5. Keira
CHAPTER 5
KEIRA
“ S o here’s the problem,” Kareem said. “I’m putting this event together without my father’s knowledge.”
“I thought you said having the approval of a head of state wasn’t going to be an issue,” Keira said. “Isn’t your father the head of state?” The inner workings of Qalmar politics were still confusing to her, but she thought she understood that much, at least.
“That’s right,” Kareem said. “My father is King Hassan.”
“Well, I mean, admittedly I don’t know anything about how things work in your country,” Keira said. “But I would imagine you’d need the approval of the king. I couldn’t put on the Spritzer Cup without notifying the Governor of Nevada and getting his blessing first, and this seems like a similar situation. I think you’re going to have to tell your father what’s going on.”
“Oh, you don’t know my father,” Kareem said. “There’s no world in which I discuss this with him and he decides to cooperate. No, I’m going to have to simply do it on my own and hope he comes around after the fact.”
Keira shrugged. If he thought that was best, who was she to argue? After all, she knew nothing about the inner workings of Qalmar politics.
She swirled her martini slowly, stirring it with the stick of olives. Then she pulled the stick out and sucked one of the vodka-saturated olives into her mouth, giving herself time to think about what he had said. If Kevin had been here, he would have made some comment about the type of drink she’d chosen. He would have insisted that everyone involved with racing ought to drink beer, and he would have ordered her one without waiting to see what she thought about that.
Kevin had spent his entire life trying to make Keira fit into his vision of her role in the family. And so had her parents.
If she helped Kareem now — God, was she truly considering helping him? — she would really be putting her mark on the sport. Establishing a race in Qalmar, a totally new venue… that was something that she would be able to claim as her own for the rest of her life. It would make the ProBar cup look like small potatoes, especially if the Qalmar race succeeded and became a major event on the world stage.
But could they pull it off if King Hassan didn’t approve? Going against a king seemed like a bigger task than Keira could hope to take on.
“What will happen when your father finds out?” she asked him. This was the real sticking point. If there was a risk of anyone who’d been involved in the race getting into serious trouble, Keira couldn’t involve herself.
“Worst-case scenario, he’ll shut it down,” Kareem said.
“You don’t think he’d retaliate? I mean, you’re asking me to help you plan this thing. If he learned I’d been involved, would he be angry enough to take some sort of action against me?”
“Oh, no, definitely not,” Kareem assured her. “You can trust me on that. I’ve been disappointing my father all my life, and every time he finds out about it, he just moves to cut me off in some way. If he finds out about this, he’ll put a stop to it, but he’ll assume the whole thing is my fault. He won’t blame anyone else who was involved.”
Keira nodded. “In that case, I can consult on the project,” she said. “In fact, it sounds exciting. I’d like to help you. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll be able to help — after this race is over, I’m going back to Iowa for a few weeks.”
“Iowa is your home?”
“That’s right. I have a few weeks off before the next event I need to work on, so I’ll be taking some downtime.”
Kareem frowned thoughtfully. “What event is that? I’m not aware of another race.”
“No, it isn’t a race,” Keira said. “It’s a publicity event, in Chicago — a chance for sponsors and racers to connect, but we also position it as an opportunity for fans to meet their favorite drivers.” A knot formed in her stomach at the thought of that event, one of her least favorites of the year. It should have been a good time, but she knew there would be the usual arguments with her family when she tried to convince Kevin to take part. He would insist that there was no good reason for him to be involved, and, as usual, the rest of the family would take his side. Then, when he wasn’t given any new sponsorship deals heading into the summer season, they would blame Keira and demand to know why she hadn’t done a better job arranging meetings for him with potential benefactors.
“So you have some time off,” Kareem said. He had a faraway look in his eyes.
“What are you thinking?” Keira asked him.
“I’m thinking it might be a suitable time for you to come to Qalmar with me and help me get my event off the ground,” he said.
Keira laughed. “You want me to take off to Qalmar? Just like that?”
“Do you have a passport?”
“Sure I do, but… are you serious?”
“Why not? You were just going to go back to Iowa. You said it yourself. Wouldn’t you rather get away for a little while? It’ll be difficult for you to help me with this if we’re on separate continents, but if you’re right there, on the ground, that will make it easy. Come on — you’re exactly who I need. You’ve got experience establishing new races and maintaining old ones. You know the recipe for success. I don’t think I can do this without you, Keira.”
She shook her head slowly. “You’re saying that to try to convince me. You know you could do it without me.”
“I don’t,” he countered. “Not really. This is going to be a challenge for me. I don’t know if I’m going to be successful or not. And the reason I came to Las Vegas in the first place was in hopes of meeting with some people who had already found success at this, and how lucky was I that the first person I met was you? It’s as if it was meant to be.”
He smiled at her, his eyes shining.
He’s dangerous , Keira thought.
This was a man who knew how to charm people in order to get what he wanted. For all she knew, all sheikhs could do that — maybe it was something the royal family trained its sons in. Or maybe it was just Kareem himself. Maybe what she was experiencing right now had nothing to do with the fact that he was royal. Maybe it was nothing more than his natural charisma.
If that was the case, she definitely shouldn’t consider traveling all the way to Qalmar with him.
The unfortunate thing was, every time she looked at him, all the reasons she needed to tell him no slipped right out of her head.
And there was a good reason to do it, even if she only focused on what was practical. It would be an opportunity to show her family how good she was at her job. If this race in Qalmar got off the ground, Keira would have her first international event under her belt. She would stamp her name on the world stage of motorsports. Even Kevin hadn’t done that.
If I do what he’s proposing, the family will finally have to take me seriously.
“Say for a moment that I go along with this idea,” she said.
“You’ll do it?” He sat up straighter.
“I’m not saying I’ll do it. I’m saying I’m thinking about it. It would be nice to travel.” She took a sip of her martini, inviting the looseness of thought that came with having a drink. By the time she reached the bottom of the glass, she knew, she would be free of her tendency to overanalyze everything. “The problem is, if your father isn’t okay with this… I know you’re saying you’re the one he’ll hold responsible, and it’s not that I don’t believe that. But I’ll be on my own in a foreign country.”
“You’ll be under the protection of the crown. It’s not as if you’re going to be on your own in some discount motel. You’ll stay with me in my estate.”
“I’ll stay with you ?”
“It’s a big estate,” he assured her. “You’ll have several rooms to yourself, if it’s your privacy that’s worrying you.”
It was, but that wasn’t the only thing she was concerned about. “Kareem, how is your father going to fail to notice that something is going on if you bring back an American woman and move her into your estate? He’s going to catch on so fast. And there won’t be any point to my having traveled all the way to Qalmar, because we won’t be able to get the event off the ground. Even if I don’t get into any trouble over this, it’s not going to be worth the effort we’ll have to put in. I’ll be on a plane back home in three days.”
“Well, I thought about that,” Kareem admitted.
“You did?”
“Yes. And I have a solution… but it’s a bit of a strange one.”
“It’s not going to be any stranger than anything else you’ve said to me today.”
Kareem laughed. “Wait until you’ve heard me out before you say that,” he said. “You’re right about how my father is going to respond. The moment he gets a clue that I’m moving forward with this race, he’ll do whatever he can to shut the whole thing down. And having you around is going to be a major clue that we don’t want to deal with. So here’s my solution — you and I get married.”
He had said it so quickly, so matter-of-factly, that for a moment it didn’t even register with Keira just how odd that statement was.
Then it hit her.
She lowered her drink slowly. “What did you just say?”
The question sounded hollow in her ears, as if she was hearing herself speak underwater, and she wondered if she was starting to dissociate. Or maybe this whole thing had been a dream. Because surely this couldn’t be real. Surely a handsome sheikh hadn’t walked into the Spritzer Cup and asked her to marry him. Even with context, the whole thing was ridiculous.
“It wouldn’t be permanent,” Kareem said quickly. “I’m talking about a temporary arrangement. Something to explain to my father why I’m moving a woman into the estate.”
“He’d believe that you just randomly married an American he had never met before? Is that the kind of thing you ordinarily do?”
“I’ve been known to be impulsive,” Kareem said. “And my father will have no trouble believing the worst about me. No, I’ve never been married before. But this won’t shock him at all.”
“Why don’t we just say we’re married?”
“The crown will demand that paperwork be filed. They’ll want proof.”
The hair on the back of Keira’s neck stood up. “And what’s that going to mean for me? Will I be… royal? Will I have some kind of responsibility I have to fill? Oh, God, they’re not going to want me to produce an heir, are they?”
“Nothing like that,” Kareem assured her. “Remember, I’m not the heir either. My brother Amir is the one who has to worry about an heir. And you and I will go our separate ways long before you’d have to worry about royal duties of any kind, I promise.”
“I don’t know, Kareem.” The martini glass was empty now, but Keira was feeling less sure of herself than ever. Why was she even considering this?
“I’ll pay you for your time,” Kareem said.
Her eyes widened. “You’re going to pay me to marry you?”
“Of course not! What do you take me for? I meant I’d pay you a consultation fee,” he said. “You’ll get a percentage of what we earn on the event — say, thirty percent?”
“ Thirty percent? Kareem, you can’t pay me that much. You’re going to have to pay your vendors, your staff, you’re going to have to rent a venue?—”
“I’ve thought of all that,” Kareem said. “But I’m not going to take a cut for myself. This is a passion project for me. I don’t need to earn money doing it. So I can afford to give you a significant portion of the earnings.” He swirled his own martini, still half full, in his hand. “Would that make it worth your while to come to Qalmar with me?”
“And to marry you?” She hesitated. It was a huge thing to ask.
But it was beginning to seem more and more alluring, if she was honest with herself. Not only would she stamp her name on what would hopefully become a big world event, but she would also have the money to ensure that the ProBar cup was able to continue successfully for years. Keira would become the biggest name on the production side of motorsports. F1 drivers would beg for a place in her events, and everyone would have to take her seriously. It would change her status within her family once and for all.
Besides, what was she really being asked to do? Travel to an exotic location and spend time with a charming and handsome man? It was outlandish, but it did sound like fun.
“Give me your phone number,” she told him. “I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know what I decide.”