by Lynn, Sophia
"It's all right?" she murmured ."They are not too much?"
Ziyad laughed softly, so kindly that all of the doubts flew out of her head.
"They are yours," he declared. “And that makes them just right for me. You are perfect, bella, and I will always tell you so.”
He settled down beside her, and the next thing she knew, he was touching her breasts with a kind of sensitivity and care that brought tears to her eyes. She had been groped, had men call after her for blocks because of them, cried over how ashamed she was about it, and now he was treating them as if they were something beautiful and precious.
Penny had never thought she was a woman with sensitive breasts, but when Ziyad ran his palms over the curves, brought his mouth down to her achingly erect nipples, and flicked his tongue over the hard peaks, she nearly levitated off the bed, groaning with need. It felt as if he were drawing pleasures from her that she could never have imagined before, making her whimper with need for him.
“What...what can I do for you?” she gasped, turning her head to him. He shot her a look that was full of wicked pleasure that at once made her think she should run for the hills while also wanting to bring him even closer.
“Believe me when I say there are many things I could imagine you doing for me, my darling, but right now what I want you to do is to enjoy yourself. I want you to lie back, and I want you to learn all about the pleasure that you can truly feel. I want you to learn everything that your body is capable of. I'll take my turn at some point, but right now...this is all for you.”
She started to protest, but then he rested his hand on her soft body, sliding it smoothly down to the mound of gingerish hair below. She held her breath, but instead of being rough or startling, he simply stroked her mound, her hips and her highs until her body seemed to buzz with need and pleasure. At times, she wanted to apologize for taking up all his attention, for simply lying back and enjoying it, but then he would touch her in just the right spot and everything flew out of her head except for pleasure and an increasing urgency that seemed to vibrate deep inside her.
At some point, she wasn't sure when, her legs parted under his gentle touch. It wasn't that he had opened them; instead, he had relaxed her enough that they opened willingly and naturally. When Ziyad first brushed his fingers along the soft and sacred flesh there, she nearly wanted to close them again. But then he trailed his finger along her slit, finishing with a circle over her clit, and she knew she couldn't deny him at this point. It was all pleasure, it was all need, and right now, she needed more of his touch not less.
Something about her response to his touch made Ziyad's breath catch. When she glanced up at him, she found him looking down at her with awe in his eyes.
“You are so perfect,” he purred. “So perfect in every part of you...”
His touch between her legs grew more firm, tracing up and down her slit and always finishing with a circle around the spot that sent a jolt of pleasure throughout her body. At first the pleasure was merely a simple ripple, but as he repeated it over and over again, she started to arch up against his hand, moaning with need and want.
“Oh please,” she murmured. “Please, please, I need more than that...”
Soon enough, his fingers were sliding easily against her. She could smell as well as feel how wet she was, and perhaps at another time that would have embarrassed or alarmed her, but right then, all that mattered was Ziyad and how he made her feel.
Penny bucked against his touch, craving more and more, and then he pulled his hand away. She was on the verge of toppling over the edge, and she looked at him with such reproach that it made him laugh, though there was a breathless, needy quality to it.
“Don't worry, bella,” he murmured. “I will not let you wait much longer. Only it is that you are so irresistible...”
She started to ask what he meant, but then he was sliding on top of her, his weight supported on his elbows.
“Am I too heavy?” he asked, and she could only shake her head no.
It had never occurred to her before how delicious it could be to lie underneath a man, to bear his weight and feel the bluntness of his manhood press against her most intimate flesh. When he shifted against her experimentally, she whimpered, spreading her legs wider, and it made him smile a little.
“Oh, wonderful bella, I shall take such very good care of you...”
She nuzzled against him in response, because right now, there was very little she could say or do against the buzz of anticipation that ran through her body. It was as if every fiber of her being was focused on the need to get closer to him. She needed him, and right now, that was all she cared about.
He leaned his head down to kiss her at the same time that he pressed his hips forward, sliding inside her in a single stroke. His mouth caught her brief cry of surprise, and then she was clinging to him, her nails digging into his broad shoulders.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking down at her. She could see the tightness in his jaw, the tension of his body. In that moment, she knew that he would never hurt her, no matter how good this felt for him, no matter how much he wanted what was happening between them.
“Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, only don't stop.”
The pain had been momentary, bright as a pinch, and then fading like one as well. In a matter of seconds, all she felt was a sense of being full and complete, filled with a kind of physical joy she had never thought herself capable of feeling. The pleasure that ran through her body made her whimper with need, and somehow, after everything he had done to her, she felt herself lofted even higher.
He began to move inside her, thrusting slowly at first and then with greater speed and need. He surged into her, his thrusts powerful enough to rock her like the ocean itself, and all Penny could do was cling to him. It seemed as if with every stroke he made the waves inside her wash up even higher until she was trembling and shaking with need and pleasure.
The sensations started to race through her body as he began to quicken his strokes. Before, he had been full of nothing but concern for her, but now she could feel his pleasure take over his body, washing away his restraint. His thrusts grew harder and more erratic, and perhaps she should have been afraid, but instead Penny only clung to him harder, wanting more and needing it.
“Oh... Oh Ziyad!” she gasped, and he growled deep in her ear. It was a dark and primal thing, and something in her responded to it like she never thought she would. It was as if that single sound called a deeper pleasure from some place inside her. Her entire body tensed, and when she did, she began to shake with a kind of physical completion she had never known before. She clung to him as hard as she could as her climax rolled through her without mercy, without any ability to stop it.
She had never felt anything like it before, and in that moment, she was only able to cling to him and let it happen. She was nothing more than a living wire where electricity ran rampant, and she cried out so loudly that her throat grew cold and sore. It felt like an eternity before her body started to calm, but surely it was only a few minutes. Just as she started to get her breath back, Penny felt Ziyad increase the tempo and force of his thrusts until it felt as if every movement was pushing her towards the head of the bed.
When he finally broke under his own pleasure, he cried out, a lonely and wild sound that immediately made her wrap her arms around him. She reveled in the liquid heat of him spilling inside her, the way he shook, the way his teeth nipped at her shoulder as if all of this sensation was simply too much for him.
Afterward, they drifted in a pleasurable haze. At some point, Ziyad had pulled out of her before drawing her into his arms. The quiet between them, drenched in the golden light of the ripening morning, was somehow perfect. Penny rested her head against his shoulder, finding an entirely new kind of pleasure in the exhaustion that seemed to fill her entire body.
“You're amazing,” he whispered, and she laughed.
“Are you sure you're not the amazing one?” she teas
ed. “You were the one doing all of the work.”
He shook his head, surprisingly serious. “No, the ability to take pleasure openly and honestly, that is a gift as well, something very special and rare. Simply seeing you enjoy what I was doing and truly feel it all...well, that was amazing.”
There was nothing but open honesty in his voice, and overwhelmed, she could do nothing but reach up and kiss him. Drawing him down to her and feeling his warm mouth on hers made her moan a little. It felt amazing, slow and peaceful and with just a hint of that electricity that had shot like lightning around them as they made love.
She didn't realize what kind of effect it was having on him until he laughed and pulled away.
“If you keep that up, we may be in bed all day,” he warned.
“I might not mind,” Penny began, but then her stomach rumbled, making her blush.
“That's a hint if ever I heard one,” he said, climbing out of the bed and offering her a hand. “Come on. We can have a shower, and then we can find our way to that bakery I mentioned last night.”
She started to tell him to take the first shower, but then he began tugging her towards the bathroom.
“What? You mean you want to take a shower together?” she squeaked, and the grin he gave her was so wicked that she could feel it down to the very tips of her toes.
“Well, it definitely saves water,” he said innocuously. “And it also means that neither of us are going to need to deal with the hot water running out...”
She decided abruptly that she could see his point and followed him into the bathroom.
Chapter Nine
The next few weeks seemed to fly by for Ziyad. He wasn't sure what kind of spell Penny had woven over him, but it was one that he was content to stay in for the rest of his life. When he was with her, Rome was more beautiful, he could feel things he had never felt before, and everything felt simple, good and pure.
Their days fell into a kind of pattern. She would go do her work, and he might communicate with Najma, sometimes with his father, but more often with Altair. Despite his recent hospitalization, it sounded as if Qasim was as stubborn as ever. Ziyad thought with amusement that the man would likely outlive the continent.
After she finished up with work, he would meet her at a fountain not far from her school. It was a thing of marble and gold, ancient and beautiful. It depicted a voluptuous woman rising from a painstakingly carved marble wave, and in his more fanciful moments, Ziyad wondered if her face looked a bit like his love's.
Then Penny would show up, smiling and still energetic after wrangling children all day, and he would decide that no, there had never been a woman like Penny before.
After that, they would find something to eat, stopping as often in small, hole-in-the-wall diners as they did in the stately restaurants he had always chosen before. They tried new foods together, they wandered in the city's night markets, and he bought her enormous armfuls of poppies to decorate her apartment.
Then, when they’d had their fill of the city, they would return to her flat or his penthouse and make love. He had been with many women, but Ziyad had never had a lover like Penny before. There was something completely honest about the way she made love. She held no part of herself back, and when they were done, he would swear that he could see the light and goodness of her soul shining out of her eyes. One day, he realized that the flecks in her green eyes were purest gold, and he felt as if the heavens had looked down to bless him with this woman.
There were responsibilities waiting for him in Najma. He knew that. He was the son of the sheikh and his father's only heir. However, the days passed, and the UAE had never felt farther away. He knew that Najma was one of the more conservative emirates, and no matter how much Penny might adore its art and customs, it would not welcome her easily, if at all.
To Ziyad, at this moment Rome was the world, and he was more content than he had ever been. When beautiful women passed by, he never looked at them unless it was to realize that his tastes had shifted so dramatically as to be nearly unrecognizable.
He realized wryly that in another time, he might have actually thought that Penny had put a spell on him. He was a modern man, however, and after three weeks of being with her, he finally realized it wasn't magic at all. It was love, pure love in a way he had never imagined. His mother had died when he was young, and throughout his life, he had always assumed that his father was simply a cold and uncaring man. Now he wondered if it was possible that his father had been different before everything happened, if he had been as over the moon for Nadja as Ziyad was for Penny.
The thought occurred to him late one night, and he had actually gotten out of bed to pace for a while. What would he be like if someone took Penny from him, if she disappeared and there was no way to get her back? It might drive him to be as cold as Qasim was.
Finally, he’d gone back to bed, resolving to call his father in the morning.
But he never got around to it, because the next day was simply too busy, and then so was the day after that, and the day after that. In most ways, the thought fell out of his mind until an afternoon almost four weeks after he had met Penny.
***
PENNY LEFT SCHOOL singing and nearly dancing to a pop song she had loved when she was a teenager. She had shared it with her students, and though they generally loved the music she introduced them to, they had loved this one specifically. When she left, she had still heard them singing it in the hallways, and it had made her laugh.
The sun was shining bright in the sky, and it seemed like a day in Rome that was made for lovers. Speaking of lovers...
She wasn't sure she had ever been as happy as she was with Ziyad. She supposed in the back of her mind she had always hoped to find someone to love who would love her in return. But she had never thought someone could fulfill her the way Ziyad did. With him, she felt safe and whole.
Today, as she approached the fountain, he was sitting on the lip and reading a book. To Penny, he looked like a little slice of calm in the middle of all the chaos of a Roman street. For a moment, she simply ducked into an alcove to look at him, drinking in the sight of the man she realized that she loved.
She wondered what kind of future they might have together. As far as she could tell, he lived off of his funds without working at all, and that certainly felt a little strange to her. However, she knew he was generous to a fault, and that she had never met a man as kind and as gentle. Sometimes he spoke of Najma with such wistfulness that it broke her heart, and other times, it sounded as if he would be just as happy to stay in Rome forever.
“'ey, are you going to buy something?”
She jumped at the harsh voice behind her and turned to find herself being glared at by a spry old woman with a bicycle basket full of bouquets. Inspiration struck, and she smiled a little.
“I would love to,” she said cheerfully.
In a moment, she had a bouquet of bright white daises with sun-like centers, and she carried them straight over to Ziyad.
“Hello, dear,” she said with a smile. “I thought I would bring you a gift.”
He grinned, and his smile rivaled the sun.
“How beautiful,” he said. “We can bring them to my place tonight. What do you think of getting takeout? I think I'm in the mood for a real pizza margherita tonight, nothing fancy, just a classic.”
“That sounds fantastic,” she said and started to suggest a place that they both liked, only to be interrupted by a chime from his phone.
When he made a face and looked as if he was going to ignore it, she raised an eyebrow.
“It's probably important,” she said. “You don't get all that many calls.”
Ziyad sighed with mock impatience, but he took the call and raised the phone to his ear. She was watching him idly, thinking of nothing more complex than dinner, when she saw his face change.
“What?”
The alarm in his voice made her heart jump up to her throat, and she suddenly felt numb.
<
br /> This is it, she thought for some reason. This is when everything changes...
He reached out blindly with one hand. Instinctively she took it. She had been sleeping with him for almost a month, and she was not sure she had ever felt it so cold. Ziyad listened intently to whatever was going on at the other end of the line. From what Penny could hear, someone was speaking rapid-fire Arabic at him, and Ziyad was responding tersely, listening to everything with wide eyes.
Finally, he nodded. “All right. I'll head to the airport immediately.”
He hung up the phone with a decisive tap on its screen then turned to Penny. She had never seen him look the way he did then, as if he were a shell of a man, as if some part of him were already far away across the continent
“Ziyad?”
“Bella, there has been some trouble at home. I...I must go. My father is ill, and he is not expected to survive for much longer.”
She gasped, nodding wide-eyed.
“Yes, you should go,” she said, and then hesitantly added, “Do you want me to go with you? I can call the school while we're in the air, pay for my ticket with credit cards?”
For a moment, she could see him consider it. If she had ever doubted his love for her, she would never doubt it again. Instead, she only saw desperation in his eyes and a frantic need that she ached to help.
“No,” he said finally. “This would...not be a good time to bring you to Najma...”
She thought he would say something else, but then he gathered her into his arms for a bone crushing hug. His mouth was on hers, the kiss as wild and fierce as any they had ever shared. No matter how long it really was, it was too short by far, and she sighed a little as he pulled away.
“I will get in contact with you as soon as I can,” he promised. “I...care about you a great deal, Penny, but I must be at home now.”
There was no doubt in her mind anymore. “I love you, Ziyad,” she said firmly. “I love you, please hurry back to me.”