by Leslie North
Melody swallowed hard and finished hanging the ornament in her hand before she came around the tree to stand before him. “So, what do you think?”
Daveed blinked at her as if he’d never seen her before. “About the tree or the hair?”
She raised a hand self-consciously to brush her fingers through her newly shorn locks. Honestly, she’d been so busy with decorating she’d forgotten all about her hair. “Do you like it?”
Her gaze lowered, she feared he’d hate the new style. Silence dragged on for several agonizing seconds until she couldn’t resist glancing up at him, not sure what to expect.
He studied her closely, his light mocha gaze drifting over her face and hair to finally rest on her lips. They tingled anew, just like they had after he’d kissed her in the pub. She didn’t miss the spark of heat and wonder in his eyes. “It’s… you're… beautiful.”
“Thanks.” She bit her lower lip, aware of the way he tracked the tiny movement with his eyes. “I was ready for a change.”
“Change,” he repeated, like he was in a daze. “Change is good.”
“That’s what I thought.” Her cheeks heated and he stepped closer and suddenly all the air in the room seemed to evaporate, the outside world disappearing, leaving only him, only her, only this moment. Heat pounding, she clenched her hands at her sides to keep from reaching for him. She was still worried he might not feel the same way she did about their impromptu kiss in the diner. For all she knew, he’d only done it out of pity. Nope. Best to wait for him to make the first move so she could be sure he really did want her. “I, uh, got a tree too.”
The words seemed to jar him out of his haze and he glanced up again.
“Oh, right.” His voice sounded oddly rough and his tone distracted. Daveed shrugged out of his coat and hung it on a peg in the wall near the door then walked over to the pudgy pine. “It’s cute.”
“The vendor outside was selling them for a good cause.” She shrugged, now feeling strangely awkward after his intense scrutiny. “It’s the first time I’ve bought a tree for myself. First time I’ve done all the decorating too.” She gestured around the room. “Not sure it’s my forte.”
He inspected one of the camel ornaments she’d bought for him and smiled, then walked back over to join her near the sofa. “Looks good to me. Very festive.” Daveed glanced around and then stopped, staring at something above her head. “Is that mistletoe?”
“What?” She looked up then away quickly. “Yeah, it is.”
“Hmm.” He crossed his arms and narrowed his gaze on her. “There’s a tradition behind that, you know.”
Crap. She’d not meant to be so blatant about wanting to kiss him again, but damn. Now that he’d seen it, she couldn’t say she regretted it either. She didn’t speak, not trusting her voice. Just nodded.
Daveed stepped closer to her again, the toes of his black boots touching the tips of her black ballet flats. She slowly raised her gaze to meet his and he cupped her cheek gently, his smile as warm as the look in his eyes. “Guess we’ll need to do something about that then, eh? Can’t go breaking tradition.”
As his head slowly lowered to hers, Mel whispered, “Traditions are good.”
His lips—soft, warm, tender—brushed gently across hers and her knees wobbled.
This was not how she’d pictured her evening going, but man, oh man, it was so much better than she could ever have imagined.
* * *
If asked, Daveed couldn’t have said exactly why he’d kissed her. Maybe it was because of the impending holidays and the fact she’d been thoughtful enough to get him a tree and decorate it when he’d expected to spend another Christmas alone. Maybe it was in celebration of the fact that finally all his investigative work this afternoon had turned up a lead on the missing Aileen. Seemed a friend who worked at the same newspaper as Murphy’s sister knew she’d been onto a big story and Aileen had told them she was planning on going undercover to get the truth.
Or maybe it was because Melody Hascall-Ebons—the last woman on Earth he should possibly consider sleeping with—was in his arms, all warm and soft and sweet. Her velvety skin filled him with a yearning so strong he nearly lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed right then and there. Her lips parted for him and he dipped his tongue inside her mouth to taste mint and a hint of licorice from the tea she’d been drinking. Her curves felt so right pressed against his hardness and he couldn’t help rocking his hips against her. It had been so long, too long since he’d been with a woman. And damn, but he wanted Melody something fierce.
Using every last ounce of will-power he possessed, Daveed forced himself to pull away. He had to be sure that this was what she wanted. After all, they’d only known each other a few days. She’d just been through a nasty break-up. This time of year always made him miss his family, regardless of the fact he’d not seen them in years. It was the holidays. They made him homesick. His family had been Christian since the fifth century, AD, and the Rafik family always did Christmas up right. He cupped Melody’s flushed cheeks and stroked her cheekbones with his thumbs until she blinked open her passion-dazed eyes.
Her pink lips were wet and swollen from his kisses and an unaccountable burst of masculine pride raced through him. He’d made her look that way—all wanted and ready for his lovemaking. His cock twitched eagerly in response.
“Melody, habibaty,” he said, his words emerging rougher than he’d intended from his lust-tightened throat. “Are you sure this is what you want? I don’t want to rush into anything with you. You’ve been through a lot these past few days. Perhaps we should…”
Before he could say anything more, she slid her hands up his chest to place her finger over his lips. “I need this. I need you, Daveed. Please. Let’s share this tonight. Just you and I, and no one else. You want me as much as I want you.” To prove her point, she slid her other hand down to stroke his stiff erection through the fly of his jeans. He couldn’t stop a low groan from escaping any more than he could stop himself from thrusting gently against her palm. “Please,” she said again, her tone quiet and plaintive. “Please don’t turn me away.”
In the end, he gave up fighting against what he wanted, what he’d wanted since the moment she’d walked into the condo that first night—wet and freezing and completely, frustratingly adorable. “Yes.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted her up against him, her chest pressed tight to his as he started toward the bedroom.
“Wait!” she said, gripping his shoulders tight and tearing her mouth away from his. “Let’s stay here.”
Daveed frowned. He glanced around the living room but saw only the sofa—which wasn’t wide enough or long enough to be comfortable for what he had in mind—and the chairs—which had their advantages and which he might try with her later, but for their first time together, he wanted it to be special. “Here?”
“Yes.” She wriggled out of his arms and walked over to the sofa, pulling down the thick fake fur throw decorating the back of it and tossing it under the tree. She pointed toward the gas fireplace in the far wall while she headed toward the light switch by the front door. “Start the fire while I dim the lights.”
He did as she asked, his blood still slamming through his veins and his cock so hard he was surprised he could walk. But when he saw the effects afterward, he knew she’d been right. With the flames dancing in the fireplace and casting the entire room in a soft, warm glow, and the twinkling lights of the snowy cityscape outside rivaling the magical lights on their own small tree, Daveed was enchanted. Both with the scene and with Melody.
She came to him again and this time when he picked her up, he vowed never to let her go again. Not until they’d finished what they started here. He lowered her to the floor atop the fluffy throw, then knelt beside her to slowly peel away her clothes and his. For every inch of her lovely, creamy skin he uncovered he gave it a lick or a kiss or a stroke. She was moaning and clutching at his arms, as if desperate to
feel him against her, skin to skin at last.
More than willing to oblige, Daveed finally conceded and stretched out beside her on the large throw, naked and fully aroused. She seemed to fit him perfectly, her small but perfectly formed breasts just the right size to fill his palms and her berry-pink nipples all but begged for his mouth to lick and suck them. Again, he didn’t disappoint. After kissing her deeply, Daveed trailed his mouth down her throat to her collarbone, then bent and took one straining peak between his lips, gazing up at her as she arched beneath him, her fingers threading through his hair to tickle his scalp. He shivered at the touch, inwardly praising the heavens for gifting him with this glorious woman tonight. At the same time, he couldn’t help thinking Heath was such a fool for ever letting such a treasure get away.
After lavish attention on one breast, he moved to do the same to its twin, his fingers stroking down her flat belly to the small tidy patch of blond curls between her thighs. She parted her quivering legs for him and he rested his palm over her wet heat, claiming ownership of her, at least for their one evening together. This might be wrong, might be temporary, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be special too.
As he traced his fingers over her slick folds to find her sensitive clit hidden within them, she cried out, her breath panting and her eyes closed as she lost herself in sensation. Daveed couldn’t ever remember seeing a more beautiful sight in his life. Since joining the military and later, after his discharge, he’d had many encounters like this one, many short-term flings. But try as he might to keep his emotions detached from what he and Melody were sharing tonight, he found he couldn’t. She charged past the well-defined, organized boxes he tried to keep her within and forced him to feel more. A storm of new emotions raged inside him—desire, possessiveness, need, tenderness—and threatened to overwhelm him if he didn’t maintain control. And the only way he was going to do that was by making Melody lose hers first.
“Oh, God!” Melody said, digging her nails into his hair as he left her breasts to kiss his way down her abdomen to the treasure between her legs. “What are you doing?”
“I want to taste you, habibaty.” He leaned in and dropped a quick kiss between her legs and she bucked hard beneath him. Bracing his arms around her thighs to keep her open and available to him, he then traced his tongue slowly up her slick folds to the top where her stiff clit was peeking out at him. She cried out and melted against him, her hands no longer trying to pull him away but instead gently guiding him, showing him what she liked most. Soon, he had his fingers joining in, along with his tongue, with first one, then two fingers thrusting within her, preparing her for him while bringing her closer and closer to the edge.
“Oh, oh, Daveed, I’m… I’m…”
“Are you getting close, habibaty?” he asked, loving the spicy taste of her arousal and the heady scent of her need for him. “Let go for me. Let me see you cum for me.”
He continued circling her clit with his tongue and soon she bowed beneath him, her loud groans of satisfaction echoing around the room as her inner channel convulsed around his fingers. “Yes, that’s it, sweetheart. That’s it, habibaty. Give it all to me. Show me how much you want me,” he murmured against her sensitive flesh, milking every drop of pleasure from her orgasm and prolonging the feeling for her as long as possible. When she finally relaxed back against the floor, her body slack and sated, he slowly nuzzled his way up her body to her mouth, kissing her deeply. “You are so beautiful.”
She stroked his sweat dampened hair away from his forehead and smiled, so lovely it made his chest ache. “No, you are.”
Grinning, he pumped his hard cock against her thigh. “Men are not beautiful. Men are handsome.”
“You’re beautiful, and handsome.” Melody slid her hand between them to grip his length and slowly stroke him. He wanted her so badly that if she kept it up, he wouldn’t last. Then she traced her thumb over the blunt head of his cock, spreading the bead of moisture there in to his skin and he had to grab her wrist. Had to pull her hand away before he embarrassed himself. At her disappointed look, he bent and kissed her quickly again before moving away to get the condom he always kept in his wallet. As he opened the tiny foil packet and put it on, she watched him, eyes half-lidded and her smile soft in the glow of the Christmas tree and the fire behind them. “God, you are so gorgeous,” she said, giving him a head-to-toe appraisal as he stood naked and fully hard before her. Melody crooked her finger at him in blatant invitation. “Come here.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. As he covered her body with his once more, the fur from the throw tickled his bare skin and made him even more aware of her firm, warm curves beneath him.
She raised her knees and he knelt between her thighs, positioning her as he wanted her before allowing just the tip of his hard cock to penetrate her wet entrance. Melody bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, pressing her hips against him, her voice throaty as she sighed, “More.”
Unable to resist the overwhelming tide of want inside him any longer, Daveed entered her completely in one long stroke, burying himself hilt-deep within her welcoming heat. He nuzzled the pulse point at the base of her throat while he held still, allowing her time to adjust to his considerable length and girth.
At last, she began to move beneath him, arching her hips into his and moaning softly. “I need you, Daveed. Please.”
“And you shall have me, habibaty.” He withdrew almost to his tip then drove inside her once more, setting up a rhythm that she soon matched, pushing them closer and closer to the brink. He adjusted his angle of penetration to hit the sweet spot inside her and reached down to stroke her clit once more as she wrapped her ankles around his waist, seeming to love every minute of his attentions.
He’d never been with a woman who so readily embraced her sexuality and he found it utterly intoxicating. She matched him stroke for stroke, thrust for thrust, even pulling him down for a hot, open-mouthed kiss as he tipped her upward until he was sitting back on his heels and she was astride his thighs, giving them both maximum pleasure. She rode him hard, taking what she wanted from him and returning it to him through her tiny mewls and groans of praise and ecstasy.
Pressure built in his lower back, coiling tighter and tighter as his release loomed. With one hand, he cupped the back of her head and with the other he reached down to stroke her clit once again, his tone commanding. “Cum for me. I need you to cum for me again, habibaty.”
“Yes,” she said, resting her forehead against his, her eyes staring into his, her pupils so dilated with need that they all but obliterated her bright blue irises. “Yes. Make me cum for you. Make me…” Her voice trailed off and her head fell back into his hand and she arched against him, her nails digging deep into his shoulders as she climaxed hard around him. “Yes!”
Driven over the edge now, Daveed slammed hard into her, the tightness of her inner walls milking his cock hard and pushing him toward the brink of fulfillment. One last, hard stroke and his world shattered. Ripples of incredible pleasure washed over him as wave after wave of orgasms swept everything else away except this moment, this night, this woman. He held her tight to him, his moans and cries of pleasure swallowed by her kiss.
When they finally collapsed atop the fake fur throw again, it was in a tumble of entwined limbs and smiles. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her, stroking her amazingly soft skin, kissing her velvet pink lips.
It took several minutes for them to catch their breath and float back down to earth. She shivered slightly beside him, and he pulled her closer into his side, wrapping the throw around them as they lay beside the Christmas tree, staring up at the beautiful lights.
His fingers traced lazy patterns on the skin of her arm. Things all seemed so peaceful and quiet now, in the afterglow, but reality would return for them soon enough. He felt the need to learn more about her, to stay in their own private oasis a little longer. “What do you really want, habibaty? What do you want to do most in life, right now?”
“Yes.” He gave a sad little grin and kissed the top of her head. From now on, money would always be an object for her. But she deserved this one small fantasy. “Regardless of cost.”
“Hmm.” She sighed and he felt her smile against his skin. “I guess I’d want to go and hang out where it’s warm. Maybe at the beach where I could play with the dolphins.”
“Ah.” He smiled too. “There are plenty of dolphins in the waters around my family’s island, Al Dar Nasrani.” Daveed shrugged and laughed. “Of course, it’s quite expensive there too. But I might have an ‘in’ with the establishment and could get you a good discount.”
“I bet you could.” She buried her face in his chest and giggled. “I bet I’d stand out there, huh? With my blond hair and funny New York accent? I’m sure your family would love having their future sheikh bring home some tabloid-trash American heiress for the weekend, eh?”
His grin fell at the hint of sadness in her tone. Did she really see herself as damaged goods now? That was so far from the truth he didn’t even know where to begin to explain. So, he shared with her some tidbits about himself instead. “Chances are good I’ll never ascend to the throne. My brothers are working hard to convince my father that Al Dar Nasrani should become a parliamentary government.”
“Like England?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“But the Queen is still there.”
“Only as a figurehead.” He rolled onto his side and kissed her again, not wanting to talk about his family anymore. The longer they laid there, the chillier it got and the worse his stiff back felt. He kissed her once more before standing and extending his hand down to her. “Come.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, taking his hand and standing beside him. The throw fell away, leaving them both naked as the day they were born.