Page 147 of To Tango, with Desire

“Her loss. For not knowing the man you are, for not valuing you.”

“I see that now. But Amira, I have no feelings left for Chloe. I want you to know that. If we see her at an event, I don’t feel a damn thing but relief. Therapy helped me see that, and—”

“And what?”

“And you. You saw me. You saw all my flaws. You wanted to know the real me and you didn’t give a shit if that pissed me off. I know it’s not been easy, but you stayed. You’ve made me grow in ways I didn’t think I needed to. Amira, it’s you.”

Heart full, I fell into his embrace. I wanted this man with a hunger that never seemed to abate.

With every conversation, every argument, we were growing closer. Gone was the Zane I’d first met, the man who shut down conversations and demanded obedience. Here was someone who had just shared the most intimate parts of himself. And I wanted more. I tried my best to ignore my feelings for him, but they persisted, nonetheless. The love I had for him had only increased with every passing day.

Could I continue this way? Loving him silently? Living with him and never telling him my true feelings? I knew he cared for me, but could he love me? Could he feel the way I felt for him?

I stared at him, the words hovering on my lips. “Zane?”

“Amira . . .” He nibbled at my neck, doing that thing with his tongue that left me dizzy with desire.

“Zane, I—”

He looked down at me, his eyes heated. The need on his face was raw and real and everything I’d dreamed of. He was everything I’d dreamed of.

I couldn’t bear his rejection. To watch the openness in his expression shift, becoming closed, shuttered. Remote.

Doubt surrounded me now, silencing my admission.

“Zane, I want you,” I whispered.

“Then have me. I’m all yours, habibti.”

My love. The sentiment wasn’t lost on me. But it hurt all the more knowing it was simply an expression. I wasn’t his love. Not truly.

Maybe one day I might be.

THIRTY-SEVEN

ZANE

Something was off.

It had been for a few weeks now. I wanted to put it down to the crazy Christmas rush, the fact that Amira was busy trying to sell her family home and had been working long hours, but none of those were it.

There was something she wasn’t telling me.

Every time I spoke to her about it, she brushed it off. Amira had been through a lot, with her father’s death and the ectopic pregnancy. I told myself it was normal that she’d be down. Especially now that she was estranged from her only living parent.

Still, I didn’t like it.

I’d been planning this surprise for a while, and I hoped that it would help cheer her up. The business with Kade and the will had sucked the life out of me for the past two weeks. I’d been so consumed with my anger at Omar, so caught up in my talks with the executor, that I hadn’t focused as much time and energy on Amira.

I knew that had to change. I missed her, missed us.

When she walked into my office that Monday evening in a tailored skirt and blouse, I knew exactly how the night would end.

But first, we had matters of business to attend to.

“I have a proposition for you.”

Amira stood inside the doorway of my office, arms folded. “Zane.”