The Sheikh's Untameable Lover (The Tazeem Twins Series Book 4) Read online

  Cassie looked at him with a slight frown on her face. “They are just seats,” she said, shrugging.

  Just seats? Oh the blatant disrespect made Hussain boil inside. No, they were not just seats! They were his seats! And he chose where he wanted to sit. It was his car, his decision.

  He restrained himself from physically removing her from the car. It would not be that hard. Even in her high heels, she was not more than five feet seven inches and while she was curvy, she could not have weighed much more than one hundred twenty pounds. He had already proven once that he could lift her up; it would be much easier to drag her out of the car.

  Hussain had no time to waste as he checked his watch. Huffing out a breath, he climbed into the car and sat on the right side as he folded his arms and stared out the window in agitation.

  “For future reference, you sit on the right side,” he said to her. Cassie snorted.

  “Why is that so important?” she asked.

  Hussain exhaled loudly. “My car, my rules.” He did not need to explain himself. Cassie shook her head in response. Even though he wanted to point out her sassiness, he could not. Her green eyes and full lips did something to him. It was crazy. He had only met her twenty minutes ago and yet he found himself thinking about her in ways other than as an assistant. Granted her attire left little to the imagination, but when he had helped her to her feet and caught a whiff of her perfume, she stirred an unwanted feeling inside him.

  Reaching into his briefcase, he extracted a folder and opened it. He wanted to read his notes before the meeting; however, he was having difficulty concentrating sitting so close to her. Her scent distracted him. It made him think about her lips.

  “What are those for?” she asked him.

  “What?” he asked without looking up.

  “What are those papers for?”

  “Information about my upcoming meeting,” he replied sternly.

  She ran her hand through her hair. “Do you know what I noticed?” she asked him.

  “What have you noticed?” Looking up from his notes. He didn’t care really, but he had to say something to distract himself. Her long, silky brunette hair complemented her ivory complexion. Her form-fitting dress hugged her curves in all the right places and the colour brought out the sparkle in her eyes. Everything about her seemed perfect and Hussain was finding it difficult to sit next her. It bothered him because he was usually a gentleman and a professional one at that.

  “That you are so uptight,” she said.

  Hussain looked away. “And so?”

  “Have you ever thought about going on a vacation or something?”

  “What for?”

  Cassie played with a loose strand of hair. “To unwind, relax, you know... Fun!”

  “I have no time for that.”

  When they arrived at the office, the chauffeur parked and opened the door for them. Another car parked up behind theirs and Hussain's security detail, including Kalik, got out. They followed Hussain and Cassie into the building. The staff at the reception stood up and bowed to him as they walked in and he simply nodded as they headed to the elevator.

  “For this meeting, I need you take notes,” Hussain said to Cassie as they exited the elevator. She stared at him blankly as he spoke. Reaching into his briefcase, he handed her a large yellow-lined pad of paper and a multi-coloured pen. Digging around, he pulled out some coloured post-it notes and handed everything to her. “I need clear, concise notes. Start with the basics—the time the meeting started and ended and who was present—and then include everything they said. Make sure to colour code the different comments based on who said them and the topic. Oh, and flag anything with the post-it notes that I should look at first,” he added. As he spoke, her eyes got bigger and bigger.

  “What?” Cassie finally asked.

  “I do not like repeating myself,” he said as he shoved everything into her hands and walked into the conference room. Cassie followed him in slowly. There were several men present, who, when they walked in, stood and bowed to him. Sitting down at the head of the table, Hussain motioned for Cassie to sit on his right as she reluctantly joined him. She sank into the leather brown chair and fiddled with the pen in her hand. “Sit up straight,” he whispered harshly. She rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

  As the meeting began, Hussain opened with a discussion of any remaining items left from the last meeting and then followed with a quick overview of the current state of their finances before bringing up his proposition to purchase a rival company. In competition with each other since the onset, Hussain felt that the best course of action to assure success of at least one company was to buy the other out. Several of the board members liked the idea, but a few raised concerns over whether the company was solvent enough to afford such a purchase. He quickly alleviated their concerns once he outlined his plan for acquisition as well as reminded everyone of the company’s current financial standing.

  At the end of the meeting, Hussain remained in the conference room with Cassie after the board members had left. He wanted to check her notes to make sure that she had collected everyone’s concerns. He took the writing pad from her. The first couple of pages had notes on them, but they were cryptic at best and he had no idea who said what. It instantly annoyed him that she did follow his detailed instructions.

  “What is this?” he asked when he flipped the page and saw a doodle.

  “It's you,” she replied and laughed. Hussain looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

  “Me?”

  “Yes. Look how serious you are,” she giggled. “I am kind of good at drawing,” she added.

  “This is not a laughing matter,” he snapped. She stopped laughing immediately.

  “I took down notes,” she said defensively.

  “These are insufficient. This was not the way I asked you to do it.”

  She looked down and pouted. “You said a lot of things I did not understand and when I asked for clarification, you said that you did not like repeating yourself. So I did the best I could,” she replied.

  She looked like a child being scolded. Hussain sighed heavily. He should fire her immediately as well as the agency that sent her, but for some reason he did not. He threw the pad on the table angrily and stormed out of the conference room. Not wanting to be left behind, Cassie grabbed the notepad and rushed after him.

  Chapter 4

  “I'll sit on the right,” Cassie said as they got back in the car. Hussain did not respond as he sat comfortably in his seat, the left seat.

  The drive back to Hussain's house was short and quiet as he sat there like a statue barely moving a muscle other than what appeared to be a tick in his jaw. Or was he grinding his teeth? Cassie could not tell as she stole glances at him. He intrigued her. He went from showing obvious concern for her to specific expectations such as where he sat in the car. She could not recall ever meeting anyone like him before, well she did not recall anything before this morning, but that was beside the point.

  He was tall, handsome and for someone who probably worked way too much, he was in excellent shape based on the way his clothes fit him. His voice sent shivers down her spine. When she watched him during the meeting, she could see the other board members listening to him with obvious respect.

  As attractive as he was, he was also rude and controlling. He had been annoyed with her for sitting in “his” seat. She could not believe that he actually wanted her to move. He had dictated to her how to take notes. It was ridiculous. Even though she had taken notes, he had gotten so angry about the drawing. Well, what was she supposed to do during the meeting? She did not understand most of what they were talking about and she had no idea how to write it all down.

  Cassie stopped thinking about Hussain when she realised that they had arrived back at his home. They both got out of the car and headed into the house. The maids all welcomed him with bows when they walked in.

  Hussain said something to them in Arabic, which Cassie did not unders
tand. “Come,” he said to her as they both followed the maid into a drawing room. There were two black lacquer tables sitting in front of low white leather sofas with black bases and cushions. The room was quite spacious with a high ceiling. There were a few paintings scattered around the room. It was simple but very nice. A suitcase sat on the floor near the sofa.

  “I believe that is yours,” Hussain said to her as she stared at it. She did not recognise the suitcase. It did not make sense to her why she would have brought a suitcase to his house.

  “Huh?” she replied.

  Hussain glanced at his watch. “Where are you staying?”

  “I don't know, I can't remember,” she placed her hands on her hips. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

  Gesturing toward the case, “Well good luck finding a place to stay,” he said to her as she stared at him. Did he not hear her when she said that she did not remember where she was staying? From the look on his face, he did not care and was going to leave her to fend for herself.

  Cassie pulled her hands into her chest. “What? Where could I possibly go?”

  “Somewhere, anywhere.” Hussain said, folding his arms across his chest.

  As Cassie contemplated the different things she would like to say to him, not the least of which included calling him an overbearing pain in her ass, a tall beautiful woman walked into the room. She had long straight hair, nicely shaped black eyebrows, a straight nose and high cheek bones. Dressed in a long peach dress, she looked as if she had just stepped out of the pages of a glamour magazine. She was simply beautiful. “Oh Hussain, don't be so mean,” she said as she walked in and approached them.

  “Adilah, this has nothing to do with you,” Hussain said to her. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Cassie.

  “Ignore my brother. You can stay here.”

  Brother? Cassie quickly looked at Hussain and then back at Adilah. Looks definitely ran in the family. She was gorgeous and so was he. Cassie wondered who was older.

  “We are twins,” Adilah answered Cassie's unspoken question.

  “You are way better looking,” she whispered as Adilah laughed.

  “I like her already.”

  “That makes one of us,” Hussain grunted.

  Ignoring his comment, Cassie extended her hand, “I'm Cassie.” That was the only thing she knew about herself at that moment.

  “Nice to meet you, Cassie. We have plenty of room here. You are welcome to stay.”

  “Thank you, I appreciate that.”

  “What? No.” Hussain protested but Adilah dismissed him with her hand.

  “Don't pay attention to him,” she said to Cassie as she lightly touched her arm. Adilah called one of the maids into the room and asked that her things be taken to a guest room as Hussain stood there fuming at his sister. Cassie felt relieved that Adilah had walked in when she had otherwise she had no idea where she would go. She did not even know what country she was in. Hussain sighed heavily.

  “Well, at least then we can work into the night,” he said.

  “You work too much,” Adilah scolded him as she leaned in to kiss her brother’s cheek.

  Shrugging his shoulders, he looked at Cassie, “Come to my office after you are settled,” he told her before leaving the room.

  A maid showed Cassie to the room she was going to stay in as she stared around in wonder. The room was dominated by a large four-poster bed with red covers, and white and red matching pillows in a Harlequin pattern. Off to the side was a small sitting area with a white leather sofa and two small white lacquer tables with ornate legs.

  She felt as though she were staying in a five-star hotel suite. She walked into the bathroom and squealed with joy at the multi-sprayer shower positioned to hit every part of her body. Turning it on high, she quickly shed her clothes, stepped into the steamy environment and closed her eyes in delight.

  As the water splashed across her body, she attempted to wash away the day as she contemplated her predicament. She could not believe that no one was listening to her when she said that she did not know who she was or, for that matter, why was she so calm about all of this? Why wasn’t she screaming at everyone that something was wrong?

  As Cassie tilted her head under the spray, she winced when the water hit her head. Reaching up, she gingerly touched her head and felt two knots, one in front and the other in back. I must have hit my head twice; she thought as she pushed at the bumps and flinched at the pain. But when? This morning? Maybe she really was hired as Hussain’s assistant, but she fell and hit her head causing some sort of temporary memory loss, oh what was it called…amnesia. That must be it. But why wasn’t anyone else concerned? Maybe Adilah would take her seriously, she thought as she stepped out of the shower.

  When Cassie joined Hussain and Adilah for dinner, she did not realize how hungry she was until she saw the maids bringing out an assortment of foods, many of which she had never seen before. Staring at everything in delight, she took a deep breath as the sweet and savoury smells assaulted her senses.

  “So you are my brother’s new assistant?” Adilah asked her as they dug into their food.

  “Yes, I guess I am,” Cassie replied with a smile before she took a sip of her drink. She worried that maybe now was not the best time to talk about her memory loss as she hoped that Adilah would not ask her too much about herself.

  Before dinner, she had looked at the contents of her purse for any clues as to who she was, but at best, she now knew her name, age and nationality. She had an assortment of credit cards and an address in New York. She had hoped that she would have some flashes of memory, but all she had was a throbbing headache.

  “My brother is quite the perfectionist. You have to give it your all if you want to keep this job,” Adilah advised. “He changes assistants every other week.”

  “Well that does not bode well for me,” Cassie responded with a laugh.

  “Oh no,” Adilah laughed. “I do not mean to discourage you.”

  “I have already noticed that he is a perfectionist and quite uptight,” she added. Hussain narrowed his gaze at her.

  “Careful. My sister may tease me; however, you are my assistant. Watch what you say,” he said sternly.

  “Oh relax, Hussain,” Adilah said to him. Kalik walked into the room without so much as a smile as he looked around stoically. Bowing slightly, he whispered something into Hussain's ear causing him to nod and grunt slightly.

  “Why don't you join us for dinner?” Adilah said to Kalik as she shyly smiled at him.

  “Thank you for the offer but-” Before Kalik could finish his sentence, Adilah cut him off.

  “Then join us,” she said with a smile.

  “She is in a giving spirit today,” Hussain said to him as he gestured for him to sit down.

  “I appreciate the kind offer,” he said softly as he joined them at the table sitting next to Cassie and across from Adilah.

  As they dined, the women chatted as if they had known each other all their lives, while the men remained silent. Several times during the meal, Adilah attempted to engage Hussain and Kalik in conversation, but they both responded in one syllable words.

  When she saw that Kalik was about to reach for the na’an, she got their first, taking a piece and then passing the plate to him as he gave her a soft smile. Since the plate was passed in front of her, Cassie could not help but notice that Adilah brushed his hand as she handed him the plate. Her curiosity piqued, she watched the two make fervent attempts not to engage with each other as she wondered at the nature of their relationship.

  On more than one occasion, she thought she caught them staring at each other, but one would quickly break eye contact if Hussain looked up. Smiling to herself at the potential for a romance between the two, she wondered at how difficult it must be for them, as they appeared to be hiding their attraction for each other.

  After dinner, Cassie and Adilah retired to their rooms. Cassie opened her suitcase and unpacked the clothes hoping t
hat by looking through her belongings, she might trigger a memory but other than noting the expensive labels, she felt no attachment to anything in there. Finding what looked to be an incredibly expensive, high-tech laptop, she flipped it open and turned it on hoping to find some clue to her identity, but unfortunately, she could not even log on, as she growled in frustration.

  “What's the matter?” Adilah asked her as she walked into the room. Cassie ran her hand through her hair and turned to face her.

  “Everything,” Cassie said.

  “Tell me,” Adilah requested as she sat on the bed. Sighing, Cassie decided to open up and she told her as much as she knew since her first memories this morning, her utterly confusing day and the two bumps on her head.

  As she talked, Cassie felt as though a dam had been released as she poured out the angst she had managed to keep bottled up inside her all day. As she talked, Adilah slid closer to her and rubbed her hands in sympathy when she told her how Hussain had ignored her and pressed on with his own agenda. Why had he gone from caring to careless so quickly?