Someone here on Literotica mailed me and asked if I could write about a billionaire. Others said they liked my Sheikh stories. Someone else reviewed my earlier stories and claimed they were degrading and using the F-word way too much. So this time I want to try to write an old fashioned romance story with no sexscenes (at least not in the beginning) but what still will have you ladies (and maybe gentlemen) dreaming hot dreams.
Feel free to comment, to suggest improvements or to point out factual errors. Or to suggest a storytwist. Bear with me that English is not my motherlanguage even if I am able to understand at least three others.
The setting of the story will be the fictious oil emirate Al Dahaab, famous for its golden beaches (hence the name Gold)
SO FAR: This is chapter 4. Dutch paralegal Lisa, single and in her twenties, has been seconded to Al Dahaab. Her consultancy firm did a lot of visa requests for local companies and institutions as the university whose personnel had to travel to the Schengen area (Western Europe). While it had been done from Amsterdam, recently the firm had thought it better service to let those cases be handled from their local branch in Al Dahaab. But that had turned into chaos. Hence Lisa trying to save thing so their clients would not switch to another firm.
One of their biggest clients is Khalid Enterprises, a big shipping multinational owned by the brother of the local ruler. Sheikh Khalid is a workaholic who is impressed with the work of the young woman and offers her a lift home in his jet to see her grandmother over the weekend. He is looking for a new office in Amsterdam as he wants to move his European headquarter to the mainland because of BREXIT. Lisa suggests however another city. The next weekend he picks her up at her grandmother's farm to check out potential new headquarters.
Khalid is a widower in his late thirties who realises how lonely he has been over the last few years when he is accepted as a kind of family friend by Lisa and her grandmother.
Lisa is a paralegal but about to get her law degree and is thinking of leaving the consultancy firm to become a trainee barrister. Khalid thinks it will be a solid business decision to go and hire her himself.
The sky was a vivid mix of yellows, orange and pinks but in the twilight of the Western-European evening the orchard of the farm that was owned by Lisa's grandmother was filled with shadows.
Under the pear and apple trees, laden with fruit, stood a picnic table. Lisa walked towards it. She turned around to the sheikh and gestured for him to sit on one of the benches.
"Please sit down sheikh Khalid", said Lisa.
While the sky was still light it was difficult for her to see the emotions on his face. She wondered what he was doing here. Why had he come all that way to give them the food served at the opening party at his office?
"How is your thesis coming along?", asked the sheikh.
"I just have to do some alterations. My professor has promised that I will receive my law degree at the end of this month".
"Any luck with the job applications?" asked to sheikh.
"I had a couple of invitations by some law firms. One of them is a local one but they are the normal rural law firm. I don't think my experience in immigration will come in handy there. It will be like starting at zero. The other one is a big city law firm in Rotterdam. They specialise in immigration law and labour disputes. However they are as far away from my grandmother's farm as my current job is now."
"So if I understand you correctly, you are not enthusiastic about both of them are you?" asked the sheikh.
She shook her head. "No not really".
"I want to hire you," he said.
"Me? As what?"
He put his finger to his full lips. "Hush hear me out."
"My company has grown a lot in the last couple of years. My in-house legal council, Mustafa Celebi, is getting older and he can use some extra hands. The money I save by not hiring your consultancy firm but you directly will coving hiring you full time."
"But sheikh I do not have enough visa cases for your firm to work all week."
"Be quiet woman! I appreciate your honesty but do you really think I had not realised that?"
Wow that guy could look stern! Better to hear him out.
"I am sorry sir please continue."
"I was thinking to hire you to do the immigration work. Not only what you do now but also the workpermits for my international workers who work in Al Dahaab and on my ships. Mr Celebi will train you in labour law and contract law. You will also get private lessons in Arabic. When your language skills are up to par we can see into doing a PhD at the local university or something like that. In time when all is satisfactory you could become the senior legal consultant in my firm when the old man retires. However part of your work will be what I might consider giving you non-legal work like accompanying me on business trips"
He then mentioned a salary that had her drop her jaw. WOW!
Her mind went spinning. What non-legal work? Oh yes but it would not be possible. Her grandmother...
"I am sorry sir but Al Dahaab is even further away from my grandmother than Amsterdam. You have seen how frails she is getting."
"Just bring her with you. I can arrange for a place for you to to stay."
"She cannot stand that kind of heath Sheikh. Her heart..."
"So how can we solve this? Does the offer appeal to you?"
"Yes it does. I will broaden my horizon. Maybe even get me a PhD... What other duties?"
"Sometimes it helps when you have someone from a European country with you. Sometimes a woman works better. I would take you with me to meetings."
"Oh.... I understand. But thank you very much for thinking of me but I cannot leave Omi all alone here. It was hard as it was while I was seconded to your country."
She reached out and placed her hands on his on impulse. "I really appreciate it that you thought of me".
When she moved them away again, he grabbed both her hands.
"Lisa what can I do to solve this problem? Suppose I would offer a grant for some female students to study here but live on the farm and do the shopping and keep an eye out? Their fathers would feel save that their daughters were looked after and no family honour getting in trouble and your grandmother would have help. You could take the jet and visit each time I had to go to Rotterdam."
She looked at her hands in his large paws. The feeling of his warm skin against hers. He was offering her a great adventure and it would also be an impressive career move. She was sure a future job as a lea council in a big firm as his would pay big time. And she had loved to work with him that day they had gone office hunting. To be honest she realised how she had missed talking to him in the last weeks.
She looked up into his dark eyes. The man was calm as always. She wished they could just sit here. Her hands in his hands. The brilliant red sky and the apple trees.
"We need to talk to Omi. She is the one who has the final word in this Sheikh."
--- 000---
The elevator pinged open. The young man at the reception desk beamed a welcoming smile. "Good morning miss Lisa. Welcome to the team. Let me call the manager. He is expecting you."
The stern sour faced old man she had met the last time she was at Khalid Enterprises walked into the reception area. His mouth turned even more grim.
"Why are you not appropriately dressed?"
Lisa looked down and the long flowing floral maxi dress that fell to her shoes and had long sleeves. She had bought it on purpose thinking she now was going to work in a predominantly Middle Eastern company and should dress non-revealing.
"Sorry what did I do wrong?" she asked the man.
"It is my fault. I forgot to tell her", set a familiar baritone voice behind her back. The lift had opened again and there was Sheikh Khalid with his bodyguard Omar and another man.
"My Sheikh", greeted the office manager.
"I forgot to tell miss Lisa that my brother the ruler proclaimed last month that all governmental personnel should wear local dress to work. He says it is a sign of cultural pride. Well most did already. But also companies now want to promote it. He is my brother so we follow suit here."
"What is it I am supposed to wear?" she asked.
"Just an abbaya, that long thin robe, over your cloths. It is like a coat or a long bathrobe.. As you are not a Muslim I would say you do not have to cover your head. Let mr .... (he mentioned a name she did not get and the old fart had not introduced himself) show you your office and settle you in with the PC and all that kind of stuff and then Omar is going to brief you on security matters and show you your place to stay and you can take a long lunchbreak on the clock to go and shop for office attire."
He nodded to her and to the men and turned round in a whirlwind of robes and walked away to his corner office.
Omar explained security protocol and she came to understand that he was not so much bodyguard as the head of security matters of Khalid Enterprises. After the briefing he then drove her to a posh neighbourhood on an artificial island. They stopped at a gate where she was put on a list of people who were allowed to pass. The car stopped at a villa on the waterfront. Omar helped her out of the car.
'This is a home owned by the Sheikh but he never lived here. He hopes you will decorate it for him. Not now. Later when you have hours to spare. But there is a working kitchen and a shower for the housekeeper. He said you could just pick a room to sleep in."
Lisa looked in awe. It was a beautiful house with a place for a yacht to dock and a veranda and balconies on the water side of the building. But it was totally empty.