Page 72 of Desperate Measures
I stare. “What would have happened if I made it to the maze entrance and ruined all your plans?”
His dark laugh has my body clenching despite several delicious orgasms. “You were never making it to the maze entrance, and we both know it.”
I suppose we do.
We lie like that for a long time, but Jafar finally urges me up. I’m still dreading the naked trek back to the house when he pulls out a bag tucked back behind the space heater and proceeds to dress me in leggings, a thick knitted sweater, socks, and boots. A hat and jacket finish the outfit. I look down at myself and then at him. “What is this?”
He pulls his own clothes back on quickly and shuts off the space heater. “It’s the winter solstice.”
“Yes,” I say slowly.
Jafar gives me a look. Even without much light, I can feel the censure in it. “Come now, Yasmina. You can’t think I’ve forgotten your tradition.”
I should have known. I should have known he’d notice and catalogue it away in that impressively twisty brain of his. Of course he realized even before I did that this was something I needed. “Thank you,” I whisper.
Jafar tucks my hand into the crook of his arm, and we walk together out of the maze. Instead of turning toward the house, we move to the gardens. It’s almost the opposite route of the one I always took with my father, but that feels good and right.
A new tradition, built on the old but different.
Perfect.
24
A Proposal
A Desperate Measures Bonus Short
Yasmina
I am so tired. The kind of exhaustion that settles in my bones to stay. It has nothing to do with the amount of sleep I achieve each night and everything to do with the sheer stress that comes from running a territory. From being a woman running a territory that’s had a man at the helm for decades.
I rub the bridge of my nose, careful not to touch my eyes and smudge my makeup. I’ve had to make examples of people. To do things that feed my nightmares the same way Ali’s death lingers in the darkest recesses of my soul.
I feel Jafar before I see him. It’s as if the very air in the room shifts to accommodate his presence. He’s always been like that, but the longer we’ve been together, the more attuned to him I become.
He stops behind me, and then his hands are on my shoulders, thumbs digging into the tight muscles there. “We’re done for the day.”
“I have one more meeting.” A video call with the newest territory head—Cordelia. I feel a foolish sort of kinship with her, another daughter stepping into the larger-than-life shoes of her deceased father. I won’t let that kinship muddy the waters when our territories share a border, but I can’t deny it. “I can’t put it off. It’s Cordelia Belmonte.”
“You’re right. You can’t put it off.” He finds a knot and digs his thumb in hard enough to buckle my knees and make me moan a little. “Do you need me?”
I smile. “Always.”
“Baby girl.”
I turn in his arms and slide my hands up his chest. “After this, I’m going to be too wound up to sleep.”
His lips curve. “That wasn’t even a subtle hint.”
“No, it wasn’t.” I press a quick kiss to his lips, barely resisting the urge to sink into it. I don’t have time. There’s never enough time anymore. Someone always needs something from me, and nights are my only relief, the only time I can let down my walls and just be me with Jafar. The moment I walk through the doors of our suite and kick off my heels always feels like taking off a corset after wearing it for hours upon hours.
He sets me back and strokes his hands down my arms. “You have this under control. Cordelia isn’t in a position to press us, not when she has Ursa biting at her heels on the other side.”
“Jafar.” I wait for him to look at me. “I know. I have access to the same information you do.”
He laughs softly. “Sometimes it’s hard taking a back seat in these meetings and negotiations.”
“I can’t imagine why.” I arch my brows. “You aren’t staging another coup, are you?”
