It was her own fault she had been taken and she knew it; she wasn’t trying to claim otherwise. But he made her feel about two inches tall and responsible for the fall of the modern world with that look and tone.
“I didn’t say it was the smartest idea I’d ever had,” she burst out furiously. “But for God’s sake, Abram, it had been two weeks. Khalid and I were at each other’s throats and starting to go for blood. I just wanted to go home long enough to figure out how to handle him and his insistence unning my life.”
“And that did you how much good?” He grunted irritably as he shot her a look of complete male frustration. “You were being protected and you insisted on leaving that protection. Now you can settle in here for the next three weeks and twiddle your thumbs until I can send you home.”
She stared back at him in shock. “Abram, I can’t stay here for three weeks,” she whispered. “I have to go home.”
“Khalid will take care of your bills and any problems that arise, and I’m certain he’ll have a nice little discussion with the owner of the company you worked for so you can return. You have no choice but to cooperate here, Paige. Attempting to make me feel guilty for your situation will do you no good.”
“You could send me home,” she retorted angrily.
“If I could send you home I’d have you on a transport now,” he snapped back as anger flashed across his face. “Unfortunately, that isn’t possible at the moment, trust me on this.”
Her lips thinned as she glared back at him. “Then let me call Papa. He’ll come get me.”
“Oh, there’s a good idea.” His smile was tight and hard. “Let’s call Pavlos Galbraithe and have him arrive to antagonize Azir further.” His bark of laughter was filled with sarcasm. “I can see that one working out well.”
So, maybe that wasn’t the wisest course of action, but staying here for three weeks wasn’t acceptable either, not when old man Mustafa was bouncing around the place trying to find his little lost Marilyn.
The thought of it was sickening.
It sickened her and God only knew how her mother was feeling at the moment.
Raking her fingers through her hair she stared back at Abram in frustration, wondering where the heated, hungry lover of earlier had gone.
With that thought came another. Why, once she’d come until she thought she was going to die, hadn’t he taken her fully and achieved his own release?
“Do I have your agreement to behave?” he asked her.
“I agree to follow the rules I know about.” She shrugged. “But I think you know this is going to suck.”
“Sucking or not, that’s the way it is,” he informed her, his voice as hard as the black onyx of his gaze. “And sucking beats dying, wouldn’t you say?”
She had to look away from him.
She couldn’t imagine how he had survived within this world. He was a man who enjoyed tastes, textures, touch, and laughter. She couldn’t imagine there was much of a chance of those things existing in the cold, stone confines of this fortress.
Crossing her arms she rubbed at them, trying to bring a little warmth back to her body as a chill raced through her.
“Why did he do this?” she finally asked, wondering why his father would take a vendetta to this extreme.
“To punish Khalid for killing Ayid and Aman, no matter how they deserved it.” Regret and guilt flashed across his gaze. “To punish your mother for escaping and in an attempt to find something or someone that he believes is my weakness.”
“And of course, I’m no weakness of yours, am I, Abram?” The tone of his voice, the remoteness of his gaze as he spoke sent a spike of aching need tearing into her chest.
“I can’t afford a weakness.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, you can be used as one, simply because your presence here will be more of a temptation than I can resist. We learned that earlier, didn’t we?” He nodded to the disheveled bed where she had lain gasping for air as she orgasmed violently in his arms.
A flush washed over her face and she shot him a hateful look. “It’s not as though I tempted you too far,” she shot back. “You still haven’t…” She ran out of words, flushing heavier. It was much harder to say as she faced the distance he was placing between them.
His brow arched. “I still haven’t f**ked you?” he murmured.
Her pu**y just had to respond. It just had to clench and ripple and spill her juices, again, to saturate the bare, swollen folds.
She needed panties before the dampness began easing down her thighs. But at this rate, she would end up using all she had within hours.
She stared back at him though, holding his gaze despite the response that flooded through her and the anger beginning to build.
“I’ll get around to it,” he promised her. “I first wanted to make sure you were on birth control, and secondly—” His lips twisted ruefully. “I may not have come, Paige, but you had me so f**king hot I spilled myself in my pants. Something I promise you will not happen again.” His gaze flickered over her, heated now, aroused. “The next time, I’ll spill in that sweet tight pu**y, or buried in the snug clench of your ass. Either way, I promise you’ll not doubt the fact that I’ve definitely taken you.”