Maharaja's Mistress

by Susan Stephens

  ‘Ram!’ He was standing in the doorway, dangling a set of keys. Ram—fresh from the shower with his hair still damp, dressed in snug-fitting jeans with sexy bare feet and a crisp, clean shirt with the sleeves pushed back to reveal his powerful forearms.

  ‘This is your last chance,’ he threatened, giving the keys a little shake.

  ‘Haven’t we gone too far for you to take me back?’

  ‘I could drop you off in Italy.’

  ‘I suppose you think that’s funny?’ She firmed her jaw. ‘As much as it tempts me to have you at my beck and call, Ram Varindha, I’m going to resist the temptation to put your flying abilities to the test—so you can put those keys away for now.’

  ‘Mia, Mia, Mia. You know you don’t want to give me that sort of test.’

  ‘I have no idea what you mean,’ she assured him, wondering if it was possible for a body to melt like candle wax—which was what hers seemed to be doing.

  Ram moved so fast she was in his arms before she had chance to think. ‘You’re just so—’

  ‘Arrogant and impossible?’ he suggested with a husky laugh.

  ‘That’s nothing to be proud of,’ she said, thinking red-hot, rich and royal didn’t even begin to describe him. And Ram was most definitely used to getting his own way. It was about time she threw out a few challenges of her own. ‘Do you always go flying with bare feet?’

  ‘That depends on how high I’m planning to take you.’

  By the time she had processed that piece of information Ram was kissing her.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘YOU seemed a little surprised to see me?’ Ram observed, cupping Mia’s face to stare at her intently.

  ‘I thought you had things to do.’

  ‘I do. And you’re top of my list—’

  ‘Ram—’

  ‘You can’t act shocked when your nipples are drilling a hole through my shirt.’

  ‘Always the romantic.’

  ‘No, that’s you.’

  ‘You’re really bad,’ Mia gasped as he attacked her neck with tantalising kisses.

  ‘And would you have me any other way?’

  ‘Do I get a choice?’ Her lips felt swollen; other parts of her too. Her eyes had to be black as night. She was all sensation…all hunger and fear and lust and uncertainty. What did she know about sex other than some random fumbling with boys as gauche and inexperienced as she was?

  And Ram was a master of the erotic arts, as he was proving without too much effort, so why was she worried?

  Was it usual for two people to fit together so well when there was such a difference in their size? She pressed herself against him—just to confirm she wasn’t mistaken. And sighed as sensation ripped through her body.

  ‘You like that?’ Ram said, moving against her until she couldn’t think straight.

  ‘I’m surprised you can find the time for it,’ she gasped, clinging by her fingertips to what remained of her sanity.

  ‘I can always find time for you, Mia…’

  ‘Oh…’ The waves of pleasure were coming thick and fast now, clouding her mind—or what remained of it. All she wanted to do was relish the sensitivity in Ram’s fingertips as he ran them down her spine, and snuggle as close as she could into his warm, muscular body…

  But she had to remember Ram had spirited her away from Monte Carlo on this mystery voyage without so much as asking her permission. ‘You’re lucky I’m as calm as I am,’ she managed shakily, at which Ram’s lips pressed down with amusement.

  ‘I thought you might have noticed by now that I use very particular calming techniques.’

  ‘I did notice.’ Maybe if she weren’t quite so receptive to Ram’s touch she might be able to get her head round what was happening. Ram kissing her; Ram wanting her; Ram making love to her—

  ‘I’d hate to overstay my welcome,’ he said.

  She blinked. Was he offering to leave? ‘You could stay and make amends,’ she countered on a wave of desire.

  ‘Make amends how?’ Ram demanded huskily, brushing her swollen mouth with his lips.

  ‘I’m sure I’ll think of something.’

  ‘I’m sure you will,’ he agreed.

  ‘Don’t sound so confident,’ she warned him. ‘I’m still angry with you—furious, actually.’

  ‘Oh, no.’ Ram pretended concern. ‘What can I do to make things right?’

  ‘This time you must come up with a solution,’ she informed him. ‘I can’t think of anything you could do to make up for your bad behaviour.’ Except kiss me again…and again and again…

  ‘I think I’m going to make you wait—’

  ‘What?’ she exclaimed as he moved away.

  ‘Restraint is good for you.’

  ‘Not in this instance.’ It had left her with an unholy ache.

  ‘Oh, and if you don’t like the accommodation I’ve chosen for you,’ Ram said as if he hadn’t heard her, ‘I can always have someone show you round the yacht and you can choose a suite of rooms more to your liking.’

  Knowing her luck she’d choose his. ‘I’m fine here, thank you. In fact, I think I’d like to take a shower now.’ She glanced pointedly at the door. Ram couldn’t have it all his own way.

  ‘A shower? That’s a good idea. Why don’t I lend a hand?’

  ‘Ram, I’m warning you…’

  As if he were going to pay any heed. ‘Put me down. I can bathe myself.’

  ‘That’s no fun.’

  ‘Put…Me…Down…This…Minute.’

  He did—but on the bed.

  ‘It seems I have some serious apologising to do.’

  ‘You certainly do,’ Mia agreed. If this was nothing more than a frustration-induced fantasy she was with it all the way.

  ‘Maybe we should leave this for another time?’ Ram suggested, his rich voice dark and teasing.

  ‘Maybe we should.’ Reaching up, she tested her hands on the corded muscles of his upper arms, closing her fingers slowly, yet firmly, to keep him close. ‘But I don’t want to.’

  ‘You don’t?’ Ram’s kisses lit a burning trail towards her mouth.

  ‘Oh, Ram, I want you…so much…’

  There was nothing like keeping him guessing.

  ‘Don’t make me wait,’ she warned him for good measure.

  But Ram took his time undressing her. He understood all about delay. She knew nothing and was just happy to learn.

  The slip of a dress fell away and she was naked to the waist underneath it. Her nipples were bright pink and engorged, and even her breasts seemed fuller. Ram seemed to approve, judging by the way he was stroking them…moulding them…weighing them appreciatively with his hands, and generally teasing her senses to a point where she was writhing unashamedly on the bed and making uncharacteristic little whimpering sounds.

  With each delicate rasp of his nails on the tips of her nipples she felt a corresponding urge to arc her body towards him. She did have everything to learn. It was as if there were an invisible connection between her nipples and other parts of her that were swelling rapidly as if to catch Ram’s attention—parts that were moistly preparing for his most thorough and prolonged attention. Just a slip of lace separated them now, though Ram was still full clothed…

  ‘Is this fair?’ she demanded, reaching for the buttons on his shirt.

  ‘Do your worst,’ he challenged, throwing his head back so she saw his full potential, from the thickly corded column of his neck, to the impossibly wide spread of his shoulders and his powerful chest. She needed no further encouragement. The hunger to feel Ram’s hot, hard flesh against her was the only thought in her head now, and so she ripped at his shirt, tugging it out of his jeans and yanking it over his head, registering a wealth of muscles on the way. ‘You’re beautiful,’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Stop stealing my lines,’ Ram said, laughing.

  She watched his hands in fascination as he undid the buckle on his belt. Snatching it out of his grasp, she snapped it through the loops on his je
ans and tossed it aside, returning immediately to relieve the emergency situation swiftly building beneath the tightly packed denim. Oh, my G—

  Was she ready for this?

  Steady. She was taking this too fast—giving Ram the wrong idea. If he impaled her on him without proper preparation she’d be damaged for life.

  ‘Scared?’ he asked. And when she mumbled something unintelligible, he added, ‘I understand. A little healthy respect for the sex act is always a good thing.’

  ‘The sex act,’ she repeated, snatching at anything now to delay the inevitable. ‘Can’t we make love? Or maybe start with a cuddle?’

  ‘Relax and enjoy,’ Ram murmured, easing his jeans over his hips. ‘We’re in no hurry. Just listen to your body as I touch you…’

  Her body was singing an opera with a cast of thousands and didn’t seem to know how to turn the volume down. And now Ram was naked and the brush of his hot flesh against her body was a tantalising hint of what she could expect. His control reassured her. She wouldn’t have trusted herself to be so restrained. And all that strength married with control was more aphrodisiac than she could handle. And to think it was all at her service…

  Ram’s powerful hands could deliver the most delicate of touches. His long, lean fingers were precision-engineered instruments of pleasure. And then there were his kisses, long and lingering—in the sensitive crook of her elbow, down her neck and across her chest, until finally, gloriously, they reached her breasts, and then her belly and now her inner thighs…

  She was so swollen and moist by the time he touched her she barely left him anything else to do. Or so she thought until Ram moved down the bed and eased her legs over his shoulders, when she learned she was wrong about that too. And how did he play her that way—bringing her to the edge and knowing just when to pull back?

  By the time he moved over her she had forgotten her fears and welcomed him with no inhibitions, drawing her knees back as he claimed her to her own soundtrack of sighs and sobs as she grasped at him frantically, clutching him close as he moved to take her completely.

  When she was sure she couldn’t bear any more pleasure he began to move, slowly at first, and then with increasing speed and resolve until she was wild for him and wild for the ending they both knew could only be a heartbeat away.

  ‘How am I going to cool you down?’ Ram demanded when hours had passed in a hazy mist of pleasure.

  Daylight might have faded, but her appetite for Ram was still intact, Mia discovered. ‘Are you complaining?’ she demanded softly. ‘Am I too much for you, perhaps?’

  ‘Too much for me?’ Ram grinned. ‘You don’t know me at all.’

  Unfortunately, that was true, Mia reflected. They had gone about this back to front, starting with intimate before they even knew what made each other tick—except here in bed, of course.

  Ram covered her hand with his when she reached for him. ‘There’s nothing I love more than a strong woman who knows what she wants,’ he said. ‘Especially one that’s badly in need of cooling down.’ And hoisting her over his shoulder, he headed for the bathroom.

  ‘You wouldn’t,’ she screamed with excitement when he turned the shower on cold.

  ‘Really?’ he said mildly, and the next thing she knew she was under it, screaming her lungs out as the icy water thundered down.

  ‘I’ll never forgive you for this.’

  ‘Until I warm you up again,’ Ram guessed.

  He guessed correctly.

  ‘You are so going to pay,’ Mia exclaimed, dragging Ram beneath the shower with her.

  In a heartbeat they were wrestling with Mia’s main aim being to wrap her rapidly cooling body around Ram’s red-hot frame.

  ‘Make me pay, baby.’

  She laughed incredulously. ‘Have you no shame?’

  ‘None,’ Ram confirmed.

  There was only one small fly in this seductive ointment. If life had taught her anything it was that she couldn’t have everything she wanted, and that what seemed to be the most precious to her was always the one thing that got away—

  ‘Penny for them,’ Ram demanded, catching her close so he could tease her with kisses.

  ‘I want you again.’ And she wanted to keep those other thoughts away.

  ‘Oh, you do…’ He pinned her firmly against the wall. ‘Had I better take the edge off?’

  ‘If you think that’s all you can manage.’

  Ram’s eyes burned with the confidence she loved. ‘I’ll just have to do the best I can,’ he said.

  ‘And that will have to be enough for me, I suppose,’ Mia teased right back.

  ‘Give me some directions here—is this what you want?’

  ‘Getting there,’ she conceded, locking her legs around his waist.

  But she wanted more than to just take the edge off her physical hunger—she wanted everything Ram had to give and more, Mia realised, wishing she could lose herself in pleasure and forget about the unlikelihood of anything long-term developing between them.

  ‘Like this?’ Ram murmured.

  She sank gratefully into his erotic world. ‘It’s a start,’ she gasped, leaning back in his arms.

  ‘Perhaps I’ll allow you a little bit more, then,’ he said, sinking fractionally deeper like a miser eking out his treasure.

  She angled her body shamelessly. ‘I want more—I want it all.’

  ‘You’re a very greedy girl,’ Ram said, withdrawing fractionally. ‘What’s your hurry?’ he breathed against her throat. ‘We’ve got all the time in the world.’

  Had they?

  ‘You promised to heat me up,’ she reminded him, suddenly conscious again of the freezing shower.

  ‘And I never break a promise,’ he agreed.

  He entered her slowly, taking his time to appreciate every hot muscle Mia closed so greedily around him. ‘Are you sure this is what you want?’ he teased her as she whimpered.

  ‘If it isn’t you’re in serious trouble,’ she promised, arcing towards him.

  She groaned with pleasure as he took her deep. ‘Like this?’ he suggested.

  ‘Exactly like that,’ she confirmed, dragging in a gasping breath. ‘Except you’re not allowed to stop.’

  ‘What, never?’

  ‘I’ll tell you when.’

  He laughed and shook his hair out of his eyes. ‘Message received and understood,’ he assured her, moving just the way she liked. ‘I could probably talk you over the edge.’

  ‘You probably could—but what fun would that be?’ she demanded, rocking with him. ‘And I don’t want you getting lazy just when I’ve got you trained.’

  ‘You’ve got me trained?’ But he couldn’t resist and so he thrust her over the edge just for the pleasure of hearing her scream. ‘Now who’s in control?’ he murmured as he soothed her down.

  ‘You are,’ she whispered. ‘That’s the good thing about training—it massively improves a man’s control.’

  ‘Not any man,’ he said.

  Maybe it was the tone of his voice—or maybe the extremes of cold outside and hot inside—but she snapped alert and stared at him. ‘Only one man can do what you can—at least where I’m concerned.’ And then she laughed to cover for the suddenly serious tone of her voice.

  ‘What?’ he said.

  ‘You should have warned me we were going to indulge in extreme sports—I’d have taken out travel insurance.’

  ‘I’ll take care of you,’ Ram said, realising he meant it. ‘But don’t for one moment think the training is all one-sided, or that it’s almost over.’ He turned the shower to warm and lowered her carefully onto the marble floor.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ Mia demanded as he swung her into his arms.

  ‘Back to bed,’ he said. ‘Unless you can think of a better place?’

  For once, it seemed he had hit upon an argument with which even Mia couldn’t disagree. He carried her into the bedroom, grabbing a towel on the way, while Mia kept her legs locked round his waist and her hand
s firmly clamped on his shoulders.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he reassured her as they continued their crazy journey across the floor.

  ‘You’re right about that,’ she said, tightening her hold on him as he tipped her backwards onto the bed.

  ‘Now,’ she commanded.

  ‘Is this any way for a lady to behave?’

  ‘I’m not a lady, I’m a pirate queen—and they used to keep harems of men for their pleasure.’

  ‘No harems,’ he warned.

  ‘Then you have to do the work of twenty men.’

  ‘So, I’m your sex slave now?’

  ‘Call it anyway you want—but if you must talk, do it later.’

  They both started to laugh as he stared down at her while holding himself on braced arms a teasing inch away.

  ‘Well?’ she said. ‘What are you waiting for?’

  He was just thinking how lovely she was—and how lucky he was.

  ‘Be gentle with me,’ she teased him, writhing on the bed. ‘I’m so much smaller than you are.’

  ‘Like I haven’t noticed that.’

  ‘You wouldn’t?’ she said, when he took her wrists in a loose grip, holding them above her head on the bank of pillows.

  ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t.’ He released her, making her reach for him, and then found himself kissing teardrops from her cheek. When he asked her about them she laughed and said she must be allergic to him, and when he narrowed his eyes she told him to get over it, she had—and so he let it go.

  She couldn’t let Ram get to her. He was doing what he did best, while this was so much more for her. She must not fall in love with him. He would know immediately and then he’d pull away. And if he left her life a second time, she couldn’t bear it.

  ‘I think we should start over—and without the tears this time, Mia.’

  She had no argument with that. ‘As many times as you have strength for,’ she agreed.

  ‘It’s going to be a long night,’ Ram promised.

  Chapter Ten

  MIA woke to find her body aching pleasantly, and she was all neatly tucked up in bed.