forgotten.”
“What?” She lifted a hand to his wrist and tried to break his hold on her jaw. It proved impossible. Under her touch, his pulse beat in a slow, seductive rhythm that promised her both exotic pleasures and darkest fury.
“That the fire of your hair does not lie.” He moved his thumb over her lower lip and frowned. “Your lips are dry. Moisten them.”
Jasmine scowled at the command. “And if I don’t?”
He lifted one brow in response to the defiance in her tone. “Then I shall do it for you.”
Betraying color stained her cheeks at the erotic image of Tariq moistening her lips. His intense gaze made her feel like a tasty morsel he’d be only too happy to devour. Breathing in shallow gasps, she flicked out her tongue and wet her lips.
“Better.” His approval was apparent in the deepening timbre of his voice and the way his thumb slowly swept over her lower lip, now soft and wet. When he abruptly set her free, surprise kept her perched on the edge of her seat for a moment, leaning toward him. Sanity returned with a shock. Face flushed, she scrambled back and across the seat until she was in the opposite corner of the car.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Zulheina.”
“The capital?”
“Yes.”
“Where in Zulheina?” She refused to back down despite his repressive monosyllabic replies.
“To my palace.” He lifted one foot and placed it next to her right hip, effectively caging her against the door. “Tell me, my Jasmine, what have you been doing these four years?”
It was clear that he wasn’t going to answer any more questions. Jasmine bit back her frustration, wanting to push but aware that she was on very shaky ground. “I was studying.”
“Ah, the business management degree.” His words were a soft taunt, a reminder of the times she’d cried on his shoulder, sobbing out her dislike of the subject.
“No.” There, she thought, let him suffer for a minute.
He moved and suddenly he was sitting next to her, his shoulders blocking her vision, his legs caging her in the corner. He wasn’t the one suffering.
“No?” His deep voice evoked memories of huskier tones and sensual laughter. “Your family let you change?”
“They had no choice.” She’d followed their dictates and cut herself off from Tariq, but it had almost destroyed her. Her weak state had alarmed even her family, and no one had commented when she’d switched studies. By the time they’d tried to change her mind, she’d grown up. Disillusionment with the selfishness of those she’d trusted had followed fast on the heels of her sorrow.
“What did you study? Hmm?” He curved one big hand round her neck in a blatantly possessive gesture. The heat from his body swirled around her.
“Do you have to sit so close?” she blurted out.
For the first time, he smiled. It was a smile full of teeth, the smile of a predator tempting his prey to venture out into the darkness. “Do I bother you, Mina?”
He’d called her Mina. She remembered the way he’d always shortened her name to Mina when he’d been coaxing her to do something, usually involving kissing him until she felt like liquid honey inside. He hadn’t needed to coax much. One look of sexy invitation, the husky whisper of her name against her lips, and she’d softened like a sigh in the wind.
When she didn’t answer, he leaned down and nuzzled her neck, his warm breath seeming to burrow through her skin and into her bones. He’d always loved to touch. She’d relished his affection, but right now it was making her more off balance than she already was.
“Tariq, please.”
“What do you want, Mina?”
Jasmine swallowed. He traced the movement down her throat with his thumb. “Space.”
He raised his head. “No. You have had four years of space. Now you are mine.”
His intensity was almost frightening. As an eighteen-year-old, she’d been unable to cope with his sheer, charismatic power. Though he was only five years older than her, his strength and determination even then had been enough to command unswerving loyalty from his people. Now, four years later, she could see that he’d grown impossibly stronger, impossibly more charismatic. However, she was no longer a sheltered young girl, and she had to learn to cope with Tariq if she wanted a future with him.
Holding his gaze, she lifted her hand and placed it over the one curled around her neck. When she tugged, he released her, his curiosity apparent in the quizzical look in his green eyes. Raising his hand to her cheek, she turned her face to drop a single kiss on his palm. His breath grew harsh, loud in the confines of the car.
“I studied fashion design.” His skin was warm against her lips, his masculine scent an irresistible aphrodisiac.
“You have changed.”
“For the better.”
“That remains to be seen.” His eyes narrowed. The hand against her cheek tightened. “Who taught you this?”
“What?” Shivers threatened to whisper down her spine at the sound of that dark, rough tone.
“This play with my hand and your lips.” His jaw could have been carved out of granite.
“You did.” It was the truth. “Remember the time you took me to the Waitomo caves? As the canoe floated in the glowworm grotto, you picked up my hand and you kissed it just so.” She moved her head, and he loosened his hold enough to allow her to repeat the soft caress.
When she looked up, she knew that he’d remembered, but his features remained stony and his eyes boiled with emotions she didn’t have the experience to identify.
“There have been others?”
“What?”
“Other men have touched you?”
“No. Only you.”
He curved his hand around to tug at her plait, arching her neck and making her vulnerable to him. “Do not lie to me. I will know,” he growled.
He was threatening to overwhelm her. In response, she relaxed into the exposed position that he’d engineered and slid her arms around his neck. “I will know, too,” she said quietly. Under her fingers, his hair was soft, tempting her to stroke. Below that was the living heat of his skin.
His jaw firmed. “What will you know?”
“If you’ve let other women touch you.”
Tariq’s eyes widened. “When did you become fierce, Mina? You were always so biddable.” She knew he was taunting her with the way she’d let her family control her life, even to the extent of ignoring her heart.
“I had to grow claws to survive.”
