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“I can’t. It’s my own face.”
“If I took a picture, all you’d see is your frown.”
Rami shrugged it off. “I have fun. I can’t help it if it’s not your idea of a good time.” They both silently looked at the monitor again. The American TMZ homepage wasn’t viewable by the general public in Al-Dashalid, but the palace Internet wasn’t restricted. “How did you find this, anyway?”
“A Google alert.”
“You have a Google alert for me?” Rami looked at Issam out of the corner of his eye. “Why?”
“I have them for everyone in the family. Our security isn’t only a physical matter.” Now an edge crept into Issam’s voice. He took his work seriously, even as he laughed at Rami for doing the same.
“No,” Rami agreed. “It would be nice to have some more business security than I currently do.”
“Did a deal fall through?” The two brothers angled themselves away from the computer, facing each other now.
“Not yet.”
“That doesn’t sound encouraging.” Issam was looking for more information, and Rami found himself wanting to get it off his chest.
“I got an invitation to another weekend of negotiations with Morris International in Texas.”
Issam cocked his head to the side. “That sounds like a positive.”
“I thought it was. But a man I met at the last party, a friend of Lydia Morris, sent me a private message. Apparently she didn’t think we were friendly enough.”
“That’s…odd.”
“It’s her way of doing business,” Rami offered. “Her friend did me a favor by warning me. I need a better connection.”
The idea hit him like a bolt of lightning.
“A…closer connection.”
Lydia Morris might not be Rami’s biggest fan, but she loved Catelyn. She’d badly wanted her to stay at the party, and it made Rami think there was a history between the two women. A friendship at least, and maybe a stronger bond than that.
The wedding between Rami and Catelyn hadn’t been real. But if it were…
“What’s that look on your face?” Issam said suspiciously. “You look like you’re plotting.”
“Maybe I am,” Rami was being cryptic, and he knew it. But Issam had spent long enough laughing at him today. He’d let him in on the plan when it was fully formed. Or…when it was a fantasy turned reality. “Don’t you have work to do?”
Issam raised both hands in the air. “I know when I’m not wanted.”
“See you at dinner.” Rami wanted his plan set in stone before then. Issam left him to his own devices, and he went back to the computer.
It didn’t take long to discover why Catelyn had done what she’d done. Her wedding planning business—Elite Occasions—was in need of clients, if their blog was any indication. She wanted to use those fake photos to give them “a royal reputation.” He chuckled t
o himself. She’d probably thought he’d never see these photos.
It made perfect sense.
And honestly, so did the wedding.
If he were married to Catelyn, he’d become—he sensed it—a close contact of Lydia’s. The next Google search revealed that Lydia had mentored Catelyn, confirming his hunch. Catelyn had only left Morris International to start her own business. On top of it all, ancient laws in Rami’s country required him to marry by the age of thirty in order to wield his power as a member of the royal family. He was twenty-nine.
Best of all, Catelyn needed him, too.
The wedding was out in the open, being reported by the tabloids. The news that Rami was married to a gorgeous, well-connected American woman would be marred if people found out it wasn’t real.
