Page 26 of The Sheik's Embrace

In this position, she felt small and vulnerable. But when he lowered his head to kiss her, those sensations changed. As soon as their lips touched, she felt powerful! Her hands automatically moved to his neck, needing to feel his bare skin. At her touch, he deepened the kiss even further, his mouth moving back and forth over hers, kissing her again and again as if he were starving and she was his only sustenance.

He groaned and pulled her closer, his strong hands pressing her more firmly against his body. That’s when she felt his erection throbbing against her stomach. She’d always been warned that a man’s reaction was dangerous, but this didn’t feel wrong. It felt so completely right! So right that she shifted her hips against his, needing to understand more, to feel more.

A knock on the doorway stopped the kiss. She stared up at him as they both caught their breath. Tara was relieved that she wasn’t the only person in this embrace that felt it this time.

Slowly, she released his neck, letting her fingers slide down his chest, still staring into his eyes.

“You won,” he muttered, his voice deeper than usual.

Carefully, he stepped out of her arms and Tara felt cold and…abruptly angry! Why was she angry?

“Come in!” he bellowed, still staring into Tara’s eyes.

The door opened and she stepped back, wrapping her arms around her waist and turning away from Zayed. She’d just…kissed a man that wasn’t her husband! That was…?

No! She wasn’t going to slip back into that old way of thinking. Ethan and her father had no control over her life now! She was free! And kissing wasn’t wrong. In fact, the way she felt at the moment, she would swear on her life that it was very, very right!

Tara was just about to leave the room when she turned back to the table. The cards were still splayed out at his place at the table. Out of curiosity, she picked up Zayed’s cards and turned them over. She nearly gasped out loud when she noticed that none of the cards matched! The man had lost on purpose?

She set the cards back down, then hurried from the room, her head spinning.

Chapter 21

Elijah stared out the window, furious that he was reduced to living in this hovel of a hotel. He pulled the phone from his pocket, relishing the moment when he would find Tara and bring her back home. He would enjoy explaining to her all of the various ways she had disobeyed the rules! He would be very enthusiastic on how he would temper her rebellion in the future.

Thirteen years. He’d been married to the woman for thirteen years! None of the other fathers had allowed him to marry any of the remaining young girls in the community. Nor had Ethan given permission for Elijah to take another wife. Apparently, the community thought he didn’t have the capacity to protect his women. About once a month, Ethan would give a sermon to the church members about the sanctity of marriage, about how men should protect their wives from the outside world, even if their wives or daughters wanted to experience the outside world. He preached about hellfire and brimstone that would consume anyone who left the sanctity of their protected world.

The other fathers pulled their daughters close whenever Elijah walked by, almost as if the shame of losing his wife was contagious.

Ethan had explored the world outside of their community several times, always bringing back evidence of Tara’s current location. He’d then ordered Elijah to retrieve his wife and explain how their world worked.

However, every time Elijah had gone out to find Tara, going to the exact location Ethan had given him, the girl had already vanished. There was evidence that Tarahadbeen there,but every time, Tara and that bitch of a sister had escaped Elijah’s grasp.

He understood that they were terrified of the lessons that would need to be re-taught over and over once they were brought back to the protection of their home. And yes, Kaia would need to live with Elijah as well. Kaia was now Elijah’s sister-in-law and, therefore, under his authority. He would teach the bitch her place in their world. He would enjoy teaching Kaia how to behave properly as a woman. Yes, he would love to discipline that bitch, since he knew that Tara never would have left if her older sister hadn’t helped her. Tara was a timid little shrew.

Elijah rubbed his beard, thinking of all the wonderful, delicious ways he would discipline his wife. Yes, he’d seen a flash of Tara. She’d been on the news earlier tonight during some sort of press conference. He hadn’t understood the language, so Elijah had no idea what was being said. The only good thing he could say about his wife was that she was dressed modestly and her hair was pulled back appropriately. She hadn’t been wearing jewelry, which was also good, but he didn’t care about her adornment. It was her behavior that infuriated him the most.

No, to be honest, it was the fact that he hadn’t been allowed another wife. The fact that Ethan wouldn’t let him have a new wife after his first one ran away was the reason he was so angry with Tara.

But he would fix it. Eventually, Tara would return to her apartment. When that happened, he had everything in place. She would be trapped! He would then notify Ethan, who had arranged a way for him to get his reluctant wife home. Elijah had no idea what Ethan had planned, but was assured that itwould make it so that he could get Tara out of the country without the airport security personnel stopping him.

That was all Elijah needed to know.

Now he needed to figure out where his mother and sister had been taken. The police had carted his women-folk away in handcuffs. Elijah suspected that his women had been taken to the police station, but he would worry about that later. Once he had Tara back under his control, then he could worry about his mother and sister. He figured that, at the moment, they were protected by the police and therefore couldn’t possibly be in danger.

Chapter 22

Tara gave up trying to sleep when she saw the sun starting to lighten the morning sky. The bed was too soft and unfamiliar, and there was no traffic noise to lull her to sleep. Plus, she felt…nervous. No, not nervous. But odd. She didn’t quite understand the sensations, but she was angry and…grumpy. Probably because she hadn’t slept at all last night.

Throwing the silky soft bed sheets off of her legs, Tara stood up and padded barefoot through the impossibly thick carpeting. She’d found the bathroom last night but had been too nervous to touch anything. Everything in that bathroom was clean and shiny. Even touching the countertop with her fingertips might smudge the surface.

She wasn’t used to this kind of luxury and it made her uncomfortable.

She grabbed the toothbrush and toothpaste that had been left out for her. Brushing her teeth, Tara glared at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair looked wild! She’d tossed and turned last night, trying to find a place on that ridiculously soft bed that would allow her to fall asleep. There were no lumps in that stupid mattress! None! How was a body supposed to get comfortable if there were no lumps?

Quickly, Tara showered, then wrapped a towel around herself, ignoring the too-gorgeous silk robe that had been left draped over a chair, and padded back into the bedroom. She didn’t have any clean clothes and she tapped her finger on her hip as she considered her options. That’s when she realized that the bed was already made and there was a beautiful pink dress with lovely undergarments laid out on the bed.

Tara crept over to the dress as if it was a wild animal and it might flutter away if startled.

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