“I am being reasonable. There’s no telling how long we would have to stay with someone else. No.”

“You’re stubborn.”

“Thank you,” she said. “It’s one of my more endearing qualities.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he muttered.

She moved to the couch and took his hands. “I promise that if I thought there was true danger to Jace, I would move back in with Mom and Dad. Right now, though, he hasn’t done anything but send me flowers. They weren’t even poison flowers.”

He nodded but didn’t like it.

Zahra looked into his eyes intently. He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, lowered his head, and pressed his lips to hers.

9

Zahra

Zahra trembled as Josiah pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was insistent and passionate from the start. He took complete possession of her mouth, pushing his tongue into her mouth, exploring it, tasting her.

His right hand gently cupped her face and the other tangled in her hair at the back of her neck.

She wrapped her arms around him, pressing close to him. A low moan escaped from deep inside of her soul as smoldering embers burst into searing flames that moved through her body like a tidal wave.

Josiah placed a tiny kiss behind her ear and trailed down her jawline to her chin, and then to the hollow in her throat.

Her heart beat a million miles an hour and she forgot to breathe. Thunder and lightning exploded in the air around them. He unbuttoned the top of her blouse and pressed tiny kisses down her chest to her bra.

“I should go,” he whispered, the angst evident in his voice.

“No. I really wish you wouldn’t.”

He pulled back a little and looked deeply into her eyes. Zahra could see the passion shining in the emerald orbs. The fires mirrored what she felt inside.

She stood and held her hand out to him. He hesitated for a brief moment and put his hand in hers. Zahra led him into her bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Zahra turned around and faced him. “The last thing we need is for some little mister to get up looking for a drink and find Mommy and Daddy busy. There’s not enough eye bleach in the world for that.”

“True,” he said. “No need to traumatize.”

She grinned at him and pushed him against the wall. Zahra put her hands on his face and brought his lips down to meet hers. She pushed her tongue into his mouth and stroked the top of his. Her tongue tickled the roof of his mouth.

He moaned and wrapped both arms around her, pulling him tightly against him. She was sure that she could feel his heart beating. Josiah’s scent of cedar and his essence wafted around her and was intoxicating.

Zahra’s hands found the bottom of his T-shirt and tugged on it, pulling it off over his head and dropping it to the floor. He stood in front of her, with his arms down by his sides as she stared at the magnificent beast. His pecs were hard and finely sculpted. They narrowed down to his waist. His six-pack abs were very firm.

She put her hands flat on his chest and slowly moved from his pecs to his waist and back up again. Zahra sucked in a breath as he flexed for her and grinned.

“Do you like what you see?”

Nodding, she said, “Most definitely. You are an incredibly sexy man.”

“Thank you.”

He slowly unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off of her, tossing it to the side. Josiah reached around her and unfastened her bra, which he threw in a different direction.

Although Zahra was used to being naked in groups of people and with men and women, especially at pack events, she was suddenly shy as Josiah’s eyes roamed over her chest.

“Exquisite,” he said.