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Denial, dread, desperation

She’d changed her career to work from home, had relocated to the other side of the continent, had still remained scared that he’d find her But he hadn’t, and eventually she’d believed he hadn’t tried, or hadn’t been able to

But he had found her Was on her doorstep Farooq

Filling her doorway Blocking out existence

She found herself slu off with the force hich they clutched it So her fro her continued grip on consciousness

“Save it”

That was all he said as he pushed past her, walking into her apartment as if he owned it And his voice…

This wasn’t the voice etched in her memory The voice that echoed in everyarousal, roaring coed with emotion This voice contained as ra here?

No She didn’t care what he was doing here She didn’t care that her insides were cruht of hiet rid of hiain control first, of her coherence, to think of so to say, of her volition, to be able to say it

She leaned against the door she didn’t re as if the least treht She watched his powerful strides take hiing all light on hih her shock and panic, everything inside her devoured each line of his juggernaut’s body, even bigger and taller than she re breadth of shoulders, to the sparseness of waist and hips, to the fors

Me wounds with i her, those hips thrusting her to a frenzy, those thighs and legs encoaze andThen he turned, and everything in her piled up with the brunt of his beauty, the rawness of her still-burning love

His heavy-lidded gaze documented her reaction before he raised both eyebrows, a movement rich in nonchalance and imperiousness “Finished with your latest act, or shall I wait until you’ve delivered the full performance?”

It wasn’t only his voice that was different This wasn’t the Farooq she reer she’d walked out on Thatwith harshness, with e, as he eyed her with the clinical coldness of a scientist dealing with inani a defective product He finally gave a slight shake of his aweso on his unfavorable verdict “As an unbiased viewer, I eration is not your friend”

Before she could even process his dispassionate comment, let alone find words to answer it, he relieved her of his focus, cast his gaze around her space

She could see his connoisseur’sup the worth of every square foot, every piece of furniture, brush stroke and decorative article and felt defensive Though she’d made this place chic and cheery, it could well be derelict compared to the opulence he was used to Which was a stupid thing to feel and think

She had to make him leave Now Before Mennah woke up Before he saw the childproofing she’d begun installing