Free Sheikh's Stand In by Sophia Lynn Page A

three weeks straight of campaigning, and now her assistant was getting frustrated with her.
    "Viv, you are in high demand, and if you don't start meeting some of that, it's going to start falling. I'm pretty sure you can survive being off the market for a while, but we both know …"
    "But we both know that if you stay out of the public eye for too long it’s a special kind of career suicide, yeah …"
    Viviana chewed on her thumbnail as she paced. She looked up as the door opened, and she waved at Mikal to keep quiet as she talked.
    "Look, it's your career, and I'm going to be the last one to tell you what to do—"
    "That's a lie and we both know, Marnie."
    "Yes, well. Basically, decide what you're going to do so I have something to tell these people who want to work with you. You have the assignments that are coming up? If you could just pick even one of them, that would be good. Just one. Doesn't have to be a long one, though I have my own opinions as to how public it should be. Just look them over, Viv."
    "Gotcha. I'll call back in twenty-four hours, and we'll figure something out."
    After hanging up her phone, Viviana threw herself backwards on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
    "Tough call?" asked Mikal, coming to pat her shoulder.
    "Dumb call," she said. “Marnie wants me to do an appearance of some sort somewhere. She thinks it's hurting my image to stay off the radar for so long. I'm telling her that it doesn't matter because I've been doing so much work with you, but she disagrees."
    Mikal made a thoughtful sound as he rubbed her shoulder gently. Viviana moaned a little as his touch grew firmer. She flipped over onto her stomach, and without paying much attention, he started to massage her tight shoulder muscles. She hadn't realized how tense that message had made her.
    "Well, is she telling the truth?"
    Viviana thought for a moment, and then sighed. "Honestly? Yeah, she probably is. Marnie might be completely tactless, but she's definitely someone who has my best interests at heart. If she tells me something's good for my career, she's usually right."
    "Hmm, then you should definitely do an appearance."
    For some reason, the idea that he wanted her to go do an appearance made something in her crack a little. It was a strange feeling, and an unwelcome one, and she shied away from it.
    "I don't know," she said. "Isn't there a lot of work to do here? I mean, I hate leaving a project half done."
    "No, as it turns out, we're just coming up on a break. We have almost six days free before we need to start hitting things before the big vote. Even if we wanted to get out there, people are probably sick to death of hearing us. That means that we need to take a break and maybe lie low for a little bit. I was thinking about taking a trip somewhere."
    "Oh," she said, feeling an unwanted blush coming up her face. She wasn't a woman who was used to feeling foolish, and she didn't believe that she cared for it.
    "Why don't you take a job," he said, dropping a gentle kiss on the small of her back. "If you don't mind, I might like to come with you, to see what you do when you're not at my beck and call."
    It might have been simply curiosity on his part, but she couldn't deny that that sounded far better. The idea of her pitching a product in London while he enjoyed Lisbon or Barcelona was disturbing to her in a way that she didn't care to think about.
    "All right," she said. "I'll give Marnie a call back and see what she has for me in a suitably exciting location."
    ***
    Mikal watched Viviana get up for her phone call with her assistant, so many emotions tumbling through his body. He took a deep breath and concentrated on keeping a calm look on his face, because the last thing that he wanted was for Viviana to get the idea that he was some kind of jealous monster, despite the fact that that seemed to be exactly what he was.
    The idea of her leaving Khutal, even for a short job, stabbed him straight through the heart. In that