He was careful not to allow himself to think about why her happiness mattered to him. It was a redundant question anyway. It mattered because she would be his wife and, besides, the well-being of any soldier should be a commander’s top priority. How else could they perform at their best?
But she isn’t one of your soldiers.
Nazir thrust that particular thought away as her scent wrapped around him, soft jasmine and a delicate, muskier perfume that made his mouth water, that made him remember what it was like to have her beneath him, twisting and writhing, her small hands pulling at his T-shirt, trying to touch his skin.
He was no stranger to power and yet the particular power he’d felt as he’d pushed inside her had felt new to him. She’d looked up at him, her eyes widening in shock and a flicker of pain that had gradually given way to pleasure...and wonder and awe and fascination.
Awe he got from people frequently, along with fear. But never wonder or fascination. As if he were a delicious secret, or a captivating mystery she was impatient to get to the bottom of. And she hadn’t seemed to care about how controlled he’d had to be so he wasn’t rough with her. In fact, she’d seemed more than keen to incite him further, to push him, to test his control...
Anticipation gathered in his gut, thick and hot, along with a dark, primitive kind of need. He wanted very much to chase her, to take her down as a lion took down a gazelle, bite the back of her neck as he drove himself into her, hard and rough and—
But no. He wasn’t going to surrender to those needs. He’d beaten the hungry part of himself into submission and he would never allow it off the leash again.
The helicopter soared over the mountains, some capped with snow. The hot spring and the mountain valley in which it lay were in a beautiful place, gentler than the desert and a much kinder place for her than the harsh sun, intense heat, and a medieval fortress full of soldiers.
‘Oh,’ Ivy exclaimed softly, her gaze out of the window. ‘There’s snow.’
With an effort, Nazir brought his attention back to the scenery. ‘Yes. The mountains are at a high enough altitude. It’s particularly lovely in winter.’
She gave him a fleeting glance. ‘Explain why we’re going there again?’
‘I did,’ he said patiently. ‘Were you not listening?’
‘No.’
There was a tart edge to her voice, which pleased him. Clearly his little fury had come out of her subdued mood. He hoped so. He preferred her fiery, because that at least he knew what to do with.
‘So we can have some privacy to discuss a few things in more pleasant surroundings,’ he said.
‘The courtyard and the salon were perfectly pleasant.’
He watched her face and the guarded lines of it while she stared out of the window instead, retreating back into her no-nonsense armour, and he had the sudden, wicked urge to crack that armour. To shatter it entirely so the warm, vital woman inside it could breathe.
‘You know what was perfectly pleasant?’ He kept his tone deliberately neutral. ‘You screaming my name as you came.’
A fiery blush swept over her cheeks. ‘That was a mistake.’
‘No, it wasn’t,’ he disagreed. ‘It was most pleasant indeed.’
Ivy flicked him a disdainful glance before looking once more out of the window. ‘For you, perhaps.’
Stubborn woman. When was she going to drop that armour and surrender? What was the key that would unlock her?
Ah, but he knew that already. He’d unlocked her in the salon, as she’d lain beneath him panting and desperate. She hadn’t been fighting him then. Then, she’d surrendered.
‘Are you telling me you didn’t enjoy it?’ Again, he kept the question neutral, all the while watching her like a hawk. ‘Or perhaps you let me believe something that wasn’t true?’
Her blush deepened. She let out a soft breath and this time when she turned to look at him, she met his gaze squarely. ‘No. I didn’t let you believe something that wasn’t true.’
‘So you enjoyed it, then?’ He would have that from her. He would.
‘I...’ The soft shape of her mouth hardened a second, then relaxed. ‘Yes,’ she said with all the reluctance of a woman admitting to a painful truth. ‘I did enjoy it.’
Intense satisfaction spread out inside him, as if that admission had been everything he’d been waiting for.
‘Good.’ He held her gaze, letting her see how pleased that had made him. ‘Because I intend to do it again...and often.’
Her cheeks had gone a very deep red, but she didn’t look away from him this time. ‘And if I don’t want you to?’