The Sheikh's Stolen Bride(30)

That was normal.

He had been her first lover, and he remained her only lover. His ability to stir her to a fever pitch of need was nothing new. Even her dreams of him had done that, making her cry out with an ache of lust low in her abdomen.

She stepped backwards instinctively, moving out of his reach, and he took advantage of that moment of unknowing surrender to crowd inside her front door.

“I beg to differ.”

But he was big and her house small. She hadn’t really noticed that before. Then. Perhaps she’d just been used to him, and to his dominating presence.

Time had dwarfed her. All of her. Those aspirations that had puffed her up, the optimism of youth. Financial freedom. All of that had flooded from her over the years, leaving a woman who felt frail in Syed’s overwhelming presence.

Timid.

And she hated him for that, even more than she hated him for leaving in the first place.

“What do you want?”

His lips twisted, but it wasn’t what she’d call a smile. “I want you to be mine again, azeezi. One last time.”