by Andie Brock
‘But only if you want it, too.’ He placed his hands firmly on his hips. ‘What I am trying to say is, having sex with me tonight is not another duty you have to perform.’
There was a pause, the room perfectly quiet, the scent of the flowers filling the air. Then, purposefully rising to her feet, Nadia gave Zayed the full force of her jewel-bright eyes.
Slowly, deliberately, she crossed one hand over her chest and slid her finger under the single strap of her gown.
‘Does this look like duty?’
With a physical jolt Zayed watched the strap fall down over the soft skin of her shoulder. The muscles in his throat contracted, his dark eyes dilating to ebony black.
‘Or this?’
Now she was pulling down the side zip, her eyes fixed on his face, eyes heavy with seduction. Zayed forced down a gulp. The top of her dress had fallen to her waist, revealing a white boned corset that was both chaste and incredibly sexy at the same time. Her breasts were swelling over the top, her tiny waist held in tight.
‘Perhaps you would like to help me out of the rest of it?’ Nadia looked down at the sweep of her skirt, already squirming to ease the folds over her hips. ‘I don’t want to damage it.’
Zayed did. He wanted to rip it off her body with an urgency that scared him, to feast his eyes on what lay beneath with a desperation that he had never felt before. What was wrong with him? Forcing himself to find a modicum of self-control from somewhere, he reached towards her, realising with alarm that his hands were shaking with unadulterated lust. Never before had a woman had this effect on him.
Moving his hands to either side of her hips, he watched as the dress fell through his fingers to the ground, still telling himself that he could stop at any time. That he was simply helping his bride out of her wedding dress. But as he watched Nadia stepping out of the dress, bending to pick it up and drape it over the end of the bed, he knew he was lost, totally and utterly lost in the ruthless grip of sexual longing. From the bottom of the corset, suspenders stretched tight along her smooth thighs, holding up white silk stockings. She wore a pair of tiny white panties beneath. If there had ever been a point of no return, the sight of her now meant he had well and truly passed it; any resolve he might have had to resist her tonight was lost in the cloud of dust from his heels in his eagerness to grab her.
Almost in slow motion he raised his hands to her hair, loosening the clips that held it and watching as it fell in glorious disarray around her shoulders. He threaded his fingers through its silky richness, disentangling the jewellery that was nestling amongst the black curls before moving with an unsteady hand to undo her necklace and earrings.
There was the briefest of pauses as he stood to drink her in in all her erotic loveliness before he finally bent to kiss her lips, all rationality gone.
Slowly at first, he tested the plump fullness of her lips, then more firmly, touching and tasting, running his tongue tantalisingly between them as they opened to allow him to plunder the warm darkness inside, to feel, taste and explore, to feed the heady, shaky euphoria that was coursing through his veins like a drug, urging him on.
Like the tip of a crashing wave, he was up there and there was no going back, just the tremendous thrill of what was to come.
With her arms clasped around his neck, Nadia heard him moan into her mouth. This was the most incredible feeling she had ever experienced, all of her senses being ambushed at the same time. The touch of him, the taste, the heat, the spicy masculine smell, the scratch of his beard, all combined had taken over her brain completely, obliterating everything but the throbbing, yearning craving that pulsated where her body had once been.
Zayed moved to alter the angle of his head, then reclaimed her mouth, increasing the pressure as his hands ran over her bare shoulders, down the back of the corset and spread, warm and strong, over the cheeks of her scantily clad bottom. Now it was Nadia’s turn to moan as she arched her back, pushing her groin towards him to invite his hands to caress her harder, to move to more intimate parts of her body. But the moan turned into a gasp as she felt his rock-hard arousal pressing against her abdomen, so big, so powerful that it had triggered a series of clenching spasms that threatened to knock her legs from under her. Clinging onto his neck for support now, she rose up on tiptoes, unconsciously trying to move his erection down lower, to feel it where she wanted it most.
‘I want you so much.’ She wasn’t sure who said it, or even if the words had been spoken out loud, but with one swift movement Zayed was sweeping her off her feet and laying her firmly down on the bed.
He was tearing off his clothes with feverish speed. From her position, splayed across the middle of the bed, Nadia watched as he ripped off his vest and trousers, dimly wondering if she should be divesting herself of her undergarments in readiness for him. Finally the straining boxer shorts were flung to one side and he stood before her, gloriously naked.
Nadia stared. And then stared some more. She had already seen him virtually naked: the sculptured abs, the narrow waist, the coarse hair that arrowed down to his groin. She’d even felt his arousal pressed against her. And she had read about sex, had thought she had known what to expect. But nothing had prepared her for this, the sheer size of it, both the length and the girth... Was it possible that this could fit inside her? The idea both thrilled and astonished her.
Eventually she realised that Zayed hadn’t moved, that he was watching her, watching him. She dragged her eyes up to his face.
‘You have changed your mind?’ He stood proudly, totally confident with his nakedness but doubt clawing his question.
‘No.’ Nadia pushed the word past her dry throat. ‘No, it’s not that.’
‘You have never seen a man naked before?’
‘No.’ On safer ground now, Nadia confessed lightly, ‘Not unless you count the movies.’
Zayed let out a strangled laugh. ‘And in real life, it’s not what you thought?’
‘No. I don’t know. It’s just...’
‘I’m not going to deny it, Nadia, I want you like crazy. But if you have changed your mind just say the word and—’
‘No, I haven’t changed my mind.’ Braver now with more confirmation that he wanted her, Nadia pushed herself back against the pillows, squirming in unconscious invitation. ‘I suppose I hadn’t realised that it—you, I mean—would be so big.’
‘Flattery, flattery.’ Zayed’s eyes twinkled with humour, but his voice had taken on the guttural growl of a man who needed release. With a couple of steps he was beside the bed, and then he was on top of her, his arms locked on either side of her head so that he could look down onto her face.
‘I’ll be as gentle as I can.’ Slowly he lowered his body on top of her and claimed her lips again, the full length of his glorious body meeting hers all the way down, crushing her breasts beneath the corset, his erection pressing against her. Nadia felt the shuddering clenching of her internal muscles in response, the dampness between her legs.
‘Perhaps we should get rid of these.’ Parting their bodies enough to run one hand down to her hips, Zayed tugged at the scrap of lacy fabric and tossed her panties to the floor. Bringing his hand back up, he briefly traced the tingling bare flesh of one thigh beneath the suspenders before moving up to her moist folds, one expert finger teasing and rubbing a part of her that she hadn’t even known existed and bringing about the most exquisite feeling of pleasure.
Already she could feel herself building to what she knew must be an orgasm, her first orgasm. With her nails digging into the hard flesh of Zayed’s back she was about to moan, to quietly whimper and shudder her way over the edge of bliss when Zayed whispered softly into her ear, ‘Not yet, baby, save it, save it for me.’ Removing his finger, he replaced it with the throbbing tip of him, rubbing it firmly against her, sending Nadia soaring into spasms of ecstasy. Then, shifting his position, he started to push into her, slowly at first, testing the way, hot and firm but gentle, too. But finding her wetness as confirmation he
let out a low groan and started to sink his length into her, farther and deeper and deeper.
Nadia gasped, her nails digging so hard into his back that she had to be drawing blood, clinging on to him for dear life as the extraordinary feeling consumed her.
‘Nadia?’ His voice was dry, husky, as if coming from a long way away.
‘Yes!’ She could barely speak, so her body spoke for her as she tipped her pelvis forward to drive him in that final bit, producing another guttural groan.
‘God, Nadia, you feel so good.’ He had started to move now, rhythmically thrusting inside her, each forward motion more powerful than the last, more intense, more piercingly pleasurable and excruciatingly overwhelming than the one before. ‘I don’t think I can hang on much longer...’
As his words tailed off Nadia felt a tremendous shuddering, starting from the epicentre of their coupling, but quickly spreading to every part of her, making her whole body shake with an exquisite and totally unfamiliar ecstasy. With an animal groan of pure release, she realised that Zayed had joined her and together they convulsed in a fever of gripping, sweaty, sated sexual fulfilment.
For several minutes they stayed like that, Zayed lying where he had fallen on top of her, his heart thumping heavily in a chest that was rising and falling from the exertion, sweat sealing their bodies together. Finally he rolled onto his side, taking her in his arms.
‘Are you okay?’ As he waited for his breath to slow down he swept away a strand of dark hair from Nadia’s face. ‘I wasn’t too rough?’
‘No, it was amazing!’ The sight of her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes gripped at something inside. ‘You were amazing.’
‘Why, thank you.’ He leaned forward and gently ran a finger along her lips. ‘And come to that, so were you.’
Suddenly he realised that she was. This woman, his wife, who he knew so little about, had just given him a sexual experience like no other he had ever known. And he had known more than his fair share. Her innocence, combined with the poised superiority and stunning body, was a killer combination he had never come across before.
‘I know I have a lot to learn.’
‘And believe me, it will give me the greatest of pleasure to teach you.’ Laughing now, Zayed kissed away the serious words from her lips, pulling her into a closer embrace, and immediately felt the stirrings of sexual awakening starting again. It was this damned corset, he told himself as he found his hands running over the suspenders and round to her naked behind. How was any man meant to resist? His fingers touched something on her bare bottom and, peeling it off, he inspected the half-crushed rose petal before resting it on the tip of her upturned nose. Nadia twitched her nose in response, her eyes smiling, daring. ‘Don’t look at me like that, young lady,’ he growled at her. ‘Not if you want to get any sleep tonight.’
‘I’m not sure that I do.’ Squirming out of his grasp, Nadia reached forward to take hold of the cream satin coverlet, giving it a shake to dislodge more rose petals before lifting it so that it billowed up into the air and settled back down again over their hurriedly entwined bodies.
‘I think sleeping is overrated.’
One thing you could never say about Nadia. In fact, he was starting to realise he might have seriously underrated this remarkable woman.
* * *
Nadia gazed at the beautiful man who slept so peacefully beside her now. The early-morning light was streaming in through the unshuttered windows, casting hexagonal patterns across a floor strewn with discarded undergarments and curling rose petals.
Carefully, so as not to waken him, she inched herself up against the pillows to be able to see him better. Last night had been incredible. The power of their lovemaking had moved her in a way that she hadn’t thought possible. Now she watched as his eyes flickered beneath closed lids fringed by thick dark lashes. What was he dreaming? she wondered. This man whom she knew so little of, yet had tied herself to for life.
But if last night had proved one thing, it had been that Zayed was nothing like the cruel, heartless character her father had described. He was far from being the brutish animal she had been expecting; his lovemaking had been tender as well as passionate, fiery but so intimate, using his considerable skills to ensure that everything he did pleasured her as much as it did him. And it certainly had. She had had no idea that mere sex could take you to such wild levels of euphoria. She felt the stirrings of desire again now, just looking at him.
But overriding those feelings, overriding everything, in fact, was the torturous knowledge that today was the day she was going to have to confess who she was. Own up to the terrible truth that she wasn’t from Gazbiyaa; she wasn’t an ordinary girl on the run from an arranged marriage. She was Princess Nadia of Harith, only daughter of the sheikh of Harith, a man who viewed the kingdom of Gazbiyaa as his greatest enemy.
Everything she had done had been with the best of intentions. Fleeing the marriage of a man who would only have encouraged the war between Harith and Gazbiyaa. Marrying Sheikh Zayed Al Afzal in the desperate hope that she could stop it.
But right now she felt sick to the core about having to tell him the truth.
Slipping out of bed as quietly as possible, she went into the bathroom and returned wearing a bathrobe.
‘Good morning.’ Awake now, Zayed curved his lips into a sensual smile as he patted the bed beside him for her to rejoin him. ‘How are you this morning?’
Nadia climbed up next to him and immediately Zayed pulled her towards him, kissing her firmly on the lips before snaking a hand under the dressing gown to her bare hip.
‘Very well, thank you.’ Nadia tried to smile back but her lips caught on her dry teeth, turning it into a half snarl. She moved up against the headboard, away from his touch. ‘I suppose we should get up—there must be so much we have to do.’
A frown creased Zayed’s brow as he propped himself on one elbow and, withdrawing his hand from under the dressing gown, ran it over his bearded jaw. ‘I think we might be excused our duties on the first morning of our honeymoon.’
‘Yes, of course.’ She affected a laugh that sounded as false as it was.
‘What’s the matter?’ He was staring at her intently now, frying her with his glare. ‘What is it?’
Oh, God. This was it, then, she was going to have to tell him.
She looked down at him, at the short coarse hair that covered the sculpted planes of his olive-skinned torso, at the rippling muscled biceps of the arm he was leaning on. His body was so magnificent.
‘Nadia?’ He said her name sharply.
‘There is...there is something I need to tell you.’ This was so hard, so much harder than she could ever have imagined. The blood was roaring in her ears, muffling the sound of her words, threatening to blur her vision.
‘Go ahead.’ Harsh now, Zayed had pushed himself up so that he looked down on her, fixing her with eyes of such piercing intensity that they prickled her skin.
Nadia pulled the collar of her dressing gown tighter around her neck as she fought to find her voice.
‘The thing is, I haven’t been entirely truthful about who I really am.’ The words were coming out in a rush of panic now. ‘About where I come from.’
‘Meaning what, exactly?’
‘Meaning that I don’t actually come from Gazbiyaa.’
‘And where, actually, do you come from?’
Nadia gulped, her eyes cast down. There was nothing for it; she was just going to have to plunge right in.
‘Harith.’ The name stuck like a barb in her throat. ‘I come from the kingdom of Harith.’
The silence that followed was so chilling, so deadly, that it felt to Nadia as if the world had frozen around her.
‘Tell me that’s not true.’
The force of his hissed words dragged her eyes upwards, but what she saw there made her shrink back with alarm. His face had turned thunderously dark, his eyes suddenly devoid of any light, any compassion, flint black.
She drew
in a shuddering breath; her voice could only whisper its reply.
‘It is true. I am Princess Nadia of Harith.’
CHAPTER SIX
PRINCESS NADIA AMANI. Only daughter of the sheikh of Harith. His country’s greatest enemy. The realisation of what he had done slammed into his chest. He had just made the biggest mistake of his life.
Ripping back the bedcover, Zayed grabbed his trousers from the floor and tugged them over his hips.
‘Get up!’
‘Look, Zayed, it’s not what you think...’
‘I said, get up!’
He turned away, not trusting himself to look at her, not trusting how the anger that was boiling inside him might make him behave.
But it was an anger directed largely at himself. He who prided himself on his good sense of judgement, his gut instinct. Well, he had gotten it wrong this time. Boy, had he got it wrong. And at a time when the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Because this disastrous decision didn’t just mean he was going to lose face and a few million dollars. His idiocy had put the lives of young men at risk, the young men of both Gazbiyaa and Harith.
‘Zayed.’ She was in front of him now. Standing there in that soft white robe, her black curls tumbling over her shoulders, her violet eyes flashing. ‘If you would just let me explain—’
‘Explain what? That you are a manipulative, calculating liar that has inveigled your way into my life in the most desperate way in order to wreak as much havoc as you can? I’ve worked that out for myself, thank you.’
‘No, it’s not like that, really—’
‘That your plan has worked nicely, the gullible new sheikh immediately taken in by you, falling for your sob story about escaping an arranged marriage, looking for a different sort of life. Well, guess what? I know that, too.’ He didn’t know when he had ever felt so completely consumed with fury. It was roaring through his body, rooting him to the spot, his hands clenching and unclenching by his side. And having Nadia brazenly planted in front of him, refusing to back off and give his anger some space was only making matters worse. ‘You may have tricked me into marriage, Nadia, but this is where the falsehoods end. I want you out of my life. Now.’