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Chapter Nineteen

I walkedinto the study of the master suite a little before midnight to find Ashur sitting on the loveseat by the window. He stared at me, sipping his scotch. He’d thrown his tuxedo jacket over the arm of a nearby chair and his bowtie was undone. He had a brooding, almost predatory gleam in his gaze that had my heartbeat accelerating.

“You left your own party.”

“And.”

I hesitated, not knowing what to do. He was in a mood and I wasn’t sure if I should try to placate the beast rumbling under the surface or run out of the room.

I wasn’t one to run, so that left dealing with my surly husband.

“It looks bad if the president decides he’s tired and disappears.”

“I had enough of political jockeying. Now I have four words for you.”

“And they are?”

“Take off your clothes.”

“What?”

The last thing I expected was for him to touch me. The anger radiating off him when Xander and I had returned to the ballroom could have killed a battalion. It was as if the whole room had gotten cold, and the fact that he’d all but ignored me for the rest of the night hadn’t gone unnoticed by the guests.

My husband had gone from hot and couldn’t stop touching me to wanting nothing to do with me. Now we were back to…well, I wasn’t sure what this was.

“Take off your clothes, Tara.”

The roughness of his words sent a shiver straight to my pussy, making me forget the uncertainty of a second earlier.

“The contract says for my money, I get two children. That means I get to fuck you until our goal is achieved.”

I swallowed. “Ashur, is this about Xander? We were only talking.”

“Why would it be about the man who replaced me? Why would it be about the man who had you longer than I did? Why would it be about a man you still love?”

“He is nothing more than a brother. He is married to the woman he loves more than life. Hell, I was one of his grooms’ people.”

A growl erupted from his lips as he stood and stalked toward me. “That so-called brother of yours has seen you naked. He’s seen you come. He’s seen what is mine. He was kissing your hand tonight as a lover would.”

“Oh, for the love of God, Ashur. Were you a monk while we were apart?” I cocked a hand on my hip, lifting my chin and trying desperately to keep my heart from exploding out of my chest. “From everything I learned, you fucked every eligible heiress around, not to mention all the military bunnies who put out for a man in uniform.”

“So, you kept tabs on me.”

“The same can be said for you.” I glowered up at him.

Dammit, why the fuck was he so tall? I probably looked like a toddler trying to intimidate a giant.

“You were mine from the time I popped your cherry. The fact we lived separate lives for over a decade doesn’t change that. Besides, I wanted to know about every man who’s touched your body.”

“And what conclusion did you come to? Tell me, how many men have I been with?”

“More than I like but less than what the public likes to believe.”

When I’d made my first headline, rumors had swirled I was mistress to a Middle Eastern prince, then over the years I’d been linked to various influential personalities around the world. My relationships with each of the men were completely platonic but I hadn’t corrected the misconception, since it allowed me access to social circles I otherwise wouldn’t have been privy to interact with.

Outside of Ashur and Xander, I’d had one other relationship. And I wouldn’t have called it a true relationship. It was more a casual way to scratch an itch with another Solon agent, whenever we’d been in the same place at the same time. The last time we’d seen each other was five years ago, right before I’d taken on the director role, where we’d decided it was better for him not to have a fling with his boss. He was now married and the father of two and one of Solon’s best agents.

“What makes you so sure I haven’t slept with all those men?”