His Irresistible Darling Read Online Free Page A

at Faridah’s back as she stood waiting for the lift to arrive at the fiftieth floor. She leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her desk and dropping her chin into her hands, pondering if she could get away with
accidentally
throwing her pen at Miss Tall and Gorgeous’s back. Her devilish scheming was interrupted by the ping of her email.
    To: Pippa Darling
    From: Jumal Aldabbagh
    Subject: Tonight
    Pippa,
    Lots on with the Dubai deal. Need you to work late tonight. If you have plans you’ll have to cancel. I also need you to call my mother and tell her I can’t make dinner tonight.
    Jumal
    CEO, JAA Enterprises
    Great, just great. She was already convinced that his mother didn’t like her and no doubt she’d somehow be blamed for his cancelling dinner.
    She penned her reply.
    To: Jumal Aldabbagh
    From: Pippa Darling
    Subject: Re: Tonight
    Yeah sure, no problem about tonight, sir. I’ll just cancel all my plans
. (Heavy sarcasm intended.)
    Are you happy for me to come up with an appropriate excuse for your mother as to why her only son can’t make dinner?
    Pip
    Personal Assistant to Jumal Aldabbagh
    JAA Enterprises
    Having received his positive reply, she picked up her phone and placed it between her shoulder and ear whilst looking over at Melina with a wicked glint in her eye.
    “Oh no, I know that look. Whatever you’re thinking
isn’t
a good idea, Pip. Stop baiting the tiger. He’s gonna turn and bite you,” her friend warned whilst shaking her head.
    “What?” she asked, innocently. “He shouldn’t make me do all his dirty work.”
    She ignored Melina’s soft reply reminding her that that was actually part of her job description.
    Eventually, the butler connected her call to Mrs Aldabbagh.
    “Yes, sorry, Mrs Aldabbagh, I know it’s late notice and Jumal is just so sorry but he can’t make dinner tonight. The doctor could only offer him an emergency appointment tonight and of course he needed to get it seen to as quickly as possible. I think Jumal said something about some oozing and all. Yuck.”
    Pip had to hold the phone away from her ear at his mother’s retort.
    “What was that?” she checked, gingerly returning the phone to her ear. “Oh yes of course you can speak to him, I’ll just put you through. Nice speaking to you again, Mrs Aldabbagh.”
    She punched in his extension number.
    “What?” Jumal growled at her.
    “Your mother would like a quick word, sir,” she said as she connected him.
    She leaned back in her chair, spinning it around slowly with her feet, her hands steepled together under her chin as she counted to herself. One, two, three…
    “PIPPAAAAA!!”

Chapter Two
    “Here you go.”
    Pip yelped and jumped in surprise as the large file of papers landed squarely on her desk and scattered her yellow paper notes. She shot a glance up at Jumal’s dark eyes. “Some light bedtime reading. Enough to keep even
you
out of trouble.”
    “What is it?” she asked, looking back briefly at the ominous large file.
    “The Dubai contract. Faridah dropped it in earlier and she’ll be contacting you tomorrow to set up the meetings.”
    “Joy,” she mumbled under her breath.
    “Sorry, what was that?” Jumal pressed.
    “Nothing,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively. “So what do you need me to do?”
    He paused briefly as if considering his next words. “I want a summary of the salient points on my desk tomorrow morning.”
    Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping open goldfish style as she discreetly tried to glance at her watch. It was already ten o’clock at night.
    “Wha—” She shut her mouth—even she knew when to quit and this was clearly punishment for her earlier joke. The man obviously had no sense of humour. In fact, come to think of it, she hadn’t even seen him crack a smile with a colleague in the few months she’d been here. He was so serious—a prime candidate for a stress-induced heart attack.
    “Fine,”