“Yes.”
“Even though I’m not a princess?”
“I have told you many times, I esteem you highly. If I mistook what was required of me and that hurt you, I am truly sorry, but I have not wanted you out of my sight since the first time my gaze fell on you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
Man, he really wanted her. Like, a lot.
“You promise?”
“You have my word as emir of Zeena Sahra and your man.”
“Sayed...” She reached up and kissed him with every bit of pent-up emotion inside her.
He picked her up with an arm under her bottom and another against her back for stability, carrying her into the bedroom without breaking their locked lips.
He loomed over her on the bed. “We are not supposed to do this here.”
“You’re better at breaking rules than you give yourself credit for.” His mother had been right. Sayed did have a wide streak of impetuousness.
He gave her that smile again. “It’s you, you’re very good at tempting me to break them, habibti.”
“Well, I may have gone to a little extra trouble with my appearance today.”
He laughed, the sound so free and happy it filled her own heart with joy. “No need, you are always gorgeous to me. But I do like this dress on you.”
“It’s a dishdasha,” she teased.
“Oh, is it? Pardon me.”
She grinned. “It might be just as pretty off.”
“Doubtful. You, on the other hand, will be infinitely more accessible naked and nothing is more beautiful to me than your body.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll believe them.”
He cupped her face in his big hands. “I will never lie to you, on my honor.”
Too choked to speak, she nodded.
They spent the next minutes undressing between drugging kisses.
She made a sound of victory when he was down to his sexy black silk knit boxers.
He laughed, his hands already busy on her skin.
“You wear more layers than me,” she told him. “I think there’s something wrong with that.”
“The challenge will prevent you from becoming bored.”
“Right, because you aren’t challenging enough.”
He proved just how challenging he could be...to her self-control, drawing forth the response her body would only ever give to this man. For the first time, there was no bitter in the sweet of that knowledge, either.
He made love to her with passion that felt as driven by the sense of reprieve as her own. Could that be possible?