“That was yesterday,” she laughed. “And it wasn’t fifty. Just nine.”
“That’s disgusting,” he groaned. “No one should be that active that early. I know of many better ways to wake up in the morning than torturing one’s body with exercise.”
“Yes, well…”
“Don’t tell me!” he laughed. “Your hunk of a lover is…” he didn’t finish that statement and Tamara could hear Joe in the background. Mike laughed and there was a slight pause before Mike came back on the line. “Right. Well, we need to divide and conquer this morning. Lots of issues. How soon can you meet me at the office?”
She looked at the clock and mentally calculated. “I can be there in about thirty minutes.”
“Good. See you then.”
Tamara ended the call, then threw the sheets back, padding quickly to the bathroom. After a shower and changing into her usual jeans and a tee shirt, she slipped into sneakers and pulled her bag over her shoulder.
“Breakfast, Your Highness?” Mildred, Jurid’s housekeeper, asked from the hallway.
Tamara shook her head. “I’m not hungry,” she told the kind housekeeper.
“Here’s a thermos of coffee,” Mildred handed over a colorful fabric bag. “And I made lunch for you. Just heat it in the microwave.”
Tamara was touched by the thoughtful gesture. “Thank you so much,” she replied, taking the bag and tucking it into her bigger messenger bag. “I appreciate that.” She lifted the thermos up in a salute and left the penthouse.
Over the past week, she’d gotten used to having two body guards following her around and, sure enough, two men stepped into position, one in front and one behind, as she exited the beautiful house. “We’ll be driving all over the city today, gentlemen,” she warned the men. “Lots of problems and people checking out of rental units.”
The men nodded and she grinned. They weren’t the most talkative of guards, but they were good at their jobs and she appreciated their efforts, knowing that they would step in front of a bullet to protect her.
She smiled when she stepped out of the SUV, thanking the men for the ride to her office. As soon as she stepped in though, her smile disappeared. Mike was there, along with several other staff members who usually didn’t come in until later. “What’s going on?” she asked.
Mike glanced up at her, looking unusually frazzled. “Just a lot of issues,” he replied. “Here,” he handed her some papers.
For the next several hours, the entire staff worked hard to resolve clogged toilets, broken down heating systems, messy apartments because several members of the cleaning crew had come down with the flu, meeting with vendors, and basically just trying to keep their heads above water. It wasn’t a normal day, but it wasn’t unheard of for craziness to happen all at the same time. Such was the nature of the business.
It was late afternoon before they got a handle on everything. Mike grabbed another ticket called in by a renter and waved as he hurried off, leaving Tamara alone in the office to answer phone calls and rental inquiries. Normally, this was something another staff member would do, but Tamara filled in because everyone else was out working on site.
So, it was a surprise when the doors opened and she turned with a smile of greeting, hoping that her exhaustion didn’t show.
“Father!” she gasped, wide eyed at the sight of him entering the office. She stood up quickly, almost tripping over her chair. She hadn’t been home in years because of her father’s intimidating persona. Before then, every time she’d gone home, he’d applied pressure for her to marry Jurid.
Even now, knowing that he was here to do exactly that, and despite the fact that she knew she was madly in love with her fiancé, her temper fired up.
“This is where you work?” he asked…well, demanded…as he gazed at the messy desks.
But she wasn’t going to feel bad about the way everyone’s desk looked. This was a business, not a staged show. Real people worked at these desks. And those real people were out helping her run her business. They didn’t have time to immediately file away the maintenance tickets and rental contracts. They’d get to that when there weren’t ten other crises waiting to be resolved.
Tamara looked around, refusing to apologize. “Yes. This is my company. The company that I own with my business partner,” she replied, folding her arms over her chest. “What can I do for you, father? Do you need to rent an apartment?”
His sneer told her what he thought about her pride and joy. Her hackles rose and she straightened her shoulders defiantly.
“No. I definitely do not need an apartment,” he sneered, looking down his nose at her. “Explain this,” he snapped, tossing something onto her desk.
Tamara sighed but looked down at the paper. It was a tabloid and on the front page was a picture of her dancing with some guy. She didn’t remember the man’s name, but this picture was taken a few weeks ago. It was one of many. It looked like those pictures had finally caught someone’s attention.
“I can explain,” she whispered through tight lips.
“I don’t think there can be any explanation for this kind of impertinence!” he roared.
Tamara cringed. She’d always been frightened of her father when he roared like this. He was a big man and his voice was loud and terrifying.
“Father, I know that it looks bad but…”
“Bad?” he snapped, glaring down at her. “You look like a whore! Look at the picture! You are dancing with a man who is not your husband! You seem about to fornicate! It is obvious what you are about to do! And now the whole world knows about your shameful life!”
“Fornicate?” she whispered, shocked by his assumptions even though that was exactly the impression she’d tried to achieve. That was before. She knew Jurid now and…and he knew that she wasn’t that woman. Tamara’s anger grew. “I did not have sex with that man. I’ve…”
“You lie!” he yelled. As soon as he lifted his hand, Tamara knew what to expect and cringed, thinking that she should never have allowed herself to be trapped in the back corner of her office like this. She knew better! Her farther liked to smack her and her mother around and she knew that trapping herself into a corner was a bad thing! But she’d been away from home for too long, living with people who weren’t cowards, who didn’t hurt people that were smaller in order to prove something to the world.
But the smack never came. She opened her eyes and looked around, straightening when she saw Jurid. His face was thunderous and he had her father’s wrist in his hand, tightening his grip until her father’s face whitened with pain.
“I know that you aren’t about to hit my fiancée,” Jurid said in a low, threatening voice. “Because hitting my fiancée would be considered an act of war.” That stopped Tamara’s father. The man cringed away, bowing towards Jurid even though, technically, they were equal in rank.
But in no way was Tamara’s father an equal to Jurid. First of all, Jurid’s country was bigger, more powerful, and had a military force that could eliminate Nadir from the face of the earth. But also, Jurid was several inches taller and probably ten times more muscular than Tamara’s father. Idran el Hamid had let himself go soft. He only hit people smaller than himself. He was a bully!