know any woman would throw herself at his feet, if only he would let her?
But it was clear her words didn’t only please him, they stoked his lust. The heat emanating from him rose, igniting her own higher, and the hardness below her became a steel shaft of discomfort digging into her thigh. Her core throbbed with an empty ache she’d only ever felt since he’d touched her.
She wanted to wind herself around him, to tell him to forget everything—her need for his services and his for an heir—and act on the need burning them up.
Instead, she said, “As I was saying, even if you wanted me on sight, that still doesn’t translate to considering me for the role of mother of your heir. From my vast experience with the obscenely rich and powerful, sexual desire is not even among the prerequisites in choosing who to procreate with. I’m sure a man like you has strict criteria for said role, and countless other women who’re better candidates for it than me.”
“I may be obscenely rich and powerful, but I already told you I care nothing about anyone’s rules. I make and follow my own.” Sensual appreciation weighed down his lids, filled his lips as his hand painted her from shoulders to buttocks in luxurious caresses. “But I do have extremely strict criteria in the mother of my heir. That’s why only you will do.”
“Why? Do I somehow fulfill more criteria than others?”
“You fulfill every single one, and others I didn’t even have till I met you.” He cupped her cheek hungrily, his gaze devouring her. “I want my heir to be born of the perfect woman.”
This made her snort. “Boy, are you barking up the wrong woman. I’m so far from perfect I’m in another galaxy.”
His fingers sank into her hair, gave a pleasurable tug at her nape. “You are perfect to me. Just like I, with all of my glaring flaws, am perfect to you.”
Her snort was more indelicate this time. “What glaring flaws? You are perfect, and would be so in anyone’s eyes.”
“Would I? That’s news to me, since both allies and foes consider me a monster.” Before she could object, he pressed on. “From what you know of the business world, you must know what it took to rise to my current status and to maintain it. You know I must be ruthless and remorseless, and that I don’t give a damn what the world thinks of me, and that nothing is beyond me. From our interactions so far, you must realize I’m dangerous, even deadly, and I can destroy anyone I decide deserves it, even kill them, without turning a hair.”
She stared at him. He’d put everything she’d felt about him in her bones into words. Everything that made him even more perfect to her.
She nodded slowly. “Instinctively, and logically, I know you’re all that.”
His lips spread in satisfaction. “All that makes me the opposite of perfect to everyone. Except for my partners, I’m someone to dread, or at most to appease, either in the hope of winning my favor or avoiding my danger. As for the women who pursue me, most risk it for the lure of said obscene power and wealth, and a few for the misguided fantasy of attempting to tame the most dangerous predator there is. But all fear me, and none trust me.” His arms squeezed her tighter into his containment, his eyes growing more possessive. “You’re the only one to ever see me for what I am, scales and claws and fangs and all, and instead of putting you off, everything about me is exactly what appeals to you. As you say in your region, I’m the one to yemla ainek—the one to ‘fill your eye.’”
It was as if he was reading her mind. More, her deepest, most private beliefs and yearnings.
Again she nodded, not even thinking of contesting his verdict. “I left naiveté and idealism behind when I was seven, grew up in the cutthroat worlds of highest-level politics and business. I’ve long since learned that the best men need to have a lot of monster in them to be merciless enough to make the painful decisions, cunning enough to beat evil at its game, strong enough to enforce harsh changes for the better and resilient enough to be the one left standing after a war and doing as much good as possible in this crazy world.”
His eyes darkened with her every word, until those fathomless black pupils engulfed the glowing emerald. She felt as if she was watching a panther in the seconds before he pounced. And she couldn’t wait for him to. Even when she knew she might not survive his ferocity.
Then he did. Growling deep in his gut like his namesake, he brought her fully over him, making her feel she was no more than a twenty-pound baby. It should have been terrifying to realize just how much stronger than her he was. But his roughness was infused with such care, it only sent all her senses soaring.
She tumbled over him, the skirt of her dress riding up as he splayed her thighs wide, had her straddling him. The moment she felt him fully against her, between her legs, she almost fainted with the spike of arousal. Then his lips opened over her neck, and she did swoon. Her head fell back, giving him fuller access, surrendering to his pleasuring.
She needed this, needed him, come what may.
“You feel and taste even better than I imagined. Jenan...”
She jerked as if at the sting of a lash when he said her name. She’d never liked her full name. Now it inflamed her to hear it on his lips, in that voracious growl. But he was sending her out of her mind with everything he did. The way he moved against her, breathed her in, touched and kneaded and suckled her... It was all too much.
And too little. She needed more. Everything. His mouth and hands all over her, his potency inside her.
“Numair...”
At hearing her moaning his name, the same desperation she felt reverberating inside her seemed to emanate from his body in shock waves. Then he swept her around and brought her under him on the couch, then bore down on her.
The world disappeared again, nothing remaining in her awareness but his greed and urgency and lust dominating her.
Spreading her thighs around his hips, he pressed between them, his hardness grinding against her entrance through their clothes. Her back arched deeply to accommodate him, a cry tearing from her very recesses at the feel of him, the sight of him above her.
“Jenan.” His growl sounded pained as he surveyed her for one last second. Then his lips claimed hers, branding them. She opened wide to his invasion, and his tongue thrust deep, singeing her with pleasure, breaching her with need, draining her of reason.
Pressure built—behind her eyes, inside her chest, deep in her loins. Her hands convulsed on his arms, digging into his muscles, everything inside her surging, gushing, needing anything and everything he’d do to her. His fingers and tongue and teeth exploiting her every secret, his manhood filling that distressing void he’d created inside her...
Something buzzed against her thigh, made her lurch beneath him. After moments it stopped. Then it started again until it finally made him stiffen above her. Then he was cursing viciously as he rose off her.
The moment she lost his anchoring, she whimpered. His tempestuous glance told her he was feeling exactly the same. Wild with hunger and frustration.
He whipped out his phone in barely controlled fury. He only bit off a few phrases before ending the call. She vaguely understood it was one of his Black Castle partners. It figured only one of them would warrant Numair interrupting their first kiss.
As she finished the thought, she found
