand impatiently, then grumbled happily when fingers dug into his thick fur.
“I don’t know yet. I’m putting together a team to visit the various production sites and sift through the financials, evaluate any legal issues, fix the engineering problems, and resolve personnel difficulties.
” He stopped scratching and Aida sighed before wandering back to Rafi. “I’ll start in Singapore next week.”
Rafi nodded, ruffling the dog’s ears, then his belly when Aida rolled over. “There are some great products coming out of the production line soon. But whoever is in charge of ordering and supplies, they’ve lost control. Something isn’t right in that office.”
“I agree, but we won’t know what’s off until we’re there in person.”
“Yeah,” Rafi replied, running a hand through Aida’s rough hair. “I’m not sure what is going on around here, but it’s weird.”
“And probably will become a bigger problem if we don’t find the source soon.”
The brothers shared a look, then sighed in silent agreement as Aida nudged Rafi’s hand again, silently begging for more attention.