- Prey
- Sphere
- Black Rose
- The Great Train Robbery
- Blue Dahlia
- Carnal Innocence
- Dance Upon the Air
- High Noon
- Lawless
- Sacred Sins
- Tribute
- Face the Fire
- Holding the Dream
- A Man for Amanda
- All the Possibilities
- Next
- Prey
- Sphere
- Black Rose
- The Great Train Robbery
- Blue Dahlia
- Carnal Innocence
- Dance Upon the Air
- High Noon
- Lawless
- Sacred Sins
- Tribute
- Face the Fire
- Holding the Dream
- A Man for Amanda
Their Virgin ConcubinePage 29
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?” “My love is worth more than my pride, Tal. And you wouldn’t treat me this way if you didn’t care about me. It’s perverse, you know. Sometimes we hurt the ones we care about most because even the thought of loving them is too much. You’re scared. I wish you would tell me why.” It was said with an almost sympathetic tone as though she truly pitied him. He couldn’t stand it. “I tricked you into marriage. I’ve likely tricked you into a pregnancy. How do you feel about that?” She held his eyes, hers clear and honest. “I can leave, Tal. I’m not some prisoner. Given the chance, I fully intended to sleep with your brothers, so you tricked me into nothing there. Oh, there won’t be a pregnancy anytime soon. Just in case I decided to…expand my horizons, I went to the doctor the day before we left. He gave me a contraceptive shot. I’m good for another couple of months. Now, I should probably have insisted on condoms given where Kade’s been, but he assured me he’s healthy. As for the marriage, well, I have some time to deal with that, which is precisely why you should talk to me.” She didn’t get it. And the thought that she’d blocked his play pissed him off. He didn’t have to pretend anger now. “Get off the birth control, Piper. You are of no value to me if you can’t fucking conceive. None of us is safe until you’ve spat out a couple of kids.” Finally she flushed, her whole body going red. “You don’t mean that.” A weak spot. He could use that. He wasn’t about to let her best him. “I mean it, Piper. I mean every word. I have no reason to fuck you if you cannot conceive. That shot lasts a few months? Well, I will see you then, my darling. Until that time, allow my brothers to service you.” She pleaded, her arms reaching for him. “Don’t do this to us, Tal. It doesn’t have to be this way.” But it did. He couldn’t stand it a second longer. He turned and walked out the door. Chapter Thirteen Piper pulled the clamp off her breast, not quite able to stifle her scream. She really should have taken him up on the aftercare stuff. Her nipple had gone numb, but the minute she’d pulled the clamp off and her circulation returned, pain flooded her system. Nothing like the hurt that had nearly broken her heart mere moments ago. She could handle the biting pain in her breasts, but the ache she felt in her gut was another matter entirely. She felt stupid and right at the same time. Stupid because she’d thought she could get through to him. Right because despite his protestations, she knew he was scared. She’d made a study of the man. There wasn’t a cruel bone in his body. He knew the names of every member of his staff, regularly asked about their kids. He was unfailingly polite. If he wanted a polite, friendly relationship, he would have sat down and talked it out logically with her. But he’d plotted and schemed, and when he’d made love to her, he’d lost himself. There was nothing polite about the way he felt, but now she had to consider the possibility that Tal’s past was more than a match for her love. |
- The Loners
- The Saints
- Switched
- Fangtastic!
- Re-Vamped!
- Vampalicious!
- Tome of the Undergates
- Black Halo
- The Skybound Sea
- If You Stay
- If You Leave
- Until We Burn
- Before We Fall
- Every Last Kiss
- Fated
- Suspiciously Obedient
- Random Acts of Crazy
- Random Acts of Trust
- Her First Billionaire
- Her Second Billionaire
- Her Two Billionaires
- Her Two Billionaires and a Baby
- His Majesty's Dragon
- Throne of Jade
- Black Powder War
- Victory of Eagles
- Tongues of Serpents
- Empire of Ivory
- Crucible of Gold
- Delirium