Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Since the demon prince was notorious for being a workaholic and constantly on the move, it was rare to see him perfectly still like this, and just long enough to leave anyone staring at him mesmerized.
Anyone including her, unfortunately.
You are such an idiot, Ember Hallman!
Ember had never wanted to see the sheikh as a man. But the first time she had come to work for him, his dark good looks had left her brain-dead, and there were still instances even to this day that the sheikh's sheer gorgeousness made Ember catch her breath.
Unlike his brothers, whose silky black curls were rarely tamed, Ilyas was so much the controlling sort that even his own hair had to be bent to his will. Or in this case, slicked back and regularly trimmed for zero fuss.
Just looking at his hair could make her fingers itch, and whenever Ember's heart was being more idiotic than usual, she would find herself wondering if the day would ever come that she could just reach out and mess with his hair in any way—-
"Why are you staring at me?"
Ilyas' words had Ember crashing back to reality, and the wary look on her royal bosshole's face had her wanting to laugh and grimace even as she quickly thought up an excuse. "Um..." She pointed to the corner of his mouth. "You missed a drop."
The demon prince licked it off with his tongue, and Ember found herself wishing she could've been the one to lick it off—-
Stop thinking dirty thoughts about your boss, you fool!
Hours later, and Ember still wanted to kick herself in the head as she finished recounting the entire mortifying incident over a late-night Zoom call with her friend.
Francesca, however, simply couldn't stop laughing. "I warned you, didn't I?"
"Did I tell you how much I hate being told 'I told you so'?"
"But I didn't say—-"
"Oh, you so did," Ember said darkly, "even if you didn't use the exact same words."
Francesca's jaw was beginning to hurt from too much laughter. "I'm sorry, but I really just can't help it. The sheikh caught you staring at him, but instead of realizing you've been drooling after him all this time—-he thinks you're out to kill him!"
Ember glared as mini-Francesca on her iPad screen started literally rolling on her (carpeted) floor while laughing. "Not funny, Che-Che. Not funny at all!"
"But it is, actually," Francesca protested as she sat up and wiped tears from her eyes. "And oh my gosh, Em. Can you imagine what he'd do if you actually tried touching his hair?"
Ember did not want to imagine it, but with Francesca having already asked the question out loud, a sequence of possible outcomes was already flashing in her mind, and all of them ended up with the sheikh throwing her behind bars.
"Can I include this in one of my books?"
Francesca's question had Ember looking at her friend in horror. "Don't you dare—-"
But it was too late, and Ember was left glaring at her phone as Francesca laughingly made a hurried excuse to end their Zoom call.
You have two lessons to learn here, Ember Hallman.
The first one was to never ever be friends with authors, and especially those who wrote bestselling erotica like Francesca.
And as for the second lesson—-
Never let yourself forget you have no business falling for a man like Sheikh Ilyas Al-Masri.
Not only would that road cost Ember her livelihood, but it was also guaranteed to destroy her heart, irreparably.
Ilyas
It was only half-past seven in the evening, and Ilyas was already this close to losing his temper. Tonight's dinner party had been organized to welcome Khadem's fiancée as a new member of their family, and Saif had invited hundreds of guests in order to proactively quell any possible rumors about the palace being unsupportive of Khadem's relationship with Prue.
Unfortunately, among those invited were the usual bunch of gold-diggers, sluts, and social climbers who were hoping to be the next royal bride of Huzna, and without Ember to ward them off like she usually did, Ilyas had no choice but to waste his time dealing with them himself.
He had forced himself to smile even when seeing a woman flutter her lashes at him made his skin crawl, but a man could only tolerate so much stupidity before being driven to drink, and fuck, fuck, fuck!
Another gold-digger was trying to catch his eye, but Ilyas' patience was all used up, and he no longer had it in him to pretend he was a gentleman.
Since tonight was an official event for his family, Ilyas hadn't the freedom to be his usual asshole self. As most of the world still pictured Huzna as a land of barbarians, it was Ilyas and his brothers' responsibility to prove everyone wrong...even if it meant having to hide his contempt towards women whose eyes were like bottomless wells of avarice.