All this effort and near-frightening efficiency on behalf of the possibility she carried Sayed’s baby.
Thankfully, her boss had been a lot more understanding than Liyah had expected. The head housekeeper had told Liyah that with her work ethic, the older woman knew her lead chambermaid would not be leaving if any other choice was open to her.
“My counterpart in San Francisco as well as your former employers had nothing but good things to say about you, Miss Amari.”
The unprecedented warmth and affirmation from the usually no-nonsense woman had been a balm to Liyah’s battered pride after her father’s attack on her integrity the day before.
And it had made Liyah feel guilty because she wasn’t telling the whole truth and her only reason for having to leave was the results of her own poor judgment.
It was a smooth takeoff and it hardly seemed as if any time had passed at all before the pilot announced they’d gained sufficient stability and altitude to move about the cabin and turn on small electronic devices.
“I wasn’t expecting that on a private plane,” she said to Sayed, who sat beside her.
“Air safety regulations must be maintained.” The answer did not come from Sayed, but Yusuf, who now stood in the aisle beside their seats.
He and the rest of the security team were sitting toward the front of the plane. Two on either side of a table they’d been using to play cards on since the door had been closed for takeoff.
Other than the cabin attendant, there was no one else on the spacious private jet. Clearly, Sayed was taking pains to keep her presence on the plane under wraps.
She should have felt like his dirty secret, but his attitude toward her was too respectful. And as she’d told him earlier, she understood the need for stealth mode.
For now.
She wasn’t Hena Amari; Liyah wasn’t about to fade into the background to save the man she’d had sex with from facing up to his responsibilities.
Sayed, who had taken the seat beside her rather than sitting opposite, had papers spread on the table.
They looked like printouts of news articles. Since most of them had pictures of Tahira and a rather ordinary-looking man, Liyah assumed they were the media’s response to the elopement.
The man in the pictures with the Middle Eastern beauty did not appear near middle age, but his hair was clearly already thinning. Though there were stress lines around his eyes, they still appeared kind.
And Liyah thought she might understand how a woman could trust her life to this man over one who had never shown the slightest physical interest in her despite their engagement.
Because for all Tahira’s beauty, she looked extremely young and even more innocent than Liyah had been before last night.
Sayed noticed her interest in the articles and waved at them. “My former fiancée with her palace aid.”
“You’re going to have to stop putting that rather obvious emphasis on his job title if you don’t want the media to label you an elitist.”
Sayed frowned, but Yusuf said, “Miss Amari is right.”
“You are not my public relations specialist,” the emir reminded his bodyguard.
Yusuf didn’t bother to answer, but held out a single pill blister pack. “As we discussed.”
Sayed took it. “Thank you.”
Yusuf nodded before returning to his seat.
Liyah did not watch him go; her focus was stuck on the silver packet in Sayed’s hand.
“How effective is it?” she asked, her memory not very clear on that point.
“Dr. Batsmani said it is considered between eighty and ninety-five percent.”
“Then why am I on this plane? Why didn’t I just take it back in London and be done with it?”
“Five to twenty percent are hardly impossible odds.” Sayed called the cabin attendant over for water with a wave of his hand.
When it arrived, Liyah opened the blister pack with inexplicable reluctance. Her head knew this was absolutely the right thing to do. She hadn’t planned on motherhood at this point in her life, if ever.
If she were pregnant, Liyah would do her best, just as Hena Amari had done. That didn’t mean she craved the opportunity to raise a child alone.
Although, according to Sayed, that was not one of the options she had to worry about.
Some little part of her heart disagreed with her head, telling her to forget the pill. Hadn’t she wondered what kind of sane woman could let a man like Sayed go?
But no woman with honor would want to have him because he was trapped.
Besides, last night had been the first time she’d ever allowed her emotions to rule. And the aftermath had not been a resounding success.
“It has no effectiveness sitting in your hand,” he teased.
She leaned toward him. “Shh...”
“It’s just a pill. Nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“You know what it’s for,” she whispered.
Humor, rather than the seriousness she would have expected, warmed his dark eyes. “Yes, indeed. I do know.”
“I don’t understand how you’re so cavalier about...” She paused, looking for a word that wouldn’t practically burn her mouth to say.
“Sex?” he asked, striving for innocent, but too amused to be anywhere close.
She glared at him. “You’re from Zeena Sahra. You went without for three years. You should understand repressed.”
“Suppressed, maybe. It’s not the same. I am not ashamed to share a common physical need with an entire planet of people.”
“It’s different for you, you’re a man.”
“Do you think so?”
“Mom was pretty adamant that women had to remain chaste until marriage.”
“And yet you decided not to.”
“I doubt I’ll ever marry,” she admitted. “I’m too shy with men.”
“Really?” He didn’t sound doubtful, so she didn’t take offense at his question.
“Most men. The combination of alcohol and you is a lethal combination.”
“I would like to think the alcohol was unnecessary.”
“It probably would be in future,” she admitted with the honesty she seemed unable to suppress around him. “But last night? It definitely played its role.”
“And yet you insist you were in control of your faculties when you chose to make love with me.”
“I was, just not chained down by my usual inhibitions and introversion around men.”
“You will be less nervous with the opposite sex in the future, I am sure.” He didn’t sound exactly pleased by that prospect.
“It didn’t work that way for my mom.”
“She had you.”
“And a family who rejected her. I have no one left to reject me.”
“That’s a rather morbid thought.”
“Sorry.”
“I will reject you if it will make you feel better.”
“Don’t do me any favors.” But she felt a small smile curving her lips.
She