Page 49 of Out of Office Nights
She shook with the surfeit of pleasure ripping through her. ‘Yes!Jiyad jdaan…’ she wailed.So good.
He laughed a little raggedly. ‘You think this is good? I’m not stopping until you scream yourself raw,tesoro.’
‘Yes! God, yes!’
Time and pleasure and need blended into the perfect paradise, and he gave himself wholly to this moment. And when she tightened around him for the final time, Teo let himself be swept away, totally ignoring that lingering, taunting voice questioning whether he hadn’t only opened the door to more madness.
One he might never escape.
CHAPTER NINE
Sabeen was sureshe’d misplaced part of her brain on the terrace in Morocco. Because very little could explain why she’d asked Teo to carry her down the steps and into her bedroom in the aftermath of the most sublime storm she’d ever experienced.
Worse, she hadn’t done the sensible thing and shown him to the guest room or, better yet, insisted he return to his villa. Instead, she’d slid into bed, locked in torpor and lifted the sheets in eager invitation. After another soul-shattering round of sex, she’d dropped into a satiated sleep, only to be roused by a buzzing.
‘Are you going to get that?’ she’d murmured, concern building beneath her ribs when he merely slanted a blistering look at the phone.
Swiping it off the table he’d hit the button. ‘Valenti, what is it?’ Seconds passed, his face darkening with mild shock and anguish. ‘When did it happen?’
Sabeen’s breath had stalled as she’d tried to read his face.
‘Claro.’He’d exhaled harshly, half-exasperated by whatever his twin was throwing at him, at the building urgency that made Teo’s face darken with every second. ‘I heard you the first time,hermano. I was already on my way. I’ll see you in a few hours.’
He’d ended the call then veered to face her fully. Her heart had lurched, the raw need to allay whatever troubled him making her reach for him. ‘Is it your father?’
‘The old king’s health has worsened.’
The old king. NotPapáorFather. There was a bite to it, a tightness around his eyes that she remembered last seeing when they attended his brother’s wedding. Come to think of it, he’d displayed zero signs of the Playboy Prince then too, his mood almost brusque with a restlessness.
He exhaled then nodded sharply.
‘Teo—’
‘The fire isn’t quite done with me yet,tesoro,’ he bit out. ‘I must return to Cartana. You will come with me,sí?’ he demanded fiercely.
The madness had deepened. Because, heart squeezing for him, she’d responded immediately. Unequivocally. ‘Yes.’
That was all he’d needed. With the ease of royal privilege, they were packed and on his private jet within the hour, the flight smooth and seamless, setting them down in San Mirabet just before dawn.
The last time she’d been there was to attend Azar and Eden’s royal wedding and coronation. Eden’s open warmth had touched Sabeen, and they’d stayed friends since.
On those occasions, though, she hadn’t stayed on the Palacio Domene grounds. She’d enjoyed the comforts of a luxury five-star hotel in the centre of San Mirabet.
This time, however, the small motorcade had swung through the main palace’s imposing gates and through an astonishing number of centuries-old cobblestone streets, all beneath the towering grandeur of the palace, to stop before a residence that looked like a smaller replica of the sprawling main building it was attached to.
Looking around, she’d seen it was one of six such buildings.
‘They’re the Royal Cottages. I have rooms in thepalacio, but I find that I’m less…accosted by stuffy-suited councillors when I stay here,’ he’d explained, his face set. He’d grown steadily moreaustere since his phone call and more tense with every mile they’d neared thepalacio.
He’d thrown open his door before his bodyguard could and came around to hers. She’d taken his hand, still awestruck, both at her surroundings and the fact that Teo had brought her here.
This uncharted journey of theirs most definitely had an end date, but somewhere in the tumult of rediscovering herself, she’d also made the discovery that while it was an effective mask, and perhaps even a necessary one for him, Teo’s self-centredness was only a veneer. Perhaps an overly efficient if self-sabotaging one.
And glancing at him as they’d followed the butler, her elbow caught in Teo’s grip as they’d climbed one of the two sweeping staircases that led to the second floor, she’d yearned to tell him that. To offer the same succour he’d given her? In the hope that it was the gateway to giving him something…more? Like her heart?
The organ in question had lurched in alarm, but she held the panic at bay. Screeched that the timing wasn’t right. Might never be. He’d come to Cartana for his father. And ultimately, she was here to finish the vital project she’d started.
And to offer more?
