by Sophia Lynn
Mutely, Elise watched as he scooped the girl up in his arms. Nadim glanced at her.
"You needn't look as if you are worried that I am going to eat her up like some ogre," he said, and his tone was so neutral that she knew that he was hiding some kind of hurt there. Had she really been glaring at him like that? She supposed that she had been.
"Do you know her, then?" she asked, changing the subject. The thing that lay between them felt like something far too fraught to discuss now.
"I do," he said. "Her family lives along the edge of the trees here. Her father and mother are scientists studying the water, and they have long had a standing agreement with my family to study here. This little one is Theresa, and she is a little inclined to go wandering. Would you like to come with me as I return her?"
Elise hesitated, and she could feel something in Nadim harden again.
"You needn't bother if you cannot stand my company..." he began, but he cut himself off as she crossed the beach to stand by his side.
"I would like to see her safely home," Elise said quietly, "and I would like to walk with you as well."
For a moment, she thought that he would simply shake her off and stalk off into the trees, but finally, he softened and allowed her to tuck her hand into the crook of his elbow.
"Come this way," he said, and his voice almost sounded normal again. “There is a great deal of rocks, so be careful."
A twenty-minute walk took them to a small house along the edge of the island, and then Elise was introduced to a charming French couple, Paul and Maria du Champ. They spoke some English, delighting Elise, who did not know how starved she had been for her home language she had become in the past two months. When the du Champs thanked Elise and Nadim for finding their daughter and invited them to a light dinner, she looked so hopeful that Nadim smiled and nodded.
Dinner was a beautifully steamed sea bass on a bed of vegetables, accompanied by a surprisingly sweet red wine. Elise never really had a taste for wine, but she found that she liked this quite a lot. Perhaps some of it had to do with the fact that she could barely take her eyes off of Paul and Maria.
They were a little older than she would have thought the parents of such a little girl were, but she was informed that Theresa was a miracle baby, conceived long after the pair had resigned themselves to childless lives devoted to their careers.
"And then suddenly one Christmas day, I realize that I have been feeling out of sorts...and then bang, I just know!" Maria chuckled happily, running her hand over her daughter's curls.
"I was shocked," Paul said wistfully, “and in a moment, I could see her, dark hair and dark eyes and all, laughing at us and telling her how she was sorry for being late..."
Nadim chatted with them about their work, but Elise, whether because of her own emotional turmoil or the wine she had drank, was quiet. She didn't want to disrupt this scene in any way. She only wanted to observe it for a short while until it was over, and then she wanted to keep it in her memory forever.
As much as Elise wanted the evening to go on as long as it could, however, that was impossible. In far too short a period, Maria was hustling Theresa to bed, and Paul was offering to drive them back to the cottage in his Jeep.
"No, it is still a beautiful night," Nadim said, waving him off with a slight smile. "I think a walk after dinner would be good for Elise and me."
Nadim offered her his arm again, and she took it, more readily this time. However, as they walked away from the du Champs' house, she couldn't resist sneaking a peek back towards it. It wasn't quite full dark yet, but it was close, and the yellow rectangles of lights from the windows made a breathtaking picture. Elise felt as if she were floating far away, and looking back at the simple vessel of light in the darkness made her feel safe.
Then, because she knew that the happiness of that house and its inhabitants weren't for her, she turned again and kept pace with Nadim.
The silence between them vibrated, but there was nothing terrible about it. It was Nadim who finally broke it.
"You ran away from me."
"You said something cruel to me," she said, her words heartrendingly plain and simple. "It was very close to what you said before, and it hurt just as much."
She wondered if she felt Nadim flinch away from her. If he did, he recovered quickly. She wondered if he would deny it, but this time, he didn't.
"There is an aspect of truth to it," he said, his voice so deep it was nearly a bass rumble. "Elise, believe me when I say that you are no whore. Never. I have never thought of what we do as something that I have paid for."
"And yet you said it."
He stopped abruptly, laying his hands on her shoulders. For a moment, Elise thought that he was going to shake her, but then his gentle fingers found her chin, tilting her face up so that they were looking into each other's eyes. In the dark, she could only make out the vague shape of his face and the bright glint of his eyes.
"Forgive me," he said harshly. "I have always told that I can be cruel when I am afraid, and I see once again that that is true."
She blinked at him, because if there was one thing she had never considered, it was that he was afraid. He was the sheikh of Hadara, the very law of the land. What could he have to be afraid of?
"You are not afraid," she said, reaching up to lay her hand over his. "How can such a thing even be possible?"
He chuckled, a surprisingly dark sound that raised the hackles on the back of her neck.
"I am afraid that no matter what I do, I cannot produce an heir for my country. I am afraid that at some point, I will get that child from you, but then I will never see you again. I am afraid that things will go wrong in Hadara while I try to do this, and I am afraid that people might suffer for it. Sometimes, the fear keeps me up at night."
His speech seemed to exhaust him, and for a moment he was as still as a stone statue in the darkness. Tentatively, she reached her hand up to his face, tracing the granite line of his mouth.
"I don't want you to be afraid," she whispered, and for some reason, that made him laugh.
"I am glad," he said softly, and he opened his mouth to kiss the very tips of her fingers.
She had no idea if it was a joke or something that he did in all seriousness, but the moment she felt the soft dampness of his tongue against her fingertips, a deep shudder ran through her.
She knew that he could feel it because he pulled away from her in surprise.
"Are you all right?" he growled. "Did I hurt you somehow?"
"You will never hurt me," she said softly, even knowing that it was a lie. "I want you so much..."
She felt his breath catch, and that hunger that could leap between them with the quickness of a jungle cat caught light again.
Chapter Fourteen
Elise thought that Nadim would bring her back to the house, where they could make love in the enormous bed or perhaps on the couch if they could not get that far. Instead, after a savage kiss that took her breath away, he took her hand and led her down to the beach.
"Are...are we going into the water?" she asked breathlessly, and he laughed.
"Not at all. I have made love on the beach exactly once, and it was a terrible experience."
She blinked, and he must have sensed her confusion because he explained.
"The sand can and will get everywhere. However, what I have in mind should please you just as well."
Instead of leading her down to the water, he stopped and leaned her against one of the twisted trees that had somehow survived the wrath of the Grecian sun and salt water. The feeling of the rough wood against her back had a primal quality to it, and Elise could feel the shape of what Nadim intended to do. She looped her arms around his neck, and for a moment, it was like a dream she had had long ago, one where she kissed this beautiful man between the shore and the sea, letting his kisses fill her with a kind of light that she had never known.
Then to her surprise, he was pulling away. Elise uttered a cry of surpris
e and loss, but then she found him kneeling on the soft sand. When he glanced up at her, she had to gasp at his beauty. There was something proud and arrogant about him even like this, on his knees in front of her. No one would ever mistake him for a cowed enemy; instead, there was something ravenous and rapacious about him even now, and she felt her heart beat a little faster.
"I am going to make you feel so good," he murmured. "I am going to make you cry out with pleasure."
Before she could compose an answer, he had lifted the flying hem of her skirt, flipping it up and pushing it up to her waist. She whimpered as he dragged her underwear aside, and at the first slide of his fingers against her slit, she nearly cried out.
It was always like this with him. No matter what, it was if her body recognized him. It was always ready for him, waiting for him, and she hadn't yet decided if that was something that pleased her or troubled her. It was pleasurable and troubled in equal measure, she supposed, but then he passed his tongue over her most sensitive bud, and she forgot to think about anything else.
She could do nothing but clench one hand on his shoulder and the other on the tree behind her as he started to nuzzle at the humid triangle between her legs. She could already feel the pulses of pleasure start racing down her legs as she trembled under his onslaught.
Before when he had done this, there was a kind of patience there that allowed her to process the pleasure at her own rate. Now, though, there was nothing of that kind. Instead, it was a blaze of pleasure and sensation that seemed to set her body on fire, and soon enough, she was wide-eyed, staring out at the black night and the dark waves. The moon had risen, giving everything a silvery hue, and it seemed that this act, this ancient thing that had caught her so completely, was simply a part of that.
It wasn't until her climax was nearly upon her that Elise realized that she was saying words instead of simply crying out. She heard herself in the middle of saying Nadim's name, chanting it as if he were some sort of dark god come down from the heavens to ravish her.
She trembled on the edge of a climax for so long that she wondered whether she would be able to reach it at all, but then she was falling, the blaze of need exploding in her and making everything in her vision go white. She was shaking, raw, clinging to him, but somehow, she managed to keep the truth from him.
Then, however, he stood, and with a few quick movements, he unfastened his pants and pulled out his manhood. He lifted her easily with her back still to the tree, and in the same movement, he stepped between her legs. Instinctively, Elise wrapped her legs around his waist, dragging him closer, and with a groan, he sank into her to the hilt.
The pleasure of being completely and utterly joined with him filled her with a kind of ecstasy, and in that moment of pure connection, she could not hold the truth back.
"Nadim, oh, Nadim, I love you, I love you...!"
She could feel him pause for a moment, but then he lunged into her again. There was such strength behind the motion, but he didn't hurt her, and soon enough, the steady rhythm that he set was rousing her again. Stifling her declaration lest she humiliate herself twice, she clung to him, and though she tried to ward it off, a second climax thundered hard on the heels of the first.
I can't, I can't...just...give in like this after I said such a thing, she thought frantically. Please, I have to keep some of my pride!
Her mind might have wanted to hang on to some of her pride, but her body obviously had a different idea.
This was Nadim. This was the man who knew her inside and out. This was the man who wanted a child from her so badly he was willing to let his country flounder for it. She had saved him once, and when his agent had picked her off the street, she thought he was saving her.
Her thoughts whirled with everything they were to one another, all of the things that had been said, the things that he had apologized for, and the things he hadn't said.
It was too much.
Just as he spilled a hot flood inside her, roaring as he came, her body finally betrayed her. She cried out at the climax that roared through her, but the pleasure left her shaken rather than sated. Even as the shivers were dying down, there were tears in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks and making her sob.
"Elise! Elise..."
With a muffled curse, Nadim pulled away from her, resettling their clothes with quick, sharp movements. In a moment, he had gathered her into his arms and was striding towards the cottage. He hadn't gone more than a few minutes before she tugged on his sleeve.
"It's all right," she said in a voice that was only a little thicker than normal. "Put me down, I don't want you to fall.”
"I won't fall carrying you, you weigh less than a cat," he growled, but cautiously, he set her down on the ground again. "Are you all right? What was that?"
"You didn't hurt me, I promise," she said with a shrug. "I know it was fast, but I was ready for you. Sometimes it feels as if I am always ready for you."
There was no way to read his expression in the darkness, but she could imagine the sorrow in his eyes, and also the guardedness there. There were some parts of him that he didn't want her to see, and she was beginning to feel where they were now.
"But not all hurts come from the body," he finished, and miserably, she nodded.
"Yes."
They stood in the dark like that for so long that she wondered if they would ever move again, and then finally, with a sigh she more felt than heard, he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. It felt like a benediction, a blessing, or perhaps some kind of farewell.
"Come to the cottage," he said, his voice rough. "If we have anything to talk about, it can wait until daylight, and regardless, it is too late to go crashing about in the groves."
His hand felt enormous and warm when he took hers, and with a gentle touch, he led her back to the cottage.
In some ways, the fight that they had had earlier felt distant now. Elise knew the shape of it, and she knew that it would never change. Nothing would change until the day that suddenly, everything did.
They changed into their sleep clothes facing away from each other, she into her silk nightgown, he into a pair of silk boxer shorts. She thought of how distant they were now that it was so quiet, when before she had been calling his name and confessing her love to him.
Money has been exchanged, she told herself as brutally as she could. Love has nothing to do with any of this.
She tried to desensitize herself to all of it. Perhaps she should thank him; he wasn't confronting the issue or making excuses for her or for himself. She was the one who was wrong, and the sooner she worked these ridiculous hopeless emotions out of her heart and her mind, the better they would both be for it.
However, when he rolled towards her to gather her into his arms, her back to his chest as they normally slept, she felt something inside her quietly crack. Silent tears dripped down her cheeks, as if now that they had started, they could not stop.
She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed as quietly as she could to make sure that he did not notice, and when she finally drifted off to sleep, her words, her ridiculous words, were still echoing in her head.
I love you, Nadim, I love you, I love you, I love only you, please love me...
***
He would have been lying if he said that Elise had never given him a sleepless night, but on this one, he couldn't even close his eyes. Instead, he held her close to him, and when her body shook as though she was having a bad dream, he only pulled her closer. He held her until her breathing smoothed out into real sleep, but he could tell at a glance that there was nothing restful about it.
He could still hear the words she had said as they had made love on the beach, and he could still feel the way they completed him. It was as if something deep inside him had been fulfilled with those words, even as they tore him apart again.
Love.
Love was what he had refused to see. Love was what he felt for her, not lust, or infatuation or anything like that. At fi
rst he had thought that it was only her difference from Malaya that made her so attractive, but then, when she had gotten angry, she had done some of the things Malaya did. She screamed, she threw things, and yet his regard for her had never fled.
For better or worse, his heart was held in Elise's small hands, and now he felt the jaws of a trap closing around both of them. He thought he had been clever, bringing her to Greece and living a life without the pressures of Hadara, but now he could see what a fool he had been.
He had come here to get an heir, but he had also told himself that it would be a vacation of sorts, both from the capitol city and from his wife. However, now that two months had passed, he recognized Omorphia for what it was: an escape.
He had tried to run away, but of course there was no running away from himself and what he was.
He was the sheikh of Hadara, and that would never change. Whether he sired a child in her, whether he paid her so she could go on her way or he tried to break her spirit by keeping her as a mistress, he would always be the ruler of Hadara, and his sheikha was Malaya.
Nadim knew that he wouldn't sleep, but he lay down next to Elise again. He knew that there would be a limited number of times he could still do this, and he wanted to treasure them.
All that night, his mind circled round and round, trying to discover a solution for the trap he had stuck them both in, but nothing occurred, and by the time dawn slid thin pink fingers of light through the edges of the curtains, he felt as if he had aged a thousand years.
Chapter Fifteen
The baby in her arms was the spitting image of Nadim, and Elise could feel tears in her eyes. He had a tuft of wild black hair on his head, and his eyes, closed now after he had nursed, were a deep and gorgeous black.
Labor had been surprisingly easy, and Nadim had been with her the whole way. She was grateful that even when the nurses had fussed over a man in the delivery room that he had put the fear of his position into them. They worked around him as she clung to his hand, each contraction squeezing her body with a pain.