“A few minutes to one.”
Her breath came out as a shaky sigh. “We have more time then. I’m so glad.”
He spanned her rib cage and bent to tease her nipple. “Me, too.”
He was tired, but more than willing. Apparently, so was she. But instead of opening her arms to him, she pushed him until he was on his back and she straddled him.
“My turn.”
Kadir lifted an eyebrow. “Your turn?”
“For once in my life, I want the mighty Kadir al-Hassan at my command. I want to drive you crazy, Kadir.” She bent and pressed an openmouthed kiss to his chest, trailing her tongue over to his nipple and swirling around it while a sensation very like pain shot to his groin. Except it was too pleasurable to be pain. “I want you to remember me.”
He fisted a hand in her hair. “I could never forget you, Emily.”
How could he? She’d been with him for four long years, and while he’d been an utter fool and not taken full sexual advantage of their time together, he’d never forget the woman who had been his companion day in and day out for all that time. No, they’d not been romantic, but she’d been important to him.
The most important person to him.
He shuddered as her mouth slid down his chest. Yes, she was the most important person in his life. The one he depended on. And he was losing her. Tonight was the last night they would have alone before he had to return to the palace and take up the duties of king while he waited for the coronation.
Selfishly, he thought of keeping her with him, of keeping her in his bed and in his life—but it was impossible. She was his unsuitable bride, not at all the sort of woman the council would approve of as his queen. She’d won over many people in the palace, whether she knew it or not—but not the hardened council, who saw any woman who was not of Arab descent as highly inappropriate. They had the power to make his life—and hers—hell if he did not conform to tradition and take a Kyrian wife. He closed his eyes and cursed Rashid and his father both.
He had no right to keep Emily. She had a father who needed her and a life waiting in the States. Once she was gone, once his life settled into the routines of being king, he would become accustomed to his life without her in it. It wasn’t as if they were in love. It was lust and friendship and the pain of losing someone he’d known for so long.
And that was not a reason to ask her to give up everything and remain in Kyr.
Her tongue glided around his belly button—and then her cheek rubbed against his cock and his body stiffened. She laughed softly before taking him in her mouth. Kadir had a sudden need to plunge into her mouth, to make her his this way, too, but he forced himself to remain still and let her torture him.
Her mouth was hot and wet and magical and he gave himself up to the pleasure, his eyes closing and his back arching as the sensations built inside him, propelling him to another orgasm as strong as the last.
But he couldn’t bear to come this way when they had no time left. He wanted to be inside her, her body wrapped around his, her eyes glazing and breath panting as he took her over the edge with him.
He reached for her and dragged her up his body, thrusting his tongue in her mouth and kissing her hard. She knew what he wanted and she reached for the strip of condoms beside the bed, tearing one off and then breaking the kiss to roll it on before sinking down on top of him.