31 Zayed

31

Zayed

I was surprised to see the dark-haired man sitting beside Rahim and talking to him. He looked very familiar, but I didn’t know where I had seen him. He was tall with a thin shirt hugging his lean, muscular frame, and he looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

“Ah, Zayed,” Rahim finally noticed me standing by his tent. “This is my friend I wanted you to meet.”

The man stood up, smiling at me, his golden-brown eyes twinkling in the morning sunlight as he bowed. “I have heard so much about you, Sheikh Zayed.”

“See?” I turned around to see Elena enter the tent, her hands tying her golden hair in a ponytail. She was wearing my shirt and pants, rolled up at the hem as I hadn’t planned a perfect kidnapping. “Everyone knows about your pranks—oh, it’s you.”

The stranger tilted his head and I resisted the urge to step between them, ripping my shirt and puffing my chest at him like some wild animal.

“It is me?”

“You two know each other?” I asked Elena, frowning when