Page 98 of Carnal Urges

“What’s wrong?”

“You know Khalil Gibran.”

“I love him. Have you readThe Prophet?”

“It’s only my favorite book.”

“Why does that make you depressed?”

His voice gains a rough edge. “Because you’re a twenty-eight-year-old girl I fuckingabducted,a girl who’s best friends with the girlfriend of my worst enemy, a girl who frets over her ex-lover—also my enemy—who was born more than a decade after me in a different country than me and has lived an entirely different life than me, and who somehow fucking knows obscure ancient Stoic philosophers and obscure twentieth-century Lebanese poets, and who wants to cook healthy meals for her kidnappers and teach them stress-reduction techniques. You don’t makesense.”

Into his angry silence, I say softly, “For you, you mean.”

A growling sound is my only answer.

“If it makes you feel any better, you don’t make any sense for me, either. You’re too old and too grouchy andwaytoo bossy. Plus, you’re right. Kidnapping is a terrible way to start a relationship. It’s completely fucked up. We’re totally doomed, I get it. But you know what else?”

“No. What?”

“I don’t care about any of that, because the way you look at me makes me feel like I could fly.”

His entire body goes still. The breath he eventually releases is slow and ragged. “I thought you were scared of me. Of this.”

“I am. I hate that I am, too. I want to be that aloof, disinterested cat. But the reality is that I’m not. And it’s awful. It could also maybe be amazing, I don’t know. I also hope we don’t have to keep talking about it, because that’s pretty awful, too. But I don’t want to have one of those situations where some stupid misunderstanding could be cleared up with a simple conversation, because I hate that shit. It’s lame. Do you agree?”

“Aye.”

“Okay. So here’s the bottom line. We both think this is impossible but also awesome. We both think it’s fantastic and also sucks. We both have massive trust issues and friends who will hate this and really problematic personal histories that will most likely cause all kinds of issues going forward, but for right now, it’s on.”

“It?”

“Us.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah. I just decided. That ivory tower–dark roads speech you made really resonated. But you still have to promise me about Stavros. That’s nonnegotiable.”

He grasps my jaw and tilts my head up so I’m looking into his eyes. His beautiful, blue, shining eyes. His voice thick, he says, “I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“But I do have a question.”

“What’s that?”

“If you’re not my captive, then what are you?”

I think about it for a moment. “I don’t love labels, but if you need to call me something, you can just call me your queen.”

His kiss is rough and deep. He rolls on top of me, giving me his warmth and weight, and kisses me until I can hardly breathe anymore. He pulls away, panting, his stiff cock trapped between us.

“This is gonna be complicated, baby. You ready for that?”

Baby.Oh, what that does to me. How it makes everything insideme glow. I grin up at him. “The more complicated, the better. At least I know I won’t get bored.”

He growls, “You’re damn right you won’t,” and crushes his mouth to mine.

Then he fucks me with so much passion and possession, there can be no mistaking that when he said I was his, he meant it. I fall asleep sweaty and sated in his arms.