The growl again. Did she realize how it sounded like a sexy purr? Maybe he’d have her purr her refusal around with his dick down her throat. Her denial vibrating along his shaft as they both came. His dick smiled, and he waved his head against the open palms of his headrest.
“No sex either. Unless you plan to force yourself on me.”
“No force. No need for it. Not after I finish training you. I will teach to come at my softest touch. When I look at you, on my demand.”
She gasped. “Never. That will not happen.”
His eyes opened, and he sat up in his seat. Resting his elbows on his knees. “Ah dove, all birds squawk at first.”
She pinched the corners of her eyebrows together. Massaging them together and apart. “Sanyet, how can we be married? I don’t even know what you mean by that. I don’t understand you. I know nothing about your culture or your world. And,” her fingers curled like talons, “I don’t want to know.”
“But you will learn.”
The curls piled high on her head trembled as she shook her head back and forth. “I don’t want to know your business. Whatever you are involved in, I don’t want to…”
He growled. Did he not say he didn’t want to repeat himself? “You will learn what it means to be an Ismailov. My father, Akim Ismailov, runs a business that was handed down to him by his father, from his father. We live in Ardestan, the only part of the Russian empire that was never subjugated by Turks, the Russians, or the Persians. We stood between all three of them and survived. Do you know why?”
She bit the corner of her plump lip. “No.”
“Because we never back down. Never give in. We don’t yield and we don’t stop. When you see Ardestan, it looks like hills stacked on hills. Forming a mountain range that stretches for miles. Rugged and barren in the fall. Cold as the artic in the winter. And do you know who sits at the top of that mountain range, ruling it all?”
Jessalyn rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, the Ismailovs.”
He sat back and sighed.” Already you are learning.” A grin almost escaped his lips, so he crushed them together instead. She’d done nothing to earn it.
Her nostrils flared, and she squared her shoulders against her seat. “If you’re so powerful, the almighty Ismailovs, then what happened last week?”
He glared at her, but she only held his gaze. The strength of hers called him like a siren singing her song. A rude, disrespectful song, but he still responded. “That was a foolish man, waging a war. He has no chance of winning.”
“Was Petur a new recruit?”
His nostrils flared again. “You ask questions that are none of your concern.”
Jessalyn ignored his words. Instead, she shook her head as if bees buzzed around her and he watched her thoughts spinning across her face. “No, not Petur. That’s why he was in charge. Danyael must have been new. That’s why he didn’t know how to respond when Petur turned on him.”
He nodded before he realized it. He didn’t answer to her, quite the opposite. But the speed at which she put it together, even though she was terrified, was amazing. Another asset? maybe, but only if she could be trusted.
“But if you and Rurik were in charge of protection, then you both failed. Neither one of you stopped the attack on me and Hannah right under your noses.”
His nostrils flared. She was smart. Too smart. The slip had been his fault more than Rurik’s. “True. Rurik was chasing after Hannah like a stallion trying to get to a heated mare.” Her brows drew together again. “If you’ve never seen it, it’s a dangerous situation for both. In his eagerness to take a mare, the stallion can harm them both. Trainers have to be extra cautious. Because in their lust haze, they forget what is best for them. I saw my brother in this same lust haze and did nothing other than talk to him. Even though it could have no good outcome.”
“They’re together and they seem to be in love. That seems like a good outcome.”
“Do you believe in love, then?”
“Of course, who doesn’t? My parents loved each other very much. Papi just died nine years ago and my mom prays for him every night before she sleeps.” Her brows drew together. “Do you believe in love?”
He shrugged. “Like you, I have seen it. My grandparents, my parents, both loved each other. And they’ve had long and happy marriages.”
Golden lights lit up her hazel brown eyes, and she leaned forward. “Don’t you want that? Can’t you see this is wrong? We could be cheating ourselves out of that kind of love.”
“Ah dove, but both of their marriages were arranged between strangers. My grandfather met his wife in their bedroom chamber. She didn’t even appear at the wedding. The men of her family represented her in the ceremony. My father had at least seen my mother on a few occasions and they’d had two conversations before they were married.”
“Two?”
“It is our way. At least between us, there was some attraction.”
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No. We didn’t.”