Then he let her go, rolling away without a word, leaving her dazed and spinning.
Bastard, bastard, bastard, she cursed when her brain started working again. He seemed to know how to get her hormones humming-and leave her wanting.
Frustrated to the point of insanity, she slapped him on one hard pec with an open hand. "You jerk. What the hell was that?"
He feigned confusion at her, making a big show of drawing his eyebrows together and shrugging those cliff-face shoulders. Then he put a long, elegant finger to the divot under his nose in the classic gesture for silence.
If he'd pushed her, she would have resisted. But this? Now she was aroused and needy and there was a man not only willing, but stunning, lying next to her. You didn't get many chances to sleep with a demi-god devoted to your happiness and who had just proven he respected what you wanted. Her body had been growling for his touch since they met and now all she had to do was reach out for him.
With some part of her recognizing this had been his plan from the start, she full-on straddled him and forced him to look at her. As she knelt over him, her hands on the pillow, her hair streamed down on either side of his handsome face.
This was a bad idea, but it seemed like the best bad idea she'd ever had.
"Kiss me properly," she ordered.
He obliged. In an instant, she was in his arms, pressed fully against him. One of his hands was at the small of her back, slipping under her pajama top, taking her shackled wrist with it. Her fingers felt the crisp hairs between his pecs.
He devoured her as if trying to suck the breath from her lungs. She did the same right back.
His magnificent lips went to her neck, licking and sucking her pulse points as if he knew every one by heart. The erotic sound of his mouth moving on her skin made her wet and ready.
"Max," he said, as if worshiping the word the way he was worshipping her body. "Hayati."
"What does that mean?" she whispered, despite gasping for breath. She recognized he ignored their bargain, and found she didn't care. She just wanted to savor his sweet words.
He stopped his attentions to her neck, which almost made her weep. He was on top of her now, his legs tangled in hers, his erection stabbing at her belly. He reared back to look down at her with heartbreaking honesty.
"It means 'my love.'" He drew a knuckle down her cheek in a sweet caress that made her shiver. "And it means 'my life.' They are the same to me. I'm dead without you, Max. I walk and I breathe, but I no longer feel, no longer care. I need you."
Aroused and terrified, her emotions rubbed raw by his, she barely had the power to speak. But his honesty deserved her own. "This is overwhelming. How can I believe it?"
"If it is hard for you, then put it from your mind and let me love you. Let me give you my body." He put his forehead to hers as he had after their last kiss. The gesture seemed even more intimate than his embrace. "Use me. You own me anyway. It makes no difference."
No man had ever spoken to her like this, his heart dripping out of his words. Perhaps that's why she'd never fallen for any of the men she'd dated. But Sayd was so different.
"My body pleased you once." His plain words went straight to her sex, making her clench. "Does it please you now? Do you want me, Max?"
"I think your insanity is catching," she said, grabbing a handful of hair to drag him down into a kiss.
He'd been right. He could take off her panties as well as anything else. In a fit of desire, he ripped open the pajama top, sending silver-colored buttons flying. She used both hands and feet to pull his silken bottoms off.
His skin felt amazing sliding against hers. He was all hard muscle, everywhere. God, she'd never felt anything like this, this hunger for him. Hunger. It was the only word for it. Like she'd been starving for ages and he was a buffet someone had put out for her.
Sayd might be crazy, but he knew how to turn her on. He licked her nipples, wetting them with his hot tongue just the way she'd always loved. When she thought the heavy ache deep inside her breasts would drive her over the edge, he massaged it away with masterful fingers.
She reached for his cock, desperate to feel the hard length of him, but he caught her left wrist in his right and drew it over her head. Her own right hand was still captured in the cuffs, and went along with it.
Sayd reared back and took a long look at her naked body.
So vulnerable. To a man she hadn't known yesterday. Her first one-night stand. She'd never done anything like this, and she definitely shouldn't be doing it now. Embarrassment heated her skin. She pulled at her hand, trying to get back some control.
His grip was like a shackle. "Trying to escape me? It is too late for that now."
He, on the other hand, wasn't embarrassed at all. He raked her body with his eyes, lifted a breast in his free hand, toying with her. Her heart kicked into overdrive, thrumming like the engine of his motorcycle at being so exposed.
He could do anything he wanted now. And he was right, it was too late for her to protest. Except... she knew he would never hurt her. Something deep inside her told her that she could trust him. Maybe not to understand the line between fantasy and reality, but in this, at least. "You would stop if I told you to."
He paused, confirming everything she thought. He would stop if she asked. She knew it.
Then he lowered himself, resting his weight on her. His cock jabbed at her hip. He whispered in her ear, barely louder than a breath. "Tell me to stop. We will see what happens."
Her stomach clenched in anticipation. Either he'd seduce her no into a yes, or he'd actually stop. With her dry mouth, she couldn't form words, so she shook her head.
That pleased him. Eyes bright with the thrill of domination, he drew his hand down her cheek and neck in a long caress. "Do you know what I'm going to do now?"
"No," she croaked, but the way his hand kept going down, caressing one nipple, blazing a fiery trail over her hip, she was starting to have an idea.
He didn't tease her, but buried his hand in her sex. He caressed inside with two fingers, stroking and filling her. And damn, just as she caught his rhythm and started moving against him, squeezing his hand with inner muscles, he flicked his thumb over her too-sensitive clit.
Her whole body shuddered. He growled in appreciation, as if he'd expected that reaction. Odd, since a full body quiver was new to her.
Soon, all thought was lost to her as sensation took over. Mindlessly, she locked her mouth on the nearest part of him, biting his shoulder blade while he stroked her into a frenzy.
And then just stopped.
"More," she demanded, nearly incoherent. She was on the edge. Why wouldn't he move his hand? "Now."
"Ask me," he said. "Ask me to-"
He used an Arabic word. She didn't have to know the language to know what he meant. "Yes, yes." She couldn't get the words out fast enough. "Please fuck me. Do it now."
She just wanted to come, to release pressure he'd built inside her, and to share it with him. To feel his body against hers, for him to lose control inside her. Working together with their free and cuffed hands, they ripped open a condom package. She rolled it over his impressive length, wishing for time to linger on his cock, but not now. Later.
They fit together like they were designed for each other. She came the instant he was fully in her, her muscles clenching against the foreign hardness inside.
When the pleasure faded, he rocked inside her, urgent thrusts and soul-melting kisses. Somehow, through his lust for her body, he made her feel the kind of love she thought only existed in fairy tales. The sensation built in her again. As if he knew her body better than she did herself, he changed the angle of this thrusts and set off a second shower of sparks behind her eyelids.
When he announced his climax with one deep thrust and a heart-deep cry of her name, she felt she would never be the same.
Chapter Three
In his arms, Max dreamed of the gold sphere again. She knew it was precious, but no matter how hard she tried to keep it, she couldn't hold on. Over and over, the sphere slipped through her fingers like it was made of drifting sand.
When she woke, she found she had to wipe away tears.
Oh dear lord, what had she done? Beside her, in the bed, Sayd snored softly. Her logic came back to her, making her feel like smashing her brains out against the carved headboard. She'd made love to the crazy person. His insanity really was contagious.
Well, now she finally had the advantage over her sleeping captor. She stayed still, careful not to wake him. She scanned the room quickly for anything she could use.
His jacket hung over a desk chair, just out of reach. Except if she stretched out... Working quickly, she made herself as long as possible and managed to hook one leg of the chair with the tip of her toe.
Sayd stirred. She froze. He would wake. She knew it. He'd find her trying to escape and take it personally. Probably cuff her to the chair again instead of to his incredible body.