The Sheikh's Amulet (Sheikh's Wedding Bet Series Book 3) (7 page)

J
aymin couldn’t sleep
. It was well after midnight, and he did have a meeting in the morning, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something. Tossing and turning in bed, he finally sighed in frustration and got up. As he padded barefoot across the carpet, he made his way back to his office and opened his laptop. The light from the screen cut through the darkness, and he squinted at the harshness. Once his eyes adjusted, he opened the video footage from the event and settled back once again.

When the woman with the black hair streaked across the video, he paused it and leaned forward. Her head was turned from the camera to hide her face, as if she knew the cameras were there, and she was dressed in a catering uniform, but Jaymin couldn’t help but think that there was something familiar about her. At the top of the screen, Tamrin was speaking to someone else while her fingers caressed her amulet.

Turning off the video, Jaymin opened up the additional files that Kaz recently sent on the family. As he scrolled through her medical records, he stopped at the birth certificate, noting the name of her mother. Sari Lewis. Curious as to how she died, he typed the name into an Internet search box and sat back as he read the article that popped up. Sari Lewis had died in a car accident, leaving behind her husband and ten-year-old daughter, Tamara Lewis.

It must have been a typo, but Jaymin pulled up the birth certificate just to make sure. She was indeed born Tamrin Lewis. Still, it seemed odd that the article would get the name of the child wrong.

It was probably nothing, but it bothered him, so he shrugged and typed Tamara Lewis into the search box. There were way too many social media profiles and articles with the name Tamara Lewis to go through them all. Deleting the search, he instead pulled up the medical database from the local hospitals and typed in the name. There was no record of Tamara Lewis.

Pursing his lips, he sat back and tapped his fingers on the desk. Just because the Lewis family had a run-in with Negatin didn’t mean that she was lying to him. He should just drop the whole search, pay them for their troubles, and send them on their way. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Almost absently, he typed Tamrin Lewis into the hospital records and pulled up the same birth certificate, vaccination records, and medical history. With a frown, he noticed some anomalies. She’d been vaccinated twice for mandatory shots before and during school.

That was odd. Clicking on the records, he noticed that there were notes attached to the files. Apparently, Tamrin was somewhat of a con artist. As a child, she’d somehow skipped out on her first round of shots, and when her father found out, he stood there to make sure that she got her second round. The nurse even checked to make sure that there were no needle marks.

Just once or twice would be one thing, but they were attached to all her records. It wasn’t unusual for nurses to give the shots without checking the records, but it seemed strange that her father wouldn’t have been more adamant about it during her first round.

“Strange but not incriminating,” he muttered to himself. Clicking through, he checked out the rest of her history. She’d broken her arm when she was twelve, and her father rushed her to the hospital when she was fourteen with a high fever. When she was fifteen, she’d had surgery to get a cyst removed from her back, and her last trip to the ER was a sprained ankle when she was seventeen.

Not unusual for a teenager, especially if she was active. Clicking out of the history, he leaned back and shook his head. None of that was helpful or incriminating.

“Maybe nothing is wrong,” he murmured to himself. He couldn’t deny that he had feelings for her, and that was strange for him. Jaymin didn’t get close to anyone who wasn’t family. Maybe he was simply looking for something to be wrong so he could distance himself from the situation.

And now, he was self-diagnosing himself. He almost pushed away from the desk to head back to bed when he realized that he had an email that he hadn’t checked. Opening it, he saw that it was a quick note from Kaz.

Sean Lewis mentioned that he has the Scrolls of King David.

With a start, Jaymin straightened and stared at the email. He turned on the desk lamp, grabbed the key from the desk, and opened the filing cabinet in the corner. After a few minutes of digging through the folders, he pulled out a bundle of letters. Sitting back down, he adjusted the lamp and began scanning through them.

Sure enough, there it was. Yasin Khalidizack was his great uncle and the black sheep of the family. During his time, he enjoyed the high life and played fast and loose with the family antiquities. They’d lost quite a few heirlooms during Yasin’s lifetime. Not only was he responsible for the loss of the Solomon Diamond, he’d also won the Bathsheba Crown necklace in a card game. They’d only recently found out that the necklace had been stolen from the original owners.

Several years before his death, he’d gambled away the Scrolls of David, ancient scrolls that supposedly depicted the addition of several laws to his land. They’d even been verified by scholars, and they were worth millions.

Khalidizack was not a name that someone forgot. If Sean Lewis won the scrolls from Yasin, he was hiding his tracks. And if he was keeping that a secret, it was likely that he was keeping something else a secret.

History with Negatin was suspicious, but history with Yasin was something completely different.

Hunching over the computer, Jaymin sent an email to his receptionist to cancel his meeting. He wasn’t going to sleep until he got to the bottom of it.

T
he first rays
of light were just hitting the bed when Tamrin woke up with a start. A shadow hovered over the bed, and the sleepy haze over her immediately lifted. Without a thought, Tamrin struck out with her leg. The shadow grabbed it and flipped her, but Tamrin wasn’t done. Tightening her legs, she wrenched the figure to the ground and straddled it. Only then did she recognize the face.

“Still picking fights,” she grumbled as she got up.

Tamara Lewis pushed herself up and brushed herself off. “You’re getting slow. I’ve been standing over you for five minutes.”

“What are you doing here? It’s hours before we make the switch.” Her twin sister was dressed in identical pajamas, but rather than have her hair neatly braided, Tamara had hers pulled up into a messy bun. In appearance, they were identical and only those who knew them best could tell them apart.

“You slept with the mark. You’re off the job,” Tamara said coldly. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Tamrin clenched her jaw. She didn’t want to think of Jaymin as a mark, but she wasn’t about to tell her sister that. “What makes you think I slept with him?”

Tamara reached out to grab Tamrin’s arm and lift her shirt. There were bruises all along her side. “You either got in a fight with him this weekend, or you had yourself a damn good time. You’re going to blow everything. Now, I have to deal with it without raising suspicion. Were you really so horny that you couldn’t keep your libido in check?”

Tamrin pulled out of her twin’s grasp and pulled her shirt down. “It’s not like that. Seduction was always part of the deal, you know that.”

“Flirting was part of the deal. Sleeping with the mark is foolish.”

“Stop calling him that!” Tamrin lashed out in anger. “What we have is not foolish!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back, but it was too late. Tamara’s eyes narrowed.

“My God. You care for him.” Tamara shook her head. “You’ve gone soft.”

Biting her bottom lip, Tamrin fought to keep the lump from forming in her throat. “I haven’t gone soft. It’s just him. I think…I think there’s something there. Something real.”

With a sigh, Tamara reached out to take Tamrin’s hand. “And how did you think this was going to end? If you tell him the truth, you have to tell him that you’re conning him out of millions. And if you don’t tell him the truth, you’ll have to hide your lifestyle from him.”

“I could quit,” Tamrin said softly. “Last con for me.”

“You would abandon me and Dad?’ Tamara asked as she dropped Tamrin’s hand. “After everything? And what would I do? I don’t exist, Tamrin. I’ve lived my entire life under your name. What the hell would I do?”

Tamrin hadn’t thought of that. They’d spent their whole lives moving from one con to another. From the moment they were born, their father saw an opportunity to make it work. She and her twin shared everything. They split days at schools. They shared boyfriends in high school. And they were each other’s alibi in case they were ever caught. Tamara had no paper trail. She had no history.

“This is our life, Tamrin. We have our cons. We have Dad. We have each other. We can’t afford anything else,” Tamara said softly. “Maybe if we had more in savings, we could split and run. Try to make separate lives work, but if we screw this up, Dad is going to be dead.”

Tamrin’s shoulders slumped, and she sagged against the bed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll break it off with him. Clean and professional, and we’ll continue with the con. You stay out of sight and compose yourself. If I do need you, I’ll need you focused.”

“No,” Tamrin muttered. “I’ll do it.”

“Tamrin…”

“I have to, Tamara. I have to do it so I can prove to you that I can go through with this. If you’re doubting me, we’ll fuck up even more. I’ll do it first thing in the morning, and we can switch afterward. I do need a break. And when you do see him, wear a damn dress. Your jeans are going to give us away.”

Tamara glared at her. “I’ll wear whatever the hell I want. Make the break clean. I don’t want to have to deal with a broken heart.”

Tamrin nodded, and her twin’s expression softened. Despite their upbringing, there was no one she was closer to. When their mother died, their father escaped to a dark place of drinking and gambling. The sisters only had each other. Trained from childhood to be cold and duplicitous, they didn’t swap the normal stories that sisters shared. They didn’t talk about crushes or gossip about friends. But Tamrin knew that if she lost everything, Tamara would be there for her.

As she scooted back in the bed, she heard her sister slip out the door. It was hard to run the con when there were security guards everywhere, but there were so many rooms in the palace that it was easy enough to hide.

There were still a few hours left before she had to be up, but Tamrin rested in bed with her eyes wide open. There was no way she was going to get any sleep. Her heart was already breaking.

When her alarm clock finally went off, Tamrin got up and dressed. Knowing that the first task on her agenda was to break up with Jaymin, she moved past the dresses and selected a pair of cargo pants and a t-shirt. The less seductive she looked, the better.

Plus, she didn’t really have any energy to put into her looks. Pulling out her braid, she let the messy waves fall over her shoulders, and she rubbed her eyes. They were red rimmed from lack of sleep and fighting the tears. Digging through her makeup bag, she pulled out her eye drops.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered as she stared at herself in the mirror. She looked like crap, and she felt not much better. A fist was closing over her heart.

When she didn’t find Jaymin in the dining room, she prayed that she’d find him in his office. If he had left the palace, she’d never have the will to last until he came back. If she didn’t do it now, she wasn’t going to be able to do it at all. Balling her hands into a fist, she knocked on his office door. “Jaymin? It’s Tamrin.”

“Just a minute,” he called back. There was a sound of paper shuffling before the door unlocked. When Jaymin opened it, he swept his eyes up and down her, and for a moment, she thought she saw confusion in them. It cleared up when he leaned down and kissed her.

Tamrin tried to steel herself through the kiss, but as his arm snaked around her waist, she found herself melting against him. This was not the best way to start a break up. “Jaymin, wait,” she whispered as she pushed him back. “I came here to talk.”

He pulled back, and his gaze searched her face. Finally, he pulled her inside and locked the door. “Is everything okay? You don’t look yourself.”

“I haven’t slept well,” she said softly.

“Something on your mind?”

“About this weekend. I don’t know what I was thinking going with you, and I think that we took things too far. We can’t do this anymore, Jaymin. You’re the next crowned sheikh, and I’m nobody. You need to focus on your responsibility, and I need to get out of your life as soon as possible,” she said in one breath.

He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. “You think I’m too good for you?” he asked skeptically.

Tamrin gave him a small smile. “I think your goals in life are very different from mine. This can’t go anywhere, and I think deep down you know that.”

“Come here,” he said as he patted the desk. Wearily, she moved closer to him, and he immediately spun her around and lifted her on the hard surface. She shrieked and wrapped a hand around his neck to hold on.

“Jaymin! What are you doing?”

He reached up and stroked her cheek with his finger. “When I invited you out this weekend, I knew exactly what I was doing. I’m a man with needs, Tamrin, and you definitely satisfy them. I see no reason that we can’t just enjoy ourselves for now. Do you?”

More than anything, she wanted to tell him that her heart was already invested in the relationship, but that clearly wasn’t the case for him. He was simply looking for a good time. Tamara was wrong. The sex didn’t complicate anything with the case.

It just complicated her.

Running a hand under her shirt to her bare skin, he pressed his lips to her neck, and all the memories of the weekend before surfaced. The way that he’d made her move and sweat. The way that he’d made her moan and scream. God, even though she knew that it was wrong, she wanted to experience it all over again.

“Sit in the chair,” she whispered. He leaned back and studied her, but she just bit her lip and nodded. Swinging her legs up, she stood on the desk and pointed to the chair. “Sit. I don’t want to repeat myself.”

His eyes widened in surprise, but he sat in the chair. The way that he drank her in encouraged her, and she slowly lifted her t-shirt. She wore no bra underneath and as she moved her hands over her body, she slipped them over her breasts, cupping and playing with them. His gaze never left hers.

Finally, she moved down and teasingly undid the button of her pants. Turning away from him, she bent over and pulled her pants down. As she touched her toes, she felt his hands circle her waist and his tongue dive inside her. The feeling was so intense she nearly fell over.

“Jaymin,” she moaned as he licked and sucked her before moving his tongue deep inside her. Holding her breath, she tried to find her balance and finally straightened. Turning, she put her foot on his shoulder and pushed him away. “I didn’t tell you to get up,” she said teasingly.

He panted but sat back in the chair. Hopping down from the desk, she leaned over him and kissed him. Jaymin had already unbuttoned his shirt, and she moved her mouth down his body and suckled. When she reached his pants, he was already arching into her. Licking her lips, she unbuckled his pants and caressed him.

“Tamrin, you don’t have to,” he said softly, but she ignored him. Studying him, she took a deep breath and ran a tongue under the base of his erection. He jumped at her touch, and she was filled with power. For the first time in her life, she felt in charge. She could make him want and desire her.

Encouraged, she slid her lips over him and took him deep within her mouth. A hoarse cry escaped him, and he tangled his hands gently in her hair. The harder she sucked and the faster she moved, the less he seemed to breathe. Finally, he pulled her off him and forced her up.

As she climbed into the chair and straddled him, he pushed the hair away from her face. “You surprise me at every turn,” he whispered lovingly.

“Did you like it? It’s the first time I’ve ever done that,” she said quietly. She wanted to do everything with him. She wanted to try everything with him.

“God, Tamrin. There is something….” He shook his head and kissed her. “I loved it.”

Pushing herself up, she wiggled her hips and sank over him. Both of them cried out, and although she was frantic to get to her release, she wanted this to last. It was probably the last time she would ever taste him and feel him like this.

He didn’t rush her, but she could feel how tense his muscles were beneath his touch. Jaymin was letting her take her time and move slow. It was an experiment. She watched and studied him to see just how he liked it. Sometimes when she moved her hips one way, the tick in his jaw would jump. When she moved another, he would moan. Her whole body shook as she drove them both to the brink.

Jaymin pressed his forehead to hers and dug his fingers into her waist. “Baby,” he moaned. “Tamrin. I need you.”

“I’m right here.” But she didn’t know how much longer she’d be here, and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that. Fueled by her anger that she’d have to leave him, fueled by the thought of his anger when he found out the truth, she began to move harder and faster. Her thrusts were almost violent, and soon there was only the slap of skin and her loud cries.

“Tamrin. Baby. Baby,” he cried out hoarsely. Hearing her name on his lips pushed her over the edge, and she clutched at him as her body shuddered violently against him. Tightening his hold on her, he thrust his hips up, causing her to bounce as she pushed back. Digging her heels into the chair, she tensed her leg muscles, as Jaymin’s grunts became mixed with moans.

This wasn’t fair. For once in her life, she had something good. Someone really good and she would have to walk away. She cried out in agitation, feeling her body tense up as her body began to spasm in response to her pending orgasm. Anchoring her against him, his own thrusts became more erratic, as her orgasm swept through her. He continued to thrust against her, but the way her muscles clenched around him made it difficult. With a groan, he yanked her against him as he shuddered through his own release.

They pressed into each other as if they were terrified that something would tear them apart.

“Are you okay?” he asked finally.

Sitting back, she pushed the hair out of her face and behind her ears. “I came here to break up with you, and instead I’m naked in your lap. I’m not sure what I am.”

As she gazed at him, she saw the doubt in his eyes, and she took a deep breath. “You’re not sure how you are, either,” she said softly. Slowly, she pushed herself off his lap and gathered her clothes.

“Tell me something that’s true,” he asked her as she dressed.

She closed her eyes and reached for the door. “I think the only thing I honestly know is that this could never end well.” Forcing back the tears, she wrenched open the door and fled.