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“If I wanted you,” he said, very distinctly, very coldly, “I would have come for you”

It took her a moment to process that One beat of her heart, then another—and that second one so hard it was jarring It o numb, then cold

“What?”

“I see I didn’t make myself clear” His tone was offhand, alray eyes A deep blackness, thick and harsh, as if he were tortured She could see it It pressed at her on all sides “I don’t find this kind of thing appealing”

Nothing he was saying made any sense Cleo could only stare at hi She’d experienced it once before, when she’d used her key in Brian’s front door and walked inside, then stood there in the living rooht there on the floor in front of her

This orse

“I’ve tried to es Our cultures” Khaled’s voice was a terrible glide of sound, dark and cutting and still so sed little strips, one after the next “The disparity in our breeding But I’m afraid this is unacceptable”

He sounded the way he had that first evening, out in the street, when he’d talked of detain bright and harsh behind his fierce expression, as if this was hurting hi him

As if he couldn’t stop

But then what he’d said echoed inside of her, like the vicious backhanded slap it was Cleo flushed, hot and awful And then her teh her, and that, at least, felt like a reprieve

“What did you just say to me?” she demanded

“I alittering hot though he didn’t ment at the foot of the bed, not so ranite “I a about this display of yours”

And then, finally, he looked at her the way she’d always known he would The way she’d been expecting he would fro but pity