Their Virgin Concubine(79)

Sweet. It was so sweet to hold her, his cock still inside, still connected.

I love you, my Piper. The words were on his tongue, right there, a bomb waiting to be dropped.

He loved her, and if anyone ever knew just how close to his heart she was, they could use her against him. A vision of Lily screaming as the radicals cut her and raped her swam across his brain. He’d been forced to watch, unable to help her. He’d been weak. He’d been useless.

He hadn’t loved her, and her death had nearly killed him. What would he do if they took Piper?

A cold chill crossed his spine. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, ever let her—or anyone else—know that he loved her.

Tal pulled himself out of her warmth and stood. His whole body shook, and he forced the emotion down with ruthless will. Since he refused to reveal his love to her, he needed to make sure she no longer loved him. “You can go now.”

Piper stilled, her whole body going from languid to tense in a single second. With very deliberate movements, she turned. “What?”

Those eyes were going to kill him. He wanted to take her in his arms, but he couldn’t. He had to let her go. “I’m through for the day. You can go.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. She scrambled up, fumbling a bit as she stood. “I don’t understand.”

Tal sighed, covering his heartache. He’d learned to act over the years, to keep his every emotion hidden. It was a skill he’d learned from years of dealing with the press and politicians. He picked up her skirt, tossing it her way. “I no longer require your services.” A thought struck him. Fuck. He was out of practice. “Aftercare. I forgot. Come here and I will take the clamps off and rub some salve on your nipples. Then you can go.”

“Why are you acting so cold?” Piper asked, her lip trembling slightly. He was proud of her. She made no move to cover herself. She simply stood there, asking for information. She obviously wasn’t going to run. But bloody hell, she was not making this easy on him.

So he had to make it hard on her. It was the only way to save her. Her heart should belong to his brothers. They were worthy of it. They had never broken, never cost a woman her life. They didn’t wake up screaming some nights.

“I’m not acting cold, Piper. I am cold. And I’m done. I told you that you wouldn’t like being my slave. I offered you a partnership, but you want to try to control me with sex. It can’t work. I will not allow it. Now run along and see to my brothers. I’m sure they have need of your services, too.”

Her eyes widened with obvious pain. “Wow. I did nothing to deserve that, Talib.” She stood there for a moment, thinking. Damn, but he was worried about that brain of hers. “Why are you so scared of me?”

He wasn’t going to play chess with her anytime soon. She would likely win. He forced himself to speak, keeping his voice even. He could not allow her to know she’d scored a direct hit. “I am not scared, Piper. Now I am merely bored.”

“Bullshit.” It was the first time he’d heard her curse. “Talib, I might have been a virgin, but I’m not dumb. What we just shared was something lovely and you’re trying to make it ugly. Will you please sit down like the kind man I know you are and explain yourself to me? You’re trying to make me run away. If you didn’t care about me, you would simply explain it in a patient voice. But I mean something to you, and you can’t stand it. You think you can say a few hateful words and get me to run, but I see you, Talib al Mussad. If there’s one thing I’ve learned through all of this, it’s that my love is stronger than you can imagine and a few little words aren’t going to make me run. You’ll have to be a man and ask me to leave.”

She stood there, so beautiful and smart and proud, turning his every argument against him. He was the one who felt naked now. He shoved his legs into his pants. Cornered. She’d fucking cornered him. “I can’t ask you to leave, Piper. I need this marriage to protect my crown.”

She snorted, obviously unimpressed by his countermove. “Yes, you needed to marry a poor economist from Texas to protect your crown. I don’t buy that, either. If you had to have a bride, you could have picked someone much more suitable. You wanted me.”

Now at least he could give her some hard truths. “Yes, Piper, I wanted you because I knew I could never fall in love with you. You were perfect in that way.”

A sad little smile crossed her face. “Poor Tal. You got caught in your own trap.”

Would nothing work on her? Why could she see through him when no one else could? “I do not love you. I won’t ever love you, but we’re bound together. My god, woman, how can you stand there and say you love me? Don’t you have any pride?”