Her breath nearly stopped as he reached out, his fingers catching a curl that had fallen over her shoulder.
It was the only way he was touching her, his figure rubbing the soft strands slowly.
“I want you, Paige,” he stated softly, sending her blood pressure skyrocketing, pounding off the charts with the somber heat in his voice and in his face.
“You could have fooled me,” she whispered. “You haven’t even been here, Abram. ”
She hadn’t liked admitting she had been frightened while he had been gone. That a part of her had been certain Azir would come for her while Abram was gone. That he would find a way to hurt her, to perhaps kill her.
She knew if he could do it, he would find great pleasure in it. She had seen it in his face, in his eyes, the day he had backhanded her across the room.
“I’ve tried to get you out of here first, Paige,” He sighed as he laid the strands of hair neatly against her breast before he stroked the backs of her fingers along the curve of her breast.
“But I don’t think I can wait much longer to have you. I don’t think I can sleep next to you one more night without touching you, without tasting you. ”
Swallowing tightly she fought to catch her breath.
“You’ve managed the past three nights. ” A frown jumped between her brows at the need, the sexual hunger in his voice. “What’s changed?”
His lips twitched with an edge of amusement.
“My misbegotten attempt, as I said, to have you comfortable in your forced surroundings. ”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you, Abram. Do you know what I think?”
His expression slowly tightened into one of dominant male lust.
“What do you think?” he drawled.
“I think you have no intentions of being my lover, Abram. At the most, you intend to do no more than fuck me while we’re here. And only then, if you simply can’t resist any longer. ”
And exactly how right was she?
She watched his eyes narrow and glitter knowingly in his dark face. He knew she was right. She knew she was right.
“Don’t push this, Paige. ”
The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes combined with the order sent a shaft of agony tearing through her.
“You’ve had me sleep between the two of you, naked, like a lover, with no intention of actually fucking me?” Mocking amusement and bitter realization filled her. “Tell me, Abram, did you order Tariq not to fuck me as well?”
His eyes narrowed further. “I do not order Tariq. As my third, that choice remained between the two of you. ”
Shock had her drawing in her breath sharply. “You would have let him take me without you?” Confusion filled her.
Paige knew enough about the lifestyle Khalid and his friends were a part of, and she assumed Abram shared the same rules. That didn’t allow the third, unless it was a permanently agreed-upon relationship, to ever be intimate with the prime lover’s woman without his presence.
“That would have been your choice. ” His expression was savagely tight now.
“My choice?” She shook her head at his comment. “Abram, do you think I don’t know the world you live within when you’re in Europe or in the U. S. ? That I don’t know the associates you and Khalid are closest to, and the rules they adhere to in terms of their private sexual tastes?”
His gaze darkened in suspicion. “What would you know about it, Paige?”
“You say that as though it’s some deep dark secret that many of your friends and acquaintances share their ives with those who share their tastes. ” She stared back at him in disgust. “Do you believe, Abram, truly, that no one but those who do it are aware of it? Do you think friends, brothers, and oh yeah—” Her eyes widened in false amazement. “Sisters, are not well aware of it? Do you take me for stupid?”
“I never imagined you were stupid. ” His voice was rougher now, containing that dark, black velvet roughness that almost mesmerized her senses.
It would have mesmerized her senses if not for the anger burning inside her.