She climbed over him.
In the dim, filtered light of the hallway, she rose up above him, head thrown back. What little light reached them caught in her hair, and it caught on her breasts, casting dusky shadows below their curves.
“Harder,” she said into that night. “Harder, Raed.”
His name on her lips made him feel wild, but he controlled it, controlled the way he took her hips in his hands and pulled her down to meet his thrusts. They were a perfect fit, their wildness mirrored in each other, and she was so tight around him.
Time slipped, memories converging again, and it could have been two years ago. He could have been taking her with this same furious energy two years ago or now. No time seemed to have passed at all. He had never come back to Qasha, never known a day without her, never missed a moment of her pregnancy, never, never, never.
Lise ground down against him, her hips rocking, and desire threaded itself together with his impending release. She was so hot around him, so hot above him. He knew, if he turned on the light, that her face would be pink and flushed. Raed ran two fingers down the hollow between her breasts and traced a line down and down until he could meet her clit with the pad of his thumb.
She froze, hands digging in for balance, and met his eyes as he circled that sensitive place once, then again.
The trembling seemed to come from deep inside her. Lise understood, without him saying anything, that she was to stay down, keep her hips locked on his, and she drew in a hissing breath. It must be hard, he thought. As hard as it was to keep his own body still inside of hers. Lise clenched around him, finding her own rhythm in those secret places, and even her thighs began to shake with the effort of staying in place as he circled and circled and circled, keeping the pressure light and teasing.
She went tight around him, even tighter than before, and held her breath.
Oh—she was asking him silent permission, though he could tell from the expression on her face that there were no words available to her in this moment. Only an overwhelming feeling, like coming face to face with the sun.
“Come for me,” he coaxed. “Right there. Yes.”
Lise exploded over him, her weight falling forward so that he had to catch her, hips shaking, body shaking, all of her convulsing with shockwave after shockwave of pleasure. Raed let it reach its peak before he rolled over her, bracing himself with one hand on the bed and thrusting in deep. Lise cried out, and the sound unleashed the very last of his control, what little he’d had left, and his own release overwhelmed him.
Together.
They were doing it together, body and soul, and when it was finished, Raed lowered his head to her cheek and kissed it, the softest thing he’d done in the last few minutes. Lise reached for his face and turned his mouth toward hers. He was still inside her as she worked her tongue into his mouth, battling, battling, and then a final aftershock moved through her and a soft sigh escaped from her lips to his.
Raed pushed himself up, his muscles on the verge of aching from the intensity, and Lise rolled over onto the bed, curling the blankets into her fist. Her eyes fluttered closed and he watched as her breathing slowed, finally calming. But her pulse—it stayed high, pounding at the side of her neck.
This was the most glorious sight he’d ever seen. A naked Lise, sprawled out on the luxurious bedding at one of his own properties. The mother of his child, blissfully spent and utterly relaxed in a way he hadn’t witnessed until this moment.
Raed drew himself upright. He’d spend the minimum time possible freshening up, and then he’d be back in this bed. Even if she slept for the rest of the night, he wasn’t leaving her side.
Not again.
13
The bed dipped, bringing Lise out of a half-dream in which she’d been sleeping on a canopy bed by the oceanside. It hadn’t quite made sense, in the dream, but what had made sense was that she felt so good that the darkness around her didn’t matter. All that mattered was the crash of the ocean and the softness of the bed underneath her.
A hand came down on her shoulder and slowly, methodically stroked down to her wrist, pulling it to the side. Then another long, lingering stroke over the curve of her hip and down to her thigh. Down to her knee, even. She rolled onto her back. More of that, yes. The fingertips grazed her belly, and finally she found the strength to open her eyes.
Raed sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at her as if he was seeing a priceless work of art. She swallowed a lazy dryness in her throat, trying to get her tongue to work again. This was what being happily tired felt like. It had been a long time.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
He paused, and something changed in his expression. His dark eyes met hers and Lise could almost see the past there—and the future, too. “I’m imagining you carrying our baby here.” That gaze dropped back down to the line he was tracing around her belly button. “It doesn’t seem real.”
She laughed. “Even with the stretch marks?”
Raed bent over and kissed one of them, fading now but still visible against the rest of her skin. He kissed each mark on her body, turning it this way and that, tracing them until she was shivering again with a languid arousal. Lise couldn’t remember whether it had been this sensual before, but she didn’t think it had. This was deeper. All of her was on display. How could she hide her past from when they were apart when it was written there on her skin?
He kissed down to the bone of her hips and then forward until Raed had settled himself between her legs. He looked up at her from between her thighs—oh, god, did he—and then Lise dropped her head back against the pillow as his mouth met with her folds.
This was no glancing kiss. Raed licked her as if he might never have the chance again, exploring all of her, tasting, devouring. He added his fingers only when she was nearly wild with need, pressing one inside of her, then two, then three. And then, wickedly, he curled them, meeting a hidden place that sent sparks out to the tips of her fingers and toes. Those sparks were only a warning of the collision of pleasure that came from nowhere and blindsided her—how could it be so surprising, with Raed’s hands on her like that? But it was, it was. Lise gripped the covers and pressed her knuckles to her lips.
Raed wasn’t done with her yet.
He kept licking, coaxing another orgasm from her, and it was only then that he rolled on another condom and climbed over her. This time he kept his strokes long and slow and thoughtful. Each one felt like a promise, and some small part of Lise believed those promises. Another part cautioned against them, but both of them were subsumed in the rolling pleasure that wouldn’t let up.
Raed. Raed wouldn’t let up. He brought her to one more climax, shuddering around him, and Lise shocked herself by living through the heat and the pleasure. He reached his own climax a minute later, and when he pulled out of her it was like a spell had broken. Some of the intense warmth dissipated from the room, and she drew in a deep breath as Raed rolled over onto his side. He propped himself up on one elbow and gave her a long, searching look before he hopped off the bed, disappearing into the bathroom. Lise’s eyes wouldn’t shut. If their first round had exhausted her to the point of a near-nap, the second had woken her back up again. Hello, night.
He crawled back into bed next to her and stretched out, the long lines of his body making her mouth water. Now it was Lise’s turn to trace a path down the front of his chest and over the ridges of his abs.
“You must need food,” she murmured. “To replace what you’ve lost.” Lise pushed herself up over him. When had her hair come out of its elastic? It brushed his bicep and Lise reached to pull it back, only to have Raed run his fingers through it. He leaned up to kiss her one more time. “Stay here,” she said into his mouth. “I’ll get you something.”
The air caressed her skin while she tiptoed out of the room and down the stairs, heart picking up the pace. If anyone knocked on the door right now, she’d probably faint. Lise left the kitchen lights off while she rumma
ged. They’d been having a lot of their meals in the palace, so there wasn’t much in the way of dessert food, but she found a bag of Choco Beans—candies from back home.
It gave her an idea.
On the way back to bed she detoured to the closet and tugged the sash of her robe out of its spot.
“What’s in there?” Raed called.
“Our entertainment,” she answered.
From the way he smiled at her, he thought Lise was his entertainment. She knelt beside him on the bed, keeping the chocolates out of sight, and made him sit up. “What are you planning?” He stroked a hand down her side and let it linger on her hip.
“We’re going to play a game.” She leaned forward and carefully tied the sash around his eyes. “Our time at the restaurant tonight inspired me. Now.” Lise sat back on her heels and plucked the bag of chocolates from its ridge in the covers. “I have sugar-coated chocolate candies, and each color has a different flavor. I want to know if you can tell the color of the candy shell while you’re blindfolded.”
A bemused smile lit up his face, and he reached for her again, pulling her onto his lap. Lise straddled him while he arranged a stack of pillows behind his back and opened his mouth. That was an invitation if she’d ever seen one. She kissed him, light and teasing.
“Wait,” she said. “There are rules. If you’re right, I’ll kiss you. If you’re wrong, then I get to eat one of the same color.”
“Start the game,” Raed growled with a playful stroke to her hips. “I’m waiting.”
“So regal,” she said, running a fingertip along his bottom lip. Then she put the first piece of candy on his tongue.
Raed’s hands moved up and down, up and down on her hips as he considered. “Red.”
Oh, thank God. Lise informed him of his victory with a kiss—a slow, sugar-soaked kiss that made her want to stay up all night and all the next day and all the next night just kissing him, again and again and again.
“Not bad,” she mused. “Let’s see how you do on the second one.”
It was orange. Raed guessed white. She kissed him anyway.
Because she wanted to. Because with every chocolate that dissolved on his tongue, she wanted more. Lise could hardly wait until he guessed to kiss him again.
Raed laughed after the fourth piece. “You’re letting me win.”
“I just want you,” she admitted. “To kiss you.” She reached for another chocolate. “I’ll have to go for a jog tomorrow or swim laps to work this off.”
“I don’t remember you ever saying such a thing the last time we were together,” Raed pointed out. “Are you even eating the chocolates?”
“Yes. Two for every one of yours.”
Raed gathered her into his chest then, kissing the top of her head. “You don’t have to exercise to enjoy some chocolate with me.”
“Now I do.” Vulnerability crept in, and though Lise had been naked all along, she suddenly felt exposed in front of the blindfolded Raed. “I’m not—I’m not the same person I was before.”
He seemed to understand, because he stroked a hand down her back and didn’t release her, didn’t insist on continuing the game. “That’s a problem for you?”
“Not a problem.” His heart beat under her ear. “I have some quiet concerns.”
“What are quiet concerns?”
“Worries you don’t necessarily want to say out loud. Like the fact that we’ve both grown over the past few years, and things have changed, and things could change again.”
He was silent for a long moment. “People grow and change,” he said. “I did, over the years. It made me realize that I was willing to take my influence farther than anyone else in my family. Reach for bigger goals and projects. The palace life is enough for my mother, I think, and my brother has all his attention laser focused on Qasha, but it isn’t enough for me. And maybe...” His steady heartbeat soothed her. “Maybe that’s what kept me away from you. Before.”
“Maybe.” The pressure of this conversation had become so heavy, and Lise pulled back from it like she’d pull away from hot stove. She sat up and pushed the blindfold away from his eyes and off his head, then leaned in to kiss Raed hard. They didn’t need to get into who he would have chosen before. Why go barreling into it now?
“What’s important is that I’m going to eat the rest of this candy, so if you wanted it, too bad.”
* * *
“No, you’re not,” Raed said.
She’d gotten so uncomfortable in front of him. Right there, sitting on his lap, and now Lise was fumbling with the bag of candy and staring down at it like some impenetrable fortress.
He put a hand over hers on the crinkling bag, and her green eyes snapped up to meet his.
“I’m not?” A small smile tugged at the edges of her lips. Raed wanted to drive the wariness from her eyes. “I think I have the bag in my hands. What are you going to do about it?”
He tried to take it from her, and she pulled back, and then the two of them were tumbling back onto the bed, Raed wrestling her for control of the sweets. When he wrested the bag from her he pulled one of them out and held it between his lips, then bent down to offer it to her along with a kiss.
Lise licked right between his lips, stealing it from him.
He wasn’t letting it go that easily. Raed put a hand on the side of her face and swept his tongue into her mouth, the kiss turning hot immediately, chocolate melting on his tongue.
“You tease,” he murmured.
“I’m not teasing, I’m taking the candy,” she insisted, and it made him laugh. Lise followed him, her laugh relaxing her face. The two of them rolled over again, Lise trying to snatch the bag from his hands. He didn’t let her. He kissed her again. Another swift battle, with both of them emerging victorious.
He liked this. Lise kissed him one more time and got out of bed, still laughing. She threw a look back at him on the way to the bathroom, and Raed felt that look all the way through his heart. He liked her smile. He liked her laugh. He loved being with her. Far more than he’d ever enjoyed being with the high-powered, heavy-hitter type of women he’d wanted by his side all his life.
The bathroom door closed, and Raed lost sight of her. He had the strangest sensation, as if all of this had been a dream or an illusion. Maybe it was. Maybe this wasn’t the right decision, and his heart was only going wild under the pressure of launching the foundation.
Maybe.
14
In all his years in the royal family, Raed had never imagined that he’d be late for a meeting on account of a child’s sticky hands.
He should have anticipated it. He’d had a nephew for years, after all, and Hamid and Tali were busy adding to the family. He just didn’t think it would be today, when he had a meeting with Katharine.
In the week since he’d first spent the night with Lise at the cottage, he’d found himself there more and more, so often that he kept a shirt and suit there so he could have breakfast with Lise and Jake after their morning ride. This morning, he’d been distracted by the upcoming video conference and had forgotten to wipe one of Jake’s hands. Well, he’d paid for that, hadn’t he? Raed had rushed back to his private wing to change into a clean shirt, and now he was hustling to his desk. He had only just sat down when his phone rang.
“Good morning,” he said. “Is she waiting?”
“Yes, sir,” said his secretary. Raed punched in the password for his computer and the screen came to life, the video software already waiting for him with an incoming call from Katharine.
“Good morning,” Katharine said, looking expertly coiffed and corporate the moment she popped onto the screen. “It’s a pleasure to see your face, Raed.” She followed this up with a conspiratorial wink, and the pit of Raed’s stomach went cold.
His assistant Stephen called in a moment later. Raed had sent him to the city to meet with prospective funders—otherwise he’d be in the office, just like he usually was. “Good morning,” he answered while Stephen went
live. “Stephen’s joining us remotely this morning.”
“Oh, hello, Stephen,” Katharine crooned. The two of them chatted for a minute, and Raed steeled himself for the conversation they were about to have. The whole point of the call was to cement their relationship—personal and business, in one convenient package. But now it seemed…wrong. But he had to do it. Her international clout would expand the foundation’s reach tenfold. He had to do it. Backing out now would only make things more complicated. “I’m excited to get down to business, Raed,” she said, putting on a smile he recognized. It was the smile of a person who hunted down what they wanted without hesitation. He’d been that kind of person.
He still could be that kind of person. “Let’s talk.” He smiled back at Katharine, but the old rush of blood that had usually accompanied his conversations with her was curiously absent.
It couldn’t have anything to do with Lise. Of course not. It couldn’t have to do with the fact that they’d had sex twice more since the night of their date, once very late at night and once very early in the morning.
Katharine cleared her throat. “As you know, my previous consultant work with the palace has positioned me well to take things further with your foundation. I’m happy to step into a guiding or management role, and—”
Her voice faded out of his immediate attention no matter how much he tried to concentrate on it. Raed tried not to be in the habit of listening only so he could have his turn speaking, but Katharine seemed to be reading from a script he no longer recognized. She was trying to firm things up with a new contract, he knew, and so was Stephen. The two of them danced around and around the issue.
Raed could put an end to it, when he chose to.
But his mind kept drifting back to Lise. Lise in bed. Lise with her head on his chest, sleeping peacefully. Lise with one leg hooked over his. Lise laughing in the kitchen in the mornings...
The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three Page 9