Dangerous Pleasure(90)

“Until then, she will believe you are as you seem,” Abram promised. “And I swear to you, Jafar, she will be protected to the best of my ability.”

Jafar nodded sharply. “There were no others with us tonight,” he finally stated coolly. “We came alone, but for the three that distracted your guards. Allow the one you captured to go free, if you don’t mind.” He gave a mirthless grin. “Had you met with him as he requested, you would have known we were here as well.”

“I will know better next time.” Abram nodded as Jafar moved for the door.

As his cousin left the room, Abram turned to his lover, to the woman he knew he would have died for. Easily. Nothing would have convinced him to allow Azir to so much as breathe her air.

“It’s over,” she whispered.

“No, it has only begun.” He sighed regretfully as his arms tightened around her. “But the danger to you is over. The danger to us is gone.” Then he grimaced. “Khalid.”

She bit her lip, then grinned. “He’ll be pissed.”

“He’ll kill me.”

“He’ll let you live, it just might not be pleasant for a while.” She laughed softly.

“And you, my little hellcat, will be worth every bruise.” His lips lowered to hers.

He had to taste her.

He had to hold her, convince himself she lived and she was unharmed.

Convince himself she was his.

Just as she always had been.





epilogue



Khalid stared at his sister in confusion, certain he must have taken too many pain pills. Though honestly, he couldn’t remember taking a single one despite the doctor’s and Marty’s insistence that he do so.

Something was wrong though, because it wasn’t possible that he had heard her correctly.

“Excuse me, sweets, but I don’t think I heard you right,” he said with an air of amusement.

It was forced joviality. Something in his gut assured him he hadn’t misheard her in the least; she had said exactly what he thought she had, and she had meant every word of it.

Fuck.

This couldn’t be happening. It just simply couldn’t be real.

He was having a nightmare. That was it, he assured himself. It was a nightmare. It could be nothing else.

His sister glanced behind him, her look directed at his fiancée who stood behind him. And that look was telling.

He wanted to rub at his chest, but damn if he wanted to make her feel guilty. She wouldn’t understand it was his worried heart aching, the heart of a brother who had protected, worried, and looked after her. He still remembered her as the tiny, red-faced, squalling infant who had been laid in his arms when he was no more than ten.#p#分页标题#e#

That look, exchanged with Marty, was telling, and it assured him this was in no way a nightmare.

“God,” he muttered. “It’s my birthday, give me a break.”

It was his birthday, and it was his brother Abram’s birthday. Abram and Paige had ensured he would never forget this day or its significance.

Paige smiled then.

“You expected it.” Leaning forward, her arms folded atop her knees, the waves of fiery hair cascaded around her face and gave her a look of youth and innocence.

She could have been fifteen again.

“You’re too young.” He sighed. “I see you, Ellie Paige, and I don’t see a woman.” He was aware of the softness of his voice, the somberness of it. He was aware of the all-consuming regret that his little Ellie Paige, a name he hadn’t used in far too many years, had grown up.

Paige Eleanora. Marilyn had given Pavlos the option of naming her, and Pavlos had shared that weighty responsibility with his stepson.

He had imparted something that went far deeper though. An acceptance, a silent, overwhelming verification that Khalid, the child who had heard too much, who had seen too much in international courts concerning the hell his unknown father had put his too-small, too-gentle mother through, was indeed a part of the family, and as loved as that tiny, delicate babe.

And Khalid had chosen Eleanora. Because the name sounded as delicate to him as the babe had seemed.

“What do you see then?” She frowned fiercely. “You’re confusing me, Khalid. As usual.”

He breathed out heavily. “Because I never told you, did I, that to me, you have never grown past that delicate innocence of fifteen.”

“Your birthday,” she said softly, and he saw the memory in the soft smile that curved her lips. “You were twenty-five. You had just gotten out of the hospital.” Her expressive eyes flashed with remembered pain.

It was a pain Abram knew as well.

Khalid refused to look at his brother, too afraid he would see in Abram’s eyes exactly what Khalid feared. That Abram could never let the memory of his first love go enough to give Paige his heart.