AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That lovely, lush lower lip fell open as she watched him, drinking him in. Warmth crested his cheeks at the open, artless way her eyes stared up at him, as if he was exactly the tall, cold drink she needed after a swim in the afternoon heat.
“Oh, believe me, every faculty, even those I thought were faulty or dead, are now functioning at peak capacity. Thanks to you,habibi.”
Her mouth opened, closed and then opened again. Curiosity danced across her face and he willed her to give in, to ask him what he meant. But he lost. “Are you saying no to my friend coming here to pick me up or are you saying no to my going out?” Tiny lines pinched at the corners of her eyes. “What gives you the right to say no to me for anything?”
“No to both. For one, I don’t want some random friend of yours finding out where I live. And second—”
“Have Ahmed drop me at the nearest village, then.”
“You never asked for a day off when we were talking terms.” There was no way he was going to let her go off and see some malefriend. He didn’t care to examine his motivations just then. Maybe never. Maybe there was a freedom in going all in into becoming this ruthless, arrogant, uncaring beast she thought him to be anyway. “If it’s not in the contract, Yana, it’s not happening.”
She pushed at him with her hand on his chest, but he didn’t budge. And he saw now how volatile and touchy she got when her temper was riled.
Raising his hands, he gave her a sweet smile that he knew would only push her closer toward the edge. He wanted to see the explosion, the thundering temper, the impulsive, self-destructive step she might take.
And then he wondered what it would be like to be in the path of all that destruction she wreaked, to let himself be devoured by the storm that was this woman.
She stomped her foot, much like Zara did when she didn’t get to eat her dessert before dinner. “Oh, how I hate you sometimes!”
“I prefer hatred to what you’ve been serving me up this past fortnight or so.”
She colored. “I’m keeping my end of the bargain. I spend most of my time with Zara. I love spending that time with her. It’s only for an hour or so during her nap, and then again after she has her dinner and goes to bed that I leave her. So why are you—”
He stepped closer to her, determined to not let her run out without giving him an answer. “Where is it that you disappear to? And what do you do? Don’t tell me the party girl, supermodel extraordinaire, retires to bed at only seven in the evening?”
“That’s none of your business.” She shut him down so hard that it only made Nasir more curious. “As you’ve just mentioned, I’m not used to being tied down to one place for too long. I need a night out on the town.”
“Where do you want to go?”
Her response was the cutest twitch of her nose in distaste. Something in his chest melted and he wondered how much of him had been frozen over the years to be constantly melting at each taunt and expression that she threw at him. And what would eventually happen to him if he didn’t stop her?
“A nightclub. I want to go dancing... I have all this energy I want to get rid of.” There was something so sensuous and yet, unpracticed in that little wiggle of hers that all Nasir wanted to do was see her do it again. And do it because she wanted his eyes on him. Do it because she wanted to please him.
“Give me a few days and I’ll take you.”
She laughed and it was like watching a sunrise captured in one of those time-lag videos. It was beautiful, and breathtaking and made his breath falter in his throat.
“You at a nightclub?”
“You sound more scared than excited at the prospect. What are you so afraid might happen?”
She swallowed and didn’t meet his eyes. “If you come, it will become a big thing. I don’t want to be photographed with you again.”
“I thought you didn’t care about being photographed with me. Your sisters know where you are, right?”
“It’s not my sisters that I’m hiding from.”
“Nobody can get to you here. I promise you that. You don’t have to be scared,habibi.” The endearment fell from his lips as easily as if he’d said it a thousand times.
“It’s not what you think,” she said. “It’s just... I don’t want Diana to know where I am.”
He wanted to probe the source of the argument between them. Not that he was surprised at her wanting to hide. Diana had never been a good parental figure. For now he let Yana be.
Soon, though, he would have all her secrets. He’d lay her bare, see through to the real Yana she hid under the party-girl persona. Maybe that was the way to break this fascination with every facet of her. Maybe then he could go back to viewing her from afar with a mild interest at best.
“Have dinner with me in a few days. We’ll have guests over, since you’re scared of being alone with me.”
“I... Who?” Suspicion marked that single word.
