Desert King, Pregnant Mistress(11)

'Okay, if that's what you want,' she said lightly.  Her chin lifted as  she spoke, and a rogue breeze tossed her hair across  her face. As he  reached out to remove the strands from her lips, she  moved too and  their hands caught and tangled. Instead of snatching hers  away, she let  it rest in his and held his gaze. The fact that she  trusted him enough  to do that resonated strongly with him. And so he  pulled away. She was  young, and he must bring this to an end now.

She saw the change in his eyes right away. 'What's wrong, Khal?'

He said nothing, but she felt him distancing himself from her.                       
       
           



       

'Am I such a threat to you? To Q'Adar?'

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'No, I'm not being ridiculous. You're pushing me away.''

And  with that she picked up the skirts of her eastern dress and ran  away  from him down the beach, with her sandals in her hand. That should  have  set the seal on his determination to let her go, but instead it  just  etched a deeper groove in his mind for her to occupy, and so he  went  after her.

Beth quailed when she heard Khal coming after her. Her  chest was  burning and her legs had turned to jelly. There were so many  feelings  exploding inside her, she was confused. She wanted a moment-and  there  was no time. He was here. He was right here behind her.

'Beth … '

His  voice called softly, but the call reached deep inside her and made  her  turn. 'Khal … ' She had the rest of her life to find out who she was,  the  rest of her life to be Beth Tracey Torrance with no one's  expectation  weighing on her shoulders. Couldn't she spare a moment for  him, a moment  for His Majesty, just to say goodbye and thank him for  his hospitality?

Beth  uncurled her fists, releasing the tension in her fingers. She  wouldn't  run from him. Maybe Khal needed a moment to talk to an  ordinary person.

She  looked so adorable, and even more beautiful than usual in the  floating  gown. But it was more than her innocence and beauty that  captivated him.  Beth had made him see things he hadn't noticed before,  she made him  think a different way; she made him question everything he  had always  believed in. As he stood in front of her he leaned forward,  meaning to  brush her cheek with his lips, but then she took a step  towards him and  turned her face up so he brushed her mouth instead.

Her eyes  closed, but she didn't move or speak, and then the warm breeze  gave them  its blessing, bringing her another step closer, until all  thoughts of  resisting the temptation of kissing Beth had fled from his  mind. She  tasted sweet and warm, and the scent of wildflowers rose from  her hair,  invading his senses until he could no longer think. He  barely touched  her; she seemed so fragile, so tiny. It was a whisper of  a kiss, or at  least that was how it started. But Beth was innocently  demanding,  surprising him with the depths of her passion, a passion he  guessed was  new to her and that she had no idea how to curb. It made  her bolder than  he had anticipated, as well as sweeter and more  fragile, and as she  wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging on tight  to tell him fiercely  that she needed him as much as he needed her, he  wanted so badly to  believe it was true. As Beth's words poured into his  soul, his world  expanded with possibility. It was as if they knew each  other already,  and had merely been separated for a while. How easy it  would be to pick  up where they had left off … If he could just switch off  his conscience.

But  it had already kicked in, reminding him of all the things that  stood  between them-duty, honour and Beth's innocence, the barrier he  would  never cross. And so on the very point of deepening the kiss he  drew  back.

'Why did you do that?' she said.

'I apologise,' he said formally. 'I forgot myself.'

'You  forgot how to kiss?' Her eyes were sparkling; even now she  couldn't  help the humour. Plus there was some unfathomable bond between  them  that, incongruous and unlikely though it might be, refused to  break.

'Are you saying I'm too much for you, Khal?' she teased him gently.

Her  brand of innocent humour made him smile. Too much for him? She was   sensational. Naïve? Yes. She was also tiny, blonde and vulnerable-but  it  was her inner fire that warmed him through. But that was not his  fire  to take comfort by, it was for some other man in Beth's future, a  man  who could offer her all the things she deserved. 'How old are you?'  he  said, meaning it as a gentle rebuke.

'Old enough,' she assured him cheekily in a way that told him she knew nothing of the effect those words could have on a man.

'That's a dangerous thing to say, Beth Tracey Torrance.'

'But  not to you,' she said, with trust that touched him deeply. 'And   anyway,' she said. 'I've done with safe.' She paused to brush the hair   out of her eyes as the wind tossed it about. 'And I wouldn't be here in   Q'Adar if I'd wanted boring, would I?'                       
       
           



       

He recognised the voice of innocence speaking, and, stamping down on his desires, he made no reply.

'It's  that duty of yours again, isn't it?' she said. 'Not that I'm   criticising you-far from it.' Mashing her lips together as she thought   about it, she said bluntly, 'I think you're wonderful. And I think the   people of Q'Adar are lucky to have you. I trust you, which is why I know   your people can trust you. You put duty above everything, and that's   what makes you so special … ' Breaking off, she started to frown again.   'But it must be a burden sometimes, mustn't it?'

He tensed as her  frown turned to compassion. Beth's incessant  questioning challenged him  at every opportunity, and in that they were  the same. When did he not  question the status quo? Yet at the same time  Beth and he were so far  apart. 'Duty?' He gave her a wry smile. 'Duty  is never a burden, Beth.  You can't always have everything you want in  life.'

'And you can never have it.' she protested, 'Because your fate is tied in to your kingdom.'

'Exactly.'

'Well, I'm going to have it all,' she said passionately.

'You are?' He felt a stirring of unease. Would she disappoint him now?

'Yes!' she exclaimed. 'I'm going to have kids, family, love, job, happiness-everything!'

Her  eyes blazed with such certainty, it was a lesson in just how wrong  he'd  been to doubt her. She hadn't worked out the finer details yet,  but  nothing daunted her. Disappoint him? She had only increased his  passion  for her tenfold, plus he envied her, he admired her, and most  of all he  wanted her. He wanted for just a moment to share in Beth's  freedom, and  in her belief in a future full of so many wonderful  things.

The  look she gave him now turned the heat inside him into a raging  inferno,  and when he dragged her close this time he had no intention of  letting  go. He felt her legs give way as he swung her into his arms,  and knew as  he did so that he had never felt like this before, and that  he never  would again.



So this was what it felt like to be held as  if you mattered to someone.  And even if it was only for one night she  was going to treasure every  single second of it. Khal rounded the point  to his own private beach  where he told her they wouldn't be disturbed.  Not even his security  forces were allowed to trespass here, though there  were men patrolling  the perimeter. He carried her into the cool of the  shadows beneath the  rocks, and, dropping his towel, spread it out for  them on the sand.  Lowering her gently, he lay down at her side and  kissed her again.

Khal kissed her deeply, teasing her lips apart  with his tongue, and  that together with the heat and taste of him drew a  moan of approval  from somewhere deep inside her. This was a dream, it  had to be. How  else could she play with fire and feel so safe?


As  she reached up to cup his face, Khal took her hands and laced their   fingers together in a gesture of closeness and trust that made her  heart  squeeze tight. Then he drew back, and, resting on one elbow,  stared  into her eyes. She had a feeling of being small, of being no  one, while  she was lying here with a man who occupied such a huge space  on the  world stage.

'Don't look so anxious,' Khal murmured, kissing her so amazingly she was quickly reassured.

He  stroked her with the lightest of touches, enjoying the sight of her   quivering with desire. He shivered too, internally, as restraint took   its toll. But as her eyes drifted shut and she murmured his name he   cupped her face in his hands and kissed her …