“From the minute you walked in here that day and looked around you with such wonder, I have dreamed of taking you like this. Out in the open, with the sky and the stars witness to this magic between us...”
By the time he was rolling her nipples with his fingers, Amalia was already panting. Her flesh damp and ready for him. Melting her skin with his kisses, he brought them to the ground.
Smiling when she protested, he pulled her over on top of him, until she was straddling him. Different sensations, an even more stringent awareness, drenched Amalia.
She closed her eyes when he moved his palm from the valley between her breasts to her abdomen that clenched with need and then finally to her core. A groan ripped from her when he tested her readiness.
“You astride me, with your glorious hair falling about you, and the jeweled sky in the background. It’s all the Bedouin inside me wants. Take me inside you, ya habibti.”
* * *
Greedy for him, Amalia reached for him and guided his hot, thick erection into her. He held her hips loosely, letting her set the pace. The first slide of his turgid flesh inside her channel sent her head back.
“Tell me how it feels,” he demanded, his voice thick and hoarse.
Amalia couldn’t bear to move yet. Nor open her eyes and look at him. “The pleasure is intense. Zayn, you...you feel like you’re everywhere inside me.”
His hands slowly moved to her buttocks then and taking the cue, Amalia wiggled. Their groans ripped the silent air, the sound drifting into the sky.
She slapped her palms on his chest, tilted her body forward until he almost pulled out of her.
The tight, bruising clasp of his fingers over her, the veins stretching in his neck, told her how much he was rearing to take control. That it stretched the edges of his desire to give her the lead.
Reveling in the sheer power of rendering such a man out of his control, Amalia straightened and moved up and down again.
Hard and filthy, his words sent a thrill through her. With every thrust, she learned what this fiercely gorgeous man wanted, learned what increased her own pleasure.
And then she set a rhythm that set all the wildness of her love that she hid free. Here, there was no distance between them. Here, she didn’t fear rejection.
In that moment they were perfect for each other. Only with each other were they complete.
Sweat coated her skin. Amalia clenched her inner muscles tighter just as Zayn stroked her clit.
Throwing her head back, she cried out, tears pouring down her cheeks at the intensity of the pleasure. His hard upward thrusts filled her body, riding the wave of her orgasm. The hard slap of his thrusts chased the contractions in her muscles, making her limbs molten. His hard body jerked under her as he came with an explosive growl.
She fell on top of him, feeling as if she had broken apart into a thousand pieces.
Her panting breaths fell on his damp skin as he held her tight against him. Every time he was inside her, every time they shared this explosive fire, her defenses were shattered, too.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to remember every texture of his skin, the scent of his damp body, the clench of his muscles, the beauty of this hard man who possessed a big heart.
For it was time for her to leave.
* * *
“Zayn, we have to talk.”
“No, we don’t. I don’t care if Mirah invited your favorite rock star, Amalia. You’re not leaving my side tonight.”
“I’m not talking about tonight. I want to discuss something important.”
His hand slid blatantly between her thighs and already, a wanton thrill began again at her sex. She became shamelessly damp again, a groan rising out of her against her own will. Ready for him again.
If he moved that thumb that was languorously resting against the swollen bud at her sex, if he even touched those lips to her skin, Amalia knew she would not recover tonight. And another night and another night would pass on while the long days would gouge her with hope and hollow her with wanting.
Waiting to be told that their charade was over.
Waiting to be told that Zayn Al-Ghamdi did not need her anymore.
Waiting to feel her heart ripped out of her chest...
She needed to leave while she still had a little of herself intact, before he completely crushed her.
“I want to talk about us, our relationship. This can’t wait till morning.”
He released her so fast, all the desire disappeared from his face so quickly that Amalia would have laughed if she wasn’t so close to crying again. Feeling as though more than just her body was nakedly vulnerable to him, she pulled the blanket he had covered them with earlier around her.
He obviously felt no such self-consciousness. Still, she had to have this conversation and Amalia needed it to be without an evidence of what she was walking away from. So she stood up along with her blanket, reached for another one and threw it at him.
His mouth twitched but thankfully, he said nothing about her continual shyness with him. Not that he hadn’t awakened her into all kinds of wanton desires...
“Is this a discussion we have to have tonight?”
Dragging a forceful breath into her lungs, she held on to the anger that rose through her. “You need not look so alarmed. I just... I wanted to talk about our plans.”
“I’m not alarmed. I am...” He clutched his nape with his hand, and the muscles in his chest shifted, tempting her. “This is the first night we have had some privacy, a little time with each other in over a week.” He sounded like a little boy and Amalia stared at him in consternation.
“Zayn...”
But the moment of vulnerability was already gone. “Tell me, what is it?”
“I...need to make plans. Mirah is happily married to a man who will love her for the rest of her life, thanks to you.”
“And you,” he added, his mouth flattening.
She shrugged. “I heard from one of your aides today that Aslam will be released any day now. Once I make sure he is okay, I need to leave—”
“Back to Massi and your waiting life?”
“You know how I feel about him and yet you continually—”
He pulled her to him suddenly, a blaze of emotion in his eyes. “Because I’m jealous of your friendship with him. This is what you do to me, Amalia.”
Her breath slammed hard into her throat. “This is about us. Now that we’ve accomplished both our goals, I need to go back to my life. I can’t put it on hold forever. Neither for Aslam nor for you. At some point, I have to walk out of this fantasy and back into reality.”
“You do not have to leave Sintar yet.” Or me. His unsaid words fluttered in the air.
Hope fluttered in her chest like a fragile bird’s tiny wings. “What...what do you mean?”
“You were right. Mirah is married and as much as a poll comes out every week about your unsuitability to be the next sheikha, Khaleej and its populace, my family, my staff, the entire world, believes we are together. That you’ve thoroughly enchanted me. Apparently, you are the modern-day Cinderella.
“Why ruin it when we don’t have to?”
“You want me to stay in Sintar?”
“Yes. With me, here at the palace.”
If her heart beat any faster, Amalia was afraid it would burst right out of her chest. “Zayn, I don’t know what to—”
“Thanks to your blackmailing scheme, I do not have to worry about marriage for a little while. And I do not see why we cannot continue to enjoy each other, continue this pretense until I have to do the duty thing again.”
Pain was an arrow in her chest, a knife lodged in her ribs. Words wouldn’t rise to her lips past her raw throat. “You still intend to look for some suitable candidate?”
“Yes. I can indulge myself for a short while, Amalia, but in the end, I will need a sheikha...”
Amalia rose to her feet so swiftly that her head whirled for a second. She had been right. He would never see her as anything but unsuitable. Never give her a chance.
She raised her chin, draping her pride and self-respect like a blanket over her breaking heart. “As good as it is to know that you have it all worked out according to your plans and life, I’m afraid that will not work for me, Zayn.”
Something hard entered his eyes at the way she had imitated his formal speech. “And why is that?”
“You see, just like you, I have some expectations for myself, if not a kingdom’s. And since I joined this whole living away from the shadow of past a little too late, I intend to make up for lost time.
“A toxic relationship that’s predestined to go nowhere while I fall more and more into its depths...” Her voice wobbled here, her grief over losing him overpowering her stupid pride. “That reminds me far too much of a fate my mother lived.
“If there’s one thing I have learned in these six weeks, in our torrid affair, it is that I don’t have to live my life based on anyone’s fears or hang-ups. And that includes you and this notion you have, this template you have of what kind of woman would suit you.”
He clutched her arms, his grip painful. Tears filling her eyes, Amalia struggled to not sink into his embrace. “You have always known where this was going.”
“Yes, I did. And I’m saying enough now. Before you completely break me. Before you make me into a shadow who could never recover her old self.
“Don’t do that to me, Zayn. Don’t make me regret knowing you. Please don’t make me hate you and myself.”