Challenging The Doctor Sheikh. Amalie Berlin

all had sleeves. Sleeves hindered her board work and invariably ended up smudged all around the elbow with fresh graphite—but the pajama top was sleeveless.

      Besides, it was just her and Tahira. The guards she had stay outside the flat and downstairs, aside from their hourly checks, so they probably saw her bare arms from the back a time or two when they peeked in and she sat bent over the drafting table, her hair twisted into a sloppy knot on top of her head and secured by pencils.

      “Good afternoon.”

      Dakan’s voice rumbled down her spine, and she suddenly wished she’d worn sleeves to hide the wash of goose-bumps racing over her skin.

      Thank goodness she’d had the forethought to put on a bra.

      Pencil in hand, she turned on her stool and smiled so brightly she hoped it would drown out all other aspects of her appearance.

      “Not good?” he corrected. “Well, I’m about to make it more interesting.”

      She looked at what he carried. Tucked under one arm he had a bundle of blueprints, and in his hand a couple more disks for her. “More examples?”

      “Yes. And no. Here, these are all the plans of the hospital that’s there now.” He didn’t say anything about her appearance, but here she stood in the presence of a gorgeous prince, at best disheveled and without a drop of make-up. Her bun felt loose and baggy too, she just knew it was hanging to the side as if she’d had her hair done by a drunken five-year-old.

      Lifting one hand, she felt for the pencils and surreptitiously slid them free so she could unwind the still-damp mass of hair. At least that was somewhat concealing, even if it was the sloppiest mess of waves and tangled curls he had probably ever seen. To his credit, although he stopped unrolling the prints and shuffling papers around to look at her, he said nothing.

      “Oh, well, that’ll be helpful so I can see how it’s working now. I just had a footprint of it before.”

      “That’s not why I brought them.” He spun her chair, urged her to sit with one hand and then rounded the table to sit opposite her. “We’ve got a slight change in plans.”

      “Change? Okay. What kind of change?”

      “We’re not working on the hospital any more right now.”

      Nira squinted at the plans he’d unrolled. “But this is the hospital.”

      “Yes, I mean I want you to stop working on the new hospital designs for the time being. There are bigger worries.”

      “New project?”

      “Old building, new project. So I guess it’s still the same project, but we’re shifting priorities. We need to remodel the old theater and add a small addition to the building there. The surgical theater there isn’t only underused, it’s horrifying. I’ve liaised with the neighboring kingdoms and their hospitals are ready to receive any surgical patients we have for the next couple of months. And when I say remodeled, I mean gutted. Completely redone. And I want a tiny wing added to the side with a nursery to accommodate twins...”