“What?” Ella said, confused.
“We should probably hug or something, so she believes that we're a couple,” he said.
Ella thought about it for a moment then nodded. The whole situation was so confusing already, why not throw a few more muddled up emotions in the mix? She stood still as Karim bent down and wrapped his arms around her waist. His strong hands clasped together behind the small of her back and he pulled her in gently, pressing her cheek against his solid chest.
Ella closed her eyes and breathed in his musky scent. She felt her body melt into him as she settled snugly in his strong embrace. Wow, she thought as she stood with her arms wrapped around his waist. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time.
Karim stroked her back softly for a second. He was so comfortable, so at peace holding Ella this way. She was so different from the other girls he had dated. She was soft, supple and fit his body just right. He breathed in the fruity scent of her hair and closed his eyes, wishing he could hold her all day. He felt his body start to react to hers and instinctively pulled away.
“Okay,” he said quickly. “Thanks, Ella. Go now.”
Ella looked up at him and saw a look in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t hurt. It was longing, she was sure of it. She caught her breath in her throat and then disappeared through the back door, leaving Karim to handle the rest of the appointment.
She returned home, still reeling from the closeness of Karim’s body. She couldn’t believe she had let herself do that. She had promised herself she wouldn’t ever get that close to a client. But there was something different about Karim. She couldn’t help herself around him. And she was pretty sure he was having the same feelings.
THIRTEEN
After fixing a very late lunch and spending some overdue quality time with Princess, Ella plopped herself in front of her computer and began checking her emails. She saw several from the vendors she had lined up for the football player’s wedding and a few from stores she had contacted about Hannah’s shower.
After dealing with her emails she glanced at the planner on her desk to double check if she had any other urgent tasks to deal with that day. She suddenly noticed that she had promised the florist that she would get confirmation on the table arrangements for Karim and Nadia’s wedding.
“Shoot,” Ella said, cursing herself for forgetting. With the photo shoot and then the Plaza appointment, she felt like she had already had a full day. She let her head fall back against her chair and closed her eyes as Princess jumped up on her lap.
“Oh Princess, I don’t want to do this. The last thing I want to do is see Karim again.”
“Well,” she said, opening her eyes and looking at the cat. “That’s not exactly true. I do want to see him again; I just don’t know that I can handle that right now.”
Ella’s emotions had been on a roller coaster for the past few days. She had talked things through with Hannah and even mentioned it to her mother and both of them had said that perhaps she needed to step back and take a break for a while; that she needed to be careful.
Ella looked back down at the appointment and made up her mind. She put Princess on the floor and went to her bedroom to quickly freshen up. Twenty minutes later, she was at the florist with the sample arrangement in hand. She texted Karim from the store and he told her to come straight to his apartment and sent her the address.
The rain had given way to a beautiful blue spring sky. Ella hopped into a cab and arrived at Karim’s high-rise a few minutes later. She stepped out into the cool air and the doorman smiled and tipped his hat to her.
“Madam,” he said. “Are you here to see His Highness?”
Ella nodded, surprised at the greeting. She hadn’t been to Karim’s apartment building before and she didn’t know what to expect. She laughed, thinking she probably should have expected the royal treatment.
The doorman escorted her inside the lavish building and put her on the elevator to the top floor, the penthouse suite. Ella checked her reflection in the mirrored doors as the elevator made its way up. When it stopped, the doors opened and Ella stepped out into a narrow hall. There was one set of double doors on the right and a single door on the left. She looked at the single door and saw it was actually an entrance to the staff quarters.
“Of course,” Ella said quietly as she made her way over to the double doors to the left.
As she approached the doors, she heard raised voices, one of them shrill, female and spite-filled; Nadia. The sound was all too familiar. It was a repeat from the week before. Ella remembered how it ended last time, with Karim being cold and distant. After everything that had happened between them that day, she didn’t want them to grow even further apart.