Sheikh's Pregnant Princess

by Sophia Lynn

  "In the old days," Nadim continued, "doing what you did would get a wife or concubine punished. She might be forced to perform cleaning chores for the servants, a humiliation for a high-born lady, or if things were severe, she might be bent over a specially-made bench and chastised with a rod or a camel whip."

  Nadim's laugh was low and sinister as she squirmed at his words. The squirm ended with a high-pitched whimper of despair when she felt his hand nudge up between her legs. She was unbearably warm and already a little wet at the things he was saying. She didn't understand why she was so aroused by such savage imagery, but she couldn't even pretend to deny it.

  "What...what are you going to do to me, then?" she asked.

  "Well, generally, you are so very good and sweet-natured," he said slowly. "I suppose I could be merciful and let you off with a warning."

  "Oh..." Why did she feel so disappointed at that?

  "But I think a little reminder will help cement the lesson."

  He had barely finished speaking before he started raining sharp blows on her round rear. They were sharp and loud, far from painful, but the spreading warmth on her buttocks, the contact of skin on skin, even the sound, were conspiring to bring the heat within her up to a raging inferno.

  By the time he finished off with one spank harder than the rest, she was whimpering and squirming, and somehow her thighs had fallen open, letting him lay a few careful spanks on the sensitive skin there as well.

  She was still breathing hard when he rolled her over, making Elise hiss at her tender rear touching the covers underneath her.

  "Well, have you learned your lesson, little brat?"

  She thought about it for a moment while she caught her breath.

  "No. I think I need more...intimate correction."

  There was a savage light in his grin when she said those words.

  "I see. Well, if one method won't serve, I must find another that does..."

  She squeaked when he rolled her over on her belly again, but instead of laying into her with his hand, he tugged her so she was on her knees. When Elise tried to struggle up on her hands, he pressed her chest back down to the bed with a hand on her back.

  "No, this is where I want you," he growled, and Elise groaned at how obscene her position was, how turned on she was because of it.

  She knew exactly how exposed she was, and she knew that Nadim was going to take full advantage of it. When he caressed her flank, she thought she could detect the faintest tremor in his fingertips. It had been just as long for him as it was for her. He was as desperate for this as she was, and now that her desire had been raised to a fever pitch, she couldn't wait much longer.

  "Please, please, Nadim, I need you," she whispered. "Haven't you punished me enough?"

  "I don't even think that I have begun," he retorted, but she knew how close his control was to breaking when he rose up behind her, his firm hands on her wrist. She gasped when she felt his hips brush against her sensitive rear, and then he was sliding his erection along her slit.

  "Oh god, please, Nadim!"

  "Soon, soon," he growled, but there was a pitch in his voice that told her that he would not be able to wait all that long.

  She twisted so she could look up at him, and Elise tried to put all of her longing into her eyes. She tried to telegraph to him how much she needed this, needed his touch, needed him, and somehow, it worked. She could almost feel him understand her need, and then, tightening his grip on her waist, he thrust into her with one deep, powerful motion.

  "Oh, Nadim!" she cried out, her eyes shutting against the power of the sensation. At the same time, she could hear him uttering a guttural growl as he filled her completely, and it was a sound that struck her to the very core, making her cry out with need.

  There was no pause to make sure that she was all right, to linger or to savor. Instead, there was only need, hers and his. He thrust into her over and over again, letting her take his full length, stretching her and making her cry out with how good it felt and how much she needed him.

  The heat in her spiraled up and up, making her body start to shake. She couldn't bear the tension, but still she clung to it. It had been so long, and paradoxically, Elise couldn't stand for it to be over. She felt her body open to receive him, she felt his power as he lunged over her, and if the tension didn't break, then surely she would be pulled apart.

  She realized finally that Nadim was not simply swearing in Arabic as he took her. There was at least one English word in his growls, and then she finally understood what he was saying to her.

  "Mine, mine, mine..."

  Something about him saying that made her shatter. Elise lost her grip on everything. She dug her nails into the bedspread and shouted as her climax claimed her. There was nothing that she could do about it. There was no way to prevent it. Suddenly the pleasure washed over her like a tide, rolling her under, and there was nothing she could do.

  Elise cried out until she was hoarse, and above her. Nadim drove into her hard, spilling his need deep inside her with a primal roar of victory. She was still shaking when he pulled away from her, his motions gentle despite his earlier force. For a moment, he allowed her lie panting where she was, and then he rolled her over on her back.

  Elise started to make some kind of remark about him flipping her like a pancake, but then his hand was gliding down her sweat-slicked belly to the place between her legs.

  "Nadim!"

  "I don't think I'm quite done with you yet," he purred, his voice hoarse. "I think that as pleasurable as feeling you come was, I want to see it. As you have pointed out, it has been ever so long."

  For a moment, Elise winced as his fingers crept over flesh that felt far too sensitive, but then she relaxed with a sigh as the pressure stayed light. Before she knew it, his gentleness and whispering words of comfort had calmed her to where she could accept his touch. Then he was able to slip his fingers along her slit, investigating her and making her spread her legs even farther. There was something beautifully tender about him touching her now, when she was so exhausted, and she could barely believe it when he started coaxing that heat from her again.

  "Nadim, I don't know if I can..."

  "If you become frightened or sore, tell me, and I will stop. However, until you tell me that, I am going to keep going, and I am going to make you come again."

  Even his words aroused her, and again, as she always seemed to do with this man, she gave up and allowed him to work his will. When she relaxed, it was even easier to let the heat in, to accept it and to let it build higher and higher.

  Her own climax caught her by surprise. It took so little time, she supposed, because she had been primed before, but then she was rocking up to meet his hand, her legs trembling and her muscles clenching as she reached for that pleasure. Her climax was softer than the first, less intense, but it seemed to roll on forever. When it was finally over, she stared unblinking at the ceiling, her body shivering.

  She whimpered as Nadim pulled his hands away, and then he reached out to kiss her cheek gently.

  "I'll be right back, darling."

  She supposed she managed to nod, because then she heard water running in their bathroom. In a short amount of time, however, he came back, fresh out of the shower.

  "Come here, little songbird. You're a mess."

  "Hmm, and who in the world could have made me that way, I wonder..."

  However, despite her tart words, she allowed him to scoop her up and carry her to the bathroom, where the tub was filling up with hot water and fragrant bubbles. She hissed a little at the intense heat when he laid her in the bath, but when she became accustomed to the heat, she sighed with pleasure.

  For a moment, Elise was afraid that he was going to go, but then he came to sit on the edge of the tub.

  "Nadim, there is a great deal we have to say..."

  "We can talk about that later," he promised. "For now...well, we are back on track. I...I am sorry that things were the way they were for a w
hile. I am deeply regretful for the things that I said. You did not deserve them, and many of them are not even true. That was wrong of me."

  She bit her lip because there was so much more to it. The apology was important, but it was more important for her to understand things, to figure out what had brought on that strange and cold time and what she could do to make sure that it never happened again.

  Right now, however, the hot water felt blissful, and she could not imagine trying to disturb what it was they were doing. When he dipped his hands in the water and started to massage her shoulders, she groaned with pleasure.

  There would be plenty of time to speak about what had happened. She could attend to it later.

  Chapter Twelve

  Elise fully intended to speak with Nadim about his period of coldness. She had every intention of doing so. It was the only way to get to know each other, to understand each other and to do better in the future.

  However, it was exceedingly difficult to go back to a bad time when what was going on right now was so much better.

  Nadim was as sunny and as eager as he had been when they first arrived on the island, and just as quickly, she found herself being seduced. It was easy, far too easy, to put the rest of it out of her mind, to pretend that that coldness had never happened and that they had recovered.

  Sometimes, on some dark nights when she couldn't sleep or when he was in the study taking care of some business, she would think of the frigid look in his eyes and of the way he had told her to know her place. The words were insulting and designed to wound, but somehow, there was a ring of truth to them that she could not escape, a kind of terror that haunted her.

  It was on one of those nights when he was closeted away speaking in Chinese that she got the idea for the necklace. She was holding the red pebble of sea glass again, stroking the frosted surface absently with one thumb. It occurred to her how handsome the red was, how beautiful it would look next to Nadim's skin.

  In another era, he might wear it as an earring, the deep red flashing against his shaggy hair. She smiled a little at her girlish urge to see him as a pirate, but then it struck her that it would be a fairly striking necklace.

  Once the thought occurred, it would not let go. She looked outside. There was still plenty of light, and the town had a small craft store that might serve well enough. She dashed off a note for Nadim and called the car service they used when Nadim didn't care to drive.

  She spent a happy hour at the bead store, remembering days when she had wanted to do just that but lacked the funds. Now she had all the money she could wish, and she knew she could buy whatever she wanted. The little red pebble nestled in her hand as she considered it.

  When she got back to the cottage she had started to see as home, she saw that Nadim wasn't done yet, which was fine. She tossed the note, and sitting in the small sun room, she started to work.

  She didn't know how to use the jewelry drills that the shop sold, so her necklace was going to have to be a little more primitive. She wove a small net out of six thin cords, and then tied the glass pebble in. There were still long, long strands coming from the net, so she braided them into two long strands, easy to tie behind the neck when the necklace was worn. She pulled two dark copper beads from her haul from the craft store and threaded them along both sides.

  Just a few hours after she started, she had a rather lovely necklace, one that was striking, but perfectly suitable for a man to wear, she thought. She held the red sea glass up to light, marveling in the way its beauty shone through the weave of the net. There was a kind of primitive beauty to it, like something a woman living by the sea might give to her lover before he went off to war.

  She heard Nadim come out of the study, calling for her, and then in a fit of shyness, she shoved it into the desk. She would give it to him at some point, but perhaps it would be a little while. It felt too personal somehow, too strange a thing to simply hand over.

  Making the necklace helped, but it could not be denied that she could not find things to amuse her and to distract her every day.

  No matter how Nadim told her he cared about her, no matter how many thoughtful things he did or meals he cooked or words of affection he uttered, that fear was still there.

  Of course, it would have been worse if they never talked about anything else.

  The truth, however, was that even on the remote island of Omorphia, there was plenty to occupy them, and in some ways, it felt as if they never stopped talking.

  One afternoon, after another drive up to the village, Elise was delighted to find the soccer players that she had met before. They were just as delighted to meet her, and because no one had erroneously kicked a soccer ball at her head, she was able to meet them, to learn their names and to shake their hands.

  Nadim rolled his eyes with a smile and a nod when one boy held up the ball hopefully, and Elise looked up at him with a plea in her spring-green eyes.

  "If you must, you must," he said. "But don't come crying to me if you end up getting your pretty dress rumpled."

  She grinned at him with a cocky tilt to her chin.

  "I will be the one to worry about my pretty dress, but I know my way around, and these boys won't even touch me."

  Elise and the boys raced through the square, no teams, no points, only steals and tricks with the ball, and shouts of pleasure. It had been better than ten years since Elise had played the game competitively, but she really wasn't going to have too many problems playing against children. Once or twice, she stopped and showed them tricks that had served her well once upon time, and finally, when everyone was breathing hard with sweat running down their faces, she showed them some drills that would help them improve.

  After that, noticing that more time had passed than she had thought, she ducked back to where Nadim was patiently waiting across the square.

  "See," she said triumphantly. "Not a single rip or stain on the dress."

  "Your legs and your arms are another story," he said with a grin, and with a pang, she realized that she was streaked with dirt.

  "Oh no, the restaurant won't want to seat me like this, will they?"

  Nadim's laugh was amused.

  "My little songbird, if I wished them to do so, they would serve you while you were covered with mud, and with enough cash, they would pretend not to notice at all. "

  She started to protest, but then he chuckled.

  "Don't worry, even when I can throw my weight around, I don't always want to. We can go and get takeout, and then I know just the spot."

  The little taverna didn't typically do takeout, but there were some privileges of rank that Elise didn't mind taking advantage of once in a while. The taverna's owner and his wife gazed at her with concern, but she waved them off. It was startling how much she was starting to feel at home on this little island. She didn't even know how at home she had felt in her own town. That was simply a place where she knew her way around. Omorphia was a place where she was actually welcomed, actually cared for.

  Nadim led her to a little sheltered cove on the beach. There was shade from the sun, there was a flat space to spread a blanket, and there was a wide expanse of gorgeous Mediterranean water to watch.

  When they sat down, Nadim insisted on applying her sunscreen yet again, something that she submitted to after she had rinsed off the mud in the sea. After that, they could get down to the truly delicious business of eating some of the taverna's excellent food. Elise couldn't find it in her to be so fond of the dolmades, where the grape leaves gave everything a bitter tang, but the rest of the food was delicious.

  Elise was doing nothing more than enjoying the food when she realized that Nadim was watching her.

  "What is it?" she asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

  "No, I was just thinking..." he paused, and instead of teasing him, she waited patiently for what it was he had to say. Sometimes, Nadim could surprise her like this. His mind moved in strange ways, and she had learned to match his speed, to let him s
peak at his own rate.

  "You enjoyed your time with those children today, didn't you?"

  "Of course I did," Elise said in surprise. "I figured that that was pretty obvious."

  "Yes. Someday, do you want children yourself?"

  It was, she thought, a strange thing to ask the woman who was going to give him one. When Elise considered it, however, she realized that it made some sense.

  "I would have said no before I met you," she decided, and when Nadim shot her a confused look, she continued.

  "Raising children poor...it's possible, but it is far from easy. You work yourself into the ground, you do whatever you have to do to give them the best possible life, and sometimes...sometimes I worry that you leave them on their own too much. Before I met you, before the money that you were offering me, it would have been difficult."

  She paused for a moment, absently thinking that one of the things she liked best about Nadim was that he always waited for her to really finish taking before he brought up what was on his mind.

  "I am learning so many things about myself right now," she said finally. "I never thought I would be trying to bear a couple a baby. I never thought I would get to see Greece like this. I never thought I would enjoy a soccer match with a bunch of little boys whose language I don't speak, that it would be so much fun. I don't know if I will ever want to have children after I give you yours, but I can imagine it now."

  They ate in silence for a short time, and Elise wondered why the mood had become strangely somber. She knew that Nadim was laying things out in his head, trying to figure out what he needed to say, and she was unsurprised when he spoke again.

  "If...would you be willing to stay on after you bore the throne of Hadara a child? As a nanny, perhaps, or a tutor? The pay would continue to be quite good."

  Elise was startled. There was something curiously impersonal about the idea of giving her child to a throne and not to pair of loving parents who would love and cherish them. Then she realized what he was asking, and she felt a chilling river of rage run through her.