And they would have been right. Fortunately, there were very few who knew the actual truth, but if his half-brother’s co-conspirators had a chance to strike out in such a way, they would eagerly take it.
There was no doubt that he had run out of time. He would have to find a way to get both Paige and Tariq out of Saudi Arabia and into America and take his chances there.
He didn’t know what the hell Azir thought he could accomplish by kidnapping Paige and gifting him with her, or by “ordering” Tariq to aid him in whatever manner Abram required in bedding her. One thing was for damned sure, it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart.
More like, the minute he made his vow to the emissary both Jafar and Azir would have the authorities waiting to arrest him, Paige, and Tariq for sexual misconduct. And that was a killing offense.
Tearing the keffiyeh from his head and bunching it in his hand, he inhaled deeply and moved slowly to the securely locked door of his bedroom suite.
The electronic security was the only defense he possessed in the fortress now. There were less than half a dozen of the men that had once been loyal to him and Tariq. Those men couldn’t be identified or step forward publicly if anything happened because of their own families.
He couldn’t trust the guards, and he couldn’t trust the men he had grown up with, or those he had attended college with who had returned to the Mustafa lands after him.
Throughout his life there had only been Khalid, Tariq, and Paige that he could depend upon to accept him as he was. And two of those, Tariq and Paige, were awaiting him now.
He was moving closer to the door, closer to the woman he hungered for with an irrational strength.
Reaching the door to the suite he keyed in the code to the security lock, waited for the click to indicate the locks had disengaged, then stepped inside.
The other side of black ice.
The second he closed the door it kicked in.
The black ice was cracking and burning inside him, heat whipping through his body as fiery, burning lust sizzled through the dark emotionless protective layer.
In a single, blinding second the adrenaline switched gears. Murder wasn’t an option, but sex was.
He couldn’t squeeze the life from Azir’s corrupt body, but he could allow Paige’s tight, hot little pussy to squeeze the release from his dick.
Paige was there.
Lush.
Exotic.
Sensual.
With the sheet still her only covering, she was curled at the corner of the couch as Tariq sat in the chair opposite her. He leaned forward, his entire demeanor protective.
Long, silken, red-gold curls cascaded around the bruised side of her face. The abraded, darkening flesh almost had him turning around and completing the murderous act, imagining Azir gasping for air as his eyes began to glaze in death.
Emerald green eyes stared back at him in defiance, and always, always, in hunger. In that inp height="t, just that fast, his cock was brutally hard, the need to fuck thundering through his body with a force nearly double what the drive to kill had been.
This was the fallout. The other side of the brutal ice-encased fury was this overwhelming, desperate need to push every sexual boundary. To make his lover touch that point between pleasure and pain. To fuck her until none of them could move. And once his third had caught his breath, to begin again.
And there was Paige. The object of every sexual fantasy he’d had since she had turned eighteen. The one woman he knew he should never touch.
He was going to touch her.
He was going to touch her in ways that would shock her, that would send her juices spilling hot and sweet from the swollen folds of her cunt.
“Abram?” Tariq rose warily to his feet. “Is the situation being resolved?”
Will Paige be sent home? Abram could see the question in the other man’s gaze. The worry and the concern. Oh yes, they both knew what Azir was doing, and they were going to have to figure out a way to put a stop to it.
“I may need a third,” Abram answered, his gaze on Paige as her eyes widened in shock.
She knew what he meant, and she knew exactly what he was going to need.
She didn’t protest though, and she didn’t argue, she just stared back at him, wide-eyed and silent.
And hungry.
Oh hell yes, he glimpsed the sensual, sexual need that darkened her eyes and flushed her face and breasts.
They had been dancing around this since the day she turned eighteen. He had stayed as far away from her as possible rather than introducing her to a hunger, a passion that he feared she wasn’t ready for. And now, there was simply no way to save her from it.
“Leave,” he ordered Tariq, his tone guttural.
It was an order Tariq was expecting. Abram was going to need a third, but this first time, this first touch, was all his. He shared his lovers, but still, he was a possessive bastard. He secured their affection as well as their arousal before he ever brought his third into the bed.
He waited, listening as Tariq strode across the room, opened the door, and stepped out.
He would be going no farther than his own room across the stone hall in case he was needed.
Paige’s fingers tightened on the sheet as though she feared he would jerk it from her.
“Abram?” She questioned when he didn’t say anything.
She rose slowly to her feet, facing him, not just with a hint of wariness but also a blaze of need that rivaled his own.
God help him, he hadn’t wanted it to come to this. Not here, and definitely not now.
“You and Khalid shared Lessa, didn’t you?” she asked when he said nothing for several moments.
“We shared Lessa,” he admitted. “And that is a subject we don’t need to discuss tonight, Paige. Tonight, there is only us.”
And he believed that explanation was all she had to hear? She let her lips curl into a mocking, defiant smile. “You asked Tariq to be your third, Abram. I’m not a child, and I’m not completely ignorant of your sexual lifestyle. Don’t think you’re going to just push something like this on me and we won’t be discussing it.”
He grimaced tightly. “This isn’t the best time to discuss anything, Paige,” he told her. “And I notice you’re not refusing.” His brow arched. “Do you think I’m not very well aware of the fact that if you weren’t dying for it then you’d put me in my place so fast it would make both our heads spin?”
At least he knew a few of her incredibly talented abilities.
She stared back at him warily though. Abram could never be accused of being predictable.
“I’m not ready to allow anyone to touch you but me,” he stated. “Before we go further than you and me, we’ll discuss it, I promise. But now isn’t the time to do it. Now is the time to take that damned sheet off.”
“Make me.” He was entirely too arrogant for his own good, and if she was going to handle even the most distant relationship with him then she would have to establish her own boundaries quickly.
“What did you say?”
She had heard him though. Shock filled her voice. It widened her eyes again, but her response flushed her face and her nipples were just barely detectable beneath the sheet over her chest.
“Drop the sheet, Paige,” he growled, stepping closer to her, unable to keep any distance between them.
He expected a fight. He thought she would curse. He was certain she would rage.
What he didn’t expect?
or="#000000">“Kiss my ass,” she scoffed. “Why don’t you try putting me on a plane home first? Then we’ll discuss the subject.” A graceful shoulder shrugged as she stared back at him challengingly.
He had known she wouldn’t come easy. But that was just fine. Because he sure as hell never cared much for easy.