His Bought Fiancée (Wedded to the Sheikh Book 1) Read online

  “I can do it again, if need be,” he said with a jokey sigh.

  Alyssa laughed. Who was this guy?

  “Thanks for the kind offer. Maybe later,” she teased, getting in the playful mood herself.

  The song ended, and an upbeat one began. Some people left the dance floor while others joined.

  The man dropped Alyssa’s hands, and she rubbed her palms together and looked around herself. What now? She saw more people she recognized, but she didn’t really want to talk to anyone else.

  Actually, all she wanted to do was hang out with the man she was with. But she’d promised him she would only need him for an hour. She hadn’t been keeping track of time, but that hour had to be coming to an end soon.

  “I guess I should let you go,” she said grudgingly.

  The man paused. Would he say no? Would he ask Alyssa out on a real date?

  “Yes, I do have other things to get to,” he said.

  Alyssa nodded and looked away. She’d been silly to think he would really want to spend time with her. This had been about fifty bucks and some fun, and now it was time for him to get back to his regular life.

  “Let’s go, then,” she said.

  The man put his hand on the small of her back and they walked for the exit. Though people’s gazes followed them, Alyssa found she no longer really cared about impressing her former classmates. She’d never see most of these people again—if any of them.

  What she did want, though, was to see this man again.

  Outside, a group of people from the reunion stood in a circle smoking. One of the men looked over his shoulder, and Alyssa saw it was Derek. Instantly, her shoulders drew back.

  Alyssa’s faux date looked down at her. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Fine.” She made herself focus on him instead of Derek.

  Maybe she no longer cared about most of the people back in the hotel, but a part of her would always be wounded because of Derek. Seeing him happy with a beautiful family and talking about his reporter job made it even worse.

  Alyssa didn’t want to be envious, and she definitely didn’t want to be envious of someone who had broken her heart.

  “I guess this is it, then,” Alyssa said, the words bitter on her tongue.

  The man fished in his pocket for his phone. “Where are you going now?”

  “Home,” she said lamely, not daring to get her hopes up and believe he might be asking to spend the rest of the evening together.

  “Need a ride?” he asked, texting on his phone and not looking at her.

  “Oh, no,” Alyssa protested. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “96th.”

  He grinned. “No problem.”

  Scooping her into his arms, he kissed her on the forehead. Over his shoulder, Derek watched them intently.

  “My car will be here any moment,” the man said.

  Alyssa looked at the street around them. “You parked it with the valet?” she asked in confusion.

  “It’s parked nearby,” he said simply.

  Alyssa nodded, though she was confused as to who would be bringing the car. Less than a minute later, her questions were answered—partially, anyway.

  A sleek yellow sports car stopped on the street in front of the hotel, its top down. The smokers nearby all looked over in interest.

  “Here it is,” the man said, taking Alyssa’s hand.

  Alyssa tried not to gape. This was his car?

  The man behind the wheel climbed out, handed the keys over to Alyssa’s date, and bowed.

  “Here you are, babe,” the man said loudly, opening the passenger’s door for Alyssa.

  She slid into the seat, the leather welcoming her like a cool embrace. Glancing back at the hotel, she saw Derek tossing his cigarette and heading back inside, his shoulders hunched.

  Alyssa smiled to herself. Yeah, take that, Derek.

  Yeah, it was petty. But just for tonight, Alyssa didn’t care. Derek had broken up with her a day before Homecoming and her birthday, and then he’d gone around telling everyone she was uptight.

  Revenge, though not mature, sure was sweet.

  The man next to Alyssa revved up the engine and then took off, zooming down the block. Alyssa’s hair flapped in the wind, and she pushed it out of her face and laughed.

  “Nice car,” she commented as they slowed at a stoplight.

  “I like fast cars,” he said with a shrug.

  Alyssa studied his profile. She hadn’t just grabbed some average Joe off the street, had she? Alyssa didn’t know much about cars, but the one she sat in wasn’t cheap. How much had it cost? A hundred thousand? More?

  What did this guy do to make all that money?

  “96th and what?” he asked.

  “Broadway,” Alyssa said.

  The light changed and he took a turn, heading west.

  “How did I do?” he asked above the noise of the wind and traffic.

  Alyssa laughed. “Amazing. So amazing that I have to ask, are you an actor?”

  He grinned. “Nope. Although, I did dream of musical theater as a kid.”

  “Ah, that’s it. Glad I could be a part of you living out your dream.”

  “Hey, now. It’s not fulfilled until I get to jump on a table and break out into a song and tap dance routine.” He shifted gears and looked over at her. “Come to think of it, perhaps I should return and do that.”

  Imagining that scene, Alyssa laughed so hard it was difficult to stop. “I think you wowed them enough,” she said.

  Alyssa surreptitiously checked out the car’s interior. Man, it was nice. In mentioning the acting thing, she’d been trying to get him to bring up his job, but he hadn’t bitten. Would he tell her anything? Or was he content in remaining her mystery man?

  Alyssa checked the street signs. Traffic was light—or as light as it could be in Manhattan—and they were rapidly drawing closer to her apartment building.

  “Why did you go?” the man asked.

  His question surprised her, and she stared at him a moment before answering.

  “I don’t know. I guess because my friend pushed me to. She thought it would help get me out of a rut.”

  “And did it?”

  Alyssa snorted. “Not in the way I expected it to.”

  His lips twisted in a smile. “Well, if you are out of your rut, I’m glad I could be a part of that.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Alyssa looked at her lap, wondering if she should say the next part. This man was clearly super successful. Would he understand what it was like to feel like you were constantly left behind? Like everyone but you had their lives figured out? Like everyone but you was happy?

  Alyssa bit her bottom lip. She wished the facade she’d put up for the reunion was true. Not specifically the part about the handsome man in a sports car being her boyfriend, but about the deeper, more important part. She wished she woke up every morning with a smile on her face. Forget how or why.

  Alyssa just wanted to feel satisfied. Was that too much to ask?

  “Where is it?” he asked.

  Alyssa looked up and, with a start, realized they were on her block. How long had she been lost in thought for?

  “Um, that one. Right there.” Alyssa pointed and grabbed her clutch. “Thanks.”

  He pulled up to the curb. It was almost fully night, with the last little bits of light clinging on. An empty apartment waited for Alyssa upstairs. Briefly, an urge to go back to the reunion filled her.

  But she couldn’t go back without her “boyfriend.” No, better to stay at home.

  “This was fun,” the man said.

  “Yeah, it really was. Thank you. Oh!” Alyssa reached into her purse and pulled out two twenties and a ten. After seeing the man’s car, she knew fifty bucks was probably nothing to him, but she wasn’t about to go back on her promise.

  “I told you I’d pay you,” she said, extending the money.

 
He gave a slight shake of his head. “That’s quite all right.”

  “Are you sure? The first round of wherever you’re going next is on me.”

  She grinned, but then a deadening sensation filled her. Was she making it sound like she wanted to go along? Alyssa might have been in a tough spot, but she wasn’t that desperate for companionship and male attention.

  Not quite yet, anyway.

  “I’m very sure,” he said.

  Alyssa nodded and put the money away. Next to her wallet was the little notebook she always carried for things like grocery lists and reminders. Pulling it and a pen out, she hastily wrote down her name and number. Then, before she could question it, she folded the sheet of paper and stuck it in the man’s breast pocket.

  “Just in case you ever need a fake date,” she said.

  He smirked, his eyes dancing in the street lights’ glow. “Good thinking.”

  A grin pulled at Alyssa’s lips. She didn’t want to go, but the time had come.

  “Bye,” she said.

  “Goodbye.” His eyes on her, he nodded, then pulled away from the curb and flew down the street.

  Alyssa watched him until he turned the corner and disappeared onto Broadway. With a start, she realized that she’d danced with him, she’d accepted a ride from him, she’d kissed him…

  And she didn’t even know his name.

  Chapter 4

  Alyssa

  Alyssa stirred her coffee, the spoon making a miniature whirlpool.

  “Man, I am so glad you went,” Lucy said from across the small wooden table. “I’m sorry I missed it, though.”

  “If you were there, it probably wouldn’t have happened,” Alyssa pointed out.

  “True,” Lucy laughed. “I never would have let you run out like you did. Therefore, you wouldn’t have freaked on the corner and asked a random man to pretend to be your boyfriend.”

  Alyssa stuck out her tongue. Using her spoon, Lucy catapulted a sugar cube at her.

  Alyssa squealed and swatted it away. “Order in the court! I’m not letting you get us kicked out before I finish my huevos rancheros.”

  Lucy grinned before finishing off her own meal.

  Taking the last bite of her eggs, Alyssa pushed the plate away and looked around the small Mexican restaurant. She and Lucy had been going there for years, and they could always count on it. Same fresh tortillas. Same strong coffee. Same old guy snoozing in the corner by the kitchen.

  “I wish he’d texted me or something,” Alyssa said, staring out the window.

  Lucy guffawed. “You met him last night. Most guys would never text a girl that soon.”

  “I don’t know the game, Lu.”

  “And I hate the game,” Lucy said. “I would never prescribe to nonsense like that. I’m just telling you that’s how it is for some people.”

  “This guy wasn’t some people,” Alyssa said. “He was…something else.”

  “Was it his car?”

  “No,” Alyssa said. “It was him.”

  “Hmm…” Lucy propped her chin in her hand, a dreamy look crossing her face. “I could use a ‘something else’ of my own.”

  “Do you even have time for that?” Alyssa asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe after I graduate. Anyway, I think I’m done with the casual thing. It’s not even fun anymore, you know?”

  Alyssa nodded. Man, did she know.

  Sometime in the last couple years—she didn’t know when—she’d realized she preferred being single to the constant raised-then-dashed-hopes cycle that was dating in New York City. If a guy couldn’t show up and give her something positive on the regular, what was the point? The flings and roller-coaster relationships, while fun for a little while, had ended up being nothing but exhausting and sometimes heartbreaking in the end.

  For a while, they sat in silence, drinking their coffee and looking out the window. With Lucy, things could be that way. They could talk nonstop and then fall into a period of quiet, and both were equally comfortable.

  “Are you going to your parents’ today?” Lucy asked.

  Alyssa sat up straighter. “Shoot. I almost forgot.”

  “You should get going.”

  Alyssa dropped some bills on the table. “Ugh, I don’t want to go there today.”

  Lucy gave her a sympathetic look.

  “I love them,” Alyssa clarified.

  “I know you do.”

  “It’s just…”

  “Yeah,” Lucy agreed, not even needing to hear further explanation. “But they’re only so pushy because they love you.”

  “See you later? Are we going to that concert in the park tomorrow?”

  Lucy made a face. “It’s kind of a hike…”

  “And, let me guess. You have homework to do?”

  “More like office work I brought home for the weekend, because I was catching up on homework yesterday afternoon.”

  “Right.” Alyssa looped her purse over her shoulder and stood. “It’s cool. Let me know if you change your mind, though.”

  Lucy stood as well. “Don’t wait for me. Go ahead and make plans.”

  Alyssa sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. “I dunno.”

  “Go to the concert.”

  “By—”

  “By yourself,” Lucy interrupted. “You went to the reunion by yourself, and look what happened! Who knows? You could meet another sexy mystery man with a sports car.”

  Alyssa laughed as Lucy waggled her eyebrows. Inside, though, she felt strange. She didn’t want to meet another man. She liked the one she’d danced, talked with, and kissed the night before.

  And until that guy called her, she wasn’t sure she would be able to think about anyone else.

  Pathetic? Eh. Who knew?

  Parting outside the restaurant, Alyssa walked several blocks up to jump on the train. It was a long ride to Queens—the one good thing about that being that it helped with the excuse of only being able to make it out there on weekends.

  Her parents still lived in the apartment Alyssa had grown up in, a two-bedroom in a complex next to a community garden. When she’d moved out after college, instead of converting her room into something else, her mom had kept things as they were. That way, as her mom put it, Alyssa’s room would always be there for her in case she needed to come home.

  Emerging from the train station, Alyssa took in the familiar sights and sounds of her old neighborhood. Moving home would never be an option for her. She was grateful for her parents, of course, but she knew that her mom kept that room empty because she was afraid Alyssa couldn’t take care of herself.

  That fear was part of the reason her parents had pushed her to pursue a “dependable” career in law. And even though Alyssa had a good job at a respectable law firm, her mother still worried about her.

  For not the first time, Alyssa wondered if her mother had encouraged her to become a paralegal in the hopes that she would meet and marry a lawyer.

  Finding the key for the front door, Alyssa let herself into the building and clomped past the mailboxes and up to the second floor. The scent of her mother’s lasagna wafted into the hall, and Alyssa used her second key to let herself into the apartment.

  “I’m here,” she called, dropping her keys and purse on the little table by the front door.

  “In the kitchen,” her mother called back.

  Alyssa walked into the kitchen, where Laurie was in the middle of taking the lasagna out of the oven.

  “Where’s Dad?” Alyssa scooted behind her mother, took a seat at the table, and brushed her slightly sweaty hair out of her face. It was a temperate day outside, but the subway had been hot and sticky.

  “Poker.”

  “Really? Isn’t that a night thing?” Alyssa asked with surprise.

  Alyssa’s mother waved her hand. “I don’t know. He said he was going, I said be back by noon and don’t lose any money, and he said all right.”

  “Do they really bet with money?” Alyssa asked.
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br />   Laurie shrugged, opened up the fridge, and set a can of Alyssa’s favorite soda in front of her.

  “Thanks.” Alyssa popped the top and took a grateful sip. Her mother still stood there, though, hand on one hip, inspecting Alyssa.

  “What?” Alyssa asked slowly.

  “Is this how you dress, now?”

  Alyssa looked down at her jeans and button-up thermal shirt. “On Saturdays, sure.”

  “That looks like an undershirt, Alyssa.” Laurie turned back to the oven, and Alyssa took the opportunity to roll her eyes. “Did you get it in the pajama department?”

  “No. I met Lucy for breakfast, and this is pretty normal wear for that.” Alyssa decided not to add that she hadn’t shopped at a department store in years.

  Alyssa’s mother shot her a narrowed glance, the look saying “don’t mess with me”.

  Alyssa bit the inside of her cheek. There was no point in retaliating. She’d tried that for years. Now, she figured she might as well let her mom be however she was going to be. Sometimes, trying to change a person would do nothing but drive you mad.

  “I went to my high school reunion last night,” Alyssa said.

  Laurie looked over from where she was grinding pepper into the salad bowl. “You didn’t tell me about that.”

  Alyssa shrugged and took another sip of soda. Through the kitchen window, she could see a group of teenage girls walking down the sidewalk, laughing and talking loudly.

  “How was it?” her mom asked. “Was Rachel there?”

  “Yeah. Piper, too.”

  Though Alyssa had grown up in Queens, her high school had been in Manhattan, and students from all kinds of backgrounds had attended it.

  “How are they?” Laurie pressed.

  “Good. Piper has a catering business. It sounds like it’s going really well.”

  “And Rachel?”

  “She seems good, too.” Alyssa fiddled with the edge of a table mat. No way was she mentioning Rachel’s engagement.

  “Oh, that’s nice.” Alyssa’s mom cut into the lasagna. “Are you ready to eat?”

  “Uh, actually, I just had brunch.”

  Her mother paused, spatula in the air. “It’s twelve o’clock.”

  “Brunch is late.”

  “What time did you go to bed?”