What more could he be? What more could he offer the world beyond skulking out in the desert and hiring an army out for profit? What did he hope to gain by doing it? What was he trying to prove?
Was it all to be a thorn in the side of his half-brother? Or was there more to it than that? Did he believe, as she had, that deep down that was all he was capable of?
Maybe it’s all he thinks he deserves?
Well, if so, it wasn’t true. And if she could look beyond the home, look beyond the life she’d made for herself that he’d been right to call small, perhaps he could too. Perhaps that compassion of his could be harnessed to his drive to defend and protect, and made into something that could change the world.
He completed the set of pull-ups, letting go of the bar and dropping down onto his feet, wiping his hands of the chalk that had been covering his palms for grip. Without turning, he said, ‘I suggest you go and do something else, Ivy. I’ll be down here for another hour or so.’
Ivy stared at his powerful back and didn’t move.
‘Why did you walk away?’ she asked.
‘I told you. I had some arrangements to make.’ He swung his arms, loosening them up in preparation for another set.
‘Yes, and I can see that you’re very busy making them.’
Nazir turned, his expression set in its usual granite lines, impossible to read as always. But not his gaze. That burned with a fierce, bright light, and it wasn’t cold, not now. It was hot, like a fire.
Ivy took a step into the gym, moving towards him, unable to stop herself, drawn relentlessly by that ferocity and that heat. She knew by now what it was: hunger.
He tensed. ‘Stop.’ His voice was gritty and dark as gravel. ‘Stay where you are.’
Ivy paused. ‘Why?’
The look in his eyes burned hotter. ‘It’s better for you not to be around me right now.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, though she suspected she had an idea. ‘What’s wrong with being around you?’
He stood very still, a seething kind of energy gathering around him. His eyes glittered, his focus predatory. ‘You don’t want to know.’
Ivy’s heartbeat picked up speed, thudding louder in her head as she watched him. He looked dangerous and hungry, like a leopard who’d gone too long without food, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the prey he’d just spotted...and that any sudden move would make him pounce.
He doesn’t want you close because you threaten his control.
Understanding flickered through her, along with a rush of pure adrenaline, making her breath catch hard. Yes, that was it, wasn’t it? And his control was precious to him. He’d always been that way with her, so careful and gentle, and she’d loved that, because it felt good to have someone take care of her.
So you should let him be. Who are you to push him?
But that was a question for the woman she’d been when she’d first turned up on his doorstep, not the woman she was now. Because the woman she was now wanted more than careful and gentle, and she wasn’t going to be put off with excuses about ‘arrangements’. He’d released her passion so why couldn’t she release his?
Ivy took one step and then another, moving slowly towards him, the fine material of the robe billowing and swirling around her as she walked.
He tensed even more. ‘Ivy.’
Her name was a raw command that wouldn’t have stopped her in her tracks a week ago and it certainly didn’t now. Not when she was so mesmerised by that bright glitter in his eyes, the predatory hunger that was becoming more and more obvious the closer she got to him. Yes, a leopard ready to leap, ready to take down his prey.
But she wasn’t his prey. She might be small and she might be pregnant, but she was also his equal, and perhaps it was time he learned that. Perhaps it was her turn to show him that she didn’t need him to be careful of her, that he didn’t need to be gentle all the time. Perhaps he needed a few lessons on the strength of women.
So she didn’t stop. She went right up to where he stood, gleaming with sweat, every line of him hard with carved muscle and radiating raw, masculine strength. Danger gathered around him, a leashed violence that didn’t frighten her; it only wound her anticipation even tighter. He was so hot and he smelled of clean sweat and that dark spice that made her ache with an intense hunger all her own.
Oh, she wanted him. She wanted him like this, hungry and desperate, because she’d been hungry and desperate too. She still was, but only for him.
It will only ever be for him.
The knowledge was like uncovering bedrock under a mound of loose soil, dense, impossible to shift, and as heavy as the earth itself. It was a foundation on which to build her life, because, yes, there would never be anyone else for her. No other man excited her, challenged her, fascinated her as he did, and, although it was true that her experience of men was limited, she had no desire to look further.
Everything she’d ever wanted was standing right in front of her.