His smile faded. He stared across the room at the shadow of the bars high on the wall above his head and thought of Talah. If she were still alive…if she were at home, waiting for him, would he be feeling what he was right now?
His heart thumped hard as he looked down at Kavin, her face resting gently on his chest, her hand over his heart. He’d loved Talah, had wanted to spend his life with her, but it had always rubbed him the wrong way that she’d never been able to commit. Even right up until that last moment they’d spent together, something had been holding her back.
Did he feel differently about Kavin because she needed him in a way Talah never had? Or was it something more?
His mind was a sea of confusion. He didn’t know what to think. What to feel, for that matter. Something had happened to him yesterday—something he hadn’t expected. And now, all he could think about was finding a way to spend more time with Kavin. To figure out what it was about her that touched him. It didn’t matter that she was Ghul and he was Marid. All that mattered was that he wasn’t going to be satisfied with only two more nights. He wanted weeks. Months. He wanted…
Years
.
Holy Allah…
His pulse picked up speed as a rush of emotions pummeled his chest from every side. Revenge and hatred were no longer fueling him. What now gave him life, what breathed air into his lungs, was the thought of freedom. With Kavin. And a life free of war and prisons and the horrors he’d lived with for so long.
“
Yes. Yes…this is who you are, Nasir. Remember it
…”
Talah’s voice, as strong as he’d ever heard it, faded slowly until it was only a whisper in his mind. Until he didn’t need it anymore to drag him back from the darkness.
Pulse pounding, he looked back down at Kavin, at her sweet, succulent lips, at the tangled red hair around her face. At her delicate, porcelain skin. At the bruises around her neck and down her arms where that guard had held her, then to the fading lash marks across her breasts. Marks he’d noticed last night and had wanted to ask her about, but hadn’t because he didn’t want to ruin the moment. But seeing them now, in the light of day, a burst of anger whipped through him. Anger, surprisingly, that he could control. Anger that gave him purpose. A purpose he’d been lacking since being enslaved.
Voices echoed from the hallway.
The guards, he realized. Coming to drag him to his daily training. He only had seconds before he’d be separated from Kavin again. Hopefully for only a few hours.
“
Rouhi
,” he whispered, gently shaking her.
Her lashes fluttered, and she groaned. But when she focused, those jade-like eyes of hers darkened with desire just as they had last night. Then her lips turned up in such a provocative way, he swelled against her thigh.
“Good morning,” she whispered.
“A very good morning.” He leaned down and touched his mouth to hers. Electricity arced between them, a shock that rippled through his groin. He wanted nothing more than to lose himself all over again in her kiss, but forced himself to pull away. “Your servant will be here to check you anytime.”
Her smile faded as he eased up to sitting. She moved next to him and brushed the hair back from her face. “I almost forgot about her.”
He hadn’t. Suddenly, anything that had to do with Kavin was foremost in his mind. “I heard the guards outside. They’ll be here soon.”
He climbed out of the bed and walked to the bath, where he picked up her dress and his pants from the ground. When he brought them back to her, he didn’t miss the way her cheeks flushed as she studied his naked body.
Heat rushed through his veins, reigniting that arousal he’d been fighting all morning. “Do you like what you see,
rouhi
?”
Her cheeks turned bright red, but she tipped her face up to his, not trying to hide her interest in the least. “Very much.”
Blood rushed to his cock, made him hard all over again. He dropped the clothes on her lap, then leaned down and kissed her, pressing her back into the mattress, thankful for the scraps of cloth preventing him from taking what he so desperately wanted. “Don’t tease me. Not yet.”
He nipped at her bottom lip, loving the way she tasted, the way her silky fingers raced over his bare back. Somehow, he found the willpower to push away from her body and drag his pants on. She sighed and pulled her dress over her head. But her eyes stayed locked on his abs and—he was pretty sure—his hips. Making him that much harder.
While he tried not to notice, she pushed from the bed and let her skirt fall down her legs. “Will you tease me again tonight? Or will you…you know?”
He buttoned his pants. “Will I what?”
She smoothed out her dress, then sat again. “You know…take me.”
The hitch to her voice froze his hand against his waistband. And the thought of doing just that, of lifting the dress she’d just put on and pushing deep inside her body, inflamed him from the inside out. “Do you still want me to?”
Her chest rose and fell, the soft swell of her breasts dragging his attention from her face to her body. Her gorgeous, beautiful body no one but he had touched. “Yes,” she whispered. “More than I ever expected.”
Guards and impending servants forgotten, he dropped to his knees in front of her. The need to make her his in every sense of the word burned hot, but he fought it back. Because what he wanted now wasn’t just her body. He wanted her soul too.
When they were eye to eye, he brushed his fingers against her cheek. “Kavin, I want that too. Desperately. But when we make love, it will be on our terms, not on some highborn’s.”
Her brow furrowed as she searched his eyes. “But if you don’t… Before the days are up…he’ll…he’ll have me—”
His heart cinched down hard, a heart he hadn’t felt in so long he was almost shocked to know it was still there. A heart she had reawakened. “He won’t. I won’t let him.”
“But how will you stop him? If the allotted time passes, and I’m still a virgin—”
“I won’t share you.”
“You won’t be able to stop him. We’re both just slaves.”
He squeezed her hand resting in her lap, wanting,
needing
her to believe in him in a way Talah never had. “I will keep you safe, Kavin. Trust me. I’ll find a way.”
She stared into his eyes with that unreadable expression so long he wasn’t sure what she was thinking. And he held his breath and waited, wondering if she’d brush him off the way Talah had. Wondering if he was destined to repeat all the mistakes of his past…losing not only what was left of his heart but of his mind too.
“I do, Nasir,” she finally whispered. “I trust in you.”
His heart swelled, seemed to grow inside his chest. He dragged her face toward his and kissed her deeply, knowing this female—this Ghul, of all people—was the only person who could bring him back from the brink of despair. He wouldn’t fail her. This time, everything would be different.
The jangling of keys just beyond the door drew him back and away. Nerves vibrating, he crossed to the other side of the room, then eased down to sit against the cool ground so the guards wouldn’t know what had happened between them. But as he propped his arms on his updrawn knees, he chanced a peek at her. At her flushed cheeks, her swollen lips, and her soft, soft eyes. Eyes that were watching him, just as he was watching her. Eyes filled with emotions he hoped mirrored his own.
The cell door clanged open, and two guards stepped into the room. Two new guards Nasir had never seen. Followed by the slave girl he’d glimpsed yesterday.
Options raced through his mind. Thoughts, scenarios, escape plans he knew he could never make work. Followed by Malik’s words in the training circle.
“
I was once a
sahad
like you. I developed the powers I was left with. And I learned to block certain things from those around me
.”
In an instant, he knew how they were going to break free. The only catch was time.
Nasir glanced at Kavin. They had two more nights together—two more full days, if he got through his training quickly and Malik let him off easy. On the third, her highborn would be back for her. If they worked hard, they had enough time.
He just prayed Kavin was strong enough for what lay ahead.
* * *
Kavin watched as the guards hauled Nasir to his feet and took him out of the cell for his daily training routine. He didn’t glance back at her, and though she knew why, a tiny part of her couldn’t help but be disappointed.
The door clanged shut, and then she was alone with Hana.
Hana clasped her hands behind her back, her long dark hair pulled into a tail at her nape. “You look like you had an interesting night,
jarriah
.”
Heat rushed to Kavin’s cheeks. Could the slave girl sense what had happened in this room? She brushed the unruly curls back from her face. Told herself no one knew but her and Nasir. But even just thinking about what they’d done, remembering how his mouth had felt on her breasts, on her belly, on her sex… Warmth pooled in Kavin’s stomach and sent a bittersweet ache between her thighs.
She lowered her hands, clasped them in her lap, trying not to give anything away. “I’m fine.”
“Hm,” was all Hana said. But the look on her face told Kavin the slave girl didn’t believe her. She held out her hand. “Come.”
“Come?” Kavin asked, looking up in surprise. “Where?” The last few times Hana had appeared in the pits, she’d checked Kavin, then returned to the harem to inform Zayd his
jarriah
was still a virgin.
“Your master has requested you.”
A burst of fear rippled through Kavin as she stood on suddenly shaky legs. No, this wasn’t right. Zayd had said she’d stay until she either completed her test or was executed. “Wh-why?”
“Why is of no concern to you. Your master is waiting.”
Kavin’s nerves were a quivering mass of fear and apprehension as she stepped toward the door. Outside, a guard from the harem waited, kicking Kavin’s worry up another massive notch.
She followed Hana out of the pits and into the sunlight toward the carriage. The guard’s ominous presence at her back did nothing to settle her fears. As they traveled the cobblestone streets of Jahannam, Kavin tried to figure out what Zayd could possibly want with her. Memories of the last time he’d called her back—after that first night with Nasir—spiraled through her mind. His rage at her failure. His promise of punishment should she fail again.
“
I will keep you safe, Kavin. Trust me. I’ll find a way
.”
She closed her eyes as the carriage jostled her against the seat and fought back the despair. How could Nasir keep her safe when he was locked in the pits and she was…here?
The carriage jerked to a stop, and the door was pulled open. Bright sunlight burned her eyes as she climbed out and was escorted to Zayd’s compound. Towering palms and brightly colored flowers greeted her as she stepped into the garden, but she barely noticed the beauty. All she could think about was Zayd, and what he had planned for her next.
The harem was just as she remembered when they stepped off the lift, posh and overdone in vibrant colors. Several
jarriah
lay draped over the velvet couches in low-cut, revealing gowns, just waiting to be summoned. To be used. And moans, hinges creaking, and the undeniable sounds of sex could be heard from a room down the narrow hall to her left.
Kavin swallowed the bile rising in her throat and glanced away from the curious eyes. She knew she had to look a sight after days locked in Nasir’s cell. And thanks to that guard who’d attacked her last night, bruises covered her neck and arms. Did the other
jarriah
think she’d been raped? Was that what Zayd would think too? Was that why Hana had brought her back?
When Hana motioned for her to follow, Kavin didn’t look back at the females she felt watching her every move. Instead, she steeled her nerves as she was led down a dimly lit corridor toward Zayd’s private rooms at the end of the hall.
Hana knocked on the double doors. Kavin’s stomach tensed when Zayd’s voice called, “Enter.”
The doors opened, and, pulse pounding, Kavin followed Hana into the opulent, blue room with its leather furnishings and heavy draperies. A cluster of couches flanked the enormous fireplace. Across the expensive rug, a canopied bed, large enough to comfortably sleep at least four, sat against a wall. To her right, seated behind his enormous desk, Zayd eyed her with…approval.
“My, my, my,” Zayd said, leaning back in his chair. “Look what the cat finally dragged in.”
Kavin’s pulse shot up, and sweat slicked her skin as the guard stepped back toward the door, joining his place next to the first, blocking her only exit.
“Strip her,” Zayd said to Hana.
Kavin’s heart pounded against her ribs as the slave girl tugged the straps of her gown down her arms. The thin garment slipped free of her body to pool at her feet, leaving her standing before Zayd, completely naked.
This is not my life
…
She closed her eyes tight. Tried to stay calm. But her pulse was a roar in her ears and that voice screaming,
Run
!,
Escape
!
Now
! was all she could focus on.
Hana stepped back. Kavin knew not to cover herself, but her stomach caved in, and every muscle tightened as Zayd’s chair creaked. Tearing her eyes open, she watched as he rose from his chair with a licentious grin and walked around the ornate desk.
What would he do when he realized she was still a virgin? She swallowed hard as his gaze slid from the bruises at her neck, down her breasts, to the marks on her arms. And her stomach turned when he looked to her hips, and, finally, to the thin patch of hair covering her sex.
“Well,
jarriah
,” he said in a low voice. A sickening voice. “It looks like you were finally used well.”
This is not my life
!
She knew not to fight him. Knew there was nothing she could do. But bile welled in her throat when he placed his hand on her shoulder, when he dragged it down her arm, then cupped her breast as if he owned it. And when his hand trailed down her stomach, she clenched her teeth to keep from pulling her arm back and pounding him in the jaw.