Heir to a Desert Legacy - By Maisey Yates Page 0,50

hands, drawing it tight between them. “Control.”

“But you...you said yourself, you need it.”

“I have never once willingly given it. But tonight, I give it to you.” He let the scarf fall away from his left hand. “We can’t spend the night in separate rooms,” he said. “After tonight it won’t matter. The royal couple never share a room full-time. But tonight, you know we have to.”

She nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak. She didn’t want to. She wanted to hear what he would say, see what he would do. She was captivated, incapable of resisting.

He walked over to the closet and opened the doors. Her clothes were in there, along with some more traditional Attari garments that had been provided for her. He slid a red scarf off of its hook, wrapping it around his hand.

“Nothing will happen tonight that you do not desire. The power is yours.” He placed both scarves at the foot of the bed, spread them out, then turned to her and tugged his shirt over his head. “My word to you. My promise. This is what I want, Chloe.”

Her heart nearly stopped at the sight of his body. He was broad and muscular, dark hair scattered over his pecs and down washboard abs. She’d never seen a man that looked like him. When the science department had a pool party, the physiques usually ran from slim to doughy, with the color typically best described as fish-belly.

Not Sayid. He was hard, bronzed, utter masculine perfection. And she had no idea what to do with all that man.

“I don’t...why did you take your shirt off?”

“Because, if you want to do it later, it will be difficult.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and picked the scarves up, holding them out to her. She took a step forward and took them from him, running her thumb along the silken fabric.

He looked at her, his dark eyes intense. “I want you to tie my hands.”

Her mouth dropped open, her heart slamming against her breastbone. “I...I can’t...I don’t...what are you...what are you asking me to do?” She thought of him, held captive, at the mercy of those who tortured him, who beat him, and then she thought of him asking her to bind him now. It filled her with a sense of total awe, the power he gave. The trust.

He was telling her to make a choice, forcing her to. To take responsibility for a part of her life rather than simply letting things happen to her. And she wanted to make the choice. Wanted to be the one in charge more than she’d realized.

He pushed himself back into the center of the bed, his muscles shifting and bunching. He put his hands out in front of him. “Tie my hands, and whatever happens after that, will be up to you.”

Fear gripped her around the neck, putting pressure on her throat. That wasn’t surprising. What surprised her was the desire that coiled in her stomach. The knot of lust that told her to do it. To tie his hands, and spend the night with him completely at her mercy. Hers to touch. Hers to explore.

“Think of it as a science experiment,” he said, his voice husky, his eyes dark.

“I’m a theoretical physicist. I don’t actually...do experiments. I...I think about how they work and make an equation. So, I would deduce maybe that me, plus you and these scarves would produce a possibly pleasurable outcome. And then I would...write it down.”

“That doesn’t sound very enjoyable.”

“Perhaps not, but it’s safe.”

“Nothing in life is safe. I think where we are right now, what we did today, proves that.”

She looked back down at the scarves. He was right. Nothing was safe. Plans fell apart. People died. There were no guarantees. A year ago, she’d been a student, trying to make ends meet, resolutely avoiding relationships, never planning on having children.

And now, she was here with Sayid. Married. A mother in every way that counted. And none of the things that she’d counted on to keep her safe had held. None of her plans, her oh-so-well-laid plans, had gone as she’d imagined.

She’d lived safe. She’d lived scared.

And none of it had been living.

These past weeks with Aden had been terrifying. And they had been rewarding in a way that she never could shave anticipated. The love she’d found with him went beyond words.

Then there was Sayid. The feelings he roused in her. The desire. The need. The ache that ran through

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