Dangerous Pleasure

2

“Paige, you’re more than welcome to come to the party with us tonight,” Marty said as she stood in the open doorway of Paige’s suite, resplendent in her amber evening gown and topaz jewelry.

Shoulder-length blond hair was swept up to the top of her head with artfully arranged wisps falling from the topaz combs. It lent a charming disarray to the effect.

Paige set her book aside before uncurling from the chair and faced her brother’s fiancée. She was still amazed that her dark, cynical brother had managed to capture Marty’s heart. She had hoped the woman would help him chill out just a little bit. So far, though, it wasn’t happening that she could see.

“I’m really not in the mood for a party, even one of Tally’s.” She grinned.

Tally Conover was becoming known as a premier hostess and seemed to enjoy it. The fact that Tally found the patience for it managed to surprise all her friends.

“Tally throws a damned good party,” Marty reminded her. “She also somehow managed to secure a promise from Anger Thornton to be there. I want to see if he actually arrives.”

Anger Thornton, CEO of Thornton Holdings and Acquisitions rarely attended anyone’s parties but his own. And even those, he was known to be absent from.

“That’s almost tempting,” Paige agreed. “I think I’ll finish my book instead.”

Attending the party meant being civil to Khalid. She just didn’t think she had it in her at the moment. They had existed in a state of warfare for the past three days, and Paige didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

“Finish the book or continue to ignore Khalid?” Marty finally asked.

Paige stared back at her. Her lips pursed and her teeth clenched for one angry second.

“It’s better that Khalid and I have the least amount to do with each other as possible, Marty,” she finally stated.

The other woman shook her head, the wisps of silken hair brushing about her face as she chuckled lightly.

“You two are just too much alike,” she accused. “And as I understand it, Abram Mustafa is just as bad. Khalid, Abram, and their cousins, Tariq and Jafar are all cut from the same cloth, trust me.”

Paige rolled her eyes. She knew all four men. They were so much alike they all could have been brothers rather than cousins. Hell, they could probably be clones—at times they were so equally arrogant and conceited.

“They’re all four equal pains in the ass,” Paige stated.

“So I’ve heard.” Marty nodded. “But there are still other pretty interesting men in the world. Abram isn’t the only one out there, Paige.”

Paige pulled her legs up, knees bending, her feet pressing into the cushions as she looped her arms around her knees.

“There are many interesting men in the world, and if I were sexually interested in them I’d be out there looking for them.”

Marty glanced behind her, making sure no one was close enough to hear what was being said. Most likely ensuring Khalid wasn’t there. As though their conversation was any of his business, still, they were both aware he would make it his business.

“He isn’t rational and you know it,” Paige informed her, the irritation she was feeling impossible to keep hidden. “Do you know he’s lectured me every time he’s seen me since Abram was here? Talked to me as though I were a child and didn’t know how to run my own life. It’s damned insulting.”

Marty grimaced, as her hand rubbed her temple. Her expression was amusingly sympathetic and only exacerbated the aggravation Paige couldn’t fight or hide anymore.

“He worries, Paige,” she finally stated softly. “He’s terrified that perhaps you’re not fully aware of what you’re getting into sexually with Abram. Besides, you’re his sister, his baby sister, and Abram is his brother. The dynamics of that are making him crazy.”

“Dynamics are always making Khalid insane.” Paige waved the explanation away. She didn’t even bother hiding the fact that there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to fall for that one. “I’m amazed the dynamics of being in love hasn’t had him pulling his hair out. Or causing you to pull yours out.”

“It has been getting a little thinner.” Marty laughed, her gray eyes sparkling with pure happiness. “But it doesn’t change the fact that he does have reason to worry at the moment. Be a little patient with him.”

“I’ve been patient with him my entire life,” Paige scoffed. “Do you realize he’s lectured me twice today already? He’s treating me as though I’m not well aware of the fact that Abram and Khalid both share a penchant for having a third in their sexual relationships. Or that I don’t know damned good and well that Abram Mustafa can be a complete dominant asshole.”

There was a look of genuine shock on Marty’s face before complete laughter filled her eyes and a throaty chuckle left her lips.

“You surprise me, Paige,” she admitted. “And here I thought a sweet little innocent like you wouldn’t notice the signs or understand the rumors if you heard them.”

“What does innocence have to do with anything?” Paige rose from the chair and paced back and forth across the room. “Would that exclude me from understanding what a threesome is or how it works? Come on, Marty, remember Courtney Sinclair is one of my best friends. I knew what a threesome was when she called me sobbing about the inexhaustible Ian Sinclair having sex with her maids and calling them by her name. Do you know she would spy on him when he visited her parents’ home?”

Marty wasn’t having an easy time holding back her laughter. Courtney Sinclair and her husband Ian had one of those fiery, wonderful relationships most women dreamed of having.

“Come on, Paige, you have to admit with everything that’s happened, Khalid has a right to worry. Abram is ten years older than you, and on top of that, he does often have a third as I understand it. But while Khalid doesn’t want your heart broken, he also helped raise you. Accepting that you have sex is probably something he’s never going to do.”

“He needs to worry about something other than whether or not I intend to fuck his brother and if I let his cousin join in.”

Marty howled with laughter. Paige was about to join in but Khalid chose that moment to step into the room.

The laughter broke off immediately.

His expression was dark with anger, his black gaze snapping with it.

“Do you even have a clue what a man like Abram could be like?” he growled. “Do you think he’s going to be a gentleman? Be sweet and ask nicely to make love to you as his third pets you sweetly and whispers sweet nothings in your ear?”

“Don’t use that tone with me, Khalid,” she warned him calmly. “I didn’t invite you into this conversation, so if you don’t like it, then you can leave and keep your opinion to yourself.”

Marty turned to him, her expression concerned now. “Khalid, we were just joking, darling. You two enjoy poking at each other a little too much.”

“I wasn’t joking,” Paige informed them both as she crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at her brother. “The only reason I’m not trying to slip into his bed right now is because he’s not here.”

Khalid’s lips thinned. #x201C;I’ll be damned if I’ll argue with you over this.”

“Of course you won’t,” Paige agreed mockingly. “It’s so much easier to have a little man-to-man chat with Abram.” She let her eyes widen. “Oh but wait, that didn’t work so well either, did it? The first chance he had, he ignored that too.”

She could feel years of anger rising inside her now. For as long as she could remember her parents had deferred to Khalid regarding her protection, and in any choices that they had to make in her life.

Khalid had chosen the schools she attended, the bodyguards she had as a child, her first ugly car, and was behind her father’s refusal to allow her to date her first boyfriend.

“She’s not a child anymore, Khalid,” Marty reminded him softly. But Paige knew her brother, and he wasn’t about to listen to anyone but himself. She was simply at the end of her patience.

“Do you even care how much it hurts or humiliates me to have you step in and play lord of all you survey with my life? I lost my job today, Khalid, because I haven’t been there in two weeks. Now, I can either lose my car or bum money from you or my parents. I’m twenty-five years old, not eighteen, and I enjoy taking care of myself,” she cried out furiously.

“And I enjoy waking up each morning knowing you’re alive and safe,” he bit out, his tone dark with anger. “Do you have any idea of the danger you are in at the moment, or the man you are tempting to take you into his bed? The two are entwined, Paige. Being with Abram draws you front and center into Azir’s attention, if you weren’t already there. And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no matter what happens, Abram will break your heart. He will not be an easy lover, Paige, nor will he understand your independence and your determination to do as you wish.”

“And none of this is your choice to make.” She dropped her arms to her sides and faced him without the anger she knew she should be feeling.

She was tired of arguing with him. She was tired of the lectures and she was tired of trying to force him to treat her like an adult rather than a child.

“Paige, would you come between Abram and me?” he finally questioned her harshly.

“Khalid!” Marty gasped as she turned on him furiously. “That’s low, even for you.”

But Paige wasn’t surprised in the least that he had attempted such emotional blackmail. It was reminiscent of her childhood years when he had used her emotions to get what he wanted every time she attempted to defy him.

“Would you really lose me over this?” she asked in return. “Because that’s what will happen if you keep standing me and Abram. Whether or not he wants me, or I want him, shouldn’t be tainted by your demands that we stay away from each other. Because honestly, Khalid, there have been times when the very fact that you didn’t want me to do something made it all that more appealing. Do you really want to chance that in this situation?”

“So I’m to just stand by and watch him break your heart when he becomes the man he is and he tries to subjugate you as we both know he will? He may have different ideas on sexuality and women’s rights on the surface, Paige, but trust me when I tell you that only in your sexuality will he be more accepting. He is still a product of the culture he was raised within.”

Paige could only stare back at him incredulously. “How little you know your brother, or your sister for that matter,” she told him, pity and anger converging together. “Does he beat his women, Khalid? Does he lock them up, or demand that they have no life outside of him? Does he have six wives and twelve children that I know nothing about?”

Khalid’s frown deepened. “You know he would never do such things.”

“Then your only objection is that you’re worried Abram may try to curb my independence?”

“You’ll forget the meaning of the word independence,” he told her.

“Has Leyla forgotten the independence you taught her?” Leyla was one of the six young women Khalid had raised after his father sent them to Khalid as teenagers. They were young women Azir had bought and then given to his son to begin his own little harem.

Leyla was engaged to a young man who had come to America with his parents from Saudi Arabia.

“Leyla’s fiancé is much younger than Abram,” he snapped. “Don’t you understand that, Paige? Abram is a full-grown man who has spent much of his life in the Middle East. A man that will never—”

“Stop preaching at me,” she demanded roughly, her head practically ringing with the list of objections he was repeating from earlier. “You say Abram would attempt to make me live by his rules? What the hell do you believe you’re doing? You’re trying to force me to do what you want, whether it’s what I want or not.”

And that was beginning to piss her off. She had tried to avoid these confrontations for the past few days. Several times she had simply left the room only to have him follow her and continue the argument.

“Paige, I’m trying to protect you,” he snarled. His frustration was readily apparent but she couldn’t make herself feel sorry for him, or even suggest they agree to disagree.

“Go to your party, Khalid. I’m sick of your lectures and I’ve had enough of your judgmental attitude. Now leave my room.”

She didn’t wait for him to leave. Paige turned and stomped to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Then, the tears she’d only barely held back filled her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks. She didn’t sob. She remained silent, pressing her hands to her lips and tried to stop the tears as she had so many times in the past.

She loved her brother. Khalid had always been a mainstay in her life, even if he had frustrated the hell out of her. He’d been amused at her father’s nerves when she rode her bicycle without training wheels, and laughed at her mother’s fears when Paige got her driver’s license.

He had always acted damned strange about Abram though, despite the fact that Abram had been married the first time Paige had met him and his wife Lessa.

Paige had been drawn to Abram from the first moment. She’d been fascinated by this man who looked so much like her brother, who her brother called a brother, yet he wasn’t her brother. She’d only been nine when she first met him, and he’d been nineteen and already married.

The relationship between him and his brother had at first confused the hell out of her. After all, Khalid was her brother, so why wasn’t Abram?

That confusion had amused her parents and Abram’s wife Lessa, but Khalid hadn’t seemed nearly so amused by it.

Paige liked Abram’s wife, Lessa, enjoyed her laughter and her quiet manner the few times she’d been able to spend any time with her. Lessa was murdered several years after Paige met her, and Paige’s heart had broken for Abram.

He’d loved his wife, there had been no doubt of it. Over the next few years, he’d been a regular in her life. He’d visited when her family vacationed in Cairo, and joined Khalid in Greece when he returned for their mother’s birthday.

She was eighteen when things suddenly changed, when he had looked at her for the first time and hadn’t seen a child. When his gaze had flicked to her breasts, encased in the bodice of the strapless ball gown she had worn.

He had danced with her, his hand riding low on her back and pressing her closer to him than any of the younger men she had danced with had done.

Her heart had raced so hard she had thought it would tear from her chest. He’d stared down at her, somber and intense, holding her eyes as she swore she saw some message swirling in the depths of his own.

And against her hip, hard and thick, she had felt his erection, proof that he was seeing her as a woman, and that she wasn’t alone in the sensations surging through her.

It was the first time she had creamed her panties. The first time her clit had become so swollen and sensitive that it only took her seconds to come when she had masturbated in her bed later that night.

From that night, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind, or her fantasies. She hadn’t even tried to keep him from stealing her heart as the years went by.

Khalid was equally determined to keep anything from happening between them. Even during those first years when Paige had been determined to go to college and get her degree before allowing any relationship to develop too far, still, Khalid had begun arranging Abram’s visits to keep her from seeing him.

It didn’t always work.

And nothing had ever stemmed the need that only grew with each year, with each moment spent with him. And with each acknowledgement that her brother was willing to alienate her rather than see her with Abram.

Sniffling quietly she wiped at the tears and tried to stem them. If she stayed here, then they were going to end up saying things that couldn’t be taken back.

She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to lose her brother. That left only one other option. To leave his house, at least until they could learn to agree to disagree where Abram was concerned.

It had been almost two weeks since Khalid’s security team had practically kidnapped her and brought her to the mansion.

Today, she had lost her job. Her savings wasn’t nearly enough to keep her rent and utilities going, along with her car payment, for more than a few months. She would have to find a job, and there was no doubt she would have to ask her parents for money or borrow from her trust fund. A fund she had wanted to save for a time when she really needed it.

Getting another job wasn’t going to be easy. The advertising firm she had worked for had already informed her that there would be no reference forthcoming.

Her entire life had been changed because of this and on top of it, she was losing Khalid because she couldn’t get his brother out of her mind, or out of her fantasies.

She shared no blood with Abram. He was no relation her. He was the man that made her heart beat faster, made her womb clench violently, and her pussy throb in need.

She wasn’t a virgin, despite Khalid and Marty’s obvious beliefs. She’d had a few lovers, two to be exact, in her attempts to forget the one man that fascinated her as nothing or no one ever had.

And to be with the man she wanted more than anyone, she was going to lose the brother she had always idolized, despite his autocratic attitude.

That knowledge had her heart clenching in pain again as fresh tears fell from her eyes before she could wipe them away.

“Paige?” A soft knock at the door followed Marty’s gentle voice.

A second later the bathroom door opened and the other woman stepped inside. Paige quickly wiped at her tears.

“Oh, Paige.” Sympathy filled Marty’s voice as Paige hurriedly dampened a washcloth with cold water to wash her face. “He didn’t mean to hurt you like this.” She sighed.

“I’m fine.” Raspy, tear-roughened, her voice sounded like hell. “Go to your party, Marty, and take your fiancé with you. Hopefully, if he’s out of my face for a while, I can find a way to remember the brother he used to be, rather than the bastard he’s becoming.”

“He’s so worried, Paige,” Marty whispered. “He’s pacing the floors day and night trying to keep you safe and worrying that Abram won’t return. He’s not a man that’s able to sit back and allow those he loves to fight the battle Abram is fighting, alone. But he can’t join him, he can’t protect you if he isn’t here, and he’s terrified Azir will go after your mother as well. He has to stay while Abram is in danger, and sometimes he feels as though he’s fighting ghosts in trying to protect you.”

“Do you think I’m not aware of the stress he’s under?” Her breathing hitched as the tears threatened again. “Just take him to the damned party, Marty. I’ll be okay if I can just get away from him for a while.”

Just long enough to call a cab and go home for a few hours.

She needed her home for just a little while. The comfort of her surroundings, the soothing warmth of her fireplace.

It was an electric fireplace, but still, it was hers. It was warm, and it looked close enough to the real thing. Like her vibrator. It did the job, even if it did lack the qualities or the warmth of the real thing.

She needed it. She needed to get out of here for just a little while.

“Once he thinks about it, he’ll realize what he’s doing,” Marty promised. “You know how he is. He gets overprotective and ends up pissing us off. But he still loves us. He’d still die for us, Paige, and knowing he’s hurting you is killing him. He just doesn’t know how to fix it.”

“I know this,” she cried out in frustration. “Just give me a little while, Marty. I’m trying to adjust. I swear I am.”

Marty breathed out heavily. Paige turned away and held the cold washcloth to her face.

“All right then,” she said slowly. A second later Paige heard the door close behind her.

Marty had left, and there hadn’t even been an accepting hug before she departed. God, that sucked. She could have used a hug today.

Paige shook her head before turning back and tossing the cloth in the sink. Maybe it was just time to accept that she wasn’t the woman or the adult that those she loved really wanted.

Her mother was upset that she was working, her father was disappointed that she refused to head the charities his companies oversaw. Her brother disagreed with the men she wanted as lovers, and the lovers were pissed because she wanted to be independent and still live with them.

It was a no-win situation.

Maybe it was time to stop silently begging them to accept her. She needed to find a way to live and stop hurting like this. Khalid had threatened to either disown his brother, or her. Either one would simply break her heart.

Moving back to the bedroom she changed out of her comfortable sweats and T-shirt and pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Warm socks, sneakers. As she tied the leather running shoes the lights of the limo lit up the darkness outside her bedroom window.

Khalid and Marty were going to their party. They were leaving, and they were leaving her alone. Just as she had asked.

Picking up her cell phone she called a cab, then grabbed her purse and made her way quietly downstairs to wait on the transportation, and hopefully to keep anyone else from turning it away.

She didn’t have to wait long. The intercom from the front gate pinged at the wall next to the door. Stepping to it, Paige accepted the summons.

“A Plus Cabs,” the voice on the other end announced.

“Come on up to the house.” Paige pressed the security lock and before the cab was passing through the open gates Daniel Conover was walking into the foyer from the back wing of the house.

“You can follow me, or you can wait for me to return, your choice,” she informed him as he leaned against the wall opposite her, his dark blond head tilting to the side as he regarded her curiously.

“You know I can’t allow you to leave,” he stated.

“But you will,” she told him. “Otherwise, I’ll call the authorities next. I’ll have you charged with kidnapping and imprisonment.”

She wasn’t serious and she had a feeling he suspected it. But She w19;t certain, and that was what mattered.

“I’ll be right behind you,” he finally sighed. He flexed his broad shoulders beneath the cotton shirt he wore and straightened from the wall. He looped his thumbs in the back pockets of his well-worn, just-snug-enough jeans and gave her a curious little smile. “You’re as stubborn as your brother, you know.”

“So everyone says,” she sniffed. “Funny, he always seems to come out the winner though.”

Paige moved past him as he opened the door for her. She walked outside to the cab.

Just a few hours, she promised herself. She wasn’t going to worry her family unnecessarily. She wasn’t going to risk her life or her bodyguards. But she needed to go home to recharge away from the too-big, too-empty house she was usually in alone.

And she needed the space to figure out how to sit back and accept her brother’s protection, her father’s offer to pay the bills while the situation was being resolved, and to decide which was more important. Following her heart, or obeying the brother she would lose if she didn’t walk away from Abram.

She had a feeling that decision was going to be impossible to make.