"The desert breeds strong," she said.

Her best friend looked at her in utter confusion as Jenifer's statement had nothing to do with their current discussion. Thus, Matilda followed Jenifer's gaze to see what she was talking about, and once she did so, she couldn't help but agree with her friend's observation.

The man walking toward them was far more muscular than Matilda expected. Furthermore, he was more handsome than any guy she had ever met. That proved they did the right thing by visiting Saudi Arabia, as broadening her horizons was always Matilda's goal.

"It sure does," Matilda said, her curious gaze running up and down the dark-haired, brown-eyed knockout, who was quickly approaching them.

"He couldn't be..." Jenifer whispered to her friend.

"Hello, everyone. I am Aden Kanaan, and I will be your tour guide for today," Aden said, confidently striding toward Matilda and Jenifer's group.

The dreamy look in his eyes made all the women in the group swoon with desire, and his handsome face and strong jaw didn't help lessen their lust. Even the negative opinion Matilda associated with men with beards and what she thought of as a scruffy look didn't put her off because it suited him. It made him even more attractive and irresistible. If that was even possible.

"Excuse me, Mr. Kanaan," Matilda said, her voice shaking like the ground after an earthquake. Only the earthquake that shook her to the core had a name. "I seem to have forgotten something in my room. Could you please wait for me before you go on?"

All the women in the hotel's foyer sighed in annoyance, some men too, although probably for different reasons. Matilda was sure that the women just wanted to hear that smooth, silky voice Aden had, and she was the enemy, the one who stopped their dreams from coming true.

"Yes, of course. We are never in so much hurry that we can't wait for a beautiful woman. And please call me Aden," he said, smirking at her.

His behavior was quite different from how most men had behaved or spoken to them during their stay in the country, and Matilda found it refreshing.

His full juicy lips stretched, revealing pearly white teeth. That was when Matilda started to understand those annoying women in movies who fainted at the mere sight of their darlings. Because Aden, Aden's beauty, was worth fainting for.

As she moved towards the staircase leading to her and Jenifer's first-floor room, Aden tried to move out of her way from the bottom of the stairs where he was standing. However, Matilda, unused to the chivalry as she was, tried to move to the other side. So, they ended up moving in the same direction and almost colliding. As the same situation repeated many times, Aden finally moved his body sidewise so she could squeeze past him mere inches from his powerful, tanned body.

He exuded the energy of power and masculinity that Matilda had never felt as strongly in the presence of other men. It took all her strength to hurry up the stairs without doing anything stupid.

Once inside the apartment, she grabbed her bag and hurried to the bathroom to splash some water on her bright red face. Only then did she notice how horrible she looked.

There were sleep lines all over her face. Her hair was not only messy, but half of it was inside her clothing, and the other half was outside. How Aden could have referred to her as beautiful was beyond her.

She had left the room in such a hurry that she didn't even have the time to look at herself in the mirror, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

"Wouldn't it be funny if he turns out to be my soulmate, and this is how I meet him," Matilda whispered, gesturing down her body as if there was someone there to whom she tried to demonstrate what she meant. "It would be awful if our meet-cute was me looking like a deranged person with crazy hair."

Matilda pondered the idea and concluded that it wouldn't be that awful. Maybe their friends would have thought it was cute that he saw her in such a horrible condition first and still decided to marry her.

"What am I even talking about? He is just our tour guide! Besides, a guy as attractive as him would never be interested in a mess like I am," Matilda chastised herself.

Besides, looks weren't all that mattered. Matilda would know as she spent most of her life trying to hide her beauty, hoping that someone would fall in love with her personality. Yet, here she was, objectifying a guy and fantasizing about impossible things.

Knowing all that, Matilda did her best to dispel the image of running her hands through Aden's hair from her mind before dealing with what was bound to be an awkward day.

Matilda almost managed to gather her wits by the time she hurried downstairs. However, her resolve to remain calm was melted away by one welcoming smile on his mesmerizing face. Although Matilda had met handsome guys before, they never smiled at her with that sparkle in their eyes.

"Are you okay?" Jenifer whispered as Aden started telling them their itinerary.

"Just fine. Why do you ask?" Matilda asked, doing her best not to smile like a crazy person while listening to the musical cadence of Aden's voice.

"You look flustered," Jenifer said, scrutinizing her friend to figure out what was going on with her.

"I just hurried to come back, so I got a bit overheated," Matilda said, doing her best not to show what made her temperature rise, or better yet, whom.

She hoped that Jenifer was too busy with her own inner life and issues that she was having with her boyfriend, Dominic, to pay too much attention to her. The last thing she needed was for Jen to figure out that she had an enormous crush on their guide. She wouldn't let her see the end of it. Even worse, she was bound to give subtle clues to the guy, which were never as indirect as Jenifer seemed to think.

"Well, you should pay more attention to your things. You can't go on forgetting things and forcing hot guys to wait for you," Jenifer said, oblivious to the boiling hormones Matilda emitted.

After saying that, Jenifer focused all her attention on lustfully staring at the guy making Matilda feel guilty that she wasn't too different from her friend.

Matilda could see that his mouth was moving quickly, shaping words and probably making some sort of sentences, but she couldn't hear anything. All she could focus on were his lips morphing into a tiny smile from time to time and his eyes twitching in delight.

The clothes he wore didn't make him any less attractive to Matilda. She expected their guide would be wearing what she saw as traditional Arab clothing. However, Aden wore a business suit with a tie that looked amazing on him, making him even more attractive.

When Aden handed them 'proper' women's clothing, which Matilda disliked, she felt sparks flying when their fingers brushed as he gave her the abaya and the hijab.

"Just remember everything I told you, and everything will be fine," Aden told the tourists reassuringly.

Then they set off to explore the tourist sites.

Matilda wished that she had heard one word of what he was saying. Still, she was hoping that she would be okay since she rarely did anything that would be considered inappropriate.