“So I’ve heard.” Marty nodded. “But there are still other pretty interesting men in the world. Abram isn’t the only one out there, Paige.”
Paige pulled her legs up, knees bending, her feet pressing into the cushions as she looped her arms around her knees.
“There are many interesting men in the world, and if I were sexually interested in them I’d be out there looking for them.”
Marty glanced behind her, making sure no one was close enough to hear what was being said. Most likely ensuring Khalid wasn’t there. As though their conversation was any of his business, still, they were both aware he would make it his business.
“He isn’t rational and you know it,” Paige informed her, the irritation she was feeling impossible to keep hidden. “Do you know he’s lectured me every time he’s seen me since Abram was here? Talked to me as though I were a child and didn’t know how to run my own life. It’s damned insulting.”
Marty grimaced, as her hand rubbed her temple. Her expression was amusingly sympathetic and only exacerbated the aggravation Paige couldn’t fight or hide anymore.
“He worries, Paige,” she finally stated softly. “He’s terrified that perhaps you’re not fully aware of what you’re getting into sexually with Abram. Besides, you’re his sister, his baby sister, and Abram is his brother. The dynamics of that are making him crazy.”
“Dynamics are always making Khalid insane.” Paige waved the explanation away. She didn’t even bother hiding the fact that there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to fall for that one. “I’m amazed the dynamics of being in love hasn’t had him pulling his hair out. Or causing you to pull yours out.”
“It has been getting a little thinner.” Marty laughed, her gray eyes sparkling with pure happiness. “But it doesn’t change the fact that he does have reason to worry at the moment. Be a little patient with him.”
“I’ve been patient with him my entire life,” Paige scoffed. “Do you realize he’s lectured me twice today already? He’s treating me as though I’m not well aware of the fact that Abram and Khalid both share a penchant for having a third in their sexual relationships. Or that I don’t know damned good and well that Abram Mustafa can be a complete dominant ass**le.”
There was a look of genuine shock on Marty’s face before complete laughter filled her eyes and a throaty chuckle left her lips.
“You surprise me, Paige,” she admitted. “And here I thought a sweet little innocent like you wouldn’t notice the signs or understand the rumors if you heard them.”
“What does innocence have to do with anything?” Paige rose from the chair and paced back and forth across the room. “Would that exclude me from understanding what a threesome is or how it works? Come on, Marty, remember Courtney Sinclair is one of my best friends. I knew what a threesome was when she called me sobbing about the inexhaustible Ian Sinclair ha**ng s*x with her maids and calling them by her name. Do you know she would spy on him when he visited her parents’ home?”
Marty wasn’t having an easy time holding back her laughter. Courtney Sinclair and her husband Ian had one of those fiery, wonderful relationships most women dreamed of having.
“Come on, Paige, you have to admit with everything that’s happened, Khalid has a right to worry. Abram is ten years older than you, and on top of that, he does often have a third as I understand it. But while Khalid doesn’t want your heart broken, he also helped raise you. Accepting that you have sex is probably something he’s never going to do.”
“He needs to worry about something other than whether or not I intend to f**k his brother and if I let his cousin join in.”
Marty howled with laughter. Paige was about to join in but Khalid chose that moment to step into the room.
The laughter broke off immediately.
His expression was dark with anger, his black gaze snapping with it.
“Do you even have a clue what a man like Abram could be like?” he growled. “Do you think he’s going to be a gentleman? Be sweet and ask nicely to make love to you as his third pets you sweetly and whispers sweet nothings in your ear?”
“Don’t use that tone with me, Khalid,” she warned him calmly. “I didn’t invite you into this conversation, so if you don’t like it, then you can leave and keep your opinion to yourself.”
Marty turned to him, her expression concerned now. “Khalid, we were just joking, darling. You two enjoy poking at each other a little too much.”
“I wasn’t joking,” Paige informed them both as she crossed her arms over her br**sts and glared at her brother. “The only reason I’m not trying to slip into his bed right now is because he’s not here.”
Khalid’s lips thinned. #x201C;I’ll be damned if I’ll argue with you over this.”
“Of course you won’t,” Paige agreed mockingly. “It’s so much easier to have a little man-to-man chat with Abram.” She let her eyes widen. “Oh but wait, that didn’t work so well either, did it? The first chance he had, he ignored that too.”
She could feel years of anger rising inside her now. For as long as she could remember her parents had deferred to Khalid regarding her protection, and in any choices that they had to make in her life.
Khalid had chosen the schools she attended, the bodyguards she had as a child, her first ugly car, and was behind her father’s refusal to allow her to date her first boyfriend.
“She’s not a child anymore, Khalid,” Marty reminded him softly. But Paige knew her brother, and he wasn’t about to listen to anyone but himself. She was simply at the end of her patience.
“Do you even care how much it hurts or humiliates me to have you step in and play lord of all you survey with my life? I lost my job today, Khalid, because I haven’t been there in two weeks. Now, I can either lose my car or bum money from you or my parents. I’m twenty-five years old, not eighteen, and I enjoy taking care of myself,” she cried out furiously.
“And I enjoy waking up each morning knowing you’re alive and safe,” he bit out, his tone dark with anger. “Do you have any idea of the danger you are in at the moment, or the man you are tempting to take you into his bed? The two are entwined, Paige. Being with Abram draws you front and center into Azir’s attention, if you weren’t already there. And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no matter what happens, Abram will break your heart. He will not be an easy lover, Paige, nor will he understand your independence and your determination to do as you wish.”