to remain silent when he kept his promise to loosen her muscles, his powerful hands tender on her abused flesh. She even bit back her cries when his mouth enclosed her engorged nipples. Then his hand moved between her legs.
Jasmine bit his shoulder. He continued to play with the soft, moist folds between her thighs until she couldn’t breathe. She sank her teeth farther into firm muscle in an effort to control her scream. Finally, after tormenting her for what seemed like hours, he lifted her hips and thrust into her in one smooth stroke. This time, she muffled her cries against his neck. He gritted his teeth against his own cry of satisfaction, his face a study in restraint.
They lay with arms and legs tangled until their skin began to chill from the cool night breeze. Tariq rolled off her and sat up to zip the attached sleeping bags closed. When he propped himself beside her, Jasmine saw what she’d done.
“Oh no.” She was horrified at the deep, red marks.
“What is it, Mina?” His concern was clear.
“I bit you.” She touched the evidence of her crime with her fingertips.
He grinned. “Thank you.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“I do not mind. There are two more nights we must spend in the desert. Perhaps you will give me another two souvenirs?”
She remained concerned. “Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?”
“Why don’t you kiss it and see?” he invited.
Jasmine immediately reached over and laved the spot with her tongue and then pressed a tender kiss over it.
“Now I hurt,” he growled against her ear. The hardness pressing impatiently against her thigh explained why. “But we’ll travel far tomorrow. You must have your rest. Turn around and stop tempting me.”
Jasmine laughed at how disgruntled he sounded, but she fell asleep in seconds, despite the embers of desire glowing between them. When she wakened, Tariq was already dressed, which was probably just as well. The look in his eyes said that if she’d wakened a few minutes earlier, he’d certainly have delayed the entire party.
“Good morning, Mina.”
“Morning.” She sat up and rubbed at her eyes.
“I let you rest as long as possible, but we must be away soon if we are to make the next oasis by the time daylight fades.” Tariq’s deep voice was a caress in itself, full of sensuous memories.
Fighting off her blush, she replied, “I’ll be quick. Give me ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes.” A hard kiss sealed those words.
Jasmine watched him stride away into the lush foliage, her body craving his touch. Hurried along by the cool wind, she shook off the desire that lay heavy upon her senses, and rose. The morning air was crisp, almost chilly, with no hint of the fire and heat that would descend as the sun rose higher. As she completed her toilette, Jasmine was struck by the way her husband reflected the hidden glory of his land.
Tariq could be ice, and he could be fire. Since arriving in Zulheil, she’d experienced both. Four years ago, she’d never seen the ice. Had she known only half the man? Four years ago…four years lost. Suddenly, she was starving for knowledge of Tariq’s life in those lost years. The longing was a physical ache inside of her. Tariq had rebuffed her attempts to discuss the past, but she knew that until they did, they’d never truly be at peace.
“Mina! Are you ready?” Tariq’s call cut through her unwelcome thoughts. The warmth in it was an arrow to her heart. Despite her hunger to know, she couldn’t bear to disrupt their new harmony by bringing up the past.
She parted the branches protecting her from his view. “Are we leaving?” Other than a few bent shoots of grass, nothing revealed that they had camped in this desert haven.
“I would not starve you. Not when I am the cause of the hunger you must be feeling.” The rumble of his voice washed over her. She smoothed her pants, inexplicably shy.
Straightening from his leaning position against the trunk of a tree heavy with dark green, glossy foliage, Tariq skated his eyes over her modestly garbed form with a possessiveness she couldn’t mistake. Her breath hitched. When he looked up, she thought she might just beg him to take her.
He crooked a finger.
Some feminine instinct protested that arrogant action, even as the needy part of her wanted to run over and say yes, please. Instead, she stuck one hand on her hip and copied the gesture, with a boldness that, around her husband, felt right.
Tariq’s smile was a slash of white in the duskiness of his face. To her surprise, he obeyed her command and walked over to stand in front of her, so close that her breasts brushed his chest with every breath she took.
“What would you do with me, my wife?”
Now that she had him where she’d wanted him, she couldn’t think of what to say.
Mina’s sudden shyness surprised Tariq. He traced a finger down the cool smoothness of her cheek. She ducked her head, but brought her hand up to cover his. He smiled and bent his knees to bring himself to her level. He surprised her with his sudden descent, and that was the only reason he saw the shadows in her eyes.
He rose to his full height, thunder pouring through his veins. She was hiding something. “What is worrying you?”
She jerked her head up. Hair the color of shattered rubies tumbled over his hands. Blue eyes displayed her distress at being found out. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”
Her small lie only made him more determined. What was she thinking that she had to hide it from him? Where she was concerned, he’d learned to trust his instincts. Mina called to the part of him that was wild, primitive, untamed, a part that could be dangerous if he didn’t keep it leashed. Complete possession of Mina was the payment demanded by the wildness for four years of imprisonment.
“I am your husband. You will not lie. Answer me.” He thrust his hands through the fiery silk. The last time she’d hidden her thoughts from him, she’d been convincing herself to walk away. It had almost destroyed him. He didn’t think he would survive if she ran from him a second time.
“We’ll be late,” she protested.
Time was no longer important. “They will wait.” His voice was made rough by his knowledge of his vulnerability to her.
“This isn’t the place.” She put her hands on his chest, as if to push him away.
“You will answer me.”
The small hands on his chest curled into fists. “You are so arrogant, sometimes I want to scream!”
The explosion almost made him want to smile. Mina’s temper delighted him. Only the knowledge that she was hiding something from him curbed the urge. His mother had hidden her illness and it had cost him his chance to say goodbye…and maybe more. Mina’s secret could cost him his wife. “I am simply willing to go after what I want.”
“So am I.” Her voice was fierce. “I came to you.”
“And
