Free Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) by Sophia Lynn Page A

don't you get right on that?”
    “Oh, unlike you, I don't mind having my little bit of fun. If I have to spend too long in stuffy protocol meetings, I don't want to come home to a prim miss who wants to talk about household matters all day. At the moment, I'm looking for a fling, someone passionate who will delight me and allow herself to be delighted in return.”
    Nasim shook his head. “You are going to hurt someone else and get badly hurt yourself if you are not careful,” he said, but he knew that it was no use. Marid was like a juggernaut in some ways, and when he was intent on something, little in the world could stop him.
    “I know what I want,” Marid responded. “At the moment, all I can hope is that you figure things out sooner rather than later.”
    At that moment, Nasim's phone chimed at him. He had a text, and when he looked down, he realized with a pang how excited he could be simply seeing her name.
    No problem at all, I just miss you a ton. Please take care of yourself, and let me know when you want to meet next!
    He sighed, and though he might not have told Marid this, his friend was right. They were careening towards some inevitable ending, and if they were not cautious, someone was going to be hurt.
    ***
    Hundreds of miles away, in her office in the Old Quarter, Ella hit send before she could add I love you to the message. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world, but perhaps it was too much?
    Her relationship with Nasim was like a dream in some cases. They danced around the question of sexual intimacy as if it were a loaded gun, but everywhere else, they simply flowed towards each other, completing each other in ways that they didn't realize were missing. He was the first thing she thought of in the morning, and the last thing she thought of at night.
    In between, she talked about her feelings with Emmaline, who seemed to be getting more and more nervous with every passing day.
    I hope you know what you're doing, her sister had written. You tell me he's changed, but this is what I remember from New York. You were so happy. You were so in love, and then …
     And then she had run face first into the reality of his position. She had seen for herself that he wasn't just a single man. He was a man with a history rooted deep in a very traditional family. She had had slurs flung into her face by a man who couldn't look beyond her heritage to see what lay behind it. Sometimes, she could still picture Azim's face, and though she knew he was dead, she felt a little trickle of fear.
    With just one well-timed tirade, he had ended everything that she had built her hopes on. The man was dead, but the world that built him was very much alive, and sometimes, she wondered when she was going to meet it again.
    She sighed, putting her thoughts away, because after all, she was in Dalal to do a job. Today she had a series of manuscripts in front of her. Amira has pulled them out of the slush pile as having some serious promise, but even still, perhaps only one out of seventy would go on to be published. Perhaps one out of fifty after that would achieve some success.
    Ella lost herself in the stories that were in front of her. In some ways, they were universal. People across the world wanted the same things. They wanted to be safe. They wanted to be acknowledged, and they wanted to be loved. Sometimes, they would do terrible things to keep what they had. Sometimes, they would allow terrible things to be done to them.
    She dismissed two manuscripts fairly quickly, but the third seized her by the throat and would not let her go. It was a love story, one set some four hundred years ago in Khayyam. Ella couldn't help but think of the fortress that she and Nasim had visited just a few weeks ago, but here, instead of an empty and desolate ruin, it was a vivid and thriving place, the prize by conquest of a man who had carved a country out of sand and water.
    Ella barely looked at the time as she kept on reading, and