He shook his head, causing his collar-length mane to undulate. “If you think that was easy, think again. You’re making me struggle for every inch before you snatch it away with your next lob. For the first time in my life I have no idea what will spill out of someone’s lips next, so give me a break.”
“I would ask where you want it, but I have to be realistic. Considering our respective physiques, I probably can’t give you one without the help of heavy, blunt objects.”
The next moment, all her nerves fired up as he proceeded to subject her to the sight and sound of his all-out amusement, a demonstration so…virile, so debilitating, each peal was a new bolt forking through her nervous system.
When he at last brought his mirth under control, his lips remained stretched the widest she’d seen them, showing off that set of extraordinary white teeth in the most devastating smile she’d had the misfortune of witnessing. He even wiped away a couple of tears of hilarity. “You can give me compound fractures with your tongue alone. As for your glares, we’re talking incineration.”
Hating that even when he was out of breath and wheezing, he sounded more hard-hitting for it, she gritted out, “If I could do that, it would be the least I owe you.”
“What have I done now?” Even his pseudolament was scrumptious. This guy needed some kind of quarantine. He shouldn’t be left free to roam the realm of flimsy mortals. “Is this about the joke you’ve accused me of perpetrating?”
“There’s no accusation here—just statement of fact. You’ve been enjoying one big fat joke at my expense since you stumbled on me in Johara’s office.”
His eyes sobered at once, filling with something even more distressing than mischief and humor. Indulgence? “I’ve been relishing the experience immensely, but not as a joke and certainly not at your expense.”
Her heart gave her ribs another vicious kick. She had to stop this before her heart literally bruised.
She raised her hands. “Okay, this is going nowhere. Let’s say I believe you. Give me another reason you’re doing this. And don’t tell me that you care one way or the other what I think in general or what I think of you specifically. You don’t care about what anyone thinks.”
The earnestness in his eyes deepened. “You’re right. I care nothing for what others think of me.”
“And you’re absolutely right not to.”
That seemed to stun him yet again. “I am?” At her nod, he prodded, “That includes everyone?”
She nodded again. “Of course. What other people think of you, no matter who they are, is irrelevant. Unsolicited opinions are usually a hindrance and a source of discontentment, if not outright unhappiness. So carry on not caring, go take your leave from Johara and Shaheen and return to your universe where no one’s opinion matters…as it shouldn’t.”
“At least grant me the right to care or not care.” Those unbelievable eyes seemed to penetrate right through her as his gaze narrowed in on her. “And whether it comes under caring or not, I do happen to be extremely interested in your opinion of me. Now, let me escort you back to the party. Let me get us a drink over which we’ll reopen my case and explore the possibility of adjusting your opinion of me—at least to a degree.”
She arched a brow. “You mean you’d settle for adjusting my opinion of you from horrific to just plain horrid?”
“Who knows, maybe while retrying my case, your unwavering sense of justice will lead you to adjusting it to plain misjudged.”
“Or maybe just downright wretched.”
He hit her with another of his pouts. Then he raised the level of chaos and laughed again, his merriment as potent as everything else about him. “I’d take that.”
Trying to convince her heart to slot back into its usual place after its latest somersault, she again tried her best glower. It had no effect on him, as usual. Worse. It had the opposite effect to what she’d perfected it for. He looked at her as if her glare was the cutest thing he’d seen.
She voiced her frustration. “You talk about my incinerating glares, but I could be throwing cotton balls or rose petals at you for all the effect they have on you.”
“It’s not your glares that are ineffective. It’s me who’s discovering a penchant for incineration.”
Instead of appeasing her, it annoyed her more. “I’ll have you know I’ve reduced other men to dust with those scowls. No one has withstood a minute in my presence once I engaged annihilate mode.” She lifted her chin. “But you seem to need specifically designed weapons. If I go along with you in this game you got it in your mind to play, it’ll be so I can find out if you have an Achilles’ heel.”
“I have no idea if I have that.” His gaze grew thoughtful. “Would you use it to…annihilate me if you discovered it?”
She gave him one of her patented sizing-up glances and regretted it midway. She must quit trying her usual strategies with him. Not only because they always backfired, but it wasn’t advisable to expose herself to another distressing dose of his wonders.
She returned to his eyes, those turquoise depths that exuded the ferocity of his intellect and the power of his wit, and found gazing into them just as taxing to her circulatory system.
She sighed, more vexed with her own inability to moderate her reactions than with him. “Nah. I’ll just be satisfied knowing your Achilles’ heel exists and you’re not invulnerable. And maybe, if you get too obnoxious, I’ll use my knowledge as leverage to make you back off.”
That current of mischief and challenge in his eyes spiked. “It goes against my nature to back off.”
“Not even under threat of…annihilation?”
“Especially then. I’d probably beg you to use whatever fatal weakness you discover just to find out how it feels.”