Her simple question threw him off guard. Why had he abandoned the plan? Maybe the same reason his family always thought he was joking when he set out to do anything. Because none of the plans ever came to fruition. Because Yonas eventually lost interest or moved on. He frowned, studying the cement steps leading up toward the church.
“Maybe I’ll look into it again.”
“Or maybe you don’t actually need another nightclub in your life.” Maia’s voice went softer. Her transition to tenderness. He liked that, in just a few weeks, he had learned to read her like a book. She was all sharp edges and knives, but hidden beneath was the soft underbelly that was sweeter and more delicious than anything he’d ever experienced in life.
He laughed hollowly. “One could argue there have been plenty of those so far.”
“I’ve been to enough nightclubs to know that once you hit a certain number, they all become the same. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a mom.”
He jostled the change in his pockets, looking up at the church. “This building should be used for something though.”
Silence stretched between them again. Julian was hopping up each step nearby, counting random numbers—twenty, thirteen, five hundred, two.
“Let’s bring the New Year’s Eve party here,” Maia said. She pushed up her glasses, looking over at Yonas, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “This would be the perfect blend of the holy and holiday traditions. Is it destroyed inside? Is there much work to do?”
“Last time I checked, it was nearly pristine inside. Just fell out of use in the past decade.” He assessed the church again, nodding slowly as her idea percolated through him. “This would be the perfect location. I can have a cleaning crew here tomorrow.”
She sucked in an excited breath, balling her fists as she jumped up and down a little bit. “Oh my god! Can we go inside now and start looking?”
“I don’t have the keys,” Yonas said, and when her face fell, he rushed to add, “But we can come back first thing tomorrow morning. Even before you come to work.”
Maia cheered, and it caught Julian’s attention. He started jumping around and cheering too, and the sight of them celebrating moved Yonas to join as well. The three of them held hands and skipped around in a circle, alternating between laughs and shouts.
He hadn’t been this excited about a new idea in too long to remember. Possibly ever.
But Maia and Julian had a special way of brightening up his world. So much that he was hesitant to return to the relative darkness of what life had been previously.
They wrapped up their walk and during the car ride, settled on a plan: Maia would spend the night at the palace to get an early start at the church the next day. Yonas promised them a room and all the comforts they could imagine, and Maia’s agreement meant more to him than he could fully understand. Facilitating their early morning was one thing, but having her closer, under the same roof satisfied a part of him he hadn’t realized existed.
After a quick packing spree at Iliana’s house, during which Julian was mostly unhelpful and simply excitedly shrieking, the three of them made it to the palace with a few bags in tow. Julian touched every single palm tree he walked by, rubbing his little hand against the rough serrated bark. After a few visits to the palace, he practically knew his way around. He led the way as they followed the familiar route from the garage toward the main hall.
“Look.” Yonas nudged Maia. “He knows the way.”
She smiled. “You’d think he lived here.”
Yonas bit his tongue before he could say what immediately had popped into his mind—he could live here, you know. But that seemed wrong. Out of place. Inappropriate, somehow. Maia and Julian had a life somewhere else. Why would she stick around after her contract expired? Certainly not just for him. He didn’t suspect a woman like Maia would settle for anything less than hardline logic and practicality. Even if they had the best sex of their lives, Yonas knew that wouldn’t be enough to keep her in Maatkare.
He pushed away these thoughts as he helped Maia and Julian settle into their temporary room. He didn’t like thinking about the long term, about the what-ifs, about anything beyond the holiday season. Partly because he didn’t know what might come next, and partly because he didn’t know what he wanted to come next.
Part of him still raged that he should buy the ticket and leave the country anyway. Ride out the Christmas season and then just pack up and leave again, no matter what his father thought.
The other part whispered something altogether simpler.
Just stay and see where this goes.
14
Maia got Julian ready for bed, and Yonas helped read a bedtime story, he and Maia switching off narrating, using a variety of funny voices. It took extralong to get Julian to settle down to sleep, but Maia navigated his whines and protests with grace. Eventually, they crept out into the hallway. Maia grimaced as she shut the door behind her.
“He’s going to get used to you,” she said, her voice edged with a warning.
“What do you mean?” He grabbed her hand, leading her just down the hall to his own room.
“He’ll start to expect that you’re there. Reading the stories. Putting him to sleep.” She sighed, sounding absolutely defeated. “You shouldn’t help anymore.”
He stopped in his tracks, looking over at her. The suggestion cut through him. “But I love helping with those things.”
Her face fell, and she shook her head. “I get that. And I…it’s nice that you love to do it. But for his sake—for Julian’s wellbeing—we should stop this now.”
“Stop reading him stories and helping with bath time,” he said slowly, partly to make sure they were still talking about Julian. Something in her tone suggested more than just the nighttime ritual.
She hesitated, nibbling on her bottom lip. “Right.”
Yonas frowned, pushing open the heavy door to his bedroom. The familiar, quiet space greeted him, his sanctuary within the palace. He flipped a switch, track lights illuminating the lounge space in front of the balcony doors. His four-poster bed remained in darkness, but Maia still hummed with appreciation all the same.
“So this is where the prince rests his head,” she murmured.
“Actually, the prince has been resting his head at Iliana’s house these days,” he said, looking back over his shoulder. Maia’s suggestion still clanked around awkwardly inside him. He didn’t like being told what to do, but this was more than that. She was right—she needed to protect her son’s heart. But part of him wanted to prove that she didn’t need to protect Julian from Yonas.
Part of him wanted to show her that it was safe to let him in. Permanently.
“If you don’t want me helping with the bedtime stories,” Yonas said, leading her toward a giant sectional sofa overtop shaggy rugs, “does that mean I can’t help with the other activities that involve a bed and nighttime?”
A grin appeared. “Well…”
“Mm-hm.” He smoothed his hands up and down the sides of her body, starting a slow dance back and forth. She slung her arms over his shoulders. The look in her eyes was warm enough to melt even the iciest hearts. “That’s what I thought.”
“We should go to bed,” she whispered, absolutely no conviction in her voice. “If we want to get up early and go to the church.”
“Sure.” He took a healthy squeeze of her butt before guiding her back on the sectional. “Definitely let’s go to bed.”
She giggled as he tugged at the waistband of her leggings, rolling them down and over her feet. “You don’t waste any time.”
“No. We have to get up early and go to the church,” he cracked. “No time to spare.”
Laughter rippled through the air as he skipped kisses up her legs, spreading them apart easily. After so many nights of sharing the same bed, her body was familiar to him. He’d never revisited the same lover so many times in recent history.
Unlike his past lovers, Maia felt like home. He wanted to kee
p coming back to her, to exploring her body, to getting to know her past, her quirks, her tastes. The familiarity didn’t push him away as it had with everyone else.
“It’s not good to rush, though,” she said, her voice already sounding a million miles away. He smiled as he nuzzled the damp heat between her legs.
“But what about the church?”
She melted into the sofa, legs widening. He rubbed his nose against the crease of her pussy. A sighed escaped her.
“What church?”
“That’s what I thought,” he murmured, taking a soft bite of her pussy. She shivered beneath him.
“We’ll just have to be tired tomorrow,” she said, running her fingers through the top of his hair. He skipped kisses up over her low belly, pushing her blouse up to her shoulders. Then he sat back, gently helping remove her shirt, followed by her bra. A moment later she was nearly naked, grinning up at him. He tweaked a nipple.
“You’re so easy to undress,” he teased.
“There’s something about you that just makes the clothes fall right off my body.” She tugged at the hem of his tunic. “Now get this off.”
Yonas complied, shedding the tunic as well as his linen pants. When he stood palming the bulge in his briefs, Maia shimmied out of her panties.
“Get those off too,” she said, flinging her underwear across the bedroom by her big toe. “And fuck me.”
Heat seared through him, and he stumbled removing his briefs. Once he tossed them to join Maia’s panties across the room, he eased between her legs. She immediately locked her ankles behind his back, a throaty chuckling erupting from deep inside her.
“You’re mine now,” she cackled.
Yonas buried his face in the hollow of her neck. “Consider me a willing victim.”
His lips trailed over the sharp line of her collarbone, down the slope of her breast and then up over the other one. By the time his kisses reached her earlobe, she was panting beneath him. He kept his body hovering over hers, making sure that no parts touched just yet.
“You’re teasing me,” she huffed.
“No. I’m kissing you.” He smiled as his kisses moved to her mouth. She grunted, arching her back. Their chests brushed.
“You’re not touching me.”
“Yes I am.” His kisses moved down her neck, heading for the valley between her breasts. “I’m touching you with my lips.”
She laughed and sighed at the same time. “Come on. Now I need it.”
“I give it to you every night.” Her insistence warmed him; he felt the same way. It was hard to beat back the hunger for more sometimes. “For two weeks now.”
“Okay, but I need it again.” She wriggled beneath him, hooking her legs around him once more. He grinned, sinking down on top of her, their skin colliding.
“Ahhh.” She wiggled her hips as his cock pressed into that familiar groove between her legs. “There we go.”
“I should get a condom,” he murmured into her ear, only half-meaning it. With his dick so close to the velvety heat between her legs, his willpower was making a rapid exit stage left. She wiggled her hips again, making a small noise into his ear. The last of his willpower faded.
“Or maybe not?” she whispered hotly.
The suggestion shivered through him. The list of women he’d ever chosen to not use a condom with was non-existent. But Maia didn’t have to ask twice.
“Don’t joke,” he warned, pushing up to look her in the eye.
“Not joking,” she said, and he grunted, reaching between their bodies to align his cock. The fat head found her slick entrance, and he pushed the tip in. A shuddery groan escaped him.
“Yesss,” she hissed, clutching at his lower back, digging her nails in. “Please, Yonas.”
He pushed himself in slowly, relishing each new millimeter of depth. The heat and silkiness of her pussy blew his mind—he wanted this to never end. Maybe he could never sleep with anyone else ever again. Maia could be the last and he wouldn’t complain.
His thoughts disappeared as pure instinct took over. He started a slow but fierce rhythm, each thrust sending warm prickles from head to toe. Maia’s girlish gasps only stoked his fire higher. And she begged for more.
Sweat prickled on the tops of his shoulders. His mind buzzed with activity, yet there was distinctly nothing there. Nothing other than the permeating thought of Maia. Her scent, the feel of her wrapped tight around his cock, the sheer pleasure that they always shared. Pleasure that was amplified so much more simply because of…her.
Yonas squeezed his eyes shut, beating back his orgasm with every ounce of mental control he possessed. But it was hopeless. Maia scratched at his chest, hissing as he thrust into her again. He could make her unravel every night for the next year and still want more. And maybe he wanted that. Wanted that more than he could even properly understand.
Maia groaned low, something in her tone telling him that she was damn close if not already coming. He was learning her signals, and her own release could prompt his. His lower abs tightened. He scooped her up into his arms, bringing every inch of their body together.
The heat of her against him did it. He grunted, the first wave of pleasure coating him in a hot rush. His body jerked as he came, their cries mingling together in his beloved sanctuary.
When the pleasure ebbed, they were both left panting and wild eyed.
“Holy…” she began, digging her nails into his shoulder, “shit.”
He laughed weakly, pressing a kiss to her lips. Yeah, he might not ever get tired of that connection. That next-level sex. The way she could rib him in just the right way and it was somehow a turn on.
“Agreed,” he said, pulling out of her. The weight of their decision bore down on him suddenly. When he met her gaze, he could see the same hesitation swirling in her eyes.
“Are you particularly fertile?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Well.” She smiled, brushing some loose hair off her face. “I guess we’ll find out.”
15
Maia checked her watch.
It was nine a.m. on December 29. Two days left until the big party.
And this church still had a long way to go.
She drew a fortifying breath, the same way she had every morning for the past week since Yonas opened the doors to the space of her dreams. Once the palace had given the green light on using the church as the official location for the much-awaited Maatkaran New Year’s Eve party, Maia and Sondra, the event planner, had gotten to work to pull off the impossible.
Yonas organized the cleaning crew as promised, but what remained was a sparkling clean holy space—with an emphasis on the space. The place was huge, and though the party would be big, she wasn’t sure she knew how to fill all the different nooks and crannies alongside the yawning empty spaces to create the ethereal gala she envisioned.
Yonas helped—or at least he tried. He showed up damn near every day to check in on her. But she kept her distance as much as possible. She didn’t want to give him much more than an inch, because then he’d take the whole damn mile. And that was the problem—she needed to keep that mile for herself.
After their explosively intimate lovemaking session—because that’s what it was now, making love—on Yonas’s couch in his bedroom at the palace, she realized she’d gone too far. Not only had she fallen for this man, she’d given him access to the most sensitive, special part of her. Unprotected sex was a big deal to her. She’d loved every second of it. And now? She had two weeks to curtail the future heartbreak awaiting her.
Unless, of course, she could find a way around it.
That was how her days went: decorating like a mad woman and figuring out how something with Yonas might possibly work in the long term. Even though she was certain he’d never go for it, she wanted to envision the scenarios. Just in case.
Just in case he felt the same way.
Just in case he was also trying to finagle a happily-ever-after with h
er.
Just in case she wasn’t the only lovesick person in this affair doomed to suffer a debilitating broken heart once this ended.
He could visit the United States frequently—he had the money and time on his hands. Or maybe she could split her life between the US and Maatkare. She wouldn’t be opposed to spending a lot more time here. But when Julian started school? She frowned at the tulle she wrapped around a column. Then their visits would be drastically limited—summers and holidays only.
The thoughts drained her. Luckily, the pace of decorating was at an all-time high, so she was able to get more time away from Yonas. Whether it was pre-emptive heart healing or strategic future planning had yet to be determined.
After a week of these nonstop-cycling thoughts and worries, she knew she had to say something. It was getting in the way of their sex, and at the very least, that needed to remain free and clear.
So, tonight. She’d say something that night once they met up at the palace. They’d spent the last week at his place, which thrilled Julian to no end. He still requested that Yonas attend every night’s storybook session, despite Maia’s objections. She nibbled on her lip as she clipped the tulle into place, assessing her work thus far.
Even with Sondra and a few palace employees at the helm, they would only just make the deadline. Panic streaked through her, but she tried to quell it. This had been her idea. And if she could pull it off...it might very well be the most epic party in Maatkaran history.
Excitement shivered through her. Admittedly, part of what excited her was spending the party at Yonas’s side. Would he tell his family about them? Would he introduce her as his girlfriend or simply “the decorator”? Butterflies swarmed her belly on a daily basis. She was in so deep she couldn’t even see the surface.
But dammit, she deserved some happiness. If anything, her ex had browbeaten her into expecting boredom and predictability. She loved that Yonas was the opposite of that.
Maia worked until nearly five p.m. and then called for a palace car. She wanted to talk to Yonas now. She couldn’t wait. After a week of trying to will it away, she needed this pulsing revelation to come out into the open between them.
The Sheikh’s Christmas Family: Christmas With The Yared Sheikhs Book Two Page 8