Inherited for the Royal Bed

by Annie West

  This time she got to touch too, to kiss and stroke him wherever she could reach. He tasted salty and rich, hot against her tongue. She loved the tiny little quivers under his skin when she found a particularly sensitive spot. Then he’d growl, low in his throat and whip his hand out, gently but firmly stopping her caresses as he took his time meandering over her body, turning it into an instrument tuned only to his touch.

  She would have protested his determination to be in charge except she was too overcome by bliss.

  Then, finally, she felt the feverish heat of his skin against hers, the hard-packed weight of him brushing her from breasts to thighs.

  Propped on one elbow he peered down at her while his other hand stroked the damp curls between her legs and she juddered against his touch.

  This time when she slid her hand downwards he didn’t stop her and she encountered the hot, rigid swell of his arousal. He’d put on a condom she realised as her fingers closed around him. She hadn’t even been aware of him doing that. But what occupied her thoughts was the nervous certainty that there was no way this could work. She was an average-sized woman but Sayid was—

  ‘Lift your knees, Lina.’ Already he was palming her inner thigh, lifting it up against the jut of his hip. Instinctively she bent her other knee, cradling him between her thighs.

  ‘Sayid...’ She wanted this but it struck her that perhaps this wouldn’t be as simple as she’d imagined. ‘We need to talk.’

  His mouth covered hers, blocking her words. At the same time she felt him move between her legs. ‘Later, sweet Lina. I can’t wait any longer.’ He pulled her hand away from him, then slid his hand under her, tilting her pelvis higher as with one smooth movement he thrust.

  Her gasp was eaten up by his ravenous mouth, tongue probing and caressing in a way that sent her senses reeling. Just as the feel of him pushing deep sent waves of shock pulsing through her.

  Lina felt pressure, so much pressure. But the insistent drag of his mouth against hers and his harsh hum of approval counteracted her sudden tension.

  He stilled. She felt the rise and fall of his heavy chest against hers. In that instant she registered the unfamiliar tickle of the hair on his thighs, the rigidity of his muscled arms where she grabbed him and a scent, musky and rich, unfamiliar yet enticing.

  He began to withdraw and immediately Lina wrapped one leg high over his hip, trying to hold him close. This wasn’t...comfortable, but she wanted it all.

  Sayid’s head lifted, ebony eyes snaring hers. She heard the sound of rasping breaths in the still night air.

  ‘I’m hurting you.’ She wouldn’t have recognised it as his voice, so rough and thick.

  ‘You’re not.’ There was discomfort and a strangeness, but no pain. ‘Besides, you promised.’

  ‘Promised?’ He spoke through clenched teeth and for the first time Lina noticed the sheen of sweat glazing his bronzed features. Belatedly she realised the powerful muscles in his arms were quivering with tension, the pulse at his temple hammering.

  She did that to him. She stroked her hands up to his shoulders and felt him shudder. For reasons she didn’t fully understand, the realisation of his vulnerability made her body soften against him.

  ‘That I could watch you come.’

  His eyes blazed down at her but Lina didn’t fear him now. She slipped her hands up to anchor at the back of his neck and lifted her other leg, locking her ankles across his back, holding herself to him as surely as he held her.

  Immediately he slipped further into her cradling body, so when the slide became a thrust Lina’s moment of smugness evaporated in a gasp of astonishment. It felt as if Sayid was planted so deep within that he touched her heart.

  Then there was no time for thought as he withdrew, only to arch his spine and push back again, then again. Each surge seated him further and each movement caused a delicious friction that created delight and a hunger for more. She lifted herself against each thrust, addicted to the feelings he evoked.

  Dark eyes held hers as his tempo increased and with it her body’s sensitivity. Lina tightened the clasp of her legs, just as Sayid slipped his hand between their bodies and lightly touched her clitoris. A second later he powered hard against her and the world burst into flame.

  There was a cry of wonder, a moment of strained disbelief, then rapture engulfed her just as Sayid arched his neck and pumped hard into her, spilling himself in a throb of ecstasy.

  Through the whirl of sensation, the blurred, overwrought senses and piercing delight, Lina watched him lose himself in her. It was as if he fought a great battle but finally, as rapture took them both, his head fell to her neck, his breath searing her flesh, and they were one.

  A great well of protectiveness filled Lina. She wrapped her arms around him, adoring the weight of his slumped body, the intimacy of their joined bodies and the intensity of the connection. Even now echoes of pleasure rippled through her, set off by Sayid’s occasional shudders. Her body fed off his and vice versa.

  She’d never felt closer to another person in her life.

  Then, with a mighty groan, Sayid rolled away to lie on his back beside her. His eyes were closed and he said nothing and Lina didn’t have the strength to object, though she’d much rather he’d stayed where he was.

  Finally, her catapulting heart began to slow and her body floated in a dreamy state between bliss and sleep, despite the unfamiliar throb between her legs.

  She had no idea how long they lay like that. She didn’t have words to describe what they’d shared, and didn’t want to think about what she ought to say, if anything.

  Finally, through a drifting haze, Lina felt Sayid move. Slitting her eyes open she saw him get up and walk towards the bathroom. The subtle lamplight played on the powerful lines of his tall frame, the clench and release of his rounded buttocks. Even after that cataclysmic orgasm he walked like a prince, head up, shoulders back, with the easy grace of an athlete.

  Not as if his world had reeled off its axis and gone spinning out of orbit.

  He took sex in his stride, of course. He was an experienced lover, no doubt used to the overwhelming tide of bliss that left her weak and trembling. Plus, everyone said sex was different for men—they were adept at not getting emotionally involved.

  Slowly, every movement a triumph of will over a body too lethargic to respond easily to her brain’s commands, Lina rolled onto her side, tucking her feet up and her hands beneath her chin.

  Bliss still echoed through her body and befuddled her thoughts. Yet one fact shone clear and ineluctable. She’d been afraid that sex with Sayid would be playing with fire, that it might inflame rather than obliterate her feelings for him. She’d been right. She wasn’t merely playing with fire. She’d stepped right into the inferno and she feared there was no way out.

  Lina let her heavy eyelids close, too exhausted even to panic yet. It was enough to lie here, boneless and sated beyond her imaginings, breathing in the scent of sex and Sayid, feeling the strange, heavy emptiness between her legs where he’d been.

  Wetness spilled over her cheeks and across her nose. Not tears of distress or worry, but of wonder at the sheer beauty of what they’d shared. She’d wipe them away when she found the energy to lift her arm again.

  For now all she could do was wonder how she was going to sever her feelings for Sayid when tonight had only drawn her closer to him. She feared she was falling in love with him.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SAYID LOOKED DOWN at the sleeping woman curled up at the very edge of his broad bed. Her pose was that of a child seeking comfort with her limbs tucked tight against her.

  But there was nothing childlike about her body. Even now, still stunned by the roaring intensity of that powerful orgasm, his gaze roved over her hungrily. He wanted to slide his hand over those hypnotically perfect curves, taste the dark raspberry nipple that peeked at the edg
e of her folded arm, tangle himself in the precious silk of her hair and lose himself all over again.

  No, there was nothing childlike about Lina’s body. Or about the way she’d wanted him. Another unseen jab to his body, this time lower, as he recalled her declaring she wanted to watch him come. A great shudder tore through him. Sayid had almost lost it when she said that. Only the determination to take her over the edge with him had seen him through.

  Nor had there been anything innocent about the way she’d wrapped herself around him, clinging as if to stop him withdrawing. As if! Nothing on this earth could have prevented him enjoying their union to the full. Even the realisation she was, against all expectation, a virgin.

  A deep breath stretched him but didn’t alleviate the strange tightness banding his ribs. He flexed his hands then clasped them behind his back, away from the temptation to reach out and touch her.

  Why hadn’t she told him?

  He supposed that was what she’d been going to say until he’d stopped her words, too impatient to listen.

  But how could she be so innocent? She was twenty-two. She’d been living in the west for years and he had no doubt western males were no more immune to her beauty and charm than he. In fact he had proof. Look at the way that American had hung on her every word the other night. For that matter, she’d been a magnet for male attention since her teens.

  While overseas, Lina had been free of the strict chaperonage usual in Halarq. Why hadn’t she taken advantage of her freedom?

  Innocent she might have been, but there was no mistaking her for anything other than an incredibly sensual woman, with a profound capacity for pleasure. The fact she hadn’t given in to the natural urges of her body before intrigued him.

  Sayid stifled the heavy tension brewing in his lower body. Clearly he was not going to wake her for more sex, no matter that he was, if possible, even more desperate for her than he’d been an hour ago. She’d been exquisitely responsive but her body’s tightness told its own story. She’d be sore now.

  Yet he moved closer, drawn by a mix of emotions he refused to catalogue. He told himself a simple sense of responsibility topped the list. He’d seduced an innocent—a first for him as he’d scrupulously pursued only experienced women till Lina. He was obliged to care for her.

  Obligation. Was that what he felt?

  She shifted and his belly clenched. Were those dried tears on her cheeks?

  He stood transfixed, struggling to cope with unaccustomed guilt.

  She moved again and he told himself it had been a trick of the light. She was exhausted, that was all, and who could blame her? Even he had been stunned by what they’d shared.

  Yet a baffling tide of emotion rose, confounding him. He needed to do something, fix things. Except nothing could undo what he’d done.

  And, the savage inside him acknowledged, he didn’t want to. A more civilised man would regret stealing her virginity. Sayid couldn’t.

  Hell, no decent man would proposition her the way he had!

  Yet Sayid wouldn’t change a thing. How could he when his craving for Lina was unchanged? In fact it was stronger than before. At least before tonight he hadn’t savoured her fiery passion, hadn’t watched her come apart for him, or drowned his senses in her welcoming body.

  Enough!

  He was hard with a carnal hunger that had barely eased, despite the long, cold shower he’d endured. But he wouldn’t act...not yet.

  Nor could he let her go. He knew his limits and he was far too selfish for that. But he could at least respect her need to rest.

  Sayid bent and picked up the sheet, pulling it up over Lina’s shoulder, covering her nakedness.

  * * *

  Lina didn’t know what woke her. She was cocooned in the most scrumptiously comfortable bed, content as a cat in the sun. She’d never felt so good.

  Lazily she stretched and instantly registered two things. The hint of heaviness inside, up between her thighs, and the fact she wasn’t curled up on a sheet but on a body.

  Her eyes snapped open. In the faint grey pre-dawn light she saw her pillow was a male chest, powerful and with a light covering of black hair. A second later she realised the steady pulse in her ears wasn’t hers, but came from that same chest, where she rested her head.

  ‘Good morning.’ The sound rumbled up from beneath her.

  Lina had thought nothing could match the intimacy of making love with Sayid, but waking with him, feeling the throb of his heart and the ripple of his baritone voice, made her experience again the connection that had dazzled her last night.

  To her consternation, nerves hit. It was one thing allowing him to sweep her into a firestorm of longing where, in her greed for him, she abandoned any trace of modesty. It was another to face him the morning after.

  Hands splayed on his warm chest, she lifted her head.

  Even in this dim light he was stunning, his charisma due as much to that aura of strength as the slightly stern yet wholly handsome features. His jaw was dark with the hint of a beard and his eyes mesmerising.

  Lina felt them bore right into her, probing her secrets, stripping away whatever layers of protection she retained against him. Her breath caught. Sayid was beautiful in the pared back, almost harsh way of the desert, sculpted by wind and sun yet with a magnificence that stole the breath.

  ‘Good morning,’ she croaked. It was hard to believe last night wasn’t a fantasy, despite waking against him.

  Then, abruptly, his mouth widened into a smile and something contracted deep inside her chest. Last night he’d been serious, his smile tight. Sometimes he’d even looked as if he was in pain. This...this was glorious.

  Sayid lifted his head and crushed her lips with his. Instantly Lina opened her mouth, leaning in for more, but he was already pulling back.

  ‘How are you this morning, Lina?’ Despite the approval in those gleaming eyes, his tone was serious.

  ‘Fine. And you?’

  He shook his head. ‘How are you really? I wasn’t as...gentle as I might have been. Are you hurting?’

  Something within her, some shred of the cloistered girl she’d once been, shrivelled in embarrassment. But Lina reminded herself she was a new woman. A woman who made her own decisions. Who reached out for what she wanted. Who wasn’t ashamed of her feelings, or the bargain she’d made with Sayid. Who’d positively revelled in what they’d done last night.

  ‘No.’ Then, when his eyes narrowed, ‘Not really sore.’ It was more an awareness of part of her body she’d never felt before. But that was too much detail.

  ‘You should have told me.’ His expression turned grave, his smile fading. ‘Before we went to bed.’

  Lina levered herself higher, putting distance between them, till one hot, sinewy arm wrapped around her waist, anchoring her to him. Nerves jumped beneath her skin and suddenly that awareness of her body became a throb of emptiness.

  Did it really take so little to make her ready for Sayid? Not just ready but eager?

  Of course she’d need more than one measly night to satisfy her greed for him. It was nothing to worry about, despite last night’s fears she was in over her head.

  ‘Why? Would you have stopped? Would you have withdrawn your proposition?’

  His nostrils flared as he breathed hard, his chest pushing up against her. Lina was aware of him all down her body, including, she realised, the solid ridge of his erection against her inner thigh. Restlessly she shifted, discovering a fine layer of cotton separating their lower bodies. Strange how familiar and enticing, yet how shockingly...dangerous they felt together.

  Sayid’s other hand clamped her bare buttocks, holding her still, which was when she realised he wore loose trousers. Why? Because he didn’t want more sex? But that erection surely proved—

  ‘Stop twitching!’ His voice was terse, almost hoarse.

  L
ina blinked, absorbing the tension in his starkly beautiful features. A tension that hadn’t been there earlier.

  Because she’d rubbed against him? The possibility she wielded such power was exciting yet a tiny bit scary. This was all so new. New and, she decided as she tilted her hips just a fraction, delicious.

  ‘Lina!’ His voice was pure growl this time. She was still absorbing the feral sound when he surged up, flipping her over onto her back and weighing her down with his tall frame, his thighs bracketing hers as if to stop her escaping.

  Lina had no wish to escape. Every part of her body stirred and snapped with energy. Her blood fizzed and everywhere they touched she felt tingles of—

  His mouth covered hers and instantly she was lost. His mouth, the slow, deliberate, possessive slide of his tongue against hers, was the epicentre of her world. His kiss drew her back into that swirling, sensual realm of pleasure she’d discovered last night.

  Lina’s hands moulded his hard chest then insinuated themselves up, over his shoulders, to anchor in his hair, pressing him close.

  When he pulled his head up from the kiss they were both breathing heavily. Reluctantly she opened her eyes.

  Sayid’s mouth was a thin line, taut as if with displeasure.

  ‘What is it?’ Lina wanted to smooth away the furrow at the centre of his forehead almost as much as she wanted him to kiss her again.

  Because it’s not just sex you want, is it? You care for him.

  The truth ripped through her languid feeling of well-being.

  As if he needs you to care or look after him.

  The idea of Sayid, capable, clever and in command of a whole nation, needing anyone, much less someone like her to care for him was patently absurd.