Page 26 of At the Sheikh's Pleasure
“Are you suggesting I don’t understand my world?”
“No, I’m not suggesting anything.I’m saying, quite clearly, that for a clever woman, you don’t have a clue what’s going on inside of you.”
She jumped up.“How dare you imagine you know me better than I know myself!Do you really think I’m that stupid?”
“Apparently, even the cleverest mind can be stupid sometimes,” he said in an annoyingly calm voice.
Further incensed, she walked around the desk wanting to force him to back down, to admit that he was in the wrong.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”she said, her voice echoing around the lofty room with its marble walls.“And until you do, I suggest you keep quiet!”She glared at him, with all the anger, frustration and emotion that was piling up inside of her, forcing itself to the surface like a volcano which had been simmering for too long.
Infuriatingly, his lips formed a slight smile.“It won’t work, you know.”
If he’d said anything else.If he’d argued with her, agreed with her, anything else at all, she’d have known what to do.She’d have countered it with an argument.But this?It took the wind out of her sails.She opened her mouth to speak but no words formed and she sighed instead.She raised her hands and let them fall against her hips in an expression of confusion.“Okay, you’ve got me.What won’t work?”
“You, venting that anger of yours on me.I’m not the enemy.”
“Then who is?”
“I think you might believe it’s you.”
She spluttered.“Don’t be ridiculous.”
He shook his head.“Think about it.It’s what you do best.Think about how you treat yourself.”
“I don’t know what?—”
He took a step toward her and tapped his finger against her lips, and she stopped talking immediately.His touch silenced any thought.
“Rosana,” he said, his eyes softening along with his smile, as his eyes ranged around her face.“You’re in pain.I see it, and I want you to see it too.Otherwise you’ll never be free.”
She shook her head in one last-ditch attempt to deny what he was accusing her of.
“No,” he said, his finger now moving over her lips, caressing them, rather than trying to stop her from talking.She opened them slightly and his fingertip dragged along her full bottom lip.She gasped and her tongue licked her lips and found his finger.
He looked up into her eyes and then all bets were off.
“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I met you,” he said, dipping his mouth to hers and kissing the swell of her upper lip and then lower, and then moving his tongue along the slight gap between them.She suddenly felt drained of all her energy.All she wanted was for that sensation to continue.
She closed her eyes and swayed into him.He caught her and held her close, his hands around her, supporting her as he explored her lips, her mouth, her tongue.Every part of her was both primed for action and putty in his arms.And the best part was that she had no thought, nothing at all in her mind, except an instinctive need for him to continue, and that had nothing to do with her brain.Only her body.And her body wanted him.She knew it by the desire which throbbed between her thighs, by the way she pressed her breasts against his chest, wanting her needy nipples to be rubbed by his flesh.Every part of her wanted him.She had no choice but to accept this need.It was too overwhelming to ignore.
She groaned and swept her tongue along his while slipping her hands around his hips, splaying her fingers around his back, feeling out the lines of muscle and sinew through his clothes.She hated that there was fabric between her fingers and his body.
As she acted on her instincts, his kiss deepened and she swallowed a groan which came from him.It was a groan of desire and intent which made her even wetter than before.His grip on her body tightened before he moved to smooth his fingers down her back until they covered her rounded bottom.He splayed his fingers over her ample flesh and squeezed it, while slamming her needy sex against his erection.
She staggered back under the force of his movements until she was stopped from going any further by the desk which she’d used as a barrier only minutes earlier.Now she wanted no barrier, including clothes.So when his hands slid under her abaya and pulled it off, she offered no resistance.And when she was standing in the simple dress, her only thoughts were in line with his—it had to come off.
Chapter12
Rosana gasped as the wrap dress stretched over her generous breasts, her nipples hard and pointing through the fine material.He brushed his fingers over them and she jumped at the electric charge which zapped through her.And then he lowered his kisses to her neck, her chest, and only then did he pull down the stretchy material to expose her lacy bra and the swell of her breasts over the top.She saw him swallow as he swept his fingers over her skin, watching as goosebumps bloomed in their wake.She gasped and thrust out her breasts, wanting him to undress her, but unable to ask for what she wanted.It seemed he understood.
With one sweeping movement, he pulled down her dress from her arms and lower.Shocked, she stood only in her bra and knickers.It took only a second for her to realize there was no way she wanted her clothes back on.There was only one thing she wanted, and he was standing in front of her, his eyes raking her body, his erection clearly visible.
“Are you sure, Rosana?Because I am.I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life before.I want you.Are you sure you want me?”
She gulped and nodded quickly.She didn’t want him to have any doubts, because she didn’t.She’d only ever had sex with one man before and that had been the man her father had forced her to marry.There had been no enjoyment.But that had been a long time ago, and as different to this as night to day.And Zaire shone like the sun to her—hot, encompassing and all she wanted.
“Yes,” she said again, in case her nodding was misinterpreted.
