“It was to teach a randy bridegroom not to be selfish in bed, and provide an incentive for the groom to be patient and tender with his new bride, pleasuring her so thoroughly that she’ll hunger for her husband’s touch.”
Jemma’s cheeks were on fire again. Heat coursed through her, her skin prickled, suddenly almost too sensitive.
Mikael’s dark eyes met hers. “And I assure you, I intend to please you so thoroughly you’ll beg me to return to your bed for every night of your eight nights.”
She drew a slow breath, head spinning. Everything inside of her felt tight, tense.
“I have never heard of any honeymoon being so purely...carnal and erotic.”
“It might sound like that, until you remember that most royal brides brought here were innocent virgins, carried here against their will. As I told you, it was customary for the royal groom to kidnap a bride from one of the rival desert tribes. The honeymoon was his chance to win his bride’s affection, and loyalty, before he took her home with him. But, if he couldn’t win her affections by the end of the sixteen days, then she could leave him without repercussions or shame.”
That last bit caught Jemma’s attention. “She could choose to go home?”
“If he couldn’t make her happy in their sixteen days together.” He reached out, stroked the sweep of her cheekbone, making her skin tingle. “I will please you,” he said, quietly, decisively. “I promise to satisfy you completely.”
She stared at him, wide-eyed, heart pounding. She’d loved Damien and she’d been quite sure Damien had loved her, but he’d never been overly concerned with pleasing her. Pleasuring her.
She couldn’t quite get her head around the idea that Mikael was promising to satisfy her completely.
Sexually.
Fulfilling her every fantasy.
“You are making a lot of promises,” she said unevenly, her mouth drying.
“They are promises I fully intend to keep.”
“I worry that you are...unrealistic.”
His hard expression softened. Amusement glimmered in his eyes. “I worry that your expectations are too low.” His lips curved faintly. “Perhaps it’s time I show you the Kasbah? This is no ordinary desert palace. Its outer walls hide a secret palace.”
“A secret palace?” She looked at him, intrigued. “What does that mean? That there’s a palace within the palace?”
“Yes. That is exactly what I do mean. Would you like to see? I can take you on a tour of the Bridal Palace now if you’re interested.”
The Bridal Palace? Was that its real name? Her eyebrows arched. “I’m very interested.”
He smiled. “Good. We will start the tour with the rooms near your suite.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEY LEFT HIS ROOMS, and walked through the maze of halls and corridors with Mikael giving her the history of the palace as they returned to her wing. “This Kasbah is known in Saidia as the Bridal Palace. For hundreds of years this is where the king of Saidia brought his new bride after the wedding ceremony. It is where the royal couple honeymoons, and where the king or prince would introduce his virgin bride to the pleasures of the marriage bed.”
Mikael pointed down one hall, which led to the entrance of the Kasbah. “The bride would arrive, and pass through the same entrance you passed through last night, and then be escorted by her new maids to this wing. On arrival, the bride would be bathed, massaged with fragrant oils, then robed and taken to the first chamber, the white chamber—a room hidden off your room—which historically has been called the Chamber of Innocence. In the Chamber of Innocence, the groom claims his bride, consummating the marriage. In the morning, the bride is transferred to a different suite.
“Here,” he added, walking down another hall to a different corridor and taking a turn to the right. “This is the Emerald Chamber.” He opened the only door in the corridor and stepped back to let her have a look. “This is where the bride and groom spend their second day.”
Jemma carefully moved past him to glance around the room. The walls were glazed green, the floor was laid with green and white tiles. The bed was gold with green silk covers and a dozen gold lanterns hung from the ceiling.
“There’s a courtyard attached,” he said. “The garden is fantastic, and the pool looks like a secret grotto.”
They stepped out of the room, into the hall. They walked in a circular pattern, continuing right, down another hall to another door. “The Amethyst Room,” he said, and it was a room of purple and gold, even more luxurious and exotic than the Emerald Chamber.
“There are eight rooms like these,” Mikael said. “In this section of the Kasbah, the rooms have all been laid out in the shape of a large octagon, with a shared garden in the center. Some of the rooms also have a private courtyard, too. Each of the rooms are significant because they represent a different sensual pleasure.”