Excerpt of The Sheik and the Virgin Secretary by Susan Mallery

"I wondered if you were currently looking for a mistress," Kiley Hendrick said quietly.

Prince Rafiq of Lucia-Serrat stared at the woman sitting across from him. He had thought the biggest surprise of his Monday had been to find Kiley at her desk that morning, instead of on her honeymoon.

He had been wrong. "You speak of yourself?" he asked.

She nodded, keeping her gaze firmly on the pad of paper she clutched on her lap.

He hadn't seen his secretary in five days. She'd taken off part of the previous week to prepare for her impending marriage. "I take it the wedding on Saturday was not a success," he said. "There was no wedding." She raised her head and stared directly at him. "Eric and I are no longer together."

"I see."

He allowed his gaze to return to her tightly clenched hands and saw that the modest diamond engagement ring was no longer on her left hand. A thin indentation on her pale skin was the only proof it had existed at all.

"I know that you are currently between, ah, women," she said and blushed. "That is, I sent the final gifts and letter so I thought that you had broken up." She pressed her lips together as if not sure how to continue.

"I am no longer seeing Carmen," he offered helpfully. Kiley nodded. "Yes. I thought so. And while I know you usually have one or two candidates waiting in the wings, I wondered if you would consider me. Even though I'm not your usual type."

He had a type? "Meaning?"

She released her death grip on her pad of paper and shifted in her seat. "Glamorous. Beautiful. Sophisticated. I'm okay looking, but not in their league. But you've only seen me in work clothes. I clean up pretty well. I'm smart, I have a sense of humor." She paused and bit her lower lip. "I've never had a conversation like this. I don't know what you're looking for when you pick a woman for, um, well, that."

"My bed?"

The blush returned. She swallowed but didn't look away. "Right. Your bed."

Rafiq had not discussed things so openly before, either. He leaned back in his chair and considered what he looked for in a mistress.

"Obviously some physical beauty," he said, more to himself than her. "But that is less important than one might think. Intelligence and humor are required. Not every waking moment is spent making love. There is plenty of time for conversation."

He thought of Carmen's shrill demands. "An even temper would be desirable."

"You've known me for two years," Kiley reminded him. "I've never gotten angry."

"Agreed." She had not. She was efficient, organized and very much responsible for the ease with which his workday progressed. But his mistress?

While Kiley was attractive and he would admit to finding pleasure in watching her move, he had never considered that more than a bonus. Beautiful, sensual women were easy to find. An excellent assistant was not.

The most sensible course was to politely thank her for the offer, then refuse the invitation. He would —

"There will be advantages," she said, as if trying to convince him. "I understand your work. We can discuss it, if you'd like. Plus I won't mind if you have to stay at the office late."

"Most likely you will be working late with me," he said, wondering why this was so important to her. What had pushed the normally reserved Kiley to make such an outrageous — for her, at least — request?

"Yes, there is that." She cleared her throat. "I don't know what else to say. I just hope you'll consider me."

He had never been approached so openly by a woman intent on joining him in his bed. He would have bet a considerable part of his fortune that she was not the type to be interested in an affair. He still believed that.

"Why do you want to do this?" he asked.

Kiley returned her attention to him. Her dark-blue eyes flashed with pain. "Revenge."

"A noble motive. I assume this revenge is because of your fiancé?"

"Yes. Eric."

She paused, as if considering how much to tell him. Rafiq could guess the basic scenario, but he wanted to hear it from her. He wanted to gauge her emotions and her intent.

While she chose her words, he looked at her. Really looked — not at the ever-present secretary who anticipated his needs and made his life flow pleasantly, but at the woman.

She was of average height — perhaps five foot four or five inches. Her hair, worn short and layered, was the color of gold. Or perhaps the north-shore beaches of Lucia-Serrat at sunset. Her large eyes dominated her face. He'd noticed how the deep blue darkened or lightened with her mood. He had always been able to tell if she was annoyed with him.

She was delicately built, small-boned, with curves that intrigued him. Now he took in the slight swell of her breasts and the shape of her calves below the hem of her knee-length skirt.

She was attractive, he thought. He found her easy to be with. She did not scream or annoy him. Like every other woman of his acquaintance, she wanted something from him. Unlike the others, she had been honest from the first.

But did he want her in his bed? "He cheated," Kiley said at last, obviously fighting tears. "I'm sure you guessed that. He spared me the cliché of the groom sleeping with the bride's maid-of-honor-slash-best friend, but he more than made up for it in other ways. He had sex with most of the women in his law school class, his neighbors, my neighbor, along with countless others. He propositioned two of my friends. At the time, they tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen. Talk about stupid."

She spoke lightly, as if the words had no meaning. But he heard the pain in her voice and saw it in her eyes.

"You did not believe them?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I was fooled right up until last Friday morning when I walked in on him and a woman from his study group." She blinked rapidly as if holding in tears. "That wasn't even the worst of it. He c-came after me and told me it didn't mean anything." She paused to swallow, the tears closer to the surface now.

"He never was very original. Then he told me that he was doing it for me. That he wanted to treat me with reverence and respect. So he kept that side of himself away from me."

She looked at Rafiq. "My idea of loving someone, of feeling reverence, isn't to cheat on her over and over again."

"You canceled the wedding." If Rafiq had planned to attend, he would have known before now. But an outof-town commitment had caused him to send his regrets.

"Eric was shocked, if you can believe it," Kiley said.

"He actually thought I'd still go through with it because it was the next day and we had 250 people coming. Everything was paid for. But I wouldn't do it. I loved him and I thought he loved me and I was wrong. Getting married at that point would only make things worse. So I canceled."

She dropped her head and stared at the pad of paper on her lap. "My mom and I made phone calls. We couldn't get everyone, so I went to the church the next morning and told them as they arrived." She took a deep breath. "It was horrible."

"You? Not Eric?"

She shook her head. "He took the tickets for our honeymoon in Hawaii and left with his flavor of the week. I hope they get rashes. And stung by jellyfish."

Her courage surprised him. She could easily have sent a family member to stand at the church, but she'd done it herself.

"Why me?" he asked.

For the first time since walking into his office, a smile tugged at her lips. "You're a prince, Rafiq. That makes you the best candidate around."

"Ah. I see." He could discern out the rest of it. "Eric has accepted a job with the law firm I use. Therefore he will attend some of the same functions I do. As my mistress, you would go with me."

"Exactly. Eric doesn't like you," she added. "I think he's jealous. He's tried to get me to quit a few times, but I refused. He would talk about the women in your life as if they were sluts or something but I'm starting to believe he was envious. He wants what you have. Or maybe he wants to be you. I don't know and I don't care. But I'm convinced that my being your mistress will destroy him."

Rafiq considered her words. He had only met Kiley's fiancé one or two times. He'd never formed an opinion of the man until now.

"Do you want him destroyed?" he asked.

She nodded. "Then I want to walk away and forget he ever existed." She looked at him. "There's another reason I came to you. You're a good man. You'd never treat a woman the way Eric treated me. You'd simply end things without any of the lies."

Her assessment of his character was interesting. He could name twenty people who would do their best to convince her he was the biggest bastard on the planet. But she was also right — he'd never lied to a woman. He'd never stooped to trickery or deception.

Was he considering her offer? Did he want Kiley as his mistress? He wouldn't mind her in his bed, despite the complications. He liked her. The proposition had possibilities.

"There are logistics to be considered," he said. "If we decide to move forward with this."

They were discussing things so calmly, Kiley thought, more than a little amazed by the turn of events. She was willing to admit she was still emotionally numb from the shock of Eric's betrayal, but even as she'd imagined a thousand ways this conversation could go, she'd never thought it would be so rational. Maybe this sort of thing happened to Rafiq all the time, but it was a definite first for her. Still, she was determined. She could forgive a lot of things, but not betrayal on that level. Not ever.

To think that Eric had tried to make her feel guilty about enjoying her job with Rafiq when Eric had been cheating on her. She'd been so careful not to talk about her boss and she'd always gone out of her way to reassure Eric. Just the thought of it made her want to throw something.

He had even complained about Rafiq's generous gift of Baccarat crystal. A gift she currently had boxed up in her office to return to her boss.