After the events of last night, sleep was a stranger to Arisa. The diamond choker around her neck was a constant reminder that she was now Abir Khan's personal property. Just before dawn, when exhaustion finally started to cloud her mind, she felt a pair of powerful arms pulling her closer.
The raw warmth of Abir's muscular chest radiated against her back. He leaned in, his voice a dark, intoxicating rasp against her ear.
"Did you think I wouldn't come? I've been watching you all night, Arisa. Every sigh, every turn you took... I felt them all."
Abir buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent like a man starving for air. His lips brushed against her sensitive skin, sending a jolt of forbidden electricity through her veins. Arisa placed her hands on his bare chest to push him away, but the touch of his hard muscles only made her own body betray her.
"Abir... please... I feel so weak..." Arisa whispered, her breath hitching as his fingers traced the line of her silk gown.
"I will make you weak, Arisa—but not from exhaustion. I want you to surrender to the fire I've started," Abir murmured, his thumb pressing against her lower lip. "That mark I gave you last night? It's not just jewelry. It's my seal on your soul."
He loomed over her, his dark eyes burning with a predatory hunger that demanded everything. Arisa closed her eyes, unable to fight the magnetic pull of this devil. He claimed her lips in a deep, suffocating kiss—one that shattered her remaining defenses. For a brief moment, she forgot the walls of her prison, lost in the dangerous heat of the man who owned her