She uttered a sound of negation and felt his hands move over her body.
“Why?”
She straightened up, stopping his hands from going any further. “Because I don’t want the game to end too soon.”
Ashared struggled to tear his gaze away from her lips. “I’m glad you liked my idea.” Reluctantly, he withdrew his hands, releasing her. “Though I have a feeling that I will start cursing myself soon for suggesting this in the first place.”
Lannahi returned to her seat with a laugh. Ashared gathered and shuffled the cards. He dealt them out. A new round started.
This time Lannahi was doing better than Ashared… or that was what she thought until she realized that the man wasn’t so much out of luck as he was simply procrastinating.
“Are you trying to lose on purpose?” she asked.
A lazy smile appeared on his lips. “I just recalled the rule I added in a flash of genius.”
His audacity threw her off balance for a moment. Then her gaze fell on a piece of paper lying on the table.
The winner cannot refuse the prize but can negotiate a change for another.
He laughed when she glared at him. “Easy, Lannahi. Trust me. You’ll enjoy the prize.”
“You are quite confident,” she noted, though she felt a pleasant warmth pooling at the bottom of her stomach.
Ashared’s gaze had the temperature of the desert sun. “My heightened senses show me the way.”
Lannahi swore silently. Under these conditions, she had no chance to win a verbal joust. She was too excited, and he was too close. He could see right through her.
“If I also start procrastinating, it will become too late to play another round,” she said warningly.
Ashared chuckled. “True.”
The man straightened up and regarded the piles on the table more carefully. Despite that he’d stopped lingering, however, Lannahi had far fewer cards than he did. She won.
Neither of them said anything as Lannahi took the dice in her hand. At the corners of Ashared’s mouth lurked a smile that she would have found suspicious even if she hadn’t guessed his motives beforehand. She rolled the dice, piercing him with her gaze.
Five.
Lannahi’s heart lurched, then her pulse quickened.
We start making love. You are on top.
“Fate does not want us to play it slow, after all,” Ashared said.
“Let’s negotiate,” Lannahi said.
The man didn’t seem surprised, but in his voice echoed a laugh. “I’ll agree on everything from two up.”
Lannahi gave him a heavy look. “Two,” she said, knowing very well that this was what he had in mind all along.
Ashared didn’t even blink. “For our convenience, I would recommend that you be the one to come to me.”
She knew he meant their height difference so she didn’t protest, but she walked over to him with the icy haughtiness of a goddess of winter.
“Don’t be angry, Lannahi,” Ashared said. He raised her hands to his lips and began to place kisses on them. “I will win the next round.”
“You are exceptionally audacious today,” she remarked, trying not to show how he affected her.
He wrapped one arm around her and gently pulled her close, planting her in his lap. “I’m exceptionally happy today.”
