“Next time, use a heavy, blunt object.”
A shudder rattled through her, at his dark mutter more than at the icy numbing. She’d known she’d pay the price for her recklessness in pain and limited mobility for a while. But she’d thought it a small price for venting her frustration in the one way she hadn’t tried yet. Physically.
She only felt worse now—stupid on top of out-of-control and futile. And his solicitude had turned the tables on her. She’d known he wouldn’t retaliate, but she’d hoped it would surprise him into baring his fangs, or at least dropping his mask. He’d done that once, that night six years ago.
She’d always conjured those moments when he’d snarled at her like a wounded beast, when unstoppable longing for him had almost snuffed her will to go on. But even then, he’d exposed her to the full range of his faces. Passionate, anxious, shocked, angry, possessive, bewildered and betrayed. Thinking none of those had been real had only made her unable to trust her judgment again. Just as she couldn’t now.
Carefully removing the ice, he lifted her hand to his lips. Holding her eyes as if he wanted her to let him into her soul, he feathered each knuckle with a kiss that was tender, almost reverent. And something in the center of her being buckled.
For him to be kissing the hand that had just inflicted an act of aggression and affront on him was too much. Unsteadily, she withdrew her hand.
He exhaled, flexed his hand as if it hurt, too, before it went up to the side of his neck.
Then he suddenly grinned at her. “What do you know...you fixed my neck!”
The spontaneity of his grin, the ease, the warmth, how real this all felt—her longing for the man she’d once loved with every fiber of her being—suddenly overwhelmed her. The yearning that had writhed inside her like a burning serpent lurched so hard that her nails dug into her good hand’s palm until they almost broke her skin.
“Okay. You achieved your purpose, made sure my sisters-in-law heard the kind of conversation you forced on me....”
His hand rose in protest. “How could I have known they were with you?”
“Because you apparently keep me under surveillance every second I’m awake, maybe even when I’m asleep.”
“I told you I didn’t know where you were.”
“Even if I believe this, I told you I had company. In fact, having anyone else present would have been even more damaging. But you established what you wanted. That our relationship goes far beyond last night, and its past nature is also implicit if you could talk to me with such... audacity.”
“How could they have known I was being...audacious?”
“Because your phone seduction session made my responses clear to anyone who knows anything about sexual innuendo. So—you’ve established my ‘impurity’ and your role in it. Now, even if I want to back down, it will be at the cost of disgracing my family, now that my ‘shame’ is out. While you will keep the high moral ground, even if you’re the once defiler of my honor, since you’re here now doing the honorable thing.”
He coughed an incredulous laugh. “Where are you getting all this? If you believe your sisters-in-law suspect anything, and it disturbs you, I’ll take care of it. I started my ‘phone seduction’ before I knew you weren’t alone, and I didn’t continue it because of any of the motives you assign me. You’re crediting me with a premeditation I already told you I’m incapable of around you.”
Feeling her head would burst with frustration, she began to turn away when a cabled arm slipped around her waist, clasping her to his formidable length. “I was up all night, Jala, every inch of me roaring for you. I let you go last night because I thought I must give you some breathing room. But my resolutions vanished the moment I got here. All I could think was that you were near, and all I planned was having you, and this time not letting you walk away. As you did last night. As you did six years ago.”
She pushed out of his arms. “You can stop doing this.”
“I can’t. I can never stop wanting you.”
“I mean it, Mohab. Stop it. I already told you I’m going through with this charade. Now drop the seduction act.”
The arms reaching for her stopped in midmotion, dropping to his sides. “What reason do you assign me for acting this time, if, according to you, I’ve already fulfilled my purpose?”
She shrugged, shoulders knotted, throat closing. “I never know anything where you’re concerned.”
“Didn’t you say you know everything about my motivations and methods?” He shook his head. “Does this mean you didn’t believe anything I said last night?”
She didn’t know anymore. The dejection in his eyes, the intensity she felt from him, all added to the verdict of her senses. Even if she couldn’t trust those, she couldn’t disregard her observations.
His reaction to her punch had been seamless. If he’d been acting, he would have been resenting it—and her. It would have manifested in even momentary fury, in an instinctive spark of retaliation, before he curbed it. He’d only been astonished, and the instant hue of his surprise had been acceptance, indulgence, even elation. As if he’d meant it when he’d said he’d take anything from her, as if he welcomed any punishment she inflicted if it would vent her anger toward him.
She could be seeing what she wanted to see all over again, but she...
All her hairs stood on end. Something had slithered in the background, at ground level....
Her tension deflated on a squeaked exclamation. “A cat!”
She blinked at the magnificent creature. A robust white Turkish Angora, clearly just woken up from a sound catnap with the way it stopped to stretch and arch. Then it slunk toward them, languidly weaving its way around furniture.
“I wonder whose it is!” She turned incredulous eyes to Mohab. “Did you know it was here?”
Her eyes almost popped at the change that came over Mohab’s expression as he looked at the cat. It was the tender delight she’d only seen on people’s faces when they beheld their babies.
“I should hope so, since she’s mine. Or should I say, I’m hers?” He bent as the cat approached him, tail straight up and trembling in the cat-tail-language equivalent of “I’m crazy about you,” before rearing up on her hind legs like a baby asking to be picked up. Mohab obliged at once, scooping her up, cradling her expertly against his massive chest...and getting white fur all over his pristine black clothes.