“That’s exactly what I meant.”
He earned a laugh from Miguel for that, and then Raed settled in behind his desk. The morning meetings would begin soon enough, and he ran through the foundation’s goals while they waited for the first of Raed’s team to arrive in the office.
The day slipped through meeting after meeting. Miguel accompanied Raed to a lunchtime sit-down with some university administrators at a restaurant in the city. He hardly seemed to take notes during lunch, but Raed suspected that the casual chat wouldn’t do him much good for the article. In the afternoon, they came back to his office.
“This is the presentation I’ve been honing for release to the global investment community,” Raed told him, turning his computer screen so Miguel could see.
“Is he busy?” Lise’s voice floated in from outside the door, and tension rocketed across Raed’s neck.
“In a minute he’ll be—” Stephen was saying, but Lise was already at the door, already poking her head in.
Her eyebrows went up. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were with someone.” Stephen grimaced behind her, and from the angle of his body Raed could tell he was standing by to hustle her out as quickly as possible. “It’s not important. I’ll come back later.”
“No, no.” Miguel stood and introduced himself. “I’m from Tempo magazine. Do you work with the foundation?”
Lise hesitated, and Raed could find absolutely nothing to do with his face. He couldn’t very well tell Miguel that she didn’t—he’d been wrong to do it the first time, and he wouldn’t do it again.
“A small pilot project,” she admitted. “I’m Annalise Danbury, but there are other people who can tell you more, I’m sure.”
“Sit with us. I’d love to ask you some questions.”
Lise did, watching him for permission, and Raed nodded toward the free chair. Miguel sat down next to her. “What kind of work do you do with the sheikh?”
She looked so beautiful, sitting there. “My project involves English classes for the palace staff. It was personally signed off on by Raed—by Sheikh Raed,” she corrected herself, not quite quickly enough. “He’s excellent at finding ways to test the foundation’s theories before they’re launched on a larger scale. Starting here, in the palace, was a quite brilliant idea.”
“I should make you my PR person,” Raed said, trying to force himself back into a semblance of ease.
Lise laughed, watching him, her eyes bright. “You’ve given me enough work already, I think.”
Miguel’s eyes went back and forth between the two of them, and unease grew in the pit of Raed’s gut. “Ms. Danbury, is your smaller scale focus having that much influence on the larger goals of the foundation? Do you think starting locally and building up is a better approach than the sheikh’s plan to launch globally all at once?”
“Absolutely not.” Raed couldn’t help himself, though he knew it was Lise’s question to answer. “As Ms. Danbury said, these tightly targeted projects are proof of concept for the larger goals of the foundation.”
“I see.” Miguel watched him for a long moment, then turned his attention back to Lise. “Would you like to weigh in on that, Ms. Danbury?”
Lise did weigh in on it, but the words didn’t make any impact on Raed. An awful sensation prickled the back of his neck. She was too small-scale. Even this reporter had been able to see it. A woman like Katharine would never have given the impression that her work was small in any way. It would never be just a pilot project. She would have her own goals, and would never, never have given a member of the media the impression that her projects were anything other than massive, world-changing initiatives.
There was no point in getting any more attached than he already was. She wasn’t the type of woman he needed beside him.
“—back in London,” he heard her saying. “I’ve been in contact with them regularly for our partnership, and it’s benefitted everyone very much.”
She had been talking to her employers more lately. And her mother, though Raed still didn’t think her family was as supportive as his own mother had been. She was planning to go back to London and planning for the life she’d have there. Unless he was horribly mistaken, Lise wasn’t considering staying. All of her future was focused on going back to the life that was waiting for her in England.
If the whole point was to keep from getting attached, why did his chest ache like this at the thought that she’d be leaving Qasha?
Obviously Lise and Jake would be headed back to the UK. Obviously they would go on with the future she’d built for them through her career. And Raed wouldn’t ask them to stay, no. Not if every reporter could see the way she was—too deeply emotional to be a power player in the business realm. Too trusting to get the foundation what it needed. It needed to be a big, sweeping vision, and having this article report that they were starting with thimble-size projects wouldn’t help at all.
And yet Raed couldn’t put a stop to the interview. Miguel asked Lise several more questions about her work with the university and how she’d managed to plan a class schedule for different shifts, and her answers were deft and kind and not at all cutthroat. Not at all like Katharine would be. A woman like Katharine would jump into the meeting and take control. She’d hit all the talking points. She’d push their agenda hard.
“I’m happy to show you other plans that we have for the future,” Raed put in the next time they paused for breath. “And of course answer questions in a more formal setting, if you’d like.”
Lise hopped up out of her seat and gave Raed a little wave that made him wither on the inside. Miguel had seen it. “Thanks for letting me sit in on your interview,” she told Miguel. “If there’s anything you need to follow up on, you know where to find me.” Then Lise was gone, out the door, on her way to the next thing she had planned.
Not here. You won’t be here for long, Raed thought, and it struck him like a bolt of lightning, painful and bright. It didn’t matter how happy Lise made him in his personal life. She planned to go back to London, and that’s what she had to do.
For the good of the foundation, he had to let her go.
17
“You don’t have to look so stricken.” Lise reached out with an elbow and nudged Raed, who sat stone-faced in the passenger seat, his brow furrowed and a frown on his face. “You’re the one who taught me how to drive.”
He put a smile on, his previous expression dissolving, and Lise wondered if it had ever been there at all. Some distraction still lingered in his dark eyes, but they held anticipation, too. Good. This was supposed to be a highlight of the year.
“I’m not worried about your driving.” Raed put both of his hands behind his head and leaned back. “There’s a guard in the follow car, ready to take over in case things go bad.”
Lise laughed. “Things are not going to go bad.”
“It’s all relative,” Raed told her. “I just feel I shouldn’t be away from the office while everything is happening.”
“Things are happening here, too. Stephen told me.”