Page 14 of Zar

Chapter Five

Callie’s stomach pitched. Funny how finding out that a winged man considers you his soulmate will do that to a person. She stared at him and he stared back. The smile on his handsome face was completely out of place, considering the situation. She itched to smack it off him.

“Look, I’m not your soulmate. You need to get that idea out of your head right now.” She thought back over the last twenty-four hours and glared at him. “Is that why you had Flare bring me here? Do you just pick a woman at random and decide she’s the one? If so that’s a shitty thing to do. Like seriously messed up, Zar. I have a life to get back to and you are not a part of it.”

His smile disappeared. His silver eyes turned a darker shade and his wings flexed behind him. Oh, he was pissed, that’s for sure. In fact, Zar looked every inch the king he claimed to be. “You’re getting agitated for no reason,” he ground out. “I did not bring you here because I wanted you as my other. I didn’t know about that until you touched my wing.”

She felt relieved by that, but still no less pissed. “Then why did you bring me here? I want answers. Hell, I deserve answers.”

Zar sighed. “Your company develops a genetically modified form of ginseng. It is something that we have come to rely on.”

Callie frowned, not expecting him to discuss HealthTec’s latest failure. “You’re talking about the product that was supposed to aid in weight loss by boosting metabolism.”

He shrugged. “That isn’t what we use it for, but yes. We need your company to continue producing it.”

Callie wanted to scream. If Zar had only set up a phone meeting she could’ve explained everything without the whole kidnap thing. God, so much hassle and for what? “Zar, what you’re proposing, it’ll never happen. The product bombed. We took a huge hit because of it. My father is still chopping off heads because of the loss of money the company incurred.”

His gaze widened. “Your father cuts the heads off his enemies?”

She sighed. Okay, so winged creatures were slightly more literal than humans. Mental note to self. “I just mean he’s angry about it because HealthTec lost a lot of money on that product. He’ll never begin production again.”

Zar stared at her for long seconds, then finally said. “Our youth have a difficult time when it comes to controlling their sexual nature. The ginseng you produced effectively inhibited their baser needs. Without it they’ve had to go back to using other herbal remedies that don’t work as well.”

“I’m picturing a really sexed-up teenager with little to no impulse control. How close am I here?”

He chuckled. “That’s very accurate.”

Callie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that sucks, but my father will not go back to producing that product. It’ll never happen.”

“We will come back to that at a later time.”

Yeah, because she had other things to discuss. Like being some stranger’s soulmate. A stranger with black wings. What-the-fuck didn’t quite cover it. “You said when I touched your wing. What does that have to do with anything?” No way would she have done that if she’d thought he was going to take it personally. Shit, was it the equivalent of touching a man’s privates? Maybe! It wasn’t as if Zar had the same physiology as her. He wasn’t human. Maybe touching a man’s wings were like making love to him. He took that sort of thing to heart apparently. Without even knowing it Callie had freaking married the guy. Sure. Great. Super!

His voice softened as he said, “Your body temperature is increasing. I did not anticipate your reaction.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean, you thought I’d be thrilled about this? Finding out I’m married to some guy with wings after having been kidnapped was supposed to put me in a good mood, huh?”

His lips thinned. “I do not like the term kidnapped. It’s offensive.”

She rolled her eyes. This again. “Listen closely, Zar, I will only say this once. When you ordered Flare to bring me to you against my will that’s called kidnapping. You could go to prison for decades in most states. Do you get that? It’s against the law.”

‘We aren’t subject to earth-born laws. We govern ourselves.”

“Well, that’s handy for you, but I am not Zenarian.” She paused, then muttered, “whatever the hell that means.”

“You are now that you are my ofelia,” he explained as if that solved everything.

She shot out of her chair and leaned close. “I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My father moved us to Cincinnati, Ohio when I was a baby. That means I’m human. And as a human I have the right to file charges against you for kidnapping!”

Zar slowly stood. At his full height he towered over her like the giant bird-man that he was. His wings flexed, hitting the floor so hard she thought surely he’d leave a hole behind. He crossed his arms over his chest and his wings moved around her so fast, enclosing her in a cocoon. Callie stood frozen in shock at how quickly Zar had taken control of the situation. She tried to step back, out of his embrace, but his wings stayed firmly wrapped around her. Panic engulfed her as she grabbed onto a thick section at the top of one wing and tried to move it. She fisted it, using all her strength to push it away from her to create an opening, but she might as well have been moving a concrete pillar. Zar’s entire body went rigid and his eyes darkened. Too late, Callie remembered what had happened the last time she’d touched his wing. She released him instantly, but she could see the arousal taking hold in the way his nostrils flared and his mouth parted. His breathing increased and he looked at her as if he wanted to devour her. Her body hummed to life as she became acutely aware of him. Don’t look. Keep your eyes on his face, nothing else. Too bad her body wasn’t in the listening mood. Her gaze traveled down his torso to his groin. Oh, hell, he was huge and seriously turned-on by the looks of it. His erection pressed hard against the fly of his black slacks.

“Zar?” Callie had never felt so vulnerable. She’d been around plenty of men in aroused states. She was the CEO of her father’s company and there’d been plenty of men who thought fucking Quinn Wilson’s daughter would be a real notch on their bedpost. She’d never once let it get to her. She’d even heard the rumors that she was an ice-cold bitch. Callie had been okay with it. Except right now there was a damn bonfire blazing inside her body. And it was about to engulf them both if she didn’t get a handle on the situation.

With slow, careful precise movements, Zar pulled his wings away from her body until they rested behind him once more. She watched him swallow several times and step backward as if trying to gain control. “Your touch is pleasurable to me,” he explained, his voice rough and harsh. “If you do not wish us to move to the next stage of our relationship so quickly you’ll need to keep your hands away from my wings.”

“It’s a sexual thing, isn’t it?”

He gritted his teeth and his gaze traveled the length of her body. He lingered a few seconds longer on her breasts and she could feel her nipples harden as if begging him to touch. He pulled his attention back to her face. “I don’t know if I can hold myself in check where you are concerned.”

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