by Leslie North
“Do I want to talk about it?” Danielle swallowed hard. It had been so long since she’d had female friends, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act. “Sure. I met him at the Rooftop Lounge. We were talking….”
“Talking? Sweetheart, I love my husband with every bone in my body, but Riyad is lust encased in skin. You’re going to have to do better than talking. Was he dark and seductive?”
Blushing, Danielle bit her bottom lip, and she sank onto the mattress next to Natalie. “Not dark at all. He was forward…” she smiled, “but also charming. He acted like he cared about me as more than a one-night stand. We had a great couple of days and nights….”
“Couple?” Natalie’s eyes were wide. “Amy is going to kill me when she discovers that she wasn’t here for this conversation. Keep going.”
“I’m not going into details!” Danielle gasped in embarrassment. She certainly wasn’t going to tell this woman she barely knew how Riyad had been the best lover she’d ever known. How quickly he could make her fall apart with a stroke of his finger or the whispered promises of what he’d do later with his tongue. Thinking about it had her clenching her thighs together. “It was a great couple of days, followed by a horrible few hours!”
Natalie’s face changed from eager inquiry to concern. “Did you sleep last night?”
“Some.” She’d been plagued by nightmares and fears all night. “It wasn’t the kidnappers, though. I don’t sleep well in a strange place.”
“You lie so often and so easily,” Natalie said with a tilt of her head. “I want to be your friend, Danielle. I won’t make you open up to me, but I think you might find that you need to talk to someone.”
Was she really that transparent?
“I appreciate that. Thank you,” she said softly. “I’m still trying to process everything. I,” she set her lips in a thin line, “I think it might be better for everyone if I left the kingdom.”
Suddenly, Natalie’s eyes widened as she stared past Danielle. Turning around, Danielle’s heart sank when she saw Riyad lounging in the door. From the angry look on his face, she could tell that he’d heard what she’d said.
“I’m confused,” he said casually. “Do you not comprehend the danger you’re in, or do you simply not care?”
“I should go,” Natalie said quickly, getting up from the bed. She turned around uncertainly. “Unless you want me to stay?”
“She doesn’t need you to stay,” Riyad growled.
Annoyed, Danielle narrowed her eyes. “Don’t answer for me,” she snapped. “Natalie is my friend, and if I want her to stay, then she can stay.”
“Do you want her to stay?”
“No,” Danielle stood and planted her hands on her hips. “But that’s not the point.”
Natalie laughed softly as she slipped from the room.
Riyad slammed the door behind her and then rounded on Danielle. “Do I need to put a guard on you to make you stay?”
“I am not some ninja like you. I wouldn’t even begin to know how to escape this palace, and since I’m never alone, I can’t simply walk out.”
“I am not a ninja, and I have a lot going on right now, Danielle. I don’t need to worry about your safety on top of everything else.”
It shouldn’t have hurt. She barely knew this man, but being reduced to one more thing he had to worry about stung.
He must have realized it because his face softened. “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said softly as he stepped toward her.
“I’m not going anywhere. It frustrates me because I want to go somewhere. You can’t walk into a conversation and immediately assume I’m going to flee,” she grumbled. “Is there any other reason for you to be here? Other than to make sure I’m still here?”
The moment of silence that followed seemed to stretch on before he shifted uncomfortably. “I was checking on you. Are you really not sleeping? Is it the mattress? Is it the room? There are plenty of other rooms. Just say the word, and I’ll find something more comfortable.”
“Are you kidding? This bed is amazing. It’s like sleeping on a cloud, and the room is beautiful. It’s…everything else,” she muttered. She didn’t want to talk about the kidnapping. She didn’t want to talk about the fear of dying or the terror that after everything, she might lose the child.
“You should talk….”
“I don’t want to talk!” she yelled. “Riyad, I’m a stranger here. While Natalie and Amy have been unbelievably welcoming, I don’t know them. Your brothers don’t trust me, for very good reason, and it’s not such a great environment for therapy, you know?”
“But you know me.” He spoke in a low voice as he stepped forward, and his intentions were all too clear. The air warmed around them, and she immediately regretted putting on the sweater. “I’m not a stranger.”
He was going to kiss her. She could tell, and she wanted it. It took seconds for her tense body to melt at the thought of him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and lose herself in his embrace and forget about everything that happened. Travel back to the time when he had been an anonymous lover in her bed.
“I know your body,” she whispered. “But that’s not really the same as knowing you, is it?”
He stiffened, and his jaw clenched. “Iman says that you haven’t been eating. That stops tonight. I’ll be joining you for dinner. Be prepared.”
“What? How does your brother know I haven’t been eating?” she asked, but he was already out the door. Grumbling to herself, she sat back down on the bed.
The man was beyond frustrating.
8
Riyad returned to her room at seven o’clock with a cart full of food. Danielle stared at him as he rolled it in. “If you’re planning on staying until I eat all that, you’re going to be here for a week!”
“I’m hungry, too,” he said with a quick grin. “I almost brought some wine until I remembered your condition, although to be fair, I did meet you at a bar.”
“I wasn’t drinking. I was just staring longingly at the drink.” She snagged a roll from the cart as Riyad started setting out the meal. “Isn’t this usually something that a servant would do?”
“As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I don’t spend much time at the palace. I’m used to serving myself.”
Danielle snorted as she sat herself in the chair at the table and pulled her legs up under her. “I haven’t had a lot to do since I’ve been here, so I’ve done some research. You might not spend a lot of time at your palace, Sheikh Riyad, but you certainly spend plenty of time at other people’s palaces. And with other women.”
“Jealous?”
Yes. “No. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. You’re a wealthy playboy by day and hero by night? Why did you rescue me rather than paying up? Not that I think I’m worth paying a ransom for, but I’m curious.”
“The rebels didn’t want money. They wanted me to denounce my brother, something I have no intention of doing. Nor did I want your death on my conscience. Rescuing you seemed the best option.” He poured her a glass of water and ladled some soup into a bowl.
Danielle accepted it in puzzlement. “Soup? In the desert?”
“We eat soup. It’s chickpea soup. I requested it because I thought it might make you feel better,” he said awkwardly.
Picking up her spoon, she relaxed and smiled. “I’m pregnant, Riyad. I’m not sick.”
She expected him to cringe whenever she reminded him of her condition, but it didn’t seem to bother him all that much now that he knew she wasn’t looking for a daddy for the baby. He piled some food on his own plate and finally sat down. “I didn’t mean your pregnancy. I meant your insomnia. You’re getting circles under your eyes.”
Self-conscious, she turned away from him. “You’re not going to let it go, are you?”
“I’m concerned.”
“You want me to admit I was scared? Of course I was scared. I’d been abducted in a country where I didn’t know anyone, by a group o
f men who clearly hated me because I’m an American. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, so yes, I was scared. I’m still scared. You might have rescued me from the rebels, but I’m still trapped here, and I have no idea why!”
“That’s fair.” His eyes followed her spoon as she slowly stirred her soup. “You aren’t responsible for them targeting you. I was at that lounge for another reason, and I was attracted to you. My few days with you was not meant to be political or complicated. You were taken because of me. The men following me assumed that because you were shopping for baby toys, you were pregnant with my child. They wanted to use that as leverage.”
“They’re not all that smart, are they?” she grunted.
He cocked his head and stared at her. “Why do you say that?”
“If they were really following you, then they would have known that you’d just met me. As it is, it sounds like they only started following you a few days ago.”
“You’re right.” He put his fork down and frowned. “I should have seen that. Anyone collecting information on me should have realized the child isn’t mine. Someone told them to tail me.”
“Uh-huh.” Danielle took a sip of her soup. It was still a little too hot, but it was warming, and Riyad was right. The slightly spicy soup was somehow comforting. “I feel like you had some revelation, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I work for the kingdom’s intelligence agency. I use my title and my reputation as a playboy to travel through all the kingdoms and most of Europe. It makes it easy for me to move and gather information,” he said. He got up and started to pace. “I’ve been away for months. I’d only returned for the party….”
Danielle set the bowl down on the table and held up her hand. “Wait a minute. You’re a spy?”
“Anyone gathering information on me would have realized that I’d only met you. They didn’t come to the conclusion you were carrying my child because they were following me. They must have been told that by someone else.” He stopped pacing and faced her. “Atif is right. Someone is pulling their strings. They think they’re fighting for tradition, but they’re nothing more than a gun someone is pointing in our direction.”
“Can we go back to the part where you’re a spy?”
Riyad began to pace again. “If Antar knows the activities I’m engaged in, he’ll never talk to me. No wonder all the intelligence we’ve been getting about the rebellion was wrong. Someone else is pulling the strings. Killing cells and resurrecting them elsewhere to distract us.”
“Riyad!” Danielle finally shouted.
He stopped dead and stared at her. “Is this really so shocking? You’ve spent this whole time calling me a ninja. You had to know.”
“Know? How would I know? We didn’t really talk a lot in the hotel. We definitely didn’t talk much when we were running from the rebels, and then you dropped me off here, and I haven’t seen you since. I don’t know anything about you, Riyad!”
“What do you want to know?”
His question stunned her. She’d expected him to blow her off or change the subject, but now that she had an opening, she didn’t know what to ask. “Why do you do it?”
“Iman is the Crowned Sheikh. Bahir manages the businesses in the family name. I needed something to do. I’d wasted too many years partying, and Atif, my father’s cousin, offered me a position. I wanted to protect my home. I wanted to protect my family. This was a way for me to do it.”
“So you don’t actually sleep with all those women?” She hadn’t meant to sound so hopeful, but when he gave her that look, she withered a little inside. “Not that I’m upset about it. We were a one-time thing. A few times, actually. We’ll say a two-day thing. No strings, so your history isn’t really an issue.” She was babbling. A babbling idiot. Wonderful.
His face clouded. “You’re asking about my history. Let me return the favor.” As his gaze fell pointedly at her stomach, she moved to cover it without thinking.
“My boss. I know. It was embarrassing and unprofessional, but I’d thought I’d finally found a balance between my personal and professional life. I thought I’d found a way to have a man and a career. Technically, I suppose I did, but that man was married, and I didn’t find out until after I told him I was pregnant.” Chewing on her bottom lip, she shifted in her chair. “Everyone talks about women’s intuition and the motherly bond, but my intuition really sucks. Boyfriend was married. Lover was a sheikh spy.” She laughed hollowly. “I’m not so sure the motherly bond is going to work out, either.”
“I didn’t mean to make more problems for you, Danielle,” he said intensely. “You have to know that.”
“I do.” Feeling antsy, she pushed the chair away and walked toward the window to look out.
“You were beautiful. That was my first thought when I saw you in the Lounge,” he said softly as he walked up behind her. “Stunning actually, but you looked out of place. I briefly wondered if you were a spy, there to watch me. I approached you because I wanted to know more about you.”
She practically squeaked as she turned to face him. “Me? A spy? I would make a terrible spy.”
Smiling down at her, he nodded in agreement. “Yes, I figured that out quickly.”
“So, then what? Plan B? Find out what was under my clothes.”
“No.” He reached up and gently stroked the hollow of her throat with his thumb, a gesture both intimate and stimulating. She swallowed hard as her body heated up. “I wanted to know your story. Usually, women can’t stop talking about themselves around me, but you were tight-lipped. The sex, as hot as it was, was the second-place prize to what I really wanted.”
Reaching up, she placed her hands on his chest. Touching him was intoxicating. “Now you’ve had my story and my body. What’s next?”
“Oh, Danielle. I could tell you that I would have paid all the money in the kingdom for your safe return, and you wouldn’t believe me, would you?”
Blinking, she shook her head. “What?”
“I’ve only had a piece of your story, Danielle. And as for your body, I have the strangest feeling that I’m never going to get enough of that.” Before she could digest what he’d said, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.
This was a horrible idea. He was a sheikh. He had a history of women throwing themselves at his feet. Continuing their affair could only end in flames, and she’d already had enough of that.
But she couldn’t tell him in this moment, and as she wrapped her arms around his neck, she relinquished her control.
“You still want me, Danielle. Even after everything. You can’t deny that,” he whispered hoarsely as he wrapped his hand through the strands of her hair and gently pulled her head back so that he could rain kisses down her neck.
“I can’t deny it, but that doesn’t make it okay,” she cried out, even as she pulled at his shirt. “It doesn’t make it right. You’re a sheikh and I’m…I’m….ah,” her protest was cut off as his hands slid under her shirt and cupped her breasts. His thumbs stroked her as she tried to remember what she had been saying.
“You are the woman I can’t get out of my mind,” he growled as he dragged her shirt over her head. “You are the woman I see when I close my eyes and want with every breath I take. As long as I can have you, Danielle, I’m going to take you. When I’m with you, I’m not a fucking sheikh or a spy. I simply want to be your lover, so kiss me, and let me worship you.”
Her body answered for her. Rising up on her tiptoes, she kissed him, trying to put everything she was afraid to say in that kiss. How she couldn’t get him out of her mind. How she felt his hands on her whenever she closed her eyes, or how she struggled to breathe when she thought of his kisses. How he breached her defenses and forced her to imagine a future with him, knowing it could never be.
With a groan, he picked her up and carried her to the bed, where he wordlessly undressed her. Something heady was in the air, and while she wanted him inside her in that moment, she w
as powerless to stop him as he took his time and skimmed his lips over her body. He knew all her sensitive spots, paying close attention to the insides of her wrists and the hollow of her throat. He gave equal attention to both breasts, licking at her nipples until she arched under him, straining for closer contact. Finally, he settled between her legs.
“Riyad,” she begged. “Please. I won’t last.”
“You’re ready to explode,” he murmured. “But I know exactly how to build you back up. Again and again.” His voice roughened with passion as he stroked her hip. “All night.”
He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her pussy, and she whimpered as his tongue darted out to taste her. At first, he teased her and danced his tongue around her clit. It drove her to the brink of insanity, and she lost all control as she bucked against him. “Please,” she begged him. “Please, Riyad. I need to…oh…yes…yes…!”
Finally, he scraped his teeth over her clit, and she had to bite her knuckles to keep from screaming as her release ripped through her body. She half expected to find herself levitating off the bed, but Riyad kept her grounded. He held her down and licked her gently through her orgasm until she finally stopped shuddering.
“I’ll never get tired of that,” he murmured hoarsely as he slid back up her body and kissed her. “The sounds you make. The way your body moves. I’m starting to think that your orgasms are my addiction, Danielle.”
“You’re the only one who’s ever made me feel like this,” she admitted as he stroked her sides. Burying her face in his shoulder, she was grateful for the time he was giving her to recover. With her boss, it had been nice, but most of the time, her satisfaction had to come from her own ministrations rather than his. To have someone pleasure her so completely was not something she’d experienced before.