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"You could explain. " There was a somber edge of sadness in her voice.
Khalid glanced at Shayne and read the warning in his gaze. If he didn't tell her, if he didn't explain, he could lose her, and not just to the repercussions of his work with her godfather, or to his past. He could lose her by not warning her, by letting her face danger without being prepared.
Her head tilted to the side. "Did you grow horns and I'm somehow missing them, Khalid?" she asked. "Or perhaps you don't trust me with the truth. "
"Perhaps the horns were there long before you were old enough to imagine what I would want from you. And I would trust you with my life. "
There was blood in his past, the blood of an innocent, the blood of someone who had dared to trust him, dared to love him.
God knew that should he lose Marty in the manner that he had allowed himself to lose Lessa, he could never live with the guilt.
He was aware of Shayne watching, listening, waiting. He had no choice but to tell her the truth. The danger he would become to her from this one night onward would demand that she know the truth of his past, that she would see him for the man he was, rather than the man he wanted to be for her.
"I don't know, Khalid," she said quietly. "I rather doubt I'd find a monster. I'd probably simply find a man who found he couldn't control the world as he once thought he could. "
Khalid sighed. "I haven't been as careful as I should have been in the work I've done for your godfather. My two younger half brothers have learned that I was part of a recent operation that has cost them financially, as well as personally. Because of that, I suspect they'll make a move soon to strike against me. I did not want you endangered, Marty. I wanted you safe, and that safety is no longer something I can guarantee. "
Shayne watched as Khalid fought to reveal just the information Marty needed, and none of the painful truth of what had happened before he left Saudi Arabia ten years ago. He actually felt sorry for the poor bastard. As strong and as arrogant as Khalid could be, Marty could still bring him to his knees. And how she saw him was still something Khalid struggled with.
He wanted to be a white knight in her eyes, not the dark knight. And there were times he had never understood that it was the dark knight who actually ended up saving the day, the princess, and the world he believed in.
But what Shayne had known, and Khalid had yet to see, was the woman Marty truly was.
At Khalid's explanation her gaze sharpened, her eyes narrowed, and the agent she had become over the years slipped into the picture.
"What was the operation?"
Shayne had to hide his smile. She would be full of questions now, and hiding the rest of the truth from her would be harder by the day for Khalid. Just as it would be more difficult for these two people to continue denying the emotions they felt for each other. Others saw it. Shayne saw it in both of them. But neither Marty nor Khalid had yet to acknowledge it.
He also doubted that Khalid saw the depth of her love, but it was something Shayne saw, and almost envied. If he were ready to love, then he would definitely have to fight Khalid for this woman.
And Marty didn't recognize that emotion in herself because, Shayne knew, she had felt it for Khalid for so long, that it had simply become a part of her. It was now as natural as breathing.
"So you believe Ayid and Aman Mustafa are going to try to kill you because of the mission here in D. C. ?"
Marty knew far more than she let on. She wasn't about to allow it to distract her now, though. As she spoke, she allowed her fingers to whisper over the rise of her breasts above the bodice of her dress. Back and forth, stroking, caressing her own flesh until even he could barely think for watching her.
"That is a reasonable explanation," Khalid murmured.
Shayne almost grinned at the sudden distracted tone in Khalid's voice. Not that he blamed the other man, watching Marty's fingertips caress the upper slopes of her breasts was making him insane as well.
"And this is why you've stayed away from me all these years?"
Ah, she had him there. Shayne would have glanced at Khalid for his reaction if he wasn't pretty certain Khalid's attention was still glued to those fingers as she caressed herself.
"Should we play this safe then?" she asked. "Should I choose another lover, Khalid, hope he's a member of your illustrious club, and then hope he chooses you as a third?" Her fingers played closer to the edge of the material that barely covered her nipples. "Then you wouldn't have to worry, would you?"
Shayne's mouth began to water even as he admired the very delicate, very subtle way she was learning exactly how to ensure that Khalid lost his heart to her. He wondered if she was aware he already had.
Damn, she was frightening. She should be an interrogator. Because she was going to wring every and any truth from Khalid's lips if he wasn't very careful.
"Would you enjoy watching me commit murder?" Khalid muttered, then nearly held his breath as she pressed her fingers beneath the bodice and slowly lowered it over the ripe, firm globes of her breasts.
Pale pink nipples, hard and flushed, met his avid gaze as he felt his mouth water for the taste of them.
A quick glance at Shayne showed that the other man was just as entranced. Just as eager and as hungry for a taste of her as Khalid now was.
"Would you commit murder for me?" Her inquiry was but a distant sound to his fogged brain.
