href="#u1c495878-ef47-5cac-836d-603c502e4441">CHAPTER FOUR
Maisey Yates
A Chatsfield Scandal!
Journalist Sophie Parsons needs a scoop to stop the sale of her friend’s hotel chain. And she’s found it! But being abducted by a sheikh goes way beyond the call of duty...
Sheikh Zayn Al-Ahmar has a wedding to arrange, a sister to protect and a country to rule. He’s not going to let one woman bring it all down with a headline! Kidnapping Sophie seemed like a good idea, but soon her delectable company puts everything he values at risk.
Only one mistress can rule Zayn’s heart—will it be Sophie, or his duty?
Welcome to The Chatsfield, New York!
‘I’m working on something that concerns the Chatsfield family,’ Sophie said finally.
‘Clearly not something they would be very happy about.’
‘Well, probably not. But I can see you’re not one of their fans. It should please you to know that I’m not a big fan of the Chatsfields either. And I don’t think they necessarily deserve the somewhat pristine reputation they seem to have cultivated recently.’
‘So what is it you’re after?’ asked Sheikh Zayn Al-Ahmar. ‘A scandal.’
‘Of course. I should’ve known you were after a scandal. What good reporter isn’t?’
Unfortunately, she was very close to a scandal. One that would involve his family, his sister. One that would be unacceptable to have out in the open.
‘Well, exactly.’
‘And you know that I’m not James’s biggest fan?’
‘Well, clearly not. As he seems to have got involved with your sister.’
And just like that he realised that, whatever else she knew, she knew too much. With an entire newspaper to back her, she would be giving information to interested parties, who would do much more digging than he would like done.
‘Yes, indeed.’
And just like that he realised he had made his decision. He leaned forward and pressed the intercom button on the partition between the back seat and the front seat.
‘We are not going back to the hotel. We will be going straight to the airport.’
USA TODAY bestselling author MAISEY YATES lives in rural Oregon, USA, with her three children and her husband, whose chiselled jaw and arresting features continue to make her swoon. She feels the epic trek she takes several times a day from her office to her coffeemaker is a true example of her pioneer spirit.
In 2009, at the age of twenty-three, Maisey sold her first book. Since then it’s been a whirlwind of sexy alpha males and happily-ever-afters, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Maisey divides her writing time between dark, passionate category romances, set just about everywhere on earth, and light, sexy contemporary romances set practically in her backyard. She believes that she clearly has the best job in the world.
To Pippa, Laura and Jackie. Thanks for talking me through this one. Sometimes you need the whole team.
SHEIKH ZAYN AL-AHMAR had many regrets in his life. The kind of regrets that reached into the darkness in the middle of the night, and tried to strangle him while he slept. The kind of regrets that followed him all through the day, and informed his every action; constant reminders of why he’d had to leave the old version of himself behind, and become something entirely different.
But however pressing his past regrets might be, right now he could think of only one. Right now, his most sincere regret was that he could not close his fist around James Chatsfield’s throat and end the worthless man’s life here and now, in an alley behind his family hotel.
Instead, he settled for something much less satisfying. He curled his hands around the lapels of James’s jacket and shoved the other man back against the brick wall. It was a violent action but, Zayn found, not quite violent enough for his current mood.
“I’m not quite sure what has your knickers in a twist, Al-Ahmar,” James said. His pretty-boy face, filled with that kind of insouciance he excelled at, only enraged Zayn further. The mocking gleam in his eyes only stoking the fires higher. Because Zayn was so well acquainted with both. Because Zayn might well have been looking into a mirror that showed a reflection of the past.
But most especially because what the man had done was unforgivable.
“I think you very well know, Chatsfield.” Zayn didn’t see the point in playing games. Not here in a darkened alley with no one around to witness his actions.
For sixteen years, his life had been consumed with the protection
