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Her blood tumbled in a spin cycle “Another endear out of its bowl Probably looked it, too

He gave a nod, deceptively lazy, laden with so much heat and temptation “My sweet And you are, so unbelievably sweet, every word you say, everything you do I can’t wait to find out if your sweetness runs through and through” He suddenly stood straighter, obliterated the breath between the all of her It felt as if his ht “But you haven’t told ainst your lips, against every inch of you, taste it with your nectar, get high on it as I do on you Tell me”

She tried to find her voice, her na swept away, the shores of reason receding She saw nothing but his eyes, his lips, wanted nothing but for them to fulfill his pro, insisting on finding out her name, as per her idiotic objection, before he acted on his proasped it, “Farah…”

His sharp intake of breath felt as if it tore into her own lungs, flooding her with his scent “Farah An Arabic name This is fate And your parents knew just what you’d be Joy”

She’d always s of her name Apart from the sporadic times of contentment in the company of her ultra-busy father, she’d never experienced anything approaching joy

She gave a laugh, shaky, self-deprecating “Not according to my mother I certainly haven’t been her joy”

“Of course you were How could you not be?”

“And to answer that, I’ll have to refer you to her”

His froas spectacular “She actually told you that you are not the joy of her life? What mother says that to her child?”

“A mother who turned out to have lived a uess I was the rehts”

He cupped her cheek Was his hand on fire? She pressed into his pal to her nape, tilting up her head “She had no right to taint your life, to let her eainst your biological father”

She pressed her head harder into his assuage like that It’s my own conclusion You see, she’s always been ht, but it’s all…held back, as if she’s going through a chore, finding no…joy-there’s that word again-in it When I learned about my real father, it made sense She loved hi hi moment passed as he stared at her, his face a blank mask At last he exhaled “So you don’t feel bitter toward her? Or toward your real father for scarring her,mother that you deserved?”

“I don’t do bitterness What does it serve?”

“Indeed So, not only a siren, but a deeply sane one, too”

She coughed a laugh Sane? Not that she’d noticed since she’d laid eyes on him