Page 21 of Hired Husband

He frowned, eyes narrowing as he thought it over. “This is true. We’ve taken our inspiration from several other international complexes. They’re all highly efficient and extremely profitable. What is disagreeable about that?”

“There are ways to incorporate everything that makes them work so well while maintaining elements of traditional Egyptian design,” I said. “I would encourage you to embrace that, sir. It might be an industrial complex, but it seems a waste to construct it as just another gray, steel blemish on the landscape. Especially in such a beautiful country.”

“A blemish?” he asked, scoffing lightly as he shook his head. “I don’t understand. Your family business is steel.”

“Yeah, but if you remove the Arabic signage from the current plans, your complex could be in Dallas, Frankfurt, or Manchester. I’m not suggesting we remove steel from the equation all together. That’s simply not a viable option, but the gray cladding, glass curtain walls, and steel and concrete exterior strip it of all personality.”

“It’s a building.”

“So is this,” I said, sweeping a hand around the room and noticing Jasmine looking straight at me, clearly listening in on our conversation. But when I tried to meet her gaze, she looked away, acting as if she hadn’t been listening at all. I would’ve smiled if I didn’t still have a point to make. “This house is also a building, but it has character. It adds to the skyline instead of detracting from it.”

Basel nodded. “Go on.”

“We’re building one of the most significant industrial campuses in the region, but in one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Why are we ignoring where we are? We shouldn’t build something we’re going to be ashamed of and we don’t have to. Efficiency doesn’t have to mean stripping away a place’s identity.”

As I spoke, I felt Jasmine’s gaze on me again, but I didn’t turn away from her father, who looked back at me with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes for a long moment. “Before I agree to change anything, I will need to see plans.”

“Of course, sir.” That spark deep down inside I hadn’t felt for so long flared to life and I grinned. “I’m thinking we use local stone where it makes sense. We could⁠—”

“The lots where we will be constructing this complex are about an hour from Sharm El-Sheikh,” he said, cutting me off. “You will go there next week.”

“Sure,” I agreed. “I’d love to see them.”

“Once you have your feet on the ground, you can start talking to me about traditional Egyptian design. This is exactly why I wanted you on my team, but there are restrictions to what is freely available there. It is not Cairo and I will not triple the cost of construction by having to source materials from the four corners of the country.”

“No, sir,” I said immediately. “That’s not what I’m aiming for at all, but does this mean you’ll consider the direction I’ve suggested?”

He chuckled. “Isaac, I brought you here to be my head structural engineer. The construction phase is yours. For roughly the next year, I will consider any direction you suggest as long you don’t try to blow my budget to kingdom come.”

I laughed, but that spark was burning brightly inside me, fueling my creative fire. It had been years since someone had spoken to me about being part of the construction phase of anything. Let alone for an entire year.

This was exactly what I’d come here for. It had only been a week, but Basel was already living up to the promises he’d made. I looked him right in the eyes and nodded my agreement. “Yeah, I’m in. It’s me and Sharm El-Sheikh next week.”

Basel smiled before he looked down at the table. “You will need inspiration, of course. Jasmine will be your guide. She loves traveling. If anyone can show you the sites that will ignite your imagination, it’s her.”

Jasmine finally met my gaze, and when she did, I could tell she was just as uncertain about this as I was. But Basel had issued a decree, and when he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin on his lips, I knew there would be no getting out of it.

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. I wouldn’t mind someone to show me around.”

She sighed, but said, “Fine. I’ll do it.”

As I looked back at her, I almost tried to tell Basel I could also just show myself around. At least that would get her off the hook, but I definitely didn’t want to get roped into any Saad family drama, and pushing Basel about this seemed like a surefire way of doing just that.

The thing about Jasmine, however, was that she was a notoriously tough nut to crack. She might’ve agreed to this, but that didn’t mean she wanted to do it and it definitely didn’t mean she’d make our time over there easy for me.

Which could make my job that much harder.

Colin, Deja, and her brothers had all warned me in their own ways about interacting with her. To my mind, the impression I’d been left with was that they saw her a bit like a tornado that happened to bake excellent desserts.

She had her strengths and she could be pretty sweet when she wanted to, but she also knew exactly what she wanted at all times and she went after it with a ferocity that would flatten anyone foolish enough to stand in her way.

Logically, that meant that I should probably have at least tried to get her out of it, but logic had begun losing the battle where Jasmine was concerned. I’d been getting more and more curious about her, and while that kind of thing was new to me, it was also a little bit exhilarating.

So I kept my mouth shut and turned my attention to Tarek when he muttered something else under his breath. “Good luck, man. She’s going to make your life a living hell for this.”

“That wasn’t a joke,” I said quietly back to him. “It’s not funny at all.”

He chuckled. “Maybe not to you. I find it hilarious.”