The Sheik's Mysterious Mistress Page 0,2

was the perfect candidate.

Dana turned around, trying to come up with at least three more reasons why she wouldn’t work out when she spotted the man standing in the doorway. Goodness he was tall!

And getting taller as he came closer! The top of her head barely reached his shoulder and she shrank back slightly as he approached.

At his dark, intent look, she cringed slightly, intimidated despite herself. When he was a few feet away, she remembered palace protocol and dropped her pen and note pad while she dipped into a deep curtsy. “Your Highness!” she gasped and looked down at the ground, wondering how one was supposed to gracefully curtsy and then pick up a stolen pen and pad of paper without looking like a fool.

Probably too late for that, she thought with an inward grimace.

He smiled slightly at her genuflection, done with enthusiasm, but very little practice. “You’re here to interview for the role of my executive assistant?” he stated, moving to a seating area away from his desk that contained two large, brown, leather chairs and an enormous brown, leather sofa. “Please, have a seat and let’s discuss the possibilities.”

Dana smiled gratefully, glad that he wasn’t going to sit behind that massive desk and look even more daunting. She thought it would be less intimidating if they were sitting away from a symbol of his absolute power in this country. But as they sat down, his long, muscular legs coming much too close to her own, she realized that she’d been wrong. This man wasn’t intimidating because of some external symbol of power. He was just terrifying as a man!

As his intelligent, grey eyes looked at her, she had to glance away or get lost in their sensuous depths. She’d always thought of those lines as a crock when she’d read them in books but now she understood what it meant when a man had “bedroom eyes”. She literally couldn’t focus when he looked at her like that and once again, the idea of running and hiding someplace was very tempting but for completely different reasons now.

First things first, she reminded herself. Get her old job back and then she could worry about all these silly little feelings she had for a man she’d met thirty seconds ago.

“About the job,” she started to say, “I think that your chief of staff might have been a bit too hasty about submitting my name for the position.”

“Why do you say that?” he asked, already confused by her approach. He’d been expecting her to immediately begin listing all of her experience and how she would be perfect for the role. After which, he would have to gently tell her that she wouldn’t work out, but that he would see what other options might suit her better within the palace. The opposite approach to this interview certainly had his attention.

“Well, for one, I’m definitely too young and inexperienced. I certainly don’t have all the skills necessary to be your executive assistant.”

He tried not to show the surprise on his face as she stated the first thing that had come to his mind. But with her comment, he was somehow forced to challenge her assertion. “It’s my understanding that you’ve already met all the skills requirements for this role and they’ve been amply demonstrated. Otherwise, Omar wouldn’t have suggested you for the position.”

That stumped her. “I can’t imagine that my experience could surpass the skills of your last assistant. He’d been with you for years.”

“You’ve been helping my previous assistant for the past six months, is that correct?”

“Yes, but…”

“So you have the requirements.” He stated that with emphasis and a slight shrug that told her he wasn’t going to argue her skill set any longer.

“But….” She scrambled and looked down, focusing her mind to regroup and quickly go over the notes she’d scribbled minutes ago. “I don’t know palace protocol well enough. I could make some pretty horrible errors and offend someone. Even my curtsy is pretty pathetic and that’s just the beginning of my lack of knowledge.”

He nodded his head, about to say something, but she stopped him again with what she considered another mark against her. “I don’t know all of the personnel who would be useful so if something needed to be done quickly, I might go to the wrong person to ask for help, thereby slowing down the efficiency of everyone in the office. The things you do for this country are much too important to be delayed simply