Gambling With the Crown(64)

                Sadness overwhelmed her then. She would never have a life with him beyond tonight. There was no future with Kadir. Even if he was not going to be the king of Kyr, there was no future with him.

                Because this was what he did—he broke women on the rocks of his passion, made them feel special and wonderful, and then he cut them loose without a backward glance.

                Emily closed her eyes and swore she would not cry. She could spin up a fantasy where she spent the next several weeks in Kadir’s bed, but she would not lie to herself. For her sanity, she had tonight with him and that was it. And she wasn’t going to spend it sobbing or feeling sorry for herself. There was time enough for that when they returned to the palace and he became immersed in duty.

                He rolled away from her and rose, disappearing for a few moments before he returned and pulled her up and into his embrace. She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. He tilted her chin back and kissed her hard, possessively, before hooking his arms behind her and sweeping her up. Then he carried her over to the bed and deposited her on it before climbing in beside her and dragging the covers up and over their naked bodies.

                She was wrapped around him and she never wanted to be anywhere else. She closed her eyes and pressed her mouth to his chest, tasting the salt of his sweat against her tongue.

                “I hope you don’t want to sleep at all tonight,” he growled, rolling her beneath him until she could feel the thickness of his cock swelling again. “Because I intend to use every minute we have together.”





                                      CHAPTER TWELVE

                IN SPITE OF his best intentions, reality intruded and they fell asleep tangled in each other’s arms after another hot coupling that left them both breathless and spent. It was sometime around one in the morning when Kadir woke, blinking as he groped for his phone to check the time. Out of habit, he checked for any messages from Rashid. There was nothing. It was truly over.

                As if being here at the oasis hadn’t already taught him that. He was about to become king, and there was nothing he could do to change it.

                Emily lay curled against him, one arm thrown across his waist and a leg propped over his thighs. A current of longing slid into his bones, made his cock start to harden in spite of how many times he’d already come tonight. It would be so easy to turn her over and slide deep inside her again.

                Kadir shuddered with the strength of the hunger he felt to do just that. He’d spent much of his life bedding women, but he’d never quite experienced this intensity before. He understood that it had everything to do with the situation he now found himself in. His life was in crisis, caught at a crossroads, and he felt everything strongly.

                Emily had said she wanted no regrets, but he had them. He wished he’d stripped his PA down to her delectable skin and explored her sweetness years ago. She said she would have left him, but he would have found a way to make her stay. He did not doubt his ability to have done so and he cursed himself for being so stubborn and blind when he could have had her like this much sooner than now.

                He turned and glided a hand over her hip, cupped her breast. Male satisfaction filled him when her nipple began to harden. He wanted to suck it between his lips, but he didn’t really want to wake her when she was sleeping so soundly.

                “Kadir,” she breathed, and his heart turned over in his chest. So she wasn’t sleeping after all. And he was damn glad.

                “Yes, habibti?”

                “What time is it?”