by Lia Lee
“I… I do want it,” she said softly.
The dark fire that flared in his eyes woke something hot inside her, something that curled through her body and made her skin feel as if it were alive with electricity.
“This is your last chance, Irene,” he said warningly. When he took a step toward her, she thought of a panther stalking its prey, its eyes bright to catch every movement.
Irene had to swallow twice before she could speak.
“I don’t want a last chance,” she said clearly. “I want you.”
It was like throwing gasoline on a fire. She felt more than heard his soft intake of breath. In a matter of seconds, he had crossed the floor to where she stood, catching her up in a wild embrace. Before she could say another word, his hard mouth slanted across hers. He was warm, so warm everywhere, bathing her senses in the sheer maleness of his body. His strength, his scent, the demand of his mouth, they overwhelmed her, and with a willing moan, she allowed herself to be drowned.
“I have wanted this since the first moment I met you,” he groaned. “When I first laid eyes on you, I knew that I needed to know how you felt, how you sounded when you moaned with pleasure…”
She could feel the tension that was threaded through his frame. He was all hard angles and muscles. When he shifted, she could feel his cock pressed up against her thigh. Without thinking about what she was doing, she pressed herself against him. The contrast of his hard body to her softness made her nearly dizzy with need and with pleasure.
Raheem’s laugh was nearly a groan.
“You could undo me with a single embrace,” he growled. “That’s the kind of power that you have over me. That is how much I want you.”
She laughed a little at the idea of someone like her being able to control a man like Raheem. There was something beyond belief about it, but Raheem seemed perfectly serious.
“You could make me beg,” he said, lifting her up in his arms. “You could make me crawl, if I were not careful.”
“That’s not what I want you to do,” she whispered huskily, and his answering laugh was harsh.
“No, I think I know what you might like, beautiful woman…”
He laid her on the bed, where a single beam of moonlight illuminated the white sheets. For a moment, he simply looked down at her. She wondered how she must look, sprawled in wild abandon over the bed. He reached for her dress. At first, she thought that he meant to undo her buttons, but as she reached to help him, he fisted his hands in the thin fabric and ripped it open. She gasped at his strength and her sudden exposure. Lying in the ruined remnants of her dress, wearing only a peach demi-bra and matching panties, she had never felt quite so exposed. Wide-eyed, she looked up at him, and his grin was very sharp.
“I was tired of being kept from your skin, your beauty,” he said, and he came down to rest his body on top of her.
He started to kiss her, resting his weight on his elbows. With a sense of utter dominance and desire, he toyed with her mouth, running the very tip of his tongue along her lower lip before sliding his tongue alongside hers with insinuating intimacy. She had never thought that kissing was a terribly erotic act, despite its intimacy, but now she could feel that it was only adding fuel to her fire. When he pressed his tongue between her lips, it was a sly intimation of what he was going to do later, and her body responded to it.
Irene ran her hands along his body, frustrated that he was still clothed. She tugged ineffectually at the fabric, wishing that she could tear it away as easy as he tore hers. She slid her hands along his sides, down his thighs, and then they came up again to cup the steel of his desire between her palms. Her intimate touch made him groan, and for a moment, she thought she had broken through that iron control. Instead, he drew back with a soft laugh.
“Clever girl, but too clever, I think, by half.”
She started to ask what he was going to do about it, but then he reached for one of the scraps of her dress. Before Irene could figure out what he was doing, he had captured her wrists, twining them together with the fabric before lashing the loose ends to the bars at the top of the bed. Now she was stretched underneath him, her hands helpless above her head. It should have been frightening, but there was something in her that had always craved being this open, this helpless under a man she was coming to realize she trusted so deeply.
“Well, what are you going to do with me now?” she asked, and somehow, it came out more sultry than frightened.
“Exactly what I want to do,” he responded, and he proceeded to drive her insane.
She could feel the electricity between them. If she was honest, it had been there, coloring their interactions since the first time they had laid eyes on each other. Despite that electricity burning brighter than it ever had, Raheem acted as if he didn’t notice it all. Like a man with all the time in the world, he started touching her bare skin gently, first with his fingertips and then with his palms. He ran his hands up and down her body, sensitizing her skin until it tingled.
With the same careless strength that he had used on her dress, he tore her panties away, leaving her gasping at the exposure. Raheem only chuckled as he palmed her soft flesh there, testing her warmth and her wetness.
“You feel so good here,” he murmured. “Like you want me. Like you’re already ready for me…”
She whimpered as he traced a taunting finger down her slit, sliding against the soft skin before pressing her folds apart with just the slightest pressure. She could feel how slippery she already was, and that was before his fingers moved higher to find her clit. With just a little more pressure, she was tilting her hips up to meet him. Her heels dug into the bed underneath her as she whimpered, wanting more.
“Look at how hot you are,” Raheem marveled. “So beautiful…”
With a smooth motion, he slid a finger into her warmth, wetting it and then bringing it back to her clit. His touch before had made her wild, but now she was nearly moaning with desperation. She could feel the pressure of her own climax rising inside her. She knew that if he just… kept… touching her the way he was, it would be inevitable.
Just when she was trembling on the verge of completion, he pulled his hand away, making her whimper.
“No, please, more,” she cried, too filled with need to even be worried about how she sounded. “Please, Raheem, I need more!”
His laugh was a purring growl, and he started to touch her again. She closed her eyes tight, fighting to get back to that place she was before. Soon enough, her body began to tremble, to tense, and then he pulled his hand away again.
She didn’t have words this time; Irene only groaned out loud, her eyes flying open and meeting his. Irene was shocked to see that instead of laughing at her, his gaze was as desperate with need as hers was.
“Please,” she whispered. “With me?”
He seemed to understand exactly what she meant. He rose from the bed, stripping his clothes off roughly before reaching into the cabinet by the bed. She watched with wide eyes as he sheathed himself with a condom. She had never known how sensuous it was before to see a man’s hands on his own cock, preparing himself for her.
When he returned, he came to stretch his full length over her.
“Is this what you want?” he asked. “Truly?”
With a soft cry, she nodded. If she could have, she would have thrown her arms around him. Instead, they were still pinioned over her head, stretching her out helpless underneath him.
He shifted until her legs were spread wide, and he lay between them. Now she could feel his hard proud member against her hot flesh. She felt him press his cock against her entrance, and then with one smooth motion, he entered her, not stopping until they were joined as closely as they could ever be. The feeling of being filled after being teased to the brink twice was exquisite, and for a moment, Irene simply closed her eyes, breathing at the sheer pleasure of it.
She didn’t have long to relish it, however. With a deep growl that seemed to echo through both their
bodies, he began to thrust into her, growling as he moved above her. Somehow, she managed to get her heels underneath her so she could push up against him, increasing their pleasure and making him even more wild.
Irene could feel the savage pleasure inside her rise up again, and this time, she knew that there would be no tease, no moment where he would stop. Instead, the sensations that were shaking her body rose up higher and higher until just when she thought she couldn’t take it another moment, they crashed down in a climax that tore a full-throated scream from her lips. Her legs wrapped around Raheem’s as electricity danced through her frame, making her cry out again and again.
When the first rush of sensation subsided, she could feel Raheem reach his own crisis, his thrusts becoming less smooth and more frantic. He thrust into her heavily one last time, shaking as he froze above her. It occurred to her, lost in her pleasure, how beautiful he truly was, how beauty was etched into every line of his body.
Finally, he was still, poised above her, his dark hair covering his eyes. Irene wished in that moment that she could touch him, brush his hair back to see what he looked like so shaken with pleasure.
Instead, he leaned down to kiss her gently before reaching up to undo her bonds. She sat up, groaning a little as life came back to her hands and her wrists.
“Are they all right? Not too tight?” he asked, and she smiled at him, shy for all that she had spent the past few minutes shouting her pleasure so loudly that it had echoed in the room.
“That was the first time I’d done anything like that,” she confessed. “No, I don’t think that that was too tight at all.”
A slight shadow darkened his face, and Irene hastened to wrap her arms around him. They were both slightly slippery with sweat, worn out, but there was still enough in her to want to touch him, to comfort him if need be.
“I did not hurt you?” he asked.
“Never,” she promised. “That felt… amazing. It was beautiful.”
He sighed, draping a heavy bare arm over her shoulders.
“I have never felt what I feel for you before,” he confessed. “It is… more than a little alarming how quickly we have…”
Something about the way he spoke made Irene look up, even if she was tired to the bone.
“We have what?” she asked, but he was shaking his head.
“No,” he said. “There will be time to speak of this later. Right now, you should sleep.”
“I’m afraid to sleep,” she said bluntly. “I am afraid of what my dreams might bring me.”
Raheem winced a little at that, but he pressed her closer. Even when her heart was chewed to bits by what she had done, there was a comfort in it.
“Sleep now,” he said. “I will keep the dreams away.”
She sighed softly, closing her eyes. Sleep was already reaching for her, and this time, when she fell into it, her dreams were deep and quiet.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Irene awoke to the sound of men talking. For a moment, she simply lay in bed, shaking off the shreds of dreams that she could not quite remember. Then she realized that the voices were real and not part of her dreams, and she sat up. Quietly, she put on her clothes and ventured to the living room.
Raheem was there, conversing with two men dressed in black. Their voices were low and serious, and when they saw her, they straightened up respectfully. Raheem came to stand next to Irene.
“Good morning,” he said, and she was both relieved and disappointed when he did not kiss her as he had done all week.
“Good morning,” she said, aware that her voice was dull. “What’s going on?”
“These men are part of a task force that was created to deal with international theft. In a short while, I will go with them.”
“You’re going to where my brother is,” she said dully. “You’re going to go find him.”
He hesitated for a moment, and then he nodded. “I am. Irene, right now, you have a choice.”
Irene looked at him. It felt as if she were wrapped in cotton, and his words were coming from far away.
“A choice?”
“Yes. I have a man here who will take you back to the city. He has instructions to take you to a hotel, one of the ones my family owns. All of your things are waiting for you, as is a ticket.”
She blinked. She knew that he had said that she would be allowed to leave Khanour as she pleased when the week was up, but she hadn’t really believed it.
“The ticket will take you to New York City,” he said, “and along with it is a money order that will help you get settled wherever you go next. It is the least I can offer you for the help that you provided, however reluctantly.”
“You mentioned a choice…”
“Yes.” Raheem took a moment to compose himself, and when he spoke, there was a tremor there.
“You can also stay at the hotel. I will be coming there after the raid. After the raid, we can talk about what happens next, what really lies between the two of us. If you are there, I will know you want some kind of future with me. If you go… well, that’s its own answer.”
She looked up at him, still feeling suffocated by cotton. Her thoughts swirled with images and worries about her brother, but there was more there than that. There was also the ghost of Raheem’s hands running along her body, the way he took care of her, touched her, spoke to her. The images spun around her until she thought she would faint. When Raheem reached out to touch her hair, she trembled, but she didn’t pull back.
Raheem looked down as if he was scared, and that was strange and ridiculous. What did a man like him have to be afraid of?
“I hope that you are waiting for me when I get back to the city,” he said solemnly. “But if you are not…”
He hesitated, and then he leaned forward. She had no idea what she would do if he wanted to kiss her, but he only came in close enough to whisper in her ear.
“I love you. Please wait.”
She froze, unable to understand the words that she had heard. One of the men called for Raheem and he looked up. He looked like he wanted to say something else to her, but then he shook his head. He had said everything there was to say.
Raheem and the other men from the task force left, and another man came in, this one dressed in a pilot’s uniform.
“Miss, whenever you a ready, we can return to the city.”
“:Of course,” she said faintly. “I will be ready in just a moment.”
The rest of the day passed in a blur. She was taken first by plane and then by car to the heart of metropolitan Khanour. Irene couldn’t stop herself from peering out the window at the world that had been ticking along while she was first in prison and then the desert. It felt as if everything had changed somehow, or perhaps it was her that had changed.
In the luxurious suite, Irene couldn’t stop herself from pacing. The ticket Raheem had promised her lay in a leather folder on the desk. Twice she reached to touch it, and twice she pulled away. She knew that she should take it, get on the plane, go and create a life in the United States. In less than a day of travel, Khanour could become one more strange chapter in the history of her life. Peter… perhaps there were things she could do for him in the United States, politicians to appeal to or people to rally.
Finally, Irene picked up the tickets. It felt exotic to have the right to go where she wished, when she wished.
She made her decision and tucked the ticket into her bag.
***^
Two days later, Raheem woke up from a two-hour catnap to find that the operation was well and truly over. The thieves had been better connected than they had thought, taking over a cave system close to the desert. The fighting had been unexpectedly fierce, and close to the end, his arm had been grazed by a bullet wound. It wasn’t enough to stop him, but it did slow him down.
“Your Highness, we have found the American that you told us to watch out for.”
Raheem tensed.
“Unharmed?”
“Yes, sir.”
>
Raheem heaved himself to his feet, walking to the tent where they said that Peter Bellingham was being kept. He thought that he had braced himself, but when he saw Peter’s face, he still felt a pang.
They were not identical, but there was no question that they were twins. He had her fair coloring, her blue eyes, her sharp cheekbones and blond hair. Right now, he looked both exhausted and wary. When Raheem looked closer, he could see older injuries on his arms and legs, things that had happened long before the attack today.
Raheem took a seat across from the man, and Peter watched him without saying a word. Raheem briefly wondered what he was going to do if the Bellingham brother was also a fan of the silent treatment.
“You are a man who has been under a great deal of discussion lately, Mr. Bellingham,” he said at last. “Let’s talk about that…”
Six hours later, Raheem was in a car being driven back to the city. His men could handle the rest of the cleanup. Peter had been dealt with. Now he was free to think of Irene.
He was grimly aware that he might never see her again. If she had decided that she did not want to be with him, that was probably for the best, but there was a part of him that roared against it. If she had gone to New York, he wanted nothing more than to go find her and bring her back. He wanted to confront her and make her aware that a connection like the one they had was not found so quickly, and should not be thrown away too hastily.
He stuffed those thoughts away. If Irene had left, he would respect her decision. He had to.
When Raheem got back to the city, he stopped at his penthouse for a short while to shower and shave. Dressed in civilian clothes again, he took his own car to the hotel where he had directed his driver to take her.
When he asked after her, however, the man at the desk told him that she had checked out. Raheem felt as if the ground had opened up to swallow him whole. There was nothing for him to do but stand and stare, but finally, he started moving. He walked out into the softening light of dusk and wondered what came next.