Page 28 of Desert King's Forbidden Temptation

Do you trust me?

He was showing his trustworthiness, showing that no matter how much they wanted to act on these feelings, they wouldn’t, they couldn’t. It was forbidden.

‘Hold on, little one,’ he murmured into her ear, clamping a hand around her waist. ‘We’ll fly back.’

And he pushed the horse to ride faster, to eat up the distance between them and the palace, to end this delightful, delicious torment more quickly.

He’d wanted to return them back to the palace as quickly as possible. Once the flame had ignited between them, he’d known it would be only a matter of time before one of them acted on it, and he’d been afraid of being the person to weaken first. He’d been concerned that despite having given her an assurance that he could be trusted, perhaps he couldn’t be. That his desires would eclipse every other thought and feeling.

But the rapid race back to the palace did nothing to extinguish the flames. The horse jolted beneath them, throwing her back against him. In order to keep Eloise safe, he held her tight, so that every inch of her body was moulded to his, and his arm around her waist couldn’t help but feel the soft underside of her breasts, his fingers splayed wide commanded the entire side of her body. How easy it would have been to let his hand slip between her legs, to pleasure her as they rode, to remind her that there was no escaping the delirium of desire they could share.

How wrong it would be, though.

He needed, more than anything, to get her off this horse and safely back into the palace.

His first instinct—to give her space—had been correct. He couldn’t be this close and rely on himself to resist her. Every moment was a form of torture. He needed to be free of her and this. Legendary control be damned; he was starting to wonder if he’d ever truly come face-to-face with temptation before.

Finally, the sand gave way to grass and his horse was back on familiar ground, moving toward the stables without needing to be guided. But before they could approach them, he pulled Bahira to a stop.

Though he was Sheikh, and no one would dare gossip about him, the same could not be said for the very beautiful foreigner in their midst. In order to save her from becoming the centrepiece of harmful chatter, he hopped off the horse, but before he could reach up and catch her, she moved one leg over, clearly intending to jump down herself.

He couldn’t make a noise fast enough—she was determined, her face pinched, her eyes flashing to his with that same defiance he’d seen out in the desert and then she was sliding down the side. But she’d miscalculated. His beast was far too high for this, for a person of her stature, to dismount without help. He was easily a foot taller than her and used to riding.

He moved forward—too late to warn her, but not to catch her. She hit the ground and immediately fell sideways. She would have landed with a thud if he hadn’t intercepted her body’s trajectory, catching her and holding her weight in his arms.

‘Let me go,’ she said, panic in her words. Panic he understood, because despite what they’d said, something was exploding out of their hands.

‘You should have waited for me,’ he snapped, anger stirred by worry. For a moment, he’d seen her falling, seen her head cracking against the rock wall to their side, seen her blood stain the grass, and he’dfelta wave of nausea, of fear. It shook him.

‘I’m okay,’ she said, but the words trembled a little. She wasn’t okay. But because of her near-fall, or because of the passion stirring between them?

‘Are you?’

The question landed at her feet with a thud. She lifted her gaze to his and something seemed to strangle his torso.

This couldn’t happen. He couldn’t give in to this.

He conjured every iota of decency he possessed, focusing on the reasons he needed to marry Elana, the importance of that union, on the fact that Eloise was Elana’s best friend, on the indecency of lusting after her, despite the fact he barely knew his intended bride. It was Eloise he had to protect, Eloise who would be put in a difficult position if anything more happened between them.

So why did he stay there, staring down at her, eyes locked as if he dared not look away?

‘I’m glad you showed me that,’ she said softly. ‘Elana will love to see it for herself one day.’

The reference to Elana sparked anger in his gut. Honour be damned—he wanted to kiss the idea of anyone else from Eloise’s mouth. He wanted to lift them up, far away from the palace, from this life, from his duties and needs as a monarch and place them in some tiny corner of the world where he was a man and she a woman, free to explore this hypnotic need.

It was just desire.

Strong, overpowering desire, but a physical need, nothing more. They could explore it, release the urgency and temptation, and then go on with their normal lives. Maybe that’s what they both needed, in order to be able to function?

But for Eloise, how could that work? How could she return to Ras Sarat and counsel her friend to this marriage, knowing that she’d slept with him?

And what would it be like for Tariq? He didn’t think he’d still be pining over Eloise in a year’s time, but he intended to give himself fully to this marriage. How would that work if Eloise was there, in the background, advising Elana? How could it work if he’d slept with his wife’s best friend? While both he and Elana seemed in agreement on the practical nature of their marriage, it would still be a legally binding partnership, and he would never allow himself to cheat on her. Eloise would be out of reach forever.

There were myriad reasons to run as fast as the blazes from this, but all he could think about was the beating of a drum, drawing him to her with urgency and all-consuming passion.

Which meant he needed to put as much space between them as humanly possible, and immediately. ‘Go inside, Eloise. For God’s sake, go now.’

The sound of a small sob pierced something vital in his chest, but then she turned and ran, all the way back to the palace, out of his line of sight but not, regrettably, from his mind.

---