“And her computer,” he went on.
Shantra lifted her other hand to her mouth. “Hmmm…why would Joline need her computer? What a silly thought.”
Rais rolled his eyes. “Okay, so I had her on the plane to London before I gave her the chance to pull work together for the flight.” He conceded that he might have been a bit high-handed there.
“Yes, but why would she need her computer?” Ciala prompted.
Raven agreed. “You’re not answering the question.” Turning to Shantra, Raven said, “I don’t think he really understands the issue.”
Rais sighed, deciding to play along with the ladies. If it got him his information, he would figure out what to do about it. He wanted Joline by his side, damn it! “She would need her computer to work.”
“But she’s a woman!” Shantra exclaimed, slapping his shoulder playfully. “She doesn’t need to work! Work is for men!”
“Women like to shop!” Raven announced.
“We don’t like to work!” Ciala chimed in.
His eyes looked at his sister-in-law who was still wearing her lab coat, having just come from the clinic. Raven was a brilliant doctor who provided extremely valuable services to the low-income people here in the capital.
“Okay, I get it. Women like to work,” he announced, conceding that he’d been an idiot about telling Joline she didn’t need to work, that he would take care of her. “And they enjoy jobs, sometimes.” But his eyes slid to Ciala and Shantra.
“Don’t go there!” Mia warned, reading his mind. “You’ll just sound uninformed.”
Rais sighed with impatience. “Fine! Joline is a brilliant businesswoman who would prefer to work.”
“Needs to work,” Shantra corrected.
He took umbrage with that verb. “No. My wife will never need to work.”
All four women sighed, shaking their heads. “You don’t get it,” Ciala said with another grimace. She looked at the other ladies. “He might not ever get it,” she told them.
Rais almost exploded with irritation when the other three shook their heads, agreeing that he was clueless. “Would someone please explain what I’m missing?” he yelled, looking up at the ceiling to try and find some patience.
Shantra stepped in front of the group and pointed at Rais. “You’re such a chauvinistic pig, Rais. You think that women are too flighty to need to work but you’re wrong. And you’ll never truly understand Joline until you get that.”
“And you’re not going to tell me where she is until I understand, is that it?”
All four women crossed their arms over their chests and glared right back.
Rais muttered something under his breath and walked away, frustrated and furious. “I’ll find her,” he promised the women even as he walked away. He had to find her, he told himself.
He didn’t think he would survive if he didn’t find her. Joline…hell, she made him feel alive! She defied him and challenged him, made him laugh and they had conversations that were more stimulating than any he had with other people. She wasn’t afraid of him and yet, she trembled in his arms and made love to him as if he were the only man on earth who could make her feel that way.
He…
Oh hell! He loved her! He hadn’t accepted that fact until now. He hadn’t even thought it was possible, but he loved her. He loved all of her, every frustrating, annoying, intriguing aspect of her.
And yet, he still had no idea how to find her.
Which begged the question, if he knew her better, if he understood her…would he be able to find her?
That thought made him pause. Did he really not understand Joline? If he loved her, wouldn’t he understand her?
Possibly not.
Damn, he hated it when his sisters were right. He was an arrogant ass. And yes, he’d been stomping all over Joline’s feelings, ignoring everything she said simply because her wishes didn’t fall in line with his own desires for their future.
“Hell!” he muttered and stormed back into his office. “Get my head of security on the phone,” he commanded to his assistant.
A moment later, his phone rang and Rais snatched up the receiver. “Where is my fiancée?” he demanded of the man.
“There’s still been no activity on any of her credit cards, Your Highness. And she hasn’t turned on her cell phone. We’ve been staking out both her apartment and the New York store, we’ve contacted her mother, her friends, the coffee shop where she normally gets her coffee each morning and are looking at her financials to see if there’s another place she frequents. So far, we haven’t come up with anything. But we will keep looking.”