Kalif’s kisses ventured lower, over the tops of her beasts, while his big hands fumbled blindly with the clasp of her bra. When it became clear he wasn’t going to be able to open it, Salari laughed.
“Let me do it.” She sat up for a moment, then unhooked it in one easy motion. When she settled back into his arms, he cupped each breast in his hand, as if weighing them for similarities.
“Sali.” The nickname again. His voice came out a reverent breath. “You should know…”
She nuzzled the side of his neck. His scent collected there, so pure and intense it made her dizzy. “What?”
“I’m going to last about one more minute before I have my way with you.”
The warning sent shivers through her. She smiled through a kiss. “Doesn’t sound like a problem to me.”
Kalif grunted, flexing his hips against her. The hard shaft of his cock nudged between her legs. His point was clear: he was a big boy. Doubt crowded in, defusing the passion a bit.
“Kalif.” She smoothed her fingers up the ridges of his abs, over the swell of his chest. She needed to tell him. For his sake…and for her own sake. “There’s something you should know, too.”
He grabbed a handful of her ass, pressing their groins together. “And that is?”
She swallowed hard, wishing she could see the full gleam of his eyes as she told him. “I’m a virgin.”
* * *
Kalif let the words echo inside his skull a few times before he could muster a reaction. He pulled back a bit, using the low light of the moon filtering through the window to find the contours of her face.
“Are you serious?”
“I wouldn’t lie about that,” she said, avoiding his gaze. He blinked, absentmindedly stroking a thumb over her cheek.
“You haven’t ever…?” He didn’t want to say the words. He’d thought about her too many times to count over the years. He’d tortured himself with thoughts of who she might have been with, how quickly she’d forget him.
“Kalif.” She sounded exasperated now, and if there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it was kill the mood. He swooped down, pressing a firm kiss to her lips, then rolled off the bed. “Where are you going?”
He flipped the light on. Gauzy golden light filled the room. Salari propped herself up on her elbows as he came over, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“If this is your first time, I need to see every inch of you.” He ran his palm over the swell of her belly, his gaze snagging at the dark areolas. Her nipples were pebbled into tiny points.
Her small smile was both sexy and uncertain. “Don’t you remember how I look?”
He expelled a burst of air through his nose, his palm cresting the swell of her hip. “Salari, your body is a map I’ve never forgotten.”
A laugh escaped her. When she met his gaze, her eyes twinkled. “Are you sure the map you remember isn’t outdated?”
“Not from the looks of it.” He dipped down, pressing his lips to the space just below her belly button. Goosepimples flared on her skin. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, uncertainty returning to her face.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Her eyes fluttered shut, and she nodded. “More than anything.”
That was all he needed to hear. He skipped kisses along the caramel curve of her stomach, up toward the valley between her breasts. He held her gaze as he pressed his lips to each nipple in turn, loving the shiver that overtook her each time.
Part of him liked to think that maybe she’d been waiting for him. As ridiculous as it sounded, he also knew that the love they’d shared was intense. Life altering. And for her…maybe worth waiting for.
As he split his attention between each heavy breast, he pressed his fingers beneath the lacy line of her panties. Her legs splayed open, giving him full access to the sweet heat beneath the damp scrap of fabric covering her pussy. As if he wasn’t hard enough already. His cock twitched at the view, a surge of mind-numbing lust shooting through him. He wet his bottom lip, brushing his thumb over her clit. She tensed, her fingernails finding the ridge of his shoulders.
“Kalif.” Her voice was a plea. Permission. He dipped down, burying his face in the V of her legs, pushing aside the crotch her panties to reveal her slick and shining pussy.
As soon as he pressed his lips to the swollen bud of her clit, she moaned. Her thighs locked around his head, holding him captive. He smiled as he gently took the stiff peak of her clit between his lips.
Her fingers rooted in his hair, nearly tearing his scalp clean off, as he licked and tapped and prodded with his tongue. She moved against him, a scream escaping her when he pressed his tongue into the slick heat of her pussy.
“Please,” she breathed. Her cheeks were flushed, every inch of her alive and begging for it. “Kalif, I need you inside me.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. He pulled back, squeezing the tops of her thighs as he did. “Let me get something.”
He felt her eyes on her as he went to the pants he’d tossed across the room before his nap. He’d brought plenty of condoms for this trip…part wishful thinking, part wise planning. Just as he picked up his jeans to fish out the foil packet, she spoke.
“Wait.” She looked nervous, propped up on one side, her gaze soldered to the bulge of his briefs. “I…I don’t want to use one.”
He arched a brow. The pants fell from his grip, and he practically ran back to her. He scooped her hands together, bringing them both to his lips.
“I’ve just always wanted to…feel you,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Not at all the statuesque, confident woman who’d strode out of the royal airport, shooting daggers from her eyes. In a way, she was still the eighteen-year-old Salari he’d last known. Still curious and open and shy. “We probably should only do it this way once, right?”
He cupped her face in his hands, guiding her back onto the bed through a kiss. “We can do it that way as many times as you want. It’s just that there could be…well…consequences.”
She laughed. “Exactly. So, just indulge me.” Her eyes sparkled, her legs open beneath him again. “Just this once.”
He could spend the rest of his life indulging her. But it was better to start slow. To start sensuous. To start devouring her from the toes up.
He tugged her panties down, searing her with a look. “Here we go.”
10
Salari gasped as Kalif pushed his boxers off. His cock was so much bigger than she remembered, bobbing heavy and swollen, the head shiny and veiny. Her hand gravitated there, practically beyond her control. She fisted the length of him, the motion as practiced as any in her life.
Kalif tensed, body arching as he pulled back to look at her. A jagged moan escaped him. “Ohhh, Sali. You don’t know how good that feels.”
She quirked her lips. “I think I have some idea.” She ran her thumb over the tip of his cock, precum already oozing out. “Are you sure this is going to fit?”
He sent her a dark look, one that set her entire body on fire. She’d admitted that she was a virgin, but she didn’t dare ask if he was too. He had been, when they’d started dating in secret, but could expect him to have kept the same hateful abstinence?
Because while she’d been loathing him, she’d also been loving him. She’d always loved him, would always love him. Even throughout the heartbreak and betrayal. Despite the heartbreak and betrayal.
And that’s why she needed this. It would lay to rest something that had burbled with injustice for too long. Like putting the final seal on a long, confusing legacy of love and loss.
Kalif lowered his head and whispered hotly in her ear. “It’ll fit, but just barely.”
And then the tip of his cock nudged for entrance, sending a shock wave of pleasure through her. She gritted her teeth, squeezing the hills of his biceps, her breath getting caught somewhere between a gasp and a scream.
He eased inside her, inch by inch, stretching her so slowly she couldn’t tell if it was
pain or bliss. Salari clung to him, desperate for more, but too terrified to move and somehow disturb this perfect crescendo of pleasure. His breath came out in soft pants at her ear. The thick muscle of his neck twisted as he rolled his head to the side, his eyes pinched shut.
He sighed, flexing his hips against her, filling the last inch of space. He was buried insider her, buried to the hilt. Her eyes fluttered shut. She could have stayed like this for an eternity.
He didn’t just fill her, he sated something inside her that had only ever craved this. He propped himself up on an elbow beside her, his eyes swirling with something she’d never seen before.
“Does it hurt?”
She shook her head. Pain was the farthest thing from this sensation. This buzzing, otherworldly sense of satisfaction.
He drew back, and then rocked his hips against her. She inhaled sharply, a surprise onslaught of pleasure.
“How about that?”
She couldn’t find her voice at first. “Holy hell, Kalif.”
A mischievous smile overtook his face, and he hummed low as he repeated the maneuver. He hissed as he buried himself inside her again.
“You feel so fucking good.” His voice was raw. The kind of gritty that would etch itself into her memory and haunt her masturbatory fantasies forevermore. “How am I supposed to last when you’re this tight?”
She arched her back, loving the way he was burrowed so deeply into her that it felt like he’d pop out the other side. He sucked at his teeth, his abs going rigid.
“It’s okay,” she said, her head feeling cloudy as he pulled back. She dug her fingertips into his lower back and he rocked against her. “I trust that if you come early, you’ll make it up to me.”
He grunted in response, sliding his hand up the length of her thigh. He urged it up along his waist, groaning once her ankle was kicked up near his shoulder blades.
“Fuck,” he moaned.
Her eyes drifted shut. The slow, sensual pace he’d established was enough to cause an implosion. But with the added depth of this angle, she never wanted it to end. Kalif cupped a breast in his big, rough hand, squeezing her nipple as he rocked against her. The friction was building, steady and relentless. She gulped, feeling an unavoidable churn in her core, the warning signals of the precipice.
“Does this feel good, Sali?” His voice drifted out of him, as if it originated miles away.
She groaned, clawing at his chest. She couldn’t find words right now, not when he was drilling so deeply into her. Kalif’s hand roamed between her legs, pinching her clit between his thumb and forefinger. Her mouth parted as his thumb rubbed a slow circle around the tight bud. Combined with the sizzling heat of him buried inside her, she wouldn’t last long.
And she didn’t. At the next thrust she unraveled, tendrils of ecstasy coursing through her, hot and impatient, filling every last inch of her with the pleasure she’d imagined time and time again on her own. She threw her head back, something animalistic erupting from her throat. She didn’t even have a chance to warn him, not like he wouldn’t know what was happening.
Kalif kept up his pace, rocking and bumping against her as she came undone. His breathing was uneven, and sweat beaded at his brow.
“I’m so close,” he gasped, and then he stilled against her, an anguished cry escaping him. His low belly flexed, a deep growl emerging. Her pussy still pulsed as he came inside her, the heat of him exotic and new. She drew deep breaths to calm her racing heart as he ebbed, blinking lazily.
“Wow,” she whispered, her arms around his neck. She never wanted to move. Not after that orgasm. Not after this perfect union of bodies and lovers.
He laughed weakly, biceps flexing as he propped himself up on his hands on either side of her. He still hadn’t slipped himself out. “To say the least.”
She bit her lip as a question burbled inside of her. It wasn’t the sexiest thing in the world to ask, but part of her wanted to know. Since it was her first time. “Was it good for you?”
Kalif watched her with disbelief. “Good? It was a hundred times better than good for me.” He leaned down, capturing her lips in a sweet kiss. “What about you?” He pressed his forehead to hers. “Was it worth the wait?”
She laughed, her eyes drifting shut. There weren’t words to describe how good it had been. And all she could truly hope for was that this memory would never leave her. The night that Kalif penetrated her and claimed her. The night that she knew what it finally felt like to make love to someone.
“Yeah.” She knotted her hand in his hair, smiling up at him. “So good that I might just wait ten more years until the next time.”
Kalif’s sexy chuckle made her pussy clench. “No chance,” he said, flexing his hips against her. “It’ll be a lot sooner than that.”
* * *
The next day and night went by in a blur of lovemaking and occasional food and shower sessions. Kalif practically floated with happiness. He’d never once imagined that he might actually find himself with a willing Salari in his arms again, desperate to have him inside her at almost any hour of the day. It was like she wanted to make up for all the lost chances during the last decade.
And he was happy to oblige. Made him wish they could hide out here forever, that maybe they’d never get the call to go back to the palace.
But the call finally came. Early on the third day, Kalif’s phone vibrated on the night stand. He peered at it through a cracked eyelid for a few moments before deciding to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Kalif.” It was Zatar. “I have news.”
Kalif sat up in bed. Salari stirred next to him, her dark hair splayed out over the pillow. She curled away from him, the sheets hugging her naked body. “What is it?”
“Last night, the attacker returned. Except he found the decoy we had in Salari’s room. We were able to catch him, but he was shot by one of the guards when he charged me as we closed in on him. The threat is over.”
Kalif let the words sink in, relief at the ready but doubts edging their way in. “Are you certain it was the same attacker?”
“We got a confession from him before he died,” Zatar said. “Said he wanted to take down the disgraceful princess.”
Kalif expelled a sigh of a relief. “Thank God.” He looked down at Salari, who slept peacefully.
“It’s safe for you to return now. Drive carefully, and we’ll see you by dinnertime.”
Kalif hung up the phone carefully, staring into space. The news was good, but there was some part of him reluctant to accept it. Maybe he was just eager to continue this hideout reverie, like some sort of unexpected vacation. Or maybe the hesitation had something to do with the attacker. Couldn’t there be more than one?
Kalif frowned, looking down at Salari. He eased back into bed, forming himself against her, welcoming the heat of her body against his.
She stirred slightly, mumbling something incoherent. He buried his face in the back of her neck, pressing his lips to the cool skin there. “Sali. It’s time to wake up.”
She protested, turning to face him, burrowing into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head.
“There’s news from the palace,” he said, thinking this might wake her up. She sniffed, peering up at him with one eye, the other one pinched shut.
“What?”
“Your brother called.” He traced his thumb over her cheek. “They caught the attacker trying to break into your room. He’s dead. It’s safe for us to go back now.”
She watched him for a few moments, as though trying to process the information. Then she nuzzled into him, wrapping a leg around his waist.
“I don’t want to leave,” she whined. He smiled into her hair. At least she felt the same way. At least this gave them some sort of chance once they returned to the normal world.
Because what would happen when they went back to the palace? Part of him thought this was a one-off, a sort of wonderland of permission granted in moments of
extreme duress or confusion. Salari had been attacked; of course she’d want to find solace in Kalif.
But what about back in the palace? What about tomorrow? He rubbed his chin over the top of her head, unsure what to say, unsure how much would be too much.
“Staying here with you would be…” Words failed him. He’d pined for nights like this with Salari since he was fifteen.
She looked up at him, grinning devilishly. “Would be what?”
“Ideal.” He rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. She nuzzled into his chest, her mussy hair splayed around her like the sex crazed vixen he always knew she would be.
“Well, you’re going to have to carry me out of here,” she said, placing soft kisses over the crest of his chest. “Because I’m not sure I can walk anymore.”
He squeezed the tops of her hips. His dick twitched at the nearness of her pussy, as if it could sense the silken heat. Even after so many orgasms. Even after he’d sworn that enough was enough.
“I shouldn’t make you walk then.” He ground his hips in a slow circle against her. So much for enough. He wanted her again. Right here. “We should just lie here for a little while longer. See what happens.”
She lifted a brow as she drew lazy maps over his bare chest. “We know exactly what’s going to happen.”
He wrapped his arms around her, rolling to flip her on her back. As she giggled beneath him, he sealed his lips to hers. “So you agree then. One last time before we hit the road.”
11
Salari didn’t sleep on the ride back to the palace, not when she and Kalif were chatting like eighteen-year-olds again. Complete with ribbing, old inside jokes she hadn’t thought of in ten years, and more laughter than school kids on recess. God, it felt so good to just be with him. To talk, to catch up, to remember all the ways in which she’d fallen for him as a lover but also as a friend.
She was almost sad when they hit the familiar narrow road leading to the palace. Somehow, this felt like the end. Like the hideout had been a sanctioned pause to the hurts and confusion of the past, a chance to just go with the flow of passion and emotion.
The Sheikha’s Unexpected Protector: Desert Sheikhs Book Two Page 7