THE TRUE KING OF DAHAAR(44)
It made her face light up, reminding him of a carefree time. “I saved it for so long, I…”
“I begged her not to, Azeez. It was the vilest thing I ever tasted in my life. I mean, after the first few sips, I couldn’t even stomach it. I told her we should return it, but by that time you had guards outside your wing like the crown jewels were lost. We had to pour the stuff down the toilet and I smuggled the bottle out of the—”
His mouth fell open. “That was eighteenth-century whiskey that my father gave me.” He suddenly remembered something else. “She was sick that next day. Did she—?”
Nikhat was openly laughing now. “She had a whole glass of it, and she called me a coward.”
That sounded very much like his sister, always getting into trouble, always trying to find new ways to defy their mother’s rules.
“She was so drunk, Azeez. You should have seen her. She used to mimic you…you know, the way you walked and talked, the way you would blush every time you saw Queen Fatima’s friend’s daughter. She was hilarious that night. I always wished I had been more like her. So full of life, treating every day as if it was an adventure.
“Her life might have been short, but she lived it to the full. Amira had been so happy that she was going to marry the man she loved, she couldn’t stop smiling. And you, you had made it all possible, Azeez.”
And then he had led her to her death before it had come true.
She put her arm around his. “She was so angry with me when I left that she refused to see me when I came to say goodbye. I miss her so much, Azeez.”
Nodding, Azeez pulled Nikhat close, the grief inside him tempering in that moment. “Thank you for bringing back fond memories for me.”
Her hand moved over his back, her breasts pressed into his side and suddenly, an uncontrollable hunger swamped his insides. With measured movements, he pulled her out of Amira’s suite and closed the door behind him.
Her hand still in his, Nikhat looked up at him. And he studied her greedily.
Her long lashes cast shadows on her cheekbones. The little light from the wall lamps bathed her mouth in golden light. And sinking under the quagmire of grief, he took the only way out.
He pushed her against the wall and took her mouth. She tasted like honey, and it went straight to all the broken places inside him, all the places that hurt for what he had done, all the places he was killing to survive another day.
He pushed his tongue into her mouth, pressed his lower body into hers until she felt his arousal, until the imprint of her soft body was all over his.
Her hands stole under his T-shirt. Her palms were against his body and, breathing hard, he pulled back. Need pinged inside him, a sharp slice of awareness running through his blood, jolting him awake as nothing had for six years.
Her eyes were hazy with desire, her mouth swollen with his kisses. He wanted to take her right there, he wanted to forget. For one blessed moment, he wanted escape. And he would find it in her body, he knew it in his bones.
The attraction between them had only intensified with time, because now she was truly magnificent, both in mind and body.
He took a step back. “Leave, Nikhat, before I—”
She slapped her hand on his mouth, shaking her head. Her eyes were bright, the pulse at her neck throbbing, as if calling for his touch. A smile danced on her lips, of understanding, of comfort. “Please don’t say another word.”