by Annie West
His hands shook as he cupped her face. For all his power and physical strength, Tahir was as needy as she.
Annalisa answered his kisses with her own, leaning on tiptoe and planting her hands in his thick, soft hair, as if to prevent him pulling away.
Tahir groaned deep in his throat as she slid her tongue into his mouth, mimicking his caresses, luxuriating in the dark mutual pleasure consuming them.
He bowed her back over his arm, his legs wide around hers as he demanded even more. Gladly she gave it, sinking into a warm tide of delight as their open-mouthed kiss grew needier, deeper, hungrier. This was what she’d craved.
A barely familiar throb quickened in the place between Annalisa’s legs and she shifted restlessly, finding comfort in the press of his body against hers.
The pressure inside rose and she kissed him feverishly. She needed him closer even than this.
A moment later she was falling, and the air was squeezed from her lungs as he came down on her, pressing her into the cushioned mattress of her low bed.
Eyes wide now, she saw him prop himself on one arm, keeping most of his weight off her. Her eyes met his and thought fled.
Such fierce passion in his sky-blue eyes. Annalisa only had to meet his look and she spiralled towards paradise.
‘Tahir.’ Every scintilla of longing and hope and tremulous desire was in that one word. And she didn’t care. All she cared about was having this one man who meant so much, here where he belonged. For this time it was right.
Her body softened, accommodating his hard length, readying for his possession.
A shudder racked his big frame and she saw the tendons in his neck stretch taut. Tenderness filled her at his vulnerability.
‘I had to come. I need…’ He shook his head, eyes squeezing shut.
She felt a spasm of sympathy clench her heart, seeing his inner turmoil, feeling the same driving force for intimacy.
‘I need too, Tahir.’
At her whispered admission his eyes snapped open. Cerulean fire blazed down, scorching her face, her lips.
‘Habibti.’ The endearment was a low hum of sound that curled up and wrapped itself around her, warming every last recess of her body. Emotion shimmered in each syllable.
He lay poised above her as her heart thudded out a rhythm that spoke of desire, need, love. A love she could no longer deny for this proud, complex man.
Acknowledging her love didn’t scare her when she saw Tahir at the mercy of his own emotions. Not just desire but tenderness, relief and regret. She recalled the stark fear on his face last night, the convulsive clamp of his arms around her, and wanted to soothe the remnants of his anxiety away.
She raised her hands to his face, to the strong jaw so smooth it must be freshly shaved. Over high cheekbones, feathering his brow, his ears, his nose and lips. She learned his face as a blind woman would, committing each detail to memory.
His tongue sleeked across her palm and she stilled. He clasped her hand to his mouth and kissed her there, laving and nipping and caressing till longing bubbled up inside and burst out in a throaty moan of bliss.
Then he was gone, rolling off her and leaving her bereft and wanting. Instinctively she turned towards him, but already he’d moved. He knelt, hands skimming up her legs, drawing the delicate silk she wore higher and higher.
Excitement rose as their gazes meshed. She lifted her bottom so he could push the fabric up. Then he peeled the dress over her shoulders and head, tossing it in a stream of pearly colour across the room.
Movement ceased as he loomed above, straddling her hips. His chest heaved, straining the buttons of his shirt. His gaze roved greedily.
A twinge of self-consciousness penetrated Annalisa’s heady pleasure. Had her waist thickened? Her breasts seemed fuller. Too full? Instinctively she lifted her hands to shield herself, but he clamped hold of her wrists and pulled her arms wide.
She felt his eyes on her skin, like the graze of flesh on flesh. Tiny explosions erupted within her. Excitement reached feverpitch just at the way he devoured her with his eyes. Her breasts seemed to swell against the lace of her bra and between her legs she felt dampness.
She revelled in his breathless regard. The way he looked at her made her feel like the most important being on the planet.
Deliberately he bent and planted a kiss to her belly, where her womb cradled the tiny new life they’d made.
Annalisa’s heart turned over, undone by the reverence and tenderness of the gesture. She slipped her hands free to cup his head in her hands, cradling him to her as a flood of emotion stole her heart.
Seconds later he was moving, slipping off her bra and panties with an ease that reminded her just how practised he was with women.
Yet even that knowledge didn’t give her pause. Not now. This was meant to be.
She welcomed his caressing hands, shifting under each sweep of his palm, each circling finger. She gasped as he bent his dark head to suckle at her breast, gently at first, then, as she held him close, tugging greedily, in a way that sent shafts of fire arrowing through her.
His hand slipped down, restlessly stroking her hip, her thigh, the secret needy place where his touch sent waves of pure pleasure rushing through her.
Annalisa’s heart raced. Her skin bloomed, flushed with sexual arousal and a soaring happiness she’d never known. Her hips lifted off the bed, towards Tahir’s caress. Yet he took his time, pleasuring her slowly, as if eking out every nuance of delight.
‘Please, Tahir,’ she gasped. ‘I want…’
Hooded eyes met hers. She drank in the sight of his desireridden face just centimetres from the peak of her breast. Dark burnished golden skin beside pale.
Her proud lover.
A tremor shook her, and another.
‘Then take what you want, habibti.’ He ripped open his shirt and tossed it aside, revealing his powerful torso. A moment later he shoved his trousers and underwear off and onto the floor. His feet were bare, and she had no idea if he’d come to her like that or shucked off his footwear beside the bed.
Her throat dried as he stretched out beside her, propped on one arm. He looked utterly relaxed, like some long, lithe predator, resting in the heat of the day. Only the rapid rise and fall of his powerful chest gave him away. And his jutting erection.
Her eyes rounded as she took in the glory of Tahir, fully aroused. How could she have forgotten his sheer magnificence? Or had she been so overwhelmed by her first experience of lovemaking that she hadn’t looked? This time she felt no nerves, no anxiety. Just love and a soul-deep need.
His erection throbbed as she watched. ‘See what you do to me?’ His voice sounded curiously tight, as if he were in pain.
Her eyes roved him and hunger grew. She reached for him, curling fingers tentatively around his surprisingly soft skin. Warm silk over iron, over pure potent masculinity.
Something plunged deep inside her and she moved nearer.
His hand closed around hers, prying her fingers loose and then dragging her hand wide, to his other side, as he rolled onto his back. He held her like that, poised over him, holding her more with the searing intensity of his eyes than with his touch on her hand.
‘Take what you want,’ he repeated. This time the words were so slurred she wouldn’t have understood if she hadn’t been watching his face.
Did he mean…?
She looked down to where their bodies touched. A frisson of erotic awareness raced through her. She sank against him a fraction and his mouth tightened in a grimace that she understood too well. The pulse throbbing between her legs was a driving force, urging her to take as well as give.
Carefully Annalisa pushed herself onto her knees so she could straddle his supine form. His heavy weight between her legs, pushing against her thigh, sent a shudder of anticipation through her. As did the gleam in Tahir’s eyes.
When his hands closed around her waist, adjusting her position above him, she let him, eager to ease the burgeoning ache insid
e.
A second later she felt pressure where she most needed it as Tahir rose beneath her. He drew her inexorably down, meanwhile pushing higher and higher, till surely any more was impossible.
One final sharp thrust of his hips and he lodged deep within her, part of her. The magic of it stunned her. She felt full, but not just physically. Her heart welled with the intensity of her emotions. With love for Tahir.
‘All right?’
She nodded, bereft of speech as he massaged her breasts and sent delight coiling. He shifted beneath her, slowly at first, then to an increasing tempo that made the most of the friction between their shifting, sliding bodies.
Annalisa leaned forward, her hands on his shoulders, falling into the depths of his welcoming eyes. Long fingers clamped her hips, holding her firm against him as he thrust higher, harder.
Then with a hoarse cry she was flying, soaring above the world in exquisite delight as fire shimmered in her veins and pleasure exploded. An instant later Tahir shuddered beneath her, within her, as he gasped her name.
Greedily he hauled her close and they rode the last rocketing paroxysms together, his musky, hot skin fragrant against her, his heart pounding in tempo with hers, his body enfolding her.
Annalisa breathed deep of pleasure and peace and knew this was where she belonged. With Tahir. Always.
The white heat of cataclysmic orgasm burned Tahir’s retinas. Scorched his flesh. Seared his soul.
He wrapped Annalisa closer, tangling his hand in her long hair, catching her slim leg with his knee, locking them together as if to prevent her moving.
He couldn’t let her go.
He’d been right last night. He needed Annalisa.
Sex had never been so good. But he knew now this was more than physical satisfaction.
Tahir couldn’t put a name to it. Couldn’t get his mind to grapple with definitions and meanings.
But she was his. By right of conquest. By her own choice. By dint of the simple fact he’d never release her.
He’d never needed a woman as he needed Annalisa.
He’d never needed any woman.
He nuzzled her neck, breathing deep of her sweetness. Instantly tendrils of desire coiled within him, tightening sinews and hardening flesh.
Blood roared in his ears and rushed south. He stroked her collarbone, let his fingers trail to her breast and felt her shiver.
It was too soon. It shouldn’t even be possible, not yet. But there was no mistaking the stirring in his loins.
Tentatively he moved, still lodged inside her.
He felt her grip on his shoulders tighten, reminding him how she’d scored his flesh in the throes of ecstasy. The idea of her marking him was strangely pleasing.
‘Tahir?’
He shifted so he could see her, read the surprise and confusion in her flushed face. He stroked a strand of hair from her face. ‘Too soon?’
Wide eyes held his for a moment, then a tiny dimple appeared in her cheek as she smiled and shook her head.
That was all the encouragement he needed. Moments later she was on her back, her hair a glossy fan beneath her as he took her slowly, tenderly and thoroughly.
This time he kissed her all the while, swallowed her small mews of pleasure and surprise, cupped her face in his hands as she gasped her completion. Mere seconds later the fire rose in him, spreading from his groin to his belly, sending incendiary flares through his whole body and setting a blaze in his lungs that made him gasp for breath.
He burned for her till the explosion blew him apart.
Yet even then the fire kept burning inside, a permanent unquenchable glow.
Tahir slid into oblivion, basking in its warmth, his arms locked about her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘WHAT are these scars?’ A gentle finger traced across the small of his back. ‘Was it an accident?’
Tahir stilled in mid-stretch, tensing instinctively. In the past when women had asked that he’d brushed off the query, pretending the marks didn’t matter. Yet each time the truth had burned his soul like red-hot coals.
The reminder of his father’s ‘loving’ touch. Though Tahir couldn’t see the scar tissue, it was a permanent brand of who he was and what his past had been.
It would be easy to demur now, to hide the shame of his past. But he didn’t want to lie to Annalisa. For the first time he wanted to unburden himself. To share just a little. The realisation made his stomach clench in fear.
His reprobate reputation hadn’t scared Annalisa. Nor had his position. She’d stood up to him time and again. She didn’t act like any other woman he knew.
She acted as if she cared.
His mind shied from the notion even as its allure drew him. After a lifetime of believing himself unlovable, the idea of someone caring about him was too foreign.
Yet she’d been right about his mother.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.’
‘No.’ He cut off her hurried apologies. ‘It’s all right.’ He turned, and her gentle smile filled him with such pleasure it gave him the impetus to continue.
‘It’s a mark from a lash.’
‘A lash?’ Her brow furrowed in confusion, her eyes clouding, and Tahir was assailed by doubt.
He couldn’t taint her with knowledge of his sordid past. The desire to talk about it was mere selfish weakness.
He rose quickly from the bed, only to feel her hand on his arm, stopping him.
Looking down, he met her questioning gaze head-on. Her expression was clear, open.
It reminded him of her extraordinary inner strength. The strength she’d needed to nurse him with no assistance in the desert. The strength to stand up to the man who was her sovereign and refuse to comply with his wishes.
For all her innocence, Annalisa was a strong woman.
‘Tell me. Please?’
Finally he sank back onto the rumpled sheets and let her slip her arms about him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and her long hair blanketed him. He loved the feel of her near. It filled him with emotions he’d never felt and gave him strength to admit what he’d never told a soul.
‘It’s from my father’s whip. He used to beat me regularly.’
So it hadn’t been just Tahir’s delirium. The beatings had been real. She’d wondered, but hadn’t wanted to believe.
Her pulse pounded sickeningly. Not one beating but regularly. Not just with fists, but a whip. What sort of sadist behaved so?
Annalisa choked on rising bile.
Suddenly Rihana’s comment about Tahir contributing to charities for abused children made perfect, horrible sense. Had he tried to save others from what he’d suffered?
Annalisa clasped him tight. She wished she’d been able to protect the boy who’d grown into this reserved man. Was it any wonder he hid his inner self? Or that he was difficult to know?
Fiercely she hugged him, sensing his unwillingness to talk.
‘Don’t cry, habibti.’ He brushed her wet cheek where it pressed into his shoulder. ‘It was a long time ago.’
‘But you still remember it, all these years later. You still bear the scars.’ They both knew she wasn’t talking about the marks on his back. ‘In the desert you dreamed about it every night.’
He wrapped an arm around her and she snuggled in, grateful for his acceptance. Tahir was unused to sharing anything more than his body. He was the sort of man to keep confidences to himself.
Had he ever talked of this before?
‘I survived.’ His tone was flat and uncompromising.
‘You did more than survive,’ she whispered urgently. ‘You put it behind you. Look at you now.’
‘Don’t glamorise me, Annalisa.’ His tone was sharp. ‘Just because I’m Sheikh of my people it doesn’t make me a good man.’
‘No. But you are a good man.’ She thought of his care for her at the oasis when grief had engulfed her. His anonymous efforts to improve the lives of children. The sensible, caring way he’d ta
ken up the reins as ruler of a kingdom, though he didn’t want the crown. The efficient way he’d mobilised every resource into a rescue effort after the quake, maintaining calm with his presence. The fact that he would marry her to make things right for their child.
‘Hardly that.’ His laugh was short and harsh. ‘I’m too like my father. I’ve spent years wallowing in pleasure, seeking instant gratification, building a reputation for self-indulgence.’
‘You’re not like him.’ She bridled at the notion. ‘You’re not manipulative or cruel.’
‘Maybe only marriage and fatherhood will bring out my true depths.’
Annalisa reared back, staring aghast into his grim face, hearing his hollow tone. Was he serious? He surely couldn’t fear that?
She’d seen him at his lowest ebb, on the edge of death, stripped of every pretence. The man she’d known then, the man she knew now, was nothing like the monster he tried to paint himself. The arrogant cynic wasn’t the true Tahir.
She levered herself onto her knees and rose till their faces were level. She cupped his face in her palms and met his searing gaze.
‘You’re nothing like that—do you hear me?’ Her voice rose with a potent fury she barely understood. ‘I’ve never heard such rubbish in my life. Don’t you ever speak like that again, or I’ll know you’re just after sympathy.’
His eyes widened in astonishment, as if the kitten he’d petted had turned into a tigress and drawn blood.
‘You can’t use that excuse to hide from life.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Before her eyes his expression chilled, became all arrogant hauteur.
‘And you’re too old not to face the truth.’
Her heart slammed against her ribs, fear rising that she’d pushed him too far. But the thought of him imagining himself like his brutal father was unbearable.
‘Why did he beat you?’ she asked before he could respond. ‘Did he beat your brothers too?’
For a long time she thought Tahir wouldn’t answer. His mouth thinned to a grim line and his eyes flashed with a mix of emotions. Her hands tightened on his jaw and, seeing his turmoil and pain, she couldn’t stop herself leaning forward and pressing a tender kiss on his lips.