me. Do I make decisions fast? Yes. Absolutely. I want my woman to be able to do the same. You’re that woman. Will it always be easy? We have five children to look out for. Five. Two are already teens. All of them are traumatized. We have Fridrick and his bosses with their army coming after Emeline, Genevieve and you. We also have the threat of the three men following you from Paris. I don’t need a submissive woman, Charlotte; I need a warrior. A woman walking beside me. Fighting beside me. Standing in front of those children with me. A woman unafraid to listen to whatever Emeline or Liv needs to say, to hear them and not curl into a protective ball when the monstrous truth of what happened to them comes out. I know that woman is you.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing she was going to jump off the cliff. “I hope you’re real, Tariq, because once I give you everything you’re asking for, I won’t ever be able to get it back.” Her heart. Her soul. She was already in so far over her head so fast she feared she was already lost. That last little part of her, the one he knew she held back, but was demanding, that would cost her everything if she lost.
“I’ve already given it to you, sielamet. Everything I am or will ever be. I meant every word I said to you. I gave you—me. I want the same from you. Come all the way into my world. Be my woman.”
He whispered the words, yet she heard each one clearly. His voice wrapped her in strong arms. She felt protected and cherished with just his voice. He wasn’t touching her and yet she felt his arms surrounding her. She would always have him. That man. The one standing in front of her, looking at her with those incredible gemlike eyes. Seeing only her.
She took a breath, knowing the truth. She was already lost. It didn’t matter if she gave him that last little piece of her; she already was tied to him in a way she couldn’t explain, and she knew leaving him would be nearly impossible. “I already am your woman,” she whispered.
“Are you scared?”
She nodded, not looking away from that deep blue gaze. She couldn’t. He still hadn’t blinked. Still looked predatory. Dangerous. She was willingly giving herself to a man who would always have that edge to him.
“Don’t be. You’re safe with me.”
She believed him. But . . . “Am I safe from you?”
He stared at her for an eternity, holding her captive with just his eyes and his charisma. A slow smile curved his mouth and crept into his eyes, lighting them more, turning the blue a vibrant sapphire. “No, sielamet. I want to eat you alive. The taste of you is forever on my tongue. The feel of you surrounding my cock, tight and hot, your skin, softer than anything I’ve ever felt, that wild hair, your mouth, all of you is branded into my mind, my bones, wrapped around my heart. You are not safe from me and you never will be, but you’ll like the way you aren’t safe. I can promise you that much.”
He sounded wicked. Tempting. Sexy. Her sex clenched. Went damp. Heat rushed through her veins. She couldn’t stop the slow, answering smile curving her own mouth. “Okay then. Show me what I’ll be working on and tell me what you plan on paying me. I just want you to know that sleeping with the boss is never a good idea. I’ll have to think long and hard about which I want most. I truly love carousel horses, so you might lose out if they’re what I think they are.”
“If that’s going to be a problem, Charlotte, I can write it into our contract that the job comes with certain other duties.”
She burst out laughing. “Don’t you dare. Just open the packaging for me. I’m really drawn to that one.” She pointed to a wooden horse encased in Bubble Wrap and a crate. She longed to touch it, to feel the wood beneath her fingers so she could learn about everyone who had ever touched the horse. Once she got that pull, that intense draw, she knew the object was very old and had a lot to tell her. Wood was her favorite medium. It seemed to absorb so much more than man-made substances.