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For the past two nights she had gone to sleep with Abram’s arms around her, only to awaken with Tariq’s holding her. It was creating an intimacy she couldn’t seem to escape.
Restraining a frustrated sigh she turned back to him, her lips parting to comment on Abram’s absence when a hard, imperative knock sounded on the heavy, thick wood of the door.
Paige flinched with near violence, her heart jumping into her throat as her gaze flew to where Tariq was quickly folding a square of cloth over the device he had been working on and rising from the chair.
He pointed to the connecting door that led to his suite as he moved to it quickly.
He was leaving?
“Where are you going?” she hissed.
“I’ll be listening,” he promised quickly, his voice so low as to be nearly silent. “See who it is, and don’t let them know I’m here. ”
He handed her the scarf that Abram had given her in case Azir showed up to use over her head and around her neck as a hijab.
The knock sounded again, harder, and this time, more impatient.
“Who is it?” she called out as she quickly secured the scarf around her head as Abram had taught her.
“It is Jafar, Paige. I have someone here who wishes to see you. ” His voice came through the door quietly.
font color="#000000">Dammit, where the hell was Abram?
“Abram isn’t here, Jafar,” she stated from the seam of the door and frame. “He told me not to open the door to anyone. ”
She heard Jafar’s laughter through the heavy wood. “Put your scarf on and simply open the door. I do not intend to enter the room. ”
She looked to where Tariq watched from the doorway of his suite. He nodded at her as she gave him a look of desperation and silently mouthed, “What do I do?”
He grimaced tightly before nodding again at her and disappearing into the other room.
Releasing the locks she opened the door several inches and stared at Jafar and the figure clothed in black from head to foot in the face and body covering usually only worn in the strictest of areas.
Behind the mesh screen of the burqa, feminine eyes stared back at her, though the shape and color were impossible to distinguish.
Behind the much smaller figure stood Jafar, as his odd, almost translucent pale green eyes watched her with knowing, mocking amusement.
Antagonism rose within her at the first sight of him and it was all she could do to keep her lips clamped closed.
“Such a look of anger. ” He grinned at her, a brow arching in a move of such arrogance that for a second, he reminded her of Abram.
“Stop trying to make her angry, brother,” the feminine voice chided him with surprising tartness.
Paige’s gaze jerked back to the shrouded figure and struggled to peer behind the mesh eye covering.
“Chalah?” she whispered uncertainly, hopefully, though suspicion was blooming inside her.
“I told you she would remember me. ” Soft laughter spilled from behind the dark covering. “Let me in, Paige, so I can get rid of my hulking brother, if you don’t mind. ”
Paige’s eyes flicked to Jafar once again. How cruel of him to bring the sister who had once been her friend to betray her.
She eased back slowly, allowing the door to open as she kept a wary eye on Jafar. She trusted him even less now. It was incredibly obvious he was attempting to use the sister he had once seemed to adore.
The lies of the past were piling up on his head, and she hoped the weight of them buried him. Q
uickly.
“It’s about time. ” Chalah all but bounced into te room as Paige closed the door in Jafar’s laughing face.
