by Marian Tee
In three strides, the sheikh had already reached her, and in the next second, he had already swept her up in his arms.
His handsome face was hard and serious as he gazed down at her. “I will only ask you this once. Are you certain---”
She didn’t even wait for him to finish his question, her arms going around his neck as her mouth covered his.
It was the most explicit answer she could give, and they both knew it.
The sheikh closed his eyes.
So fucking be it, and to hell with everything.
She wanted him, he wanted her, and right now it was all that should matter.
Chapter Sixteen
As the sheikh’s tongue gently pried her lips open, countless thoughts swept into her mind, each and every one of them an earnest attempt to imagine just how good it would be to have the sheikh’s tongue inside her mouth.
But when it did happen, nothing she imagined even came close to the moist and agonizingly beautiful reality of his tongue forcefully delving into her mouth, claiming, branding – taking possession of what she had long wished to give him.
Breaths mingled in one, limbs adjusting as she turned to him, arms locking around his neck and legs wrapping around his waist while his fingers came to grasp her hair in a deliciously hard grip.
The kiss deepened, and she was embarrassed to hear herself panting at the sheer throbbing delight of it. She never wanted to end, wished she had the lungs of an Olympics swimmer so it could last far, far longer, but in the end, she had to gasp for breath, and the sheikh finally lifted his head.
Blue eyes smirked at her, telling her he could have kept on kissing her until she fainted, and a strangled gasp of annoyance escaped her. “You---”
But he was kissing her again, and try as she might, she couldn’t even stop herself from clutching his shoulders as she instinctively pressed her body closer to his.
God, he kissed so damn well.
Hyacinth dimly felt the sheikh lowering her to the rug by the couch, and his fingers moved with skilled expertise as he divested them both of their clothing. In moments, they were both naked, and she didn’t know whether to feel excited or depressed. “You’re so good at this, damn you.”
“Are you asking me to apologize?” the sheikh purred.
Yes. No. Shit. And because she couldn’t make up her mind, she simply glared up at him instead, and amusement gleamed in the sheikh’s blue eyes.
“Take my advice,” Rayyan murmured, “and stop thinking of unnecessary things. Concentrate instead on this.” His mouth closed over her nipple, and a whimper slipped out of her as her body arched up.
He seemed to spend an eternity sucking on her breast, and by the time he moved to her other breast, she was out of her mind with need for him, her body buckling against his again and again.
“Please.”
It was mortifying, the way his tongue licking her nipple had reduced her into an incoherent mess, capable of only uttering the same things over and over.
“Oh God, please.”
Her nails clawed his back as he lifted his head so he could start playing with her swollen and distended nipples, tweaking and pinching it with his fingers.
“Rayyan, pleeeeeeeease.”
But this only seemed to spur him into prolonging her torment, his mouth snaking down her sensitive belly and all the way to her moist, sensitive core. A gasp escaped her when he began to part her folds open, and her head started to turn left and right when she sensed his mouth coming closer and closer –
His breath fanned her throbbing folds, and her body curved up even as she quickly covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming out loud.
His tongue thrust deep into her womanhood, and she increased the pressure of her hands on her mouth as another cry struggled to spill free.
Oh…God…
He began fucking her with his tongue, harder than she ever thought possible, and her body started to jerk uncontrollably under him as she cried out against her own hands. Eventually, his hands came to press hard against her inner thighs, pinning her hips into place as his tongue continued to wreak havoc on her insides, alternating between laving her contracting walls and flicking the tip of his tongue against her already too-sensitive clitoris. With every stroke of his tongue he left an indelible mark on her, never to be forgotten, always to be dreamed of, and just when she was about to implode at all the burgeoning pleasure, the sheikh rose, looming over her –
Blue eyes captured hers as he positioned himself between her trembling thighs, and then he was lowering himself back down with exquisite slowness.
Her breath caught.
It was the cue he was waiting for, and with one swift, deep stroke, his cock drove past her hymen, and she became his.
“Rayyan.”
He shuddered at the sound of his name on her lips. It felt too damn sexy and intimate, and most surprising was its incredible impact on his libido, heightening his arousal into a fevered pitch that he suddenly could no longer control himself.
A growl escaped him as he pounded into her, doing his best to keep his thrusts steady at the start, but when he felt her moving under him, her breasts rubbing against his chest and her hips rising to meet his, the last of his restraint broke, and he found himself pounding into her.
Harder and harder and harder –
Faster and faster and faster –
“R-Rayyaaaan----”
He managed to fasten his mouth over hers, silencing Hyacinth’s scream with a hard kiss just as her orgasm took over and she started to come. A second later, and the feel of her sweet, pulsing flood of wetness was too much to bear even for himself, and with a rough growl against her lips, Rayyan allowed his own pleasure to overcome his senses, his cock wildly pummeling in and out of her pussy as he released his own cum.
By the time Hyacinth managed to find the strength to open her eyes, she was back in the sheikh’s arms, and he had just stepped out of the palace’s secret tunnel and into the vast privacy of his bedroom.
Moments later, a humming sound of pleasure fell past her lips as the sheikh lowered her into a whirlpool of foamy bubbles and rose-scented water. She moved back into his arms as soon as he lowered his powerful frame into the bath, and she saw his eyes gleam when she came to straddle him.
Hyacinth lifted her chin. “You don’t like it?”
“On the contrary---” He hauled her close, and water splashed between their naked bodies as she fell against him. “I find it cute, the way you’d rather play the temptress than show how shy you’re really feeling---”
“Shut up.” She splashed water at his face, but the sheikh had the last laugh when he simply lifted her up by the waist, and before she realized what he had planned, he already had her nipple in his mouth, and she cried out when Rayyan gave it a little tug between his teeth.
“You---” She struck his rock-hard shoulders with her fists, but it was like hitting a brick wall. “Jerk.” But she ended up gasping the last word out as his fully erect cock thrust inside her without warning.
Her eyes flew wide. “Rayyan!”
But he was already moving.
Oh God.
It was starting again.
An impossible feeling of fullness, a wonderful sense of roughness, and most of all, that indescribable feeling of completion, knowing that the man you loved was fucking you –
Her inner muscles squeezed his cock, and the way the sheikh groaned triggered her own pleasure, and her moan blended with the raspy sounds of his own desire.
This time, their lovemaking was more leisurely but no less exquisite, and when she fell apart in his arms for the second time, his lips had also nipped the sensitive lobe of her ear, and all hopes for some semblance of control and propriety disappeared in an instant.
She couldn’t stop herself from crying his name out, and once she started, she realized there was no way for her to stop.
Rayyan. Rayyan. Rayyan.
She had lost count of the times she moaned his name w
hen the last tremor of her orgasm faded, and she could only close her eyes as the sheikh started washing her body.
They were in his bed by the time she found the energy to look at him and say very clearly, “Bastard.”
Rayyan threw his head back with a laugh.
“Don’t think I didn’t know what you were doing, and I swear to the fucking heavens, you will never hear me cry your name out again.”
“Challenge duly noted and accepted, anisdi.”
“From now on, I’m going to call you something else, and it’s going to be cringe-worthy. Like…like…”
He watched her brows furrow as an intense look of concentration came over her face, and he wondered if it was natural for a woman to be so devoted at the thought of competing with her own lover. But then he saw Hyacinth’s caramel eyes glitter with triumph, and the sight was too delightfully amusing that he decided it didn’t matter.
Everything she did was charming –
“I’m going to call you my bae from now on.”
Or not.
She snickered at the look on the sheikh’s face. “It’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe. What do you think about the two of us breaking up for good the moment you try calling me that?”
“Actually,” Hyacinth quickly backtracked, “I was just joking.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
She made a face. “Spoilsport.”
“I’m simply making you aware of my preferences, majamira.”
Oh. Hyacinth cleared her throat. “Speaking of preferences…”
A moment passed, and when she still didn’t speak, Rayyan gazed down at her with a frown, noting the sudden paleness of her face. “Say what you wish, anisdi,” he said gently. “I doubt it’s as bad as you think, whatever it is.”
That’s what you think, Hyacinth thought, but even as she hated herself for being such a coward, she said what she wanted to say, and when she finally found the courage to meet the sheikh’s eyes –
Things were as bad as she feared them to be.
.
Chapter Seventeen
“His Royal Highness, Sheikh Rayyan Al-Atassi, has come to speak with you.”
Cecile fought hard to keep her face blank at the principal’s words. “I have a class in ten minutes---”
“Don’t be silly.” Impatience flickered in the older woman’s gaze. “I’ve already spoken with Ms. Campbell, and she’s already said yes to taking over your class. The sheikh is in the conference room, so I suggest you get there immediately. It is impolite to keep a member of the royal family waiting.”
“Of course.” She bowed before leaving and managed to keep her sedate expression intact until she had closed the door behind her. And then she started to run.
She had no idea where things would go from here, and she honestly couldn’t care less. It wasn't like she and Jacob had kids to worry about. The only reason she had stayed married to him all these years was the knowledge that she was doing the right thing.
But then she had almost lost Rayyan, and everything had changed.
His near brush with death had forced Cecile to acknowledge the truth of her feelings, and once the blinds were off, there was just no going back.
She loved him, she had never stopped, and now –
Cecile practically flung the conference room door open in her excitement, and a smile curved over her lips as she watched the sheikh visibly start in his seat, taken aback by her unnaturally dramatic entrance.
“Sorry.” Giddiness made her breathless and unable to stop smiling even as she made her apology and turned to close the door. “But it’s your fault. I think it’s very bold of you to come here---” Spinning back to face him, she saw the sheikh on his feet, and her words came to a clumsy stop when she saw the clipped expression on his beloved face and the rigid outline of his tall, powerful body.
“I thought it was better to speak to you in person about this.” He watched her features stiffen even as she slowly sank down into the closest chair, and even though she was a woman of thirty now, every time he looked at her, all he could see was the seventeen-year-old girl he had fallen in love with.
“Hyacinth and I have gotten back together.”
Ruby red lips tightened even as pain flashed in her eyes.
“I would appreciate if you do not speak to her---”
“You think she’ll be grossed out by the fact that you once wanted to fuck your cousin---”
He stiffened.
“Or that no matter how hard you tried to forget the past, you still couldn’t make yourself stop loving me all these years?” Her chin jutted up. “Because it’s the truth and we both know it. The way you’re looking at me now, it’s always been the way---”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter!” The words, coming out in a shrill, sharp cry, stunned both of them, and shame engulfed her in the next moment. She had never let herself go that way. Not even when she had first realized the shattering truth about their love, and she had felt like killing herself – she had always managed to hold on to her self-control.
Always.
It had been her source of strength growing up, knowing that everywhere she went, people always spoke of her mother’s mysterious past and the even more mysterious source of her wealth and how she was able to keep a lavish lifestyle without working a single day.
Only Rayyan had been able to break past her reservations, only Rayyan had been able to make her trust another person– and yet in the end, fate had taken him away in the most cruel way possible.
But this time, she thought fiercely, things would be different.
She was done letting society, her mother’s past, fate – she was done letting everything and everyone have a say about how she was supposed to live her life. It was her life, dammit, and she was sick and tired of constantly depriving herself because she didn’t want people to think she was her mother’s daughter.
Looking up at the only man she had loved her entire life, she said quietly, “I’m not letting you go just like that.”
Anger flashed in the sheikh’s blue eyes. “What right do you have to say that?” he demanded coldly. “You were the one who turned me down. You were the one who married another man---”
“I know.” Bitter regret underscored Cecile’s voice. “I think of it every night. I cry about it inside here---” She pounded her chest with her fist. “---every damn night.”
“I don’t give a damn.”
“But you do---” She forced her shaking knees to work as she rose from the chair. “And we both know it.” Her voice grew urgent. “And I’m telling you now – I’ve been telling you all this time – I want a second chance with you.”
“It’s too late---”
“I love you---”
“And so does she,” he said harshly. “I’ve pushed her away more times than I can bear to remember, but she’s never stopped loving me. She knows I love someone else, and it hasn’t made her turn her back on me.” He watched Cecile’s exquisite face grow increasingly pale with every word he uttered, and he had to force himself to do nothing.
“R-Rayyan.”
But the way the sheikh was staring at her made it seem like he was a stranger, and she had lost all right to think of him as hers.
“You promised.” Vines of fear wrapped around her heart at seeing him turn his back on her. “You p-promised, damn you. You promised.” Her voice broke. “You said you’d love me forever.” But not once did he look back, and fear turned into cowardice as she closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight of him walking away from her – this time for good.
Aisha was already waiting in the hallway when the sheikh stepped out of the conference room. “You’ve taken care of it?” he asked abruptly.
“Nem, alshaykh.” CCTV footage of whatever had taken place the past thirty minutes inside the conference room had been edited, with no one the wiser.
Giving the agent a curt nod of thanks, he then i
nstructed her to stand guard and make the appropriate excuses to keep anyone from entering the conference room until Cecile had properly recovered.
And after that, despite still hearing the faintest sound of Cecile weeping inside the room, despite having the sight of her in pain burning in his mind – he forced himself to walk away.
It was what he owed Hyacinth.
It was the least he could do.
And he hoped to God that the day would never come he’d end up hating her for all these things he was forcing himself to do – and all because he felt guilty about not being able to love her back.
Chapter Eighteen
Sex was supposed to solve everything, or so Hyacinth had tried to convince herself, but reality sadly taught her otherwise. The months that followed seesawed from blissful to dreadful, depending on how big the latest elephant Mrs. B had sent to their room.
Three months ago, a major scandal broke out when one of the kingdom’s most prominent construction developers had been charged with fraud, bribery, and embezzlement, among many others. The large-scale scam perpetrated by Jacob Bauer, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, had been discovered by a special task force jointly overseen by the kingdom’s defense and finance departments.
More sensationalized headlines soon followed, with media having swooped in to dig up more dirt and consequently unearthing evidence of Bauer’s womanizing past and how he had been cheating on his wife for years.
Outraged by the news, Prince Arthur privately expressed his displeasure to his ex-lover and made it clear that he expected their daughter to divorce Bauer, a man whom he had ironically handpicked as Cecile’s bridegroom. But since the prince’s son-in-law was never the type to stay on a sinking ship, Jacob had retaliated with blackmail, saying he would reveal the truth of Cecile’s parentage if their divorce pushed through.
All this, Hyacinth had learned from Rayyan himself, whom Prince Arthur had come to rely on since he was the only other person in the royal family who knew of his predicament.