Long, silken, red-gold curls cascaded around the bruised side of her face. The abraded, darkening flesh almost had him turning around and completing the murderous act, imagining Azir gasping for air as his eyes began to glaze in death.

Emerald green eyes stared back at him in defiance, and always, always, in hunger. In that inp height="t, just that fast, his cock was brutally hard, the need to fuck thundering through his body with a force nearly double what the drive to kill had been.

This was the fallout. The other side of the brutal ice-encased fury was this overwhelming, desperate need to push every sexual boundary. To make his lover touch that point between pleasure and pain. To fuck her until none of them could move. And once his third had caught his breath, to begin again.

And there was Paige. The object of every sexual fantasy he’d had since she had turned eighteen. The one woman he knew he should never touch.

He was going to touch her.

He was going to touch her in ways that would shock her, that would send her juices spilling hot and sweet from the swollen folds of her cunt.

“Abram?” Tariq rose warily to his feet. “Is the situation being resolved?”

Will Paige be sent home? Abram could see the question in the other man’s gaze. The worry and the concern. Oh yes, they both knew what Azir was doing, and they were going to have to figure out a way to put a stop to it.

“I may need a third,” Abram answered, his gaze on Paige as her eyes widened in shock.

She knew what he meant, and she knew exactly what he was going to need.

She didn’t protest though, and she didn’t argue, she just stared back at him, wide-eyed and silent.

And hungry.

Oh hell yes, he glimpsed the sensual, sexual need that darkened her eyes and flushed her face and breasts.

They had been dancing around this since the day she turned eighteen. He had stayed as far away from her as possible rather than introducing her to a hunger, a passion that he feared she wasn’t ready for. And now, there was simply no way to save her from it.

“Leave,” he ordered Tariq, his tone guttural.

It was an order Tariq was expecting. Abram was going to need a third, but this first time, this first touch, was all his. He shared his lovers, but still, he was a possessive bastard. He secured their affection as well as their arousal before he ever brought his third into the bed.

He waited, listening as Tariq strode across the room, opened the door, and stepped out.

He would be going no farther than his own room across the stone hall in case he was needed.

Paige’s fingers tightened on the sheet as though she feared he would jerk it from her.

“Abram?” She questioned when he didn’t say anything.

She rose slowly to her feet, facing him, not just with a hint of wariness but also a blaze of need that rivaled his own.

God help him, he hadn’t wanted it to come to this. Not here, and definitely not now.

“You and Khalid shared Lessa, didn’t you?” she asked when he said nothing for several moments.

“We shared Lessa,” he admitted. “And that is a subject we don’t need to discuss tonight, Paige. Tonight, there is only us.”

And he believed that explanation was all she had to hear? She let her lips curl into a mocking, defiant smile. “You asked Tariq to be your third, Abram. I’m not a child, and I’m not completely ignorant of your sexual lifestyle. Don’t think you’re going to just push something like this on me and we won’t be discussing it.”

He grimaced tightly. “This isn’t the best time to discuss anything, Paige,” he told her. “And I notice you’re not refusing.” His brow arched. “Do you think I’m not very well aware of the fact that if you weren’t dying for it then you’d put me in my place so fast it would make both our heads spin?”

At least he knew a few of her incredibly talented abilities.

She stared back at him warily though. Abram could never be accused of being predictable.

“I’m not ready to allow anyone to touch you but me,” he stated. “Before we go further than you and me, we’ll discuss it, I promise. But now isn’t the time to do it. Now is the time to take that damned sheet off.”

“Make me.” He was entirely too arrogant for his own good, and if she was going to handle even the most distant relationship with him then she would have to establish her own boundaries quickly.

“What did you say?”

She had heard him though. Shock filled her voice. It widened her eyes again, but her response flushed her face and her nipples were just barely detectable beneath the sheet over her chest.

“Drop the sheet, Paige,” he growled, stepping closer to her, unable to keep any distance between them.

He expected a fight. He thought she would curse. He was certain she would rage.

What he didn’t expect?

or="#000000">“Kiss my ass,” she scoffed. “Why don’t you try putting me on a plane home first? Then we’ll discuss the subject.” A graceful shoulder shrugged as she stared back at him challengingly.

He had known she wouldn’t come easy. But that was just fine. Because he sure as hell never cared much for easy.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to remove it myself.”

Paige saw the battle raging within the rich black depths of his gaze. The taut expression of his face was primal, sensual. His lips had a more sexual, erotic curve. He suddenly looked like a sex god ready to seduce and ravish.

A sensual, dark aura seemed to suddenly surround them, washing through her senses and sensitizing her, preparing her for his touch.

She’d never felt anything like this at any time. She’d been dating for years. She’d dated some of the most arrogant, most dominant men in the world, but Abram had always had them all beat.

Her hands tightened on the material of the silk sheet between her breasts. His gaze dropped to her fingers as he gripped the clasped ends at the front of his tunic-like robe and pulled at it, parting it to shrug it easily from his powerful shoulders.

Dark, toughened skin stretched over powerful muscles.

He kicked his boots off as he reached for her, then stood, simply staring down at her for long, heated moments.

She expected seduction. Perhaps a bit of teasing. She should have known better.

She didn’t expect what was coming. Before she realized his intentions he’d jerked her to him, lifting her, his lips coming down on hers with surprising gentleness. The certain, determined lick of his tongue against the seam of her lips surprised her into parting them. A quick indrawn breath, a wealth of pleasure, and he was inside.

His lips slanted over hers, his head tilting as a moan escaped her throat and Paige knew she was on the losing end of determination this time.

But this was Abram. She couldn’t say no to him, she had no idea how to do it.

As his lips and tongue caressed and cajoled, she felt him holding her against him, her feet off the floor as he moved to the huge, silk-covered bed on the other end of the room.

She had to force her eyes open as he laid her back on the bed, his hands catching her wrists as he forced them above her head. Holding her wrists to the mattress, his knee pushed between her thighs, parting them, the soft cotton of his loose trousers caressing the bare skin of her inner legs as he stared down at her with hungry demand. His knee pressed upward against her pussy, rubbing and grinding against her clit.ht="0emiv height="0em">

The strong, heavy muscles were heated as she gripped the sides of his leg and arched to him. Each stroke against the swollen bud made her weaker, made her want to sink into the pleasure and never come up for reality.

She felt her heart racing. Blood thundered through her veins, throbbing in her clit as she struggled against the hold he had on her.

His head lowered once again, his lips careful in case her lips were sore. Thankfully, Azir had backhanded the side of her face, not her lips.