Chapter 20
Tazim looked at Ann, her hair a mess and her cheeks flushed with passion. She licked her lips and his body tightened. Did she do that on purpose? Was she trying to distract him so that he wouldn’t bring up the past?
Yes, he suspected that was exactly what his petite siren was attempting. But it wouldn’t work! He was back in control. At least, he was in control for a few minutes.
“Dress off,” he commanded, then walked over to her and unzipped the side zipper. A moment later, she stood in front of him in only a conservative bra. He hated it. Not because it was ugly but because the bland material reminded him of how she’d survived over the past several years. His woman had gone without any little luxuries. She’d given birth to their son and sacrificed for him constantly.
“This needs to go as well,” he warned her as he reached for her bra. Standing behind her, he released the hooks in the back, then let it drop to the floor.
Standing behind her, completely naked, he looked at her bottom. She was pert and round, but as he looked down at her over her shoulder, Tazim could see small signs of the toll that Archer’s birth had taken on her beautiful figure. The small silver lines along her hips told him that Ann’s body had stretched and shifted to accommodate their son.
“You’re so beautiful, Ann,” he whispered to her, kissing her bare shoulder.
“I’m different,” she replied, her hands covering her breasts.
“In a good way.” He took her hands, not letting her hide from him. Not anymore. “Come with me. We’ll shower, then talk.”
She followed him into the large bathroom and watched as he turned on the shower. It took only moments before the warm water gushed through the overhead faucet. Tazim adjusted the temperature, remembering that she preferred the water hotter than he did. Then he tugged her under the warm stream. He watched as she lifted her face, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the warmth, and he took the moment to look at her. Really look at her. This was his woman. She’d come into his arms, ravenous for him. Ann had admitted that she’d had no other lovers since him. So, what had gone wrong five years ago? What had stopped her from accepting his offer of marriage? And what was that note she’d mentioned?
“Can you pass me the soap?” she asked, pulling her face away from the spray.
He did as she asked, then took another bar of soap and started washing himself. That’s when he realized that he hadn’t used protection. Damn it! He’d done it again. “Ann…?”
“I know,” she whispered, glancing down at his hands that were soaping his still semi-erect shaft. “I know.” With only those words, she ducked under the water again, rinsing the soap from her face. She soaped the rest of her body and Tazim tried not to become aroused all over again. They really did need to talk. But watching her touch herself like that, noting the soft pink of her nipples and the way they were already tight, as if begging him to kiss them, taste them. He barely managed to resist the urge. With a muttered curse, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, then handed one to her too. He dried himself off, painfully aware of the silence as well as his body’s insistent arousal.
Ann must be aware of his arousal as well since the towel wasn’t able to disguise it.
“Ignore it,” he told her as he walked over to the sink and grabbed the mouthwash. He watched her try to suppress her laughter as she dried off. He knew he should look away, but the act of drying off was intensely erotic when Ann did it.
Hell, anything Ann did seemed to be arousing!
She grabbed a hotel robe and handed him another. With both of them wrapped up in fluffy, white robes, he took her hand and led her out of the bathroom.
Back in the bedroom, Tazim avoided the bed, even though he’d like nothing more than to pull her into his arms and cradle her against his chest. Just like they’d done many times five years ago.
Instead, he led her to the sitting area. After watching her sit down, he moved over to the bar and poured two glasses of scotch. After handing one to her, he sat down across from her, holding the crystal glass between his knees.
“You never thought of ending the pregnancy?” he asked. That wasn’t the most pertinent question on his mind, but now that it was out there, he realized it was important.
Ann gazed into the glass but didn’t take a sip. There was a long silence, then she lifted her eyes and…nodded. “Yes.”
“Yes, you thought about…?”
“Yes. I was a single mother who had just recently escaped from a horrible job situation.”
“What does that mean?”
Ann took a small sip of the scotch, then stared down at the liquid. She thought about how to explain, then just dove into the story. “Levi, Matteo, and Sean are the current owners of the club, but the man before that, Levi’s father, was a truly horrible excuse for a human being.” She swirled the liquid in the glass. “He never protected us. And the tiny uniforms we had to wear, the super high heels…” she shuddered and closed her eyes. “It was miserable. The club members would grope us, the tips were miserable, and everyone else who worked there was angry with life.” She glanced at him, pleading in her eyes. “When Levi took over and cleaned things up, it was like the world turned brighter. Sunnier. He protected us. If a club member assaulted us in any way, they were kicked out. And he changed other things too. The club became a fun place to work. Maggie,” she sighed and shook her head. “She, Emily, and I are the best of friends. Then I got pregnant and…I didn’t know what to do. I was so hurt by the message you sent and overwhelmed by the thought of being a single mother.” She looked out at the dark night, her thoughts still scrambled from their passionate interlude. “So yeah. I thought about it. But in the end, I couldn’t do it.”
“Thank you for that,” he replied, nodding his head. He stared at the liquid for a long moment, then at her. “Was the idea of marrying me so horrible?”
She laughed, curling her legs up underneath her. “I fell in love with you five years ago, Tazim. If you’d bothered to ask me to marry you, then I would have jumped at the opportunity.” She snorted. “Even today, if you were just a normal guy, I would propose to you .” She took a sip of the scotch. “I would explain the amount of money I’ve invested over the years, tell you how much I have saved up, then ply you with…” she looked at the glass in her hand, then laughed, “scotch, not flowers. And I would hold my breath, hoping that you felt the same way about me.”
“But my proposal five years ago didn’t have scotch or flowers?”
She glared at him, her eyes hardening. “The proposal you sent to me five years ago hurt me, Tazim. I loved you and…” she choked on the pain of those memories. “And you wanted to share me with your friends.” She couldn’t look at him and stood up. “That was never an option for me.”
“Share you?” he demanded, his voice rising. He remembered her saying something like that several days ago. It had confused him then. “What the hell are you talking about?” Tazim leaned forward again, but this time, his posture wasn’t relaxed.
Ann’s mouth opened and closed as his confusion registered. “The note?”
Tazim nodded sharply. “Yes, I sent you a note asking if you would marry me.”
It was Ann’s turn to look confused, but that quickly shifted to anger. “No, Tazim. The note you sent me asked me if I would be willing to meet some of your friends! Your note asked if I would be interested in being passed around to your buddies!” She huffed a bit, looking around at the room because she was struggling to control her anger. “And why in the world did you send me a note? Why couldn’t you just…come talk to me?”
“Because my father and older brother had just been assassinated. I was flying home to take control of my country and my government. I had to move quickly to ensure that everyone knew that I would take control.” He sighed and stood up, pacing for a moment. Then he lifted his scotch and downed the entire contents. When he swung towards her, he was glaring at her. “Are you serious? The note you received said…?”
He swung around, his eyes burning with rage.
Ann saw his fury and pulled back, surprised. “I…!”
“The note, Ann! Are you seriously telling me that the note you received asked if I would…!” He couldn’t even finish the sentence. Instead, he muttered a series of expletives. Carefully, Tazim set his glass down on the dresser, then braced his arms wide, breathing slowly as he worked to calm down. “Ann,” he finally snapped, “I would never send a note asking you to–”
He stopped when her arms wrapped around his waist from behind.
“I’m starting to grasp that now,” she whispered.
Tazim turned, but then pulled her closer, his own arms circling her waist. “I would never, ever , suggest that you be with any other man. In fact, the thought of you in another man’s arms over the past five years has kept me awake more than once.” He kissed the top of her head. “Damn it! I should have suspected something wasn’t right! When I received your reply, it didn’t make much sense.” He rested his cheek against the top of her head, then lifted it. “I was so consumed with trying to regain control of my country, finding out who had killed my father and my brother, and then…doing everything possible to ensure that my people felt that their future was safe. So I never analyzed the strangeness of your reply.”
Ann pulled back, tilting her head so that she could see into his eyes. “What did I say in my reply?” she asked. “I don’t even remember. I was too shocked by your message that I just…scribbled something on the paper and nearly threw it back at the messenger.”
“You wrote, and I quote, ‘I don’t need a rich man in my life. I’ll do fine on my own’, end quote.” He sighed, leaning his head back. “I remember specifically because I didn’t understand why you’d say that. I was racing out of the city, on the phone with about five different people, including the general of the Androna military. Every police unit in the country was on high alert, there was a riot in the capital, people protesting the assassination of my brother and father, news images of people sobbing in the streets, the Androna advisors to my father were jockeying for position, everyone was blaming each other,” he said, then paused and looked down at Ann. “And all I could think was that you didn’t want me.”
Ann couldn’t hold back the tears. “Oh Tazim! I didn’t know!” she whispered. “I just had that one message. No phone calls, no other information.” She sniffed and wiped her tears with the sleeve of her terrycloth robe. “I didn’t even turn on the television until weeks later. I worked, I slept, and I cried. I thought you’d abandoned me because I wasn’t willing to sleep with your friends.” Her hands slid to the lapels of his robe. “Tazim, I didn’t even know who you were at the time! And a couple of weeks ago, when you came back into my life? I didn’t even know who you were then.”
“You don’t listen to the news? The assassination was the headlines all over the world for a while until I got things under control.”
“Five years ago, I didn’t have the strength to do anything other than sleep and work. I don’t remember turning on the television again until after Archer was born.” She grimaced. “I watched a lot of television during the first month home with him. And I was a mess! Nearly as bad as the month after you left.”
He kissed her gently, then shook his head. “I didn’t leave you, Ann.”
“You did,” she whispered, “but now I know that the message was a lie. I’m so sorry that I didn’t try harder to get in touch with you.” She leaned her forehead against his chest. “I wanted so badly to yell at you, to tell you what a horrible, miserable person you were, but I couldn’t even speak. I could barely work. Then I realized I was pregnant and…?” she sighed and shrugged. “I don’t remember a lot during that time period.” She smiled slightly. “I guess you don’t either.”
“I don’t remember many of the details,” he agreed.
There was a long silence, both of them thinking about what had been said.
Finally, Tazim asked, “So, how do you feel about me now?”
She laughed, jerked out of her contemplation. “I don’t know.” She looked up at him through her long lashes. “If you ever bring me to one of those obnoxious dinners again, I think I might have to hurt you.”
He grimaced, not laughing with her. “The thing is, I still…want to marry you.”
Ann gasped, then slipped out of his arms. “You can’t!”
“Why not?” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the dresser, watching her carefully. “Why would I not want to marry you?’
“Because…!” She stumbled, not sure what to say. “Because I’m not of your class!” she blurted out.
He laughed. “Weren’t you the one explaining art and history to a renowned reporter and the governor of a whole state?”
“They don’t count,” she replied, wiggling her fingers in the air. “They’re idiots.”
Tazim chuckled. “Yeah, well, you’re not going to believe this, but most of the people in my inner circle are just as bad. They think they are intelligent because they know one thing and know it extremely well. But the truth is,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “there are very few people in this world who truly are intelligent. Most of the people in positions of power and wealth simply inherited their power and wealth. They haven’t had to earn anything in life.”
“They are educated.”
He chuckled and shook his head again. “Gary paid someone to write his college papers for him. And I think he cheated on his exams.”
Ann’s mouth fell open. She was silent for a long moment, then she pulled back in horror. “That’s not true!”
“It’s true,” he replied, lifting one hand, palm out as if swearing an oath. “Gary is ambitious and he knows how to read people. That’s what he’s good at. He is hilarious at parties and is truly amazing at convincing people to his way of thinking, but when it comes to business, he’s an idiot.”
“I thought the two of you were discussing a business deal earlier in the evening.”
“We were. And the reason we took longer than expected is because Gary thinks he knows how to make a deal. But he didn’t have the financing lined up, he didn’t have enough investors, and that’s because his proposal is bad.”
“You’re kidding,” she gasped, a smile forming on her features.
“Not kidding. He’s an idiot.”
“But…he’s the governor!”
“Like I said, he’s very good at reading people and getting them on board with his plan. That doesn’t mean it’s a good plan. But his weakness is the opposite. He had some very wealthy backers to his campaign because he’s easily manipulated. Anyone who needs something in the state know that they just need to speak with Gary to get him to sign over state contracts. Their business explodes, Gary gets a new campaign donor and everyone’s happy.”
In other words, the governor was for sale. She stared at the carpet for a long moment, then jerked her head up to look into his eyes. “Please tell me that you’re not going to do business with him?”
“Never have, never will.” He moved closer, grabbing the ties of her robe and pulling her in. “Are you purposely trying to avoid answering my question?”
“Yes,” she replied, a bit breathless as he pulled her into his arms.
“Why?”
She rested her hands on his chest, looking up at him. “Because I don’t know the answer.” She bit her lip, then kissed his chest. “I know I’ve never been interested in any other man besides you, Tazim. But…I think I’m scared.”
“Of me?”
She tilted her head to the left. “Of the future, maybe. When we were together the last time, I had dreams of being with you for the rest of my life. But now that you’ve come back into my life, I’ve discovered that you’re the ruler of a very powerful country, you’re disgustingly wealthy, and…”
“And the father of our son. Which means that no matter what, we’ll be connected for the rest of our lives. So why not marry me and just accept that we’ll be together?” He nodded his head towards the bed. “Or, I could try and convince you to fall in love with me again by driving you wild with desire.”
Her smile was slow, but the laughter, and hope, instantly brightened her features. “Oh, you think that I’m that easily convinced?” she laughed.
He chuckled, then lowered his head, his lips nuzzling her neck. “Are you going to stop me from trying?” he asked.
Ann sighed, leaning her head to the right so that he had better access. While he teased her neck, she allowed her hands to slide inside his robe. Finding the warmth of his chest, she explored with her fingertips. When her thumb traced over one of his nipples, she felt him jump slightly. A moment later, it was her turn to be surprised when he nipped at her earlobe.
This time when they came together, it was slow, almost an apology for the past. Each of them wanted to relearn the other’s body. Ann’s mouth roamed over Tazim’s chest, kissing and tasting, testing the places she remembered he liked and smiling when they still elicited a reaction. She loved his nipples, but it was his stomach, that ticklish spot on the side, right by one of his oblique muscles, that really got to him. The first time she kissed that spot, he jerked and looked down at her. Ann returned his gaze with an innocent look. When she did it again, he growled and rolled over so that she was underneath him, her legs wrapped around his waist as he loomed over her.
“You’re so beautiful, Ann.” Then he proceeded to touch and tease every part of her, including the ticklish spot on her hip. When she tried to flip them back over, he merely chuckled and nipped at the spot once more before proceeding lower. And lower still!
When he reached the juncture of her thighs, Ann was gasping, desperate for his touch. Tazim hesitated, then blew lightly on the glistening folds. He waited only long enough to hear her gasp before covering that swollen nub with the heat of his mouth. The difference in temperatures was shocking and delightful, but Ann didn’t have a chance to recover from one shock before his tongue flicked against her sensitive flesh. She neared a climax, and then he slid one finger into her heat. That touch pushed her over the edge and she groaned his name while her fingers tangled in his hair, keeping his mouth exactly where she needed it to be until…she pushed his mouth away.
Tazim rose up over her and, this time remembered to grab protection. He hesitated, looking at Ann’s gorgeous body and thinking how she’d be even more beautiful pregnant. They’d talk about that, he promised himself as he rolled the condom down over his shaft. When he lowered himself this time, he took her hands, lifting them over her head before he slid into her.
“I love you!” he groaned as soon as he was fully embedded in her. And he meant it. He knew she was shocked and he didn’t wait for her to reciprocate. He just started thrusting, moving into her the way that he remembered she liked. Over and over again, he brought them higher until he felt her body tighten and shudder with another climax. Only then did he allow himself to release his own passion. His guttural moan spread through the room and, when it was all over, Tazim pulled her into his arms, holding her gently.