“Do I have your agreement to behave?” he asked her.
“I agree to follow the rules I know about. ” She shrugged. “But I think you know this is going to suck. ”
“Sucking or not, that’s the way it is,” he informed her, his voice as hard as the black onyx of his gaze. “And sucking beats dying, wouldn’t you say?”
She had to look away from him.
She couldn’t imagine how he had survived within this world. He was a man who enjoyed tastes, textures, touch, and laughter. She couldn’t imagine there was much of a chance of those things existing in the cold, stone confines of this fortress.
Crossing her arms she rubbed at them, trying to bring a little warmth back to her body as a chill raced through her.
“Why did he do this?” she finally asked, wondering why his father would take a vendetta to this extreme.
“To punish Khalid for killing Ayid and Aman, no matter how they deserved it. ” Regret and guilt flashed across his gaze. “To punish your mother for escaping and in an attempt to find something or someone that he believes is my weakness. ”
“And of course, I’m no weakness of yours, am I, Abram?” The tone of his voice, the remoteness of his gaze as he spoke sent a spike of aching need tearing into her chest.
“I can’t afford a weakness. ” He si
ghed. “Unfortunately, you can be used as one, simply because your presence here will be more of a temptation than I can resist. We learned that earlier, didn’t we?” He nodded to the disheveled bed where she had lain gasping for air as she orgasmed violently in his arms.
A flush washed over her face and she shot him a hateful look. “It’s not as though I tempted you too far,” she shot back. “You still haven’t…” She ran out of words, flushing heavier. It was much harder to say as she faced the distance he was placing between them.
His brow arched. “I still haven’t fucked you?” he murmured.
Her pussy just had to respond. It just had to clench and ripple and spill her juices, again, to saturate the bare, swollen folds.
She needed panties before the dampness began easing down her thighs. But at this rate, she would end up using all she had within hours.
She stared back at him though, holding his gaze despite the response that flooded through her and the anger beginning to build.
“I’ll get around to it,” he promised her. “I first wanted to make sure you were on birth control, and secondly—” His lips twisted ruefully. “I may not have come, Paige, but you had me so fucking hot I spilled myself in my pants. Something I promise you will not happen again. ” His gaze flickered over her, heated now, aroused. “The next time, I’ll spill in that sweet tight pussy, or buried in the snug clench of your ass. Either way, I promise you’ll not doubt the fact that I’ve definitely taken you. ”
“I don’t think so. ” She had to draw in a hard, tight breath to push those words past her lips, because it truly was hard to deny what her body so wanted.
A single, black brow arched with an arrogance that set her teeth on edge.
“Not while we’re here, and not while you’re acting like my jailer rather than my lover,” she explained tightly, nerves trembling in her voice as she fought to keep it firm, strong.
The smile he gave her was triumphant, dominant. “We’ll see about that. ” He held his hand up as her lips parted to deliver a blasting retort. “Before we get into this argument, Tariq will be bringing in our dinner any minute and I know your appetite is affected when you’re angry. Let’s enjoy our meal, Paige, then you can tell me the ways you’re going to resist my touch while you’re lying in the bed with me nightly. ” He leaned forward then, his expression no longer distanced but suffused with sensual hunger. “Tell me, Paige, how will you resist when you’re lying not just with me, but with Tariq as well? And the one thing I can promise you can have while you’re here is all the pleasure we can give you in that bed. More pleasure than you could ever imagine. ”
Abram watched her face, her eyes. No matter the anger that could spike through Paige, it was her eyes that always told the truth of her emotions. The fear that had filled them as he forced himself to remain distant, to lay out the situation for her, had tightened his chest until he wondered that he could breathe for it.
But the minute he’d allowed his hunger to show, the only emotion, the only response he could give her, that fear had slid away and a matching, feminine need had blazed in her emerald eyes.
Sensual and warm, she was a woman willing to explore her hunger, but even more, she would be willing to explore his.
And before Tariq arrived with the meal he had prepared, he wanted her primed and ready for the hungers that raged through him. Knowing the situation, knowing from where the pleasure may well come later, would keep her off balance and hopefully, keep her too involved to attempt to escape before he and Tariq had a plan in place.
Until then, he had to be certain that the line he was forced to teeter on didn’t shift on him. He had to ensure it didn’t throw him to the ground, broken and lost, again.
He’d been there once. He’d been at the precipice where nothing mattered but the blood of his enemies and the future was a vision he didn’t want to face. He’d already lost one woman whose life meant more to him than any of his brothers, his compatriots, and the men and women who had died, and would die, for the future they dreamed of.
He couldn’t let it happen again, because he might not manage to pull himself back again.
Azir had known that once Paige was here that she would become his main priority. Sometimes, Abram thought, the old bastard knew him better than he knew himself.
Azir suspected Abram’s plans for defection, but he didn’t know the plan he and Tariq were laying in to escape with the information they had amassed since Jafar’s arrival at the fortress.