by Lynn, Sophia
Ziyad hissed with pleasure, and when he looked up at her after that, she could see that she had lost control of the situation, if she ever had it in the first place.
"I think that's enough exploring for you," he said with just a hint of silken menace. "I think it's time to put what you learned to good use."
"And how shall I do that?" she asked, that familiar, pleasurable heat surging low in her belly. She knew that voice. That voice made her shiver with remembered desire.
He didn't bother responding to her. Instead, he hauled her up so that she lay on her side next to him, and tugged one of her hands down to his manhood. He wrapped her trembling fingers around the shaft and then closed his hand over hers. She felt him squeeze gently, and she shivered at the idea of his using her like that even as his free hand slipped down between her own legs.
"Will this be all right?" he asked gruffly, and for a moment, she wondered why it wouldn't be.
"It'll be fine," she said after a moment. "I gave birth more than a year ago, everything's fine..."
She was rewarded by an easy smile, and then his hand was on her flesh, touching her with all the boldness and strength that she remembered. There was no tease this time. Instead, he found her most sensitive spot and started stroking her, dipping his fingers down low to catch some of her liquid arousal and then bringing it up to smooth the way.
She gave herself over to the power of his touch, letting his hand guide hers on his shaft, feeling the warm sensations that quickly turned to pure heat from his other hand.
At some point, he had pulled her hand from his body, and he was up on one elbow, looking down at her while he worked her flesh with his hand. When Penny looked up at him, she thought of conquering warriors who must have looked at their subjugated lands like that, in full awareness that all they saw belonged to them.
"Oh...oh Ziyad, I think I'm going to..."
"Yes, bella," he growled. "I want you to."
There was no way she could have stopped herself, whether he wanted her to stop or not. His fingers had found the perfect rhythm, the perfect pressure, and her body tightened up harder and harder until it was as if she exploded in a shower of stars. She gasped, remembering just in time to stifle her cries with her hand before she exploded. His hand stayed steady on her flesh, pressing lightly to encourage the pleasure to increase. She rose up and sailed on it, eyes open wide but unseeing, until finally the pleasure pulled back enough for her to groan and settle down into the real world.
"Ziyad..." she whispered, turning to him with wide eyes, and he chuckled.
"Oh, don't worry, little bella," he said, pulling his hand away gently. "I'll get my turn.”
Penny still felt hazed with pleasure as he rolled on top of her. The warmth of his body against hers was peaceful, but then she felt his cock brush against her thigh, and another spike of desire drove through her. She had never considered herself insatiable before, but perhaps for this man that was the only word that would do.
With a careless strength that had always taken her breath away, he lifted her legs up, hands underneath her knees, and laid them against his chest. It lifted her lower back almost clear of the bed, and then she gasped as she felt the hot tip of his cock pressed against her entrance.
"Is this good?" he asked, and looking up into his face, she nodded, because somehow she needed him again.
They both groaned when he entered her fully. She was so heated with desire that he slid in to the hilt, and the position made her feel every inch of him. For a moment, he didn't move. Instead, he only looked down at her with an expression she couldn't read. There was need there and longing and some kind of grief as well, and then it was all washed away with desire and need.
He began to thrust into her, and despite the nearly insane longing that had infected both of them, he didn't rush at all. Instead, Ziyad took his time, moving within her in waves as powerful and steady as the tide. She could anticipate each deep slide inside her, feeling the pleasure of her body taking it all.
At one point, he reached down to touch her cheek gently, and she felt as if her heart was too large for her chest. When she told him she wanted him, it was for more than the activity that they were now engaged in.
His movements stoked a fire in her, and before she would have believed it, she was shaking again. She reached up, desperate to touch him, frantic that all she could reach was his chest and arms. He seemed to detect her burning desire. He took a firmer grip on her hips and started to move more quickly, his motions more erratic and frenzied. With every thrust, he pushed the fire in her higher until it was a roar and her body was shaking as she dug her nails into the muscles of his arms.
"Oh Ziyad, Ziyad," she whimpered, and almost to her disbelief, her climax overwhelmed her. It wasn't as powerful as the first, but it still shook her to her core and left her limp underneath him. She still had the energy to hang on to him, and when he thrust into her for the last time, she felt the shadow of that pleasure come over her again.
She felt him spill inside her, and there was something supremely satisfying about that. She felt complete in a way she hadn't felt since Rome, whole and healthy and replete with satisfaction.
He was a warm weight on her, perfect and delicious enough that she would have let him stay there a lot longer, but then he levered himself up with a grunt and rolled to one side.
To her shock, Ziyad was looking at her with a frown.
"What's the matter?" she asked, feeling the first edge of a panic.
"We didn't use a condom," he said, his voice dark.
"Oh, is that all? Don't worry about it, I'm on the pill."
He scowled at her, and she felt slightly defensive.
"The doctor put me on it because I was having some issues after Sola was born," she said, eyes narrowed. "And it would be fine if I needed it for another reason because we weren't together then."
For a moment, he looked like he was going to argue, but then he nodded stiffly and walked to the bathroom.
The moment was brief, but it reminded her of how much lay between them. In bed, it was as if no time had passed at all, but when they weren't making each other sigh with pleasure, they were two people who had a very complicated relationship.
When he came back, he looked a little calmer. When he didn't get back into the bed with her, she sat up. After their last conversation, she both felt wary and as if she would have given anything to be able to throw herself into his arms.
"What is it?' she asked, aware of how hoarse her voice was after everything they had done together. Just a few minutes ago, she had been locked into an embrace with this man that seemed to obliterate the world. Now she was wondering if she should go get her robe to cover herself.
"May I be completely honest with you?"
She wondered a little at the formality of his words, but she nodded. "I always want you to be honest with me."
He seemed at a loss for where to begin, but then he shrugged.
"There is so much going through my head right now, and I can only imagine that it is the same for you. I think we need to talk, and we should do it seriously, in daylight, and with our clothes on, for the sake of making sure we keep our wits around us." A faint smile flickered across his lips. "I think speaking naked is wonderful, but it is rather distracting.”
He sighed. "I also think that, while everything I have said is true, all I really want to do now is to crawl into that bed with you and sleep together."
He paused, and she knew that whatever came next, it would be difficult for him to say.
"I have missed you in a thousand different ways since we have been apart, but that is one of the things I miss the most. Sleeping with you. May I stay with you tonight and sleep with you in your bed?"
The soft and humble way he asked her that question made her heart ache, and she was nodding even as she got up to pull back the sheets and blankets.
He sighed as he climbed into bed with her. They came together as if they had never been apart, and after th
e exertions of the day, she could feel herself start to drift off almost immediately.
She thought she heard him whisper something, but then she was asleep. Surely if it was important, he could tell her in the morning.
Chapter Thirteen
Ziyad stayed up for a long time, listening to Penny's breathing. There was a part of him that was soothed in a way that he had been missing for the last two years. He knew in some vague and distant way that he had never slept well while he was the sheikh, but he had assumed that was because of the stress and pressure of it all.
Now, though, warm and naked in a bed far away from home, he understood in a way he never had before that it was all because he had been missing this. Penny fit him in a way that he had never been able to explain. She was a part of him, or rather, she was a complement that made him complete. He had been half a man without her, and he could see that much more clearly now.
Less than half a man, he thought with a pang.
For two years, he had been a father, and he had never known it. The idea of Sola was still so new that he could barely understand it. Underneath the contentment of sleeping with the woman he had been dreaming of for years, he could feel the enormous amount of pure emotions, confusion, love, longing, even anger at having been denied his daughter.
He knew he had been the one to send the money to Penny, telling her in no uncertain terms that everything was over, but still a part of him couldn't understand what had happened. He was one of the most powerful men in the world, he had riches and power that few could dream of, but what did it all matter when this was outside of his grasp.
In the darkness, he scowled. As much as he wanted to stay in bed with Penny, he got up and started to pace. He put on his trousers again and padded barefoot out of the bedroom. He paused by Sola's door, but he didn't want to wake her when she had started sleeping through the night.
He was in Penny’s living room for a bit, and her kitchen, and he was so lost in thought that he was surprised to look up and find the sky lightening to a softer blue. But he was no closer to an answer than he was hours before.
Finally, he shook his head and started back to Penny's bedroom. At the very least, he could lie next to her, listen to her breathe and touch her soft skin.
Instead, just as his hand was on her door, he heard a muffled sound from Sola's room. It was a whimper that seemed strangely sad, and alarmed, he crept into the baby girl's room. He told himself that he would go fetch Penny if there was anything the least bit wrong, but to his surprise, he found Sola struggling to sit up.
He watched with fascination as she fumbled around the crib, pushing herself up with determination. Her tiny brow was wrinkled with effort as she struggled, but finally, she was sitting upright and looking around. Ziyad could barely stop himself from clapping with pride at her accomplishment, and he started to leave when she saw him.
If he had thought of it at all, he would have said that a baby would probably have been afraid or angry at a new stranger in their home. But instead, Sola only stretched her arms out to him, babbling a stream of cheerful nonsense words.
“Me?” he whispered. “Are you sure you don't want me to get...”
At his hesitation, her peaceful expression turned stormy, and as he watched in dismay, her mouth turned upside down in what was sure to be a loud howl. Hurriedly, he crossed the small space between them. It had been years since he’d held a baby, but the lessons given to him by a forgotten great aunt were lasting. He scooped Sola up in his arms, and after a soft sigh of relief, she collapsed against his chest.
He was almost too afraid to breathe, but after a frozen moment, he went to sit in the large rocking chair by the window. It made him think momentarily of Penny sitting in this chair night after night for the past year, holding an even tinier Sola against her chest. The picture of it made his heart tighten, and he knew in that moment that things could not continue as they had been.
With his tiny daughter resting against his bare chest, he thought and he planned, and by the time the light was beginning to return to the sky in earnest, he had made his decision.
***
PENNY WOKE UP alone, which was startling, but at first she didn't understand why. Then she remembered last night, how Ziyad had appeared out of the dark like some kind of phantom from the past, and she caught her breath.
She was as naked as she had been when she’d fallen asleep, and hurriedly she grabbed a nightgown. Ziyad was nowhere to be seen, but he had never been the type to disappear after sex.
At least, he wasn't when I knew him, she thought with a frown. Penny reminded herself that this was a man who had been on his own for two years just as she had been. She knew that she had changed a great deal, and she could only assume that he had as well.
She washed her face in the bathroom, and then she started for Sola's room. She checked on her daughter every morning.
But this particular morning, she was greeted with a sight that made her heart leap.
Sola wasn't in her crib. Instead, she was resting as easily in Ziyad's arms as she did in her mother’s, and Ziyad, bare to the waist, was watching the sky out the window.
When he heard her step at the door, he glanced up, and there was something unspeakably solemn in his gaze.
“Good morning,” Penny said softly. “You look like you've done that before.”
“A great aunt forced me to hold a baby at a family function decades ago,” he said offhandedly. “Apparently some lessons stick.”
“I wish your great aunt had been around when Sola was born,” Penny said, coming into the room. “I had babysat before, of course, and I had held some babies with the neo-natal group that I attended, but when she's all yours and you are exhausted from labor, you feel like you are all thumbs. The nurses were kind, however, and I guess instinct counts for something. I got the hang of it fairly quickly.”
Ziyad nodded, and he glanced down at Sola before looking up at Penny again.
“Do you need to take her?” he asked so wistfully that she shook her head.
“You can keep holding her if you want,” she said. “There's a bottle in the kitchen I can warm up for her, and then you can give her breakfast.”
It was strange, Penny thought. Ziyad fit into this life as if he were meant to be there. There was still a strange sensation at the idea of having him around, but there was a part of her that simply craved him, that needed him, and here he was.
During Sola's bottle, however, Ziyad received a phone call, and with an apologetic glance, he handed Sola back to her.
He was on the phone all through the rest of the feeding, Sola’s getting changed and dressed, and then Penny’s changing into a soft sweater and long black skirt. Her daughter burbled gently as Penny put her in the high chair, but for the moment Penny ignored her, making her way to the refrigerator to get her own quick breakfast.
Ziyad was in the living room, still speaking in fast Arabic, and Penny felt a thrill of unease as she thought she heard the words “Washington DC” and “baby.” What was going on? She calmed herself, because after all, there was no reason to be worried.
Nor was there any reason to be hopeful, she reminded herself. Ziyad had appeared like a breath of magic from a long-forgotten time, but she knew that didn't mean he was going to stay. He was in DC for a short time, and tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that, he would leave again. Perhaps he would be kind enough to send Sola presents on her birthdays and holidays, but she couldn't expect anything more, not at all.
She fried some eggs and toasted some bagels, and by the time she was done putting the plates on the table, Ziyad walked into the kitchen. He watched silently as Penny carefully separated out some small, soft chunks of egg for Sola to try, and he accepted his own portion of the food quietly.
“I hope that wasn't anything serious on the phone,” she asked, because the silence was drawing itself out. “I was thinking that perhaps you would want to stay with us here for a few days. Of course, I don't know what your
schedule might be like...”
“I will not be staying here,” he said, his voice intent, and Penny's head shot up.
She tried to cover up her heartbreak with a frown. “Oh, I'm sorry to hear th--”
“I'm not staying here,” he repeated. “Instead, Sola will be coming to Najma with me.”
For a moment, Penny was certain she hadn’t heard him correctly. “Are you serious?!”
Ziyad's face had a look that she didn't know at all. She knew this man when he was playful, when he was saddened, when he was happy and when he was upset, but this expression was one that she could only call implacable. This was not a man who would allow someone to refuse him, and she felt a deep shiver go through her body.
“I am very serious,” he said calmly. “This is my daughter. She has rights and privileges that she cannot assume here, no matter how much money I send to you. She belongs in Najma.”
Penny felt her body run cold, but then just as quickly, it was replaced with an intense heat. Without even thinking of what she was doing, she moved to put her body between Ziyad and Sola. She knew that if Ziyad truly wished to force the issue, she wouldn't stand a chance, but right now, she didn't care. This man, no matter how he made her feel or what they had done together in the past, had threatened her with taking away her daughter, and that was something that she could in no way condone.
“No,” she hissed. “You have known her for less than twenty-four hours. I have been with her since the moment she was born. She belongs with me, and no matter what I have to do, you will not take her from me!”
She almost expected Ziyad to stand up and start shouting, but instead he only regarded her with a hooded gaze.
“All right.” The words were uttered with an almost unnerving calm.
She watched him skeptically. “All right? All right what?”
“All right. I will not separate her from you. You'll come to Najma with us.”
She shook her head, but at least she was calm enough to sit back down with him.
“You're unbelievable,” she said, shaking her head again, and at that, Ziyad did smile a little.