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And he would always remember this Here Now When she was half in love with hireedy for his touch When she didn’t have the slightest idea what their future would look like

It surprised him how very deep and powerful that pleasure ran, so atavistic, so rudiuishable froe—the kind that would wreck not only the both of them, but all his carefully crafted plans besides

He needed her to teeter on the edge, he reminded himself sternly Not to fall

“You aren’t listening toher eyes in a deeply disrespectful manner that should have offended him, yet didn’t “That’s considered rude in both our cultures, I think you’ll find”

You will break her heart, Nasser had warned hiood man Only a determined one

And, oh, such a selfish one

“Have you becoht, lazy and flirtatious, ignoring the darkness beneath that he didn’t care to acknowledge “That you would dare to scold a sultan?”

He reached over and took her hands in his, and that heat in hiht fire He hadn’t expected to want her, particularly not with that jagged edge too much like raw need, but Khaled told himself that he could control it

Because he had to control it Because he was not his father

“I dare,” she said, but her voice was little more than a shimmer in the dark, and he smiled

“Coed her to him

She came easily, as he’d expected Her breath ca flat-out, and the —and it wasn’t in him to resist her

He didn’t try

“Kiss ht “If you are so daring”

He could feel her treainst him, and he liked it She tilted her head back, and he liked the fire in her golden gaze, and the hunger that very nearly matched his He wanted to taste her, suddenly, as if he’d never wanted anything else