Why was the thought of being in the arms of any man other than Monty beginning to disturb her? Why was the thought of any other man tasting her lips, kissing her breasts, using fingers to stroke her into an orgasm beginning to bother her?
She let out a confused sigh and the sound must have carried because Monty glanced up and saw her.
Rasheed had stopped conversing with Raul Santini the moment he sensed Johari’s presence. And when he had stared up and seen her standing on the balcony he had become speechless. She smiled at him and he felt a deep stirring in his gut.
Her hair, which she had tied back earlier, was now fanning her face, showing the beauty of her features in a way he enjoyed viewing. Even from a distance he could see the lushness of her dark eyes and perfect lips. They were lips he enjoyed kissing. His focus shifted to the sundress she still wore and he couldn’t help recalling the moment he had lowered the straps, finding her braless and devouring her breasts, discovering her taste. He was getting aroused just standing there, looking at her and remembering. He was tempted to go inside and—
“I see your future wife fascinates you, Monty.”
Santini’s words reminded him of his friend’s presence. He had contacted Santini from New York and told him he would be arriving. He had also shared with his good friend everything. There were few men he trusted implicitly and Santini was one of them. He knew there was nothing Santini would not do for him and vice versa. In this situation, Santini had been placed in a precarious position, since not only was he Rasheed’s friend but he was close friends with Jamal, as well, since their days as teens attending that private school in France. This was Santini’s first time seeing Johari, although everyone had heard of Jamal’s baby sister and his fondness for her.
Rasheed smiled at Santini’s observation since it was right on target. “She does more than merely fascinate me, Santini. She fires my blood.” His words were true and he couldn’t help but look forward to tonight when he and Johari would move their relationship to another level. A very intimate level that had blood gushing through his veins in anticipation of it.
“I can understand why. She is a very beautiful woman. The kind that can leave a man breathless.” Santini paused a few moments and then asked, “When will you tell her the truth as to who you are?”
Leave it to his friend to remind him of the farce he had orchestrated. “I don’t know,” Rasheed said. “We will share ten days together and then I will return her to New York. I will tell her then.”
“And I will hate to be in your shoes when you do. She will feel betrayed.”
Betrayed. At that single word Rasheed glanced back to the patio to find Johari was no longer standing there. He turned back to Santini and said, “Betrayed is a strong wrong, isn’t it? Given the fact that she is the one out of place. She should be back in Tahran planning for our wedding. Instead she is here being seduced by a stranger. The way I see it, I am the one who should be feeling betrayed. I told you how I walked into that nightclub and found her dancing on the tables, Santini. That type of behavior from a woman who is destined to be my future queen is not acceptable.”
“Yes,” Santini said and smiled. “But when you saw her she evidently fired your blood. Even now you can’t stop looking at her. I couldn’t help noticing.”
Rasheed frowned, slightly agitated. “You notice too much.”
“Yes, but in this case I couldn’t help it. And I still say that she will feel betrayed.”
Rasheed shrugged. “Then she will just have to get over it. I would not have taken such drastic measures had she followed protocol. As far as I’m concerned, whatever happens she has brought on herself.”
“So a wedding will take place regardless?”
“Yes, a wedding will take place regardless,” Rasheed said. He would marry Johari. Once she discovered his true identity she would feel the sting of betrayal, but like he said to Santini, as far as he was concerned she had brought it on herself. She would be sharing a man’s bed. She had been given her first orgasm by another man. It meant nothing that the other man had been him. The bottom line was that Johari didn’t know it. And how she would feel once she found out the truth didn’t matter to him. She had initiated this mockery; however, he was more than happy to bring it to an end, but not until he had his way with her. He would gladly prove to her that no matter how experienced, a wife and a mistress were two separate entities and as far as not being able to accept him having a mistress, she would not have any choice in the matter.
“I wish you luck, Monty.”
He glanced back at Santini. “Luck?”
“Yes, because you’re going to need it. No matter what brought this on and no matter how she might have contributed to it, she will resent what you’re doing. She is not just one of your other women.”
Rasheed chuckled. “No, she definitely is not that.” His mistresses weren’t exactly the innocent types. The last one he brought here had liked wearing next to nothing and hadn’t minded flaunting her attributes in front of him, Santini or anyone else caring to look. But Johari was different. Even his staff had noticed the difference the moment Johari had entered his home. She had greeted them with kindness, and she possessed an air of innocence that any woman he dealt with before could not come close to claiming. For Pete’s sake, she was still a virgin. When was the last time he had bothered to rid any woman of her virginity? Anyone who knew him knew that he much preferred experienced women.
And another thing Rasheed was sure his house staff had noticed was the fact that Johari was a lot younger than the women he usually had affairs with. Another giveaway was that he’d asked that she be given a separate bedroom. Juanita, his housekeeper, had stared at him in surprise before escorting Johari up the stairs to one of the guest suites.
“Will you be staying for dinner?” he asked Santini.
Raul Santini smiled. “Thanks for the invitation, but I have a strong feeling that you would like to be alone tonight with your future wife.”
“Johari, have you lost your mind?”
Johari placed the phone from her ear, convinced Cel had burst her eardrums. “No, my mind is very much intact,” she responded.
“Then what are you doing on some island off the coast of Argentina instead of back in New York where I left you?”
Johari sighed deeply. “I told you why.”
“Yes, you explained your reasoning but I’m not sure what you’re doing is going to work. What if Monty teaches you all that you want to know and your future sheikh still wants a mistress?”
“Then I would have accepted that I had failed.”
“You would not have failed. You need to just sit down before the wedding and lay down the law to him and—”
“Cel, I’ve told you. In my country a woman does not lay down any laws. She accepts any that her husband has made for her. That’s why, knowing what I know, I have to do whatever I can before the wedding.”
“Yes, but you’re supposed to be enjoying the sights, having a good time, not spending your time worrying about how to please a man, who in my opinion would be a total jerk to take another woman in addition to you. Experience or no experience, it just wouldn’t be right.”
Johari heard everything Celine was saying. And she was having a good time. That day she had spent with Monty at Coney Island, dancing those times for him in his condo, the plane trip across the ocean where she had sat in his lap while he had kissed her senseless, and even now being here on this island with him. And Monty had suggested that they do a picnic tomorrow.
“Don’t worry about me, Cel, I’ll be fine.”
“I do worry about you. Promise you won’t do anything foolish.”
Johari considered Cel’s words and wondered if sleeping with Monty fell within that category of foolish. In that case she would indulge in a lot of foolishness tonight.
“I need to get ready for dinner. Do enjoy the rest of your cruise.” She quickly hung up the phone before Cel could start preaching again. She checked the cloc
k on the nightstand. She needed to shower and get dressed for dinner. Anticipation was flowing through her veins at the thought of seeing Monty again.
Chapter 9
Johari sat across from Monty at the dinner table, fully aware of everything about him. His every movement, no matter how slight, tightened her nerves, had heat blazing through her veins and made awakening passion flow down her spine. She had struggled through the entire meal trying not to stare but, more times than not, hadn’t been able to help herself. He was such a handsome man, strikingly so.
When she had arrived downstairs for dinner he had met her at the bottom stair. He had showered and changed into another outfit like she had done and from the way his gaze had moved over her beneath long, shuttered lashes, she had known he liked her choice of outfit—a gauze skirt set in bright geo print. It added a flare to her that he hadn’t seen before in any of her other outfits. She liked the way the top hung off her shoulders and the skirt ruffled around the hem.
He was casually dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a white shirt. It was simple enough attire, but the magnitude of his sexuality hit her hard the moment she saw him. All her senses had been on alert and the moment he’d taken her hand in his, she had to steady herself to keep from passing out. The man transmitted sensuality with such an intensity that it slammed into her head-on, made her wonder how she would be able to handle such a man in or out of the bedroom.
“Would you like anything else, Jo? Dessert perhaps?”
The sound of his voice—deep, authoritative, yet considerate—made her look up from her dinner plate to meet his dark eyes. Her response almost caught in her throat from the intensity of his stare. She noticed how, ever so slowly, subtly, yet very thoroughly, his eyes would scan her face, linger on her lips, making them throb under his scrutiny.
“No, I don’t want anything else. Thank you.”
He smiled before nodding at one of his household staff members standing not far way. Within minutes the table before them had been cleared. “Would you like to join me for a glass of wine in the ocean room?”
“The ocean room?”
He smiled as he stood on his feet. “Yes.”
Intrigued, she stood, as well, and when he walked around the table to her and took her hand in his, she felt a tingling sensation all the way to her toes. She tilted her head and looked up at him, already regretting the time when they would part. In just a short while she had grown to feel close to him, felt protected by him. She couldn’t help wondering how it would feel to be loved by him.
She wasn’t into masochism by any means, so why would she even go there and imagine something that would only cause her heartbreak and pain? Monty was what he was, a jet-setting playboy, a wealthy tycoon. When it came to mistresses, he was probably in the same league as the man she was to marry. The same league Jamal had been in before he’d fallen in love with Delaney.
She might be naive in some things but she was smart enough to know just what short-term affairs were about and what was expected. She knew Monty was getting something from it, as well. When it ended, and Monty returned her to New York, he would be on his merry way, ready for the next willing conquest. She was determined not to let the thought that she was just one of many bother her. Things were as they were. She only had his company for two weeks, not enough time to start something that could never be.
As they left the huge dining room and continued walking along the foyer that led to several rooms, Johari was amazed at the beauty of the paintings on the walls, the intricate wood carvings that adorned several mantels. When he pushed open a set of double doors and they walked into the room, her breath caught. The symmetrical room was perfect in design and furnishing, and completely glass all around. One section of the room stretched out as a long glass-enclosed deck that extended out over the Atlantic Ocean.
It was late evening and the sun was just going down on the horizon. The sight was breathtaking, truly magnificent. Monty released her hand to move across the room to the bar and she turned around in a circle to take it all in. Glass everywhere. The ocean everywhere. She quickly moved toward one of the windows when she noticed a school of dolphins in the waters below.
She couldn’t help the excitement that shone on her face when she turned back around to Monty and he handed her a glass of wine.
She smiled up at him. “Oh, Monty, do you see them? It’s simply wonderful! I can’t believe this place and I’m so glad you brought me here.”
He returned her smile. “I’m glad I brought you here, as well. At night when the lights are darkened and you stare out over the ocean it’s even more beautiful beneath the moonlight,” he said, speaking smoothly.
Johari sighed deeply. She couldn’t wait to experience something like that. She took a sip of her wine, noticing just how close Monty was standing to her. She became intensely aware of him, not that she hadn’t been aware of him already. But suddenly something was happening as they both paused to take sips of their wine while staring at each other. She could feel it and knew that he could feel it, as well. Once again she was feeling a rush of desire for him that was so keen and deep that her pulse rate quickened. She stood there staring into his eyes, slipping under his spell as sexual tension shimmered between them.
“In addition to the picnic on the beach tomorrow, I thought we would go out on my boat,” he said, as he continued to stare at her.
“Sounds like fun,” she found the words to say, not sure if he could even hear her through her suddenly tight throat.
“And I intend for it to be.”
Her gaze fell to his lips, the same lips that had devoured hers in the car earlier. He had such a robust and manly flavor, she was certain she could still taste him on her tongue. “I admire the person who built this place.”
Monty broke eye contact with her to turn a smiling gaze to where the dolphins still played in the water. “When Santini’s father was an Argentinian ambassador, he had it built for Santini’s mother. They both died the following year unexpectedly in a car accident and Raul wasn’t interested in keeping it. He knew how much I liked it and offered it to me and I bought it. I love it here.”
“And I can understand why.”
“Do you?” he whispered in a raspy tone.
“Yes. You are a private person and being here gives you the privacy you crave when you desire it.”
He studied her intently for a few moments and chuckled and then said, “You are right. Few people know how to figure me out.”
And few people could get next to her as he was doing so effortlessly, Johari thought, as she continued to feel the warm fires stroking within her at his nearness.
“I never did give you an official tour of my home,” he said, placing both of their wineglasses aside and offering her his arm. He led her toward the door. “We’ll return later, after it becomes dark,” he whispered as they left the ocean room.
She took deep, calming breaths as she walked beside him while inhaling his sensual scent. There was something about Monty that had disturbed her senses from the very beginning. And now after meeting him in a New York nightclub a few days ago, she was here with him on his own personal island.
He escorted her around the various wings and she truly believed he enjoyed seeing the astonished look on her face with every room they toured. Her pulse increased as they headed up the stairs.
“So tell me something about you, Jo, that no other living soul knows,” he said as they continued up the stairs.
She fought back saying, I think I’m falling in love with you against my better judgment. Instead she smiled and said, “I can tell you something that very few people know, and that is I have a baby.”
She couldn’t help but smile when Monty nearly lost his step. He stopped walking and stared at her. His mouth, full sensuous lips and all, dropped open in shock and the sharp cut of his eyes wiped the smile from her lips.
“You have a child?” he asked in a low, hardened tone.
“Not a human child,” she quickly
said and regretted that her words had not come across as the cute joke she had intended.
“Not a human child?” he asked, repeating her words with a confused look in his eyes. “Is there any other kind?”
Her smile returned. “For me there is. I own a puppy that I consider my baby, because he definitely acts like it sometimes.”
He lifted a dark brow. “A puppy?”
“Yes, but no one knows about him but Cel and another friend from college. I heard him crying one night and when I investigated he was outside the condo where I lived. Someone had thrown him and four others in a nearby Dumpster. The moment I held him in my arms I fell in love with him. He was barely a few days old and was so tiny and I knew I had to take care of him.”
“What kind of dog is he?”
“The vet said he is part Yorkie terrier. He is still tiny and the most he will weigh is four pounds. He is being kept at Cel’s parents’ home. I’m hoping once I’m married my husband will allow me to bring him to my country. I named him Copper and he means a lot to me.”
Monty nodded before they resumed their walk up the stairs. “Is there a reason your husband wouldn’t let you own him?”
She met his gaze, realizing he was probably not familiar with her country’s customs and said, “Yes, in my country a dog can’t be housed in the main living quarters, but I’m hoping my future husband will agree to let me keep him at a kennel somewhere close by where I can visit him on occasion.”
“And what if the man you marry isn’t easily persuaded?” he asked in a thoughtful voice.
When they reached the landing, she turned to him. “Then I need to persuade him to indulge me on this one thing, because…”
“Because what?” he asked softly.
She drew in a deep breath, held his gaze, smiled and said in a compelling voice, “Because I’m worth it.”
Wrapped In Pleasure Page 25