The Oil Tycoon and Her Sexy Sheikh by Ros Clarke

help but be impressed at the interest Olivia had shown in his country. He’d expected her to spend her days at the palace, closeted in meetings with his councillors, or perhaps developing useful contacts with local businessmen. Instead, she had visited the souk, the mosque, and now the radio station. She couldn’t have chosen better places to understand the Saqati culture.
    Sadiah replied to Olivia’s apology in rapid Arabic and this time her question was relayed in English. “At what age did you decide what career you wanted?”
    “I’ve always wanted to work with my father,” Olivia said. “He has no sons, and so from a very young age I knew that I would inherit his business. When I began to understand what that meant, I decided I wanted to be more than a silent shareholder, so I worked hard to prove that I could do the job as well as any son could have done. I chose to study subjects that would be relevant to the business, and then I worked my way up through the company.”
    Khaled grimaced. Oliver McInnes would have been a difficult role model for any child, but as a widowed parent to an only daughter he’d set a virtually impossible standard for Olivia to reach. She didn’t see it like that, of course. She’d simply turned her mind to the task and worked at it until she succeeded. There was no question that she was as good as any son could have been. She was better.
    He listened to her explaining her education choices. Engineering hadn’t been an easy path for a woman to take, but Olivia had excelled. She’d worked in all sorts of challenging environments and learned how to earn the respect of her male colleagues. Sadiah asked whether Olivia felt she had to be better than the men she worked with. Olivia laughed.
    “Oh, yes. I’ve been the token woman at more interviews than I can remember. They start the day with every intention of hiring one of the men, so it’s my job to give them no choice but to hire me. It’s the same once you’ve got the job. The guys are always watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. Often they’re too busy watching me to keep an eye on their own job and that’s when they slip up. I find that once that’s happened, it’s easier to establish a more equal working relationship.”
    He remembered seeing her in action on the rig. The men there all respected her and he’d bet that she’d had to work hard to earn that when she first started.
    Finally, Sadiah concluded her interview. “What advice would you give to the women listening today?”
    There was a pause before Olivia answered. “Don’t let anyone take your dreams away from you. Know what you want in life and do everything in your power to make it happen.”
    Khaled’s mouth twisted. He switched off the radio and stared at the pile of papers that Jamil had left on his desk. He still had so much to learn about Saqat. There were so many things his father had done that Khaled had taken for granted. These weren’t his dreams. He longed for his tiny office back at the museum where he could set the agenda for his own research. He’d hoped to lead a field team out to Australia next year. No hope for that now. No one had deliberately taken Khaled’s dreams away from him, but circumstances had worked out that way, and there was nothing to be done about it.
    He pushed the papers aside and pulled out the MCI contract. This was one thing he could do. If he couldn’t have his own dreams, he could at least make sure Olivia achieved hers. Tomorrow he had a meeting with her, and he was determined to find a way to make it work. She’d already told him about her plans for increased safety measures and crisis management. Khaled had some more suggestions for minimizing the environmental impact of the rigs. He was sure she would agree to whatever he wanted. There would still be compromises, but together they would find a way through them. MCI Oil would always need to maximize its profits for the sake of its shareholders, and