"One tied to a very rich, fairly powerful sheik," Chase pointed out.
Khalid winked at her again, and Chase felt her relax, not a lot, but enough that perhaps she wasn't gearing up to demand to be taken home.
"I assure you, Ms. Rutherford," Khalid announced. "It is Rutherford now, yes?"
"Yes," she breathed out faintly.
Chase had been unaware she had returned to her maiden name.
"As I was saying, I assure you, I'm related to the sheik by only the thinnest of bloodlines and a father that has more money than any true connections. Though he does enjoy spending the money on his youngest bastard son." Khalid's lips quirked mockingly.
Kia inhaled slowly as Chase continued to rub her back. Damn her and her bare back. Her wrap was barely hanging to one shoulder now, the velvet dress held to her shoulders by thin straps, the velvet covering her breasts doing very little to cover the firm mounds.
She was incredible. Beautiful. Several strands of hair had slipped from the diamond pins that held it in place, the blond strands framing her face and neck.
A light flush mounted her cheeks and her sapphire blue eyes, were filled with vulnerable curiosity and courage. He'd known, somehow, over the past two years, it would come to this. And he had pushed it, pushed her, made her more curious each time he'd pursued her for a dance at a party or a moment to chat at an event.
"The lights are pretty tonight." She swallowed tightly again and found her fingers curled over Chase's forearm, where it lay across her thighs.
She stared out the window across from her as the limo wove through traffic, stopping smoothly at traffic lights, moving more slowly past the elaborately lit areas.
"The lights are gorgeous this time of the year, especially during a snowfall." But Khalid wasn't staring at the lights, he was staring at her.
His voice was low, smooth, and charming. It was sexy, but it lacked the true warmth she heard in Chase's voice.
"Jaci and Cam are putting up the Christmas tree tonight." Chase grunted. "One of the reasons I ended up in a bar rather than reading comfortably in my apartment. They threatened earlier to make me help."
"You don't like Christmas trees?" She risked looking up at him now, and the light green orbs held her, mesmerized her as they always did.
Each time his gaze caught hers, she wanted to sink into it, live within it forever. There was something mysterious, something completely male and forbidden each time he held her gaze with his.
Of course, she knew the forbidden. It was here, in this limo. Chase and the third he had obviously chosen, and they were nothing compared to the husband and the third who had terrified her years before.
No, it hadn't been terror, it had been rage. He had attempted to get her drunk and when he thought she was, he had then snuck another man into their bed.
"I love Christmas trees," Chase finally told her softly. "But some things, Jaci and Cam need to do alone."
It was said gently, as though a message was hidden there. Was he telling her he no longer shared his women, or just his brother's woman?
She had wondered, she admitted. She had often wondered if Jaci Wright enjoyed each night what Kia was too afraid to reach out for.
"I haven't decorated a tree in years," she told him then, attempting to smile, almost lost in the memory of the last time she had done so, at her parents' home.
"No?" He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek as the fearful tension receded, only to be replaced with something darker, more heated.
"I don't have a tree," she said. "There's just me."
"You buy presents?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "Just for my parents. They don't require a tree in my apartment."
Her life had become barren in the past two years. A desert landscape that still had the power to hurt.
"Friends?" He tensed a bit, as though anticipating the answer.
"Friends are busy with families for the holidays." She shook her head. "I don't need a tree." She didn't buy friends presents because she didn't allow herself to have friends.
"You need a tree," he breathed against her ear. "A very tall one."
"I'd never be able to decorate it." Her head tilted to the side, almost without her permission, her neck suddenly tingling to feel that little breath. "I'm short."
"You're exquisite." He kissed her behind her ear. A soft brush of his lips that had her lashes drifting closed and pleasure streaking through her.
Khalid' was watching. She could feel him watching. She could feel the tension rising in the back of the monstrous limo and the heat of sexual desire beginning to move over her flesh.
She should move. She should be frightened, as she had been earlier. Instead, she felt that strange courage rising inside her again. No, not courage, insanity, because she knew she wasn't going to deny them. She was going to be wild and wicked and do the forbidden. Here, in this decadently large limo, she was going to let Chase have her, Chase and Khalid.