“For a while…it seemed to be.” Aziz leaned over and kissed Laine’s neck. “Now that Father has pushed me to do more, I’m not sure. We contain multitudes, Laine. We can want more than one thing. Like you. You want your design job. You want to be close to your family. You want to create.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Laine pointed out.
“Hm.” Aziz stroked Laine’s neck and kissed it twice more.
She knew he was trying to deter her with kisses, but this was the first time she’d really been able to scratch the charming surface with Aziz. And she wanted more than his surface, if he would ever allow her to have it. Tenaciously, she pursued the question again.
“What do you want, Aziz?” Laine turned and put her hand over her neck as she met his eyes. “You have your life. You have all of the Amirmoez estate. What’s missing?”
Aziz held her gaze for a moment, then took her hand and kissed it. “You need more than another week to complete this job. Stay another two. Three. You can watch your roses bloom.”
Laine cupped his face in both hands and shook her head. “You want something to play with,” she accused lightly.
“I am not playing with you, Laine,” Aziz vowed.
Laine kissed his lips as she moved her hand up his bicep. “I don’t believe you,” she murmured.
Aziz rested his hands on her hips, holding them gently as she leaned into him and pressed kiss after kiss onto his eagerly waiting lips.
Chapter Ten
“You must taste me.”
Laine looked up from the bowl in front of her and blinked.
Aziz grinned toothily and held up a spatula.
“Mine,” she corrected, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
Aziz raised his brows and came across the kitchen to her. She had been stirring what Hadiya said would become a spiced cake called gers ogaily, and she tilted her head back to look into his eyes.
“You mean, I must taste yours. You must taste mine,” Laine said.
“Oh, yes. I misspoke.” Aziz just smiled and waved his hand vaguely. “My English, it is a work in progress.”
“Sometimes,” she said, wagging her spoon at him, “I don’t really believe you are misspeaking. I think you know exactly what you are saying.”
“I do?” Aziz reached down to caress her thigh and leaned over to take her fingers into his mouth.
“You…you must.”
His tongue swirled around her finger before he gave it a wet suck. Laine felt her cheeks growing warmer. The way he looked at her while he did it…it was just how he looked at her across the table, or when they passed in the hallway.
“Hadiya will be back soon,” she muttered.
“You haven’t tasted mine yet,” Aziz said with a pout. “Fair is fair, darling.”
Laine set her bowl down and took his large hand in both of hers. She took in two of his fingers at once up to his knuckle, tasting the sweetness of the batter and the salt of his skin. Now Aziz started to laugh. His eyes widened as he watched her suckle on him.
“Ew,” Hadiya protested as she walked into the kitchen. “I hope you washed your hands, Aziz!”
Laine giggled and turned away.
“I washed before we began,” Aziz said defensively.
“You’d better get out of here before my friends arrive.” Hadiya shook her head and rolled up her sleeves to wash up. “Laine can stay.”
“This is unfair to me,” Aziz said.
“You are a man. It isn’t proper for you to spend the afternoon with a party of young women. Go away.” Hadiya made a shooing motion with her hand.
Aziz sighed dramatically and headed for the kitchen door, but paused for a moment to catch Laine’s eye. His twinkled mischievously until Laine came over to give him a shove.
“One can hardly pry him from you,” Hadiya said as she took over the bowl Aziz had abandoned. She had a lot to prepare before her friends came, and Aziz had been the opposite of helpful. “Is he more than your client now?”
“I don’t really know.” Laine shrugged and then said something Emma had told her once. “They say the best way to kill a relationship is to take its temperature.”
“How grim!” Hadiya laughed and continued on with her work in the kitchen. Laine stayed close to offer a hand wherever Hadiya needed, since she’d turned down Aziz’s offer to have his chef do the work. Hadiya liked to do things for others with a personal touch.
Laine thought back on her own sister’s words as she cooked. She loved the little flirty moments with Aziz, but they came less often now that his brother was visiting. Yet, the two of them continued to have their stolen glances, their furtive touches. She might look up in the middle of her work on a room to see Aziz’s eyes on her, and she would simply know that his eyes were picturing her body naked and finding it a beautiful sight. If Amin had noticed their silent repartee, he held his tongue.