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“You want to finish this thing that began to burn between us when we were children, is that it? Even knowing where it will end?”
“Cairo...”
“Why? Tell me your game. If this is simply a way that you think you can manipulate me... I cannot be manipulated, Ariel, and I will not be. I will not be taken in the way that my father was by yours. I will not yield. I owe my brother the life that he has missed, and he has demanded you. Thus, you will be given to him.”
“But you’re tempted,” she said.
“Yes, I’m tempted. I’m tempted to show you all of the things that your body can do. Everything that it can feel. I am tempted to touch you until you’re crying out my name. Until you are beneath me, with me buried inside of you. Yes, I am tempted. But to give in to the temptation will mean nothing. And you must understand that.”
“I want a choice,” she said. “It was always decided for me that Riyaz would be my husband. And it didn’t matter that you were the one that I preferred.”
Somewhere in all of that, he wanted to ask her. If she wanted the choice so badly why had she not made it when she was living life on her own? She could’ve been with anyone that she wanted to. She had not been. And he had to wonder why.
But the questions were lost in the feel of her soft skin beneath his palm. They were lost as lust clouded his vision. Overtook every reasonable thought. Made him more beast than man.
And here he was concerned that his brother would be too rough with her. Not have a care for her needs.
He found that he was on edge. Beside himself. Beyond himself.
He moved forward, one hand still on her breast, and with the other, cupped her chin. He stared at her for a long moment. Deep into those aqua eyes. And then he dipped his head and claimed her mouth.
He had wanted her, wanted this, since they were children, but he would not have known what to do with the electrical storm that it created.
It was almost too much for him now. A man of jaded tastes. A man who had taken more lovers than he could count.
Yes. He would have to see her in the palace, knowing that she could no longer be his. Knowing that she now gave her body to his brother. But the alternative was to see her, never having been inside of her.
She tasted of oranges. Strong coffee and a brightness that he had long since given up believing in. If he were honest, she tasted of his failure. But in the moment, it felt only like triumph. She felt like salvation. And much like when his plane had descended in these mountains, he wanted to roar. He was not in his brother’s kingdom. Not now. He was in his own. In his element. And he was holding her in his arms. And she was his. He claimed her. Her soft naked body pressed up against his.
And the years were erased. Except he was a man now, and she was a woman. And he knew what he wanted of her.
“Let me show you,” he said. “Let me show you what you can feel. Let me show you what your body can do.” He put his hand between her legs and found her slick with wanting, and he continued to lick into her mouth, mirroring the exploration happening between her thighs. She was slick and eager, and he slid his thumb over the source of her pleasure, relishing her gasp of desire.
And he realized, as her pleasure coated his fingers, that everything had changed. That there was no question of her being given to his brother, or anyone. She was his. It did not matter what agreement his father had drawn up with hers. It did not matter what he owed Riyaz, what Riyaz wanted or what he’d asked for. She was his. She had been from the moment he had first seen her. No other man had ever touched her body, and no other man ever would.
She belonged to him. And if he had to wage a war...
To have her, that he would. To stake his claim on her body.
He pushed a finger inside of her and she made a small, sweet sound of desire.
He worked his finger in and out of her tight channel, need pulsing within him.
How he wanted her. How she belonged to him. He marveled at it.
Had it always been this? And had this always been fate? Had he ever really intended to get her for Riyaz, or had he always been intent on claiming her for himself?
Perhaps this was what he had been waiting for all along. His. His woman. It was his turn to take his place in the palace as well. He should also take a wife.
Intense possessiveness poured through him. “Mine,” he said, the word hard. He added a second finger to the first, and her knees buckled. He tested her, teased her. And he could feel her entire body begin to tremble.
“Come for me,” he growled.
He pressed his palm against the sensitized bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs and she gasped, her knees buckling. And only he held her up.
“Cairo,” she whispered.
“You are not a prisoner,” he said, withdrawing his fingers from her body, rubbing his thumb over her lips. “You are my lover. You belong to me.”
