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"Did you trust her?" she asked quietly

Paige watched his expression carefully, a part of her not even certain if she had truly trusted Chalah even before she saw the audio device

"I trust no one with your safety or with your life, Paige," he told her, his expression thoughtful, intent "There have been moments in the past few days that I’ve even questioned er body dwarfing her as he stopped in front of her

Her breath nearly stopped as he reached out, his fingers catching a curl that had fallen over her shoulder

It was the only way he was touching her, his figure rubbing the soft strands slowly

"I want you, Paige," he stated softly, sending her blood pressure skyrocketing, pounding off the charts with the somber heat in his voice and in his face

"You could have fooled me," she whispered "You haven’t even been here, Abrahtened while he had been gone That a part of her had been certain Azir would coone That he would find a way to hurt her, to perhaps kill her

She knew if he could do it, he would find great pleasure in it She had seen it in his face, in his eyes, the day he had backhanded her across the roohed as he laid the strands of hair neatly against her breast before he stroked the backs of her fingers along the curve of her breast

"But I don’t think I can wait er to have you I don’t think I can sleep next to you oneyou"

Sing tightly she fought to catch her breath

"You’ve hts" A frown juer in his voice "What’s changed?"

His lips twitched with an edge of aotten attempt, as I said, to have you cos"

She shook her head "I don’t believe you, Abrahtened into one of dominant male lust

"What do you think?" he drawled

"I think you have no intentions of being my lover, Abram At the most, you intend to do no more than fuck me while we’re here And only then, if you siht was she?

She watched his eyes narrow and glitter knowingly in his dark face He knew she was right She knew she was right

"Don’t push this, Paige"

The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes coh her

"You’ve had me sleep between the two of you, naked, like a lover, with no intention of actually fuckingamusement and bitter realization filled her "Tell me, Abram, did you order Tariq not to fuck me as well?"

His eyes narrowed further "I do not order Tariq As my third, that choice re in her breath sharply "You would have let hie knew enough about the lifestyle Khalid and his friends were a part of, and she assumed Abram shared the same rules That didn’t allow the third, unless it was a perreed-upon relationship, to ever be intimate with the prime lover’s woman without his presence

"That would have been your choice" His expression was savagely tight now

"My choice?" She shook her head at his comment "Abram, do you think I don’t know the world you live within when you’re in Europe or in the US? That I don’t know the associates you and Khalid are closest to, and the rules they adhere to in teraze darkened in suspicion "What would you know about it, Paige?"

"You say that as though it’s some deep dark secret that many of your friends and acquaintances share their ives with those who share their tastes" She stared back at hiust "Do you believe, Abram, truly, that no one but those who do it are aware of it? Do you think friends, brothers, and oh yeah--" Her eyes widened in false amazement "Sisters, are not well aware of it? Do you take ined you were stupid" His voice was rougher now, containing that dark, black velvet roughness that almost mesmerized her senses

It would haveinside her

"Then what did you iine?" she snapped "What oes on around e" Frustration filled his voice as he glared back at her "I siht to liht to the bed with you"

Not limit her contact? Tariq was his third The very idea of it iards to a lover, if not a wos of depth for

But evidently, that wasn’t the way it was for him

The pain of that realization, the realization that whatever was happening between theh her like a searing flah her heart

"Go fuck yourselves!" she hissed back at hie that he was showing no possessiveness, no doards to either her body or her heart

She slapped at his hands as they lifted to her, disgust and ragged eh her senses