V.S. Carnes

Just say, dakhilak.__ithout hesitation, __akhilak.__e nodded. Her accent was getting no better. __ow, you can never take it back.___ell, what does it mean? Thank you?__he should have asked sooner. He didn__ turn to meet the gaze he felt on him, his voice full of sand, his stomach sick. __t gives me charge of your life.

When silence greeted her question, she looked at Caine__or that was how he saw himself in that moment and in all the moments after: his brother__ murderer.

La mu__xsa, but I think I__l just keep sliding down this greased pole to hell?

After all, you are a hero and everything.

The horizon was indistinguishable from the inky black, which fell upon the desert like a sorcerer__ mantle shot through with diamonds. The stars were so tiny, so far away, and yet, at the moment, with her fingers curled around his, he almost felt as though he could reach up and snag one by the tail.

Kent had begun sleeping with his good eye open, for he knew the mark of sedition when he saw it. Even partway blinded, who could see it better?

They were literally inches from being buried alive in this place, millions of miles from home or any sort of civilization, where they would never be found or mourned... and Caine continued to smile.Sweet heavens, he was completely out of his mind!

He felt, rather than saw, her chin lift toward him. But instead of pulling her hand from his grip and turning away, she tightened her own fingers and unceremoniously, unexpectedly, threw herself down the incline, dragging him with her.Dragging him with her!

He had always prided himself on his ability to bargain, to bluff, to contain his ever-aching heart within the folds of his robes where no one could see his pain and his shame. Unconsciously, he reached up and fisted the little black pearl in his fingers, searching for words, praying to the Almighty for the words that would let him have her. But they would not come.They were not needed, when the truth was in his eyes.

She accepted it uncertainly. __his will help?_ Without waiting for an answer, with that unsettling trust of hers, she popped open the lid and dug in her finger, smearing the slick substance on and around her mouth. Going outside of the lines, as he deduced she did with most everything in her life. When she was done, she looked absolutely ridiculous.Caine barely resisted smiling at her. __t will help immensely.

A hand stole around her mouth, silencing her, then his lips parting her tumbled hair: __he walls have ears.__he blinked, and for the first time, looked around. A thin beam of light beneath what may have been a door. That was all. When he released her, she endeavored to match his own, barely audible tone. __o the walls understand English?

Southern gentleman,_ he said aside to him in Arabic. __o you wish for me to continue this for you?__aine__ temper shifted to a low simmer in his chest. __our way takes too long.___a__leyk, and your way hurts my ears,_ he argued.

Somehow, I did not finger you for a treasure-hunter.___h, but I am,_ without shame. __er name is Titianni Aziz.

He didn__ deserve compassion. Sympathy. Not even understanding. He deserved worse, far worse than he had ever been given.

Wait for me.__f his voice was just a bit hoarse, she didn__ seem to take note of it. She looked at him as though he had reached over and slapped her. __ou don__ trust me? After all that talk of taking me for my word____his isn__ about trust.___hat is precisely what this is about._ Her fingers fisted in her skirts. __ecause I__e trusted you.__t hurt him to hear it. He didn__ know what else to do. He had no contacts left. He was walking around now like a blind man. He didn__ need the added weight of her safety on his conscience. Caine__ eyes fell away again. __aybe you shouldn__.__hat earned him a flustered: __ou told me to!

Oh, Lord, why was she doomed to adore a man steeped in blindness and utter stupidity?

My name, sir, is Virgilia Wessex. I am a Sunday school teacher from Sussex, England, and I have given you no leave to address me as anything.__is mouth seemed to almost smile, but if so, he caught it just on the brink and decided against it. __ell, I__e just given the gent who found you first an obscene amount of money to address you however I please_ Gillia.

He__ thought it would be the right thing to say, but she scoffed a little_ and that, more than anything__ore than the prospect of having his ribs crushed in or his face pulled off or his neck stretched on a rope__cared him out of his wits.