Page 66 of Hired Husband

Even if that man was the one right at the top of the food chain.

“We should start our own firm,” Joseph said suddenly. “If this project doesn’t work out, I mean. We can still go into business together anyway.”

I blinked hard, sure I’d misheard him as I refocused on his face. The guy had become a friend during the time I’d spent in Egypt, but I honestly hadn’t expected something like this. “You want us to do what now?”

“We work well together,” he said, folding his arms on the table, his expression completely serious. “We think the same way and we see each other’s blind spots. Where I flounder, you have a plan and vice versa. Just think about it, at least. It could work.”

I stared back at him. “You’re part of Basel’s team.”

“For now.” He shrugged. “Besides, I could still be on his team. I’d just be doing it with you. Our firm could be the contractor competing for the next bid. What do you think?”

I dropped my gaze to his hand when he extended it toward me, hope shining like a beacon in his eyes. So slowly that I was barely even aware I was doing it, I reached toward him and gripped his palm before I even realized what I was shaking on.

“If this falls through, I’ll think about it,” I said, and even though I hadn’t even considered it for so much as thirty seconds, I knew the moment I said it that this was the right move. “It’ll be fun.”

While I had a one-way ticket back to Chicago sitting in my inbox, I already knew I wasn’t going back. Well, not back back, anyway.

No matter what happened with this project, I would never be able to go back to the way things had been before. Not after all this and especially not after Jasmine.

Logistically, I would probably have to return to the States if the board decided to go with David’s proposal. Basel had mentioned having some other projects, but I had no idea what they were or when they would be starting. I also didn’t know if it would simply mean starting this whole process all over again, only to be undercut by another proposal at the last minute.

I couldn’t trust Basel’s sales pitch of having enough work to keep me busy for the rest of my life. But Joseph was from a middle-class family here in Cairo. While that meant neither of us had a ton of capital to push into our own firm right off the bat, we’d been managing just fine working out of coffee shops and my apartment so far, and more importantly, we both had the drive and the ambition to make it work.

With or without Basel Saad’s board of directors backing us.

Joseph beamed at me as he released my hand. “Very well. I’m excited. We can do great things together, Isaac.”

“You bet,” I said, but I was also already thinking about Jasmine again.

God, I’d been so close to just staying at her apartment that night, falling asleep with her in my arms and completely ignoring the fact that her father might just be in the process of arranging her marriage to another man.

A sharp stab of jealousy cut through me at the thought, slicing at my insides and twisting them into an ugly mess of anger and regret. I should’ve stayed.

I had barely even finished thinking it when David and his posse of suits stepped off the elevator across the lobby. They were laughing, looking a whole hell of a lot more confident than either Joseph or myself at the moment.

As they passed the coffee shop, he caught my eye and fucking winked, his smile widening to insufferable proportions. I shook my head at him. Something about that guy really gave me the creeps. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it just yet. I simply had this unshakable feeling that he was bad news. And not only because he was suddenly competing for a bid in an industry he hadn’t even been part of last week.

This went deeper than that. It went deeper than even the idea that he might be trying to convince Basel to arrange Jasmine’s marriage to him. One way or another, that guy was going to cause trouble for me.

Big trouble.

The kind that could make or break a guy depending on how I handled it when the time came, and I had a feeling this was going to be unlike anything I’d ever had to handle before.

CHAPTER 26

JASMINE

My mom had summoned me to the family estate, which was the only reason I’d agreed to come. If it had been my dad who’d asked, I would have boarded a flight to Rome instead simply to prove a point.

He was asking me to consider a potential marriage to a man who was about as appealing as a piece of moldy cardboard. Maybe even less so. I wasn’t going to stop being pissed about that anytime soon.

My driver pulled up to the front doors and I sighed, thanked him, and climbed out, squaring my shoulders just in case I was walking into an ambush or a fight. Thankfully, only Mom was waiting when I walked in, smiling as she opened her arms for a hug.

I walked into them, but right off the bat, I wanted it to be crystal clear that she shouldn’t even waste her breath campaigning for this arranged marriage. “If you asked me to come so you could try to put a different spin on Dad’s idiotic request, I’m leaving. I have no interest in marrying David Maher. I won’t even consider it.”

She chuckled, giving me a fond squeeze before she took a step back and waved elegantly toward the pergola outside. “Your father isn’t even here, my darling. Come sit with me.”

I narrowed my eyes, following her into the garden before collapsing dramatically onto a daybed in the shade. “Just because he isn’t here doesn’t mean you won’t do his bidding.”