* * *
When she stirred from blissful oblivion, she found herself over him, beneath thick covers, with the balmy desert night sifting through her hair.
Without moving, she pressed her lips over his heart.
“Thank you.”
A deep chuckle reverberated beneath her ear. “Thanks are certainly mutual here.”
“I’m not thanking you for driving me out of my mind with pleasure. Mere thanks doesn’t do justice to what you do to me.”
He turned her on her side so he could look down at her. “Then what are you thanking me for?”
“You should be asking, what not for.” At his uncomprehending frown, she nipped his rugged jaw, delighting in how his beard bristled against her teeth. He’d shaved before they’d disembarked from his jet, but a dark stubble had grown out again. “You really have to work on being able to accept gratitude and take your dues.”
“Whatever you think I did...”
Her kiss sealed his lips, stopped his argument. “What you keep doing is not a matter of opinion, but facts as solid and as wonderful as every inch of you.”
His groan filled her lungs as she ran her hands down every one of those inches she had access to. “Anything I do for you is my absolute privilege and my intense pleasure.”
Her passion-swollen lips spread into a grin. “Fine, but I still get the privilege and pleasure of thanking you, all the time, so get used to it.”
He looked down at her thoughtfully. “I thought you didn’t have much to thank me for today. You evidently consider Najeeb a dear and valued friend, and I jumped down his throat, and I didn’t warm to him for the hours he stayed here. I was a lousy host.”
“I already knew you don’t do warm, Numair, and are not one for social graces.”
The power and bulk pressed to her turned to steel. “Like Najeeb, you mean? The perfect gentleman? The living, breathing epitome of the knight in shining armor?”
Her eyes widened as realization suddenly hit her. “Was that what this was all about? You were jealous?”
His eyes blazed into hers. “Insanely.” He raised a brow at her. “Perhaps even murderously.”
Her mouth dropped open before she exclaimed, “But we’re like brother and sister. We refused to even consider marrying each other, triggering this whole mess.”
“I knew that, on a logical level. But there was no reasoning with the beast who could only see that his mate was so at ease with someone else.” As she shuddered in delight at the word mate, he wrapped her hair around his hand and took it to his lips, caressing it as he would her mouth. “I could feel your history, your long years of knowledge and understanding, and I suddenly felt like an outsider.”
Was that insecurity that came into his eyes? Numair? Was it even possible?
Unable to bear that he’d feel anything bad on her account, she pulled him closer. “My brief days with you mean far more to me than all the years I’ve had with most people in my life put together. I’ve come closer to you than I have to anyone I’ve known my whole life. And I never wanted a gentleman or a knight in shining armor. I want you, the man I knew from the first glance was a ruthless marauder in darkest armor.”
His chest expanded, pressing into her sensitive nipples, his darkened eyes brightening again. “So you’re not disappointed with me for being the cold bastard that I was with your friend?”
“You can’t help what you feel, but you did what I asked. You stopped antagonizing him, invited him here to your place, even when you wanted me here alone this first time—”
He swept her to her back and loomed over her. “And every time. From now on, Ameen will only come when we leave, to clean and maintain the place. But while we’re together, no one else will ever set foot here. And it’s our place, not mine. In fact, since I acquired this place for you, it’s yours.”
She blinked. “What do you mean acquired it for me?”
“I mean I wrote it in your name.”
She jackknifed, sitting up. “What?”
He leaned back on one elbow, indulgence playing on his lips. “I have a copy of the deed here, and another has been sent to your legal representative. This place is all yours, all you. All I ask for is the privilege and pleasure of sharing it with you.”
Unable to wrap her mind around the enormity of his gesture, she could only stammer, “But...but...”
He pushed her down again, pressed his lips to hers in a silencing, drowning kiss.
By the time he raised his head, hers was spinning, with everything he was, everything he’d been doing to her and for her. Then his next words made the whole world spin.