Page 12 of Hired Husband

“And yet, you’re stuck in this building.” He leaned forward and tapped my face on the magazine again. “I’ve read this article a few times and what I have learned is that you don’t belong here.”

I scoffed. “This company has been in my family for⁠—”

“No!” He cried out, throwing his arms out to his sides. “No, Isaac. That is not the right answer. It’s not about your family. It’s about what’s in here.”

He thumped a fist over his chest so hard that I was briefly concerned he might have a heart attack, but I’d seen Basel like this before. Usually from a distance, to be fair, but he was from a culture far more passionate than mine, and right now, it showed.

The man was getting truly emotional about this. Weird as fuck, but okay. Let’s roll with it.

“Again,” I said calmly. “Would you like to tell me why you came here this morning?”

A loud, booming laugh filled the office. “I came here to ask you to come work for me, of course. No, to work with me. We’ll be partners.”

I was so shocked that my mouth dropped open. “What?”

“I’m serious, Isaac. You belong out there in the world, changing the landscape of every city you touch and building what it’s going to look like in the future. You are wasting yourself here. You are wasting your talent.”

“Well, I don’t know that I’d go that far.”

“You’re not listening.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees and his dark eyes shining with enthusiasm. “Come back to Cairo with me. Thayer Steelworks doesn’t need you, but I do. They can find someone else to do their oversight. I cannot find someone else who can build the way you do.”

“Technically, that’s not true,” I said mildly, finding myself tamping down my own emotions more and more in the face of his only growing. “There are a lot of people who can build like me, and Thayer always needs good people.”

“Yes, but Thayer has Colin, Jane, and Ryan. It will have your other brothers soon too, and it’s got Alex Westwood and the whole might of Westwood and Sons watching its back.”

“Yeah?”

“So why are you here, Isaac? You were not born to wear a suit every day and walk these halls until your death.”

“That’s surprisingly morbid.”

“It’s accurate, is it not? When I look at you, I see a young man with the potential to shape what his generation of engineers leaves the world long after you’re gone. Do you know what I don’t see?”

“What’s that?”

“An executive,” he said. “In Egypt, I will help you register your own LLC. You and I will be partners⁠—”

“You’ve said that.”

“And I’ll say it again and again until you hear me. I can make you a very wealthy man. Together, we can achieve great things. I need someone like you, a builder I can trust with my history and the future of my city.”

I stared back at him as it finally dawned that he was completely serious about this. “Are you genuinely sitting inside of Thayer Steelworks, trying to recruit one of the Thayers?”

“Yes.”

“That’s… bold.”

He leaned back in his chair and smiled at me. “Think about it, Isaac. I’m offering you the opportunity to be your own man, to live your passions, to chase your dreams, and to make a great deal of money doing it.”

I swallowed hard, but when I didn’t respond, he came in for the kill. “If I don’t deliver on my promises, Thayer Steelworks and your family will always be here waiting for you, but I will deliver, Isaac. I always do. Together, you and I will⁠—”

“Fine,” I said, just to get him off my back. “I’ll do it. I’ll come to Egypt.”

Basel’s eyebrows rose slowly, but then he flashed me a triumphant grin and stood. “Excellent. I knew you’d come around.”

“Yeah.”

Swiping the magazine off my desk, he tucked it back under his arm and crossed my office, but paused after he’d opened the door. “You’d better get packing, my boy. I leave tonight.”