The Sheikh’s Bargain Bride(27)
“And does it?”
He nodded once, his dark eyes fixed on her. He tore his eyes away and gestured for her to walk with him through the orange grove that led to the baths.
Heat from the ancient stone slabs that lined the path warmed Anna’s bare feet. The thermal activity heated everything from the rocks, the soil, to the water. She ducked her head under a stray branch and came out into the clearing lit by the torches, the bright stars above and a pale yellow sickle moon low in the sky.
They walked up the wide steps into the hot pool and Zahir helped her down. The steps continued around the inner part of the pool, forming deep seats. The pool reflected the light of the stars and Anna sat back, the pool’s heat and tangy mineral smell enveloping her.
“This,” she breathed as she felt her muscles and mind relax, “is heaven.”
When she opened her eyes, Zahir was lying alongside her, his skin so close she could see the water lap and pool over his shoulders, his muscles gleaming under the light of the moon and the torches. His eyes were closed and she studied his face, so strong, like the rest of him, so beautiful when at rest. Gone was the strain of leadership and need. Only his innate strength was visible now.
He opened his eyes suddenly and her breath caught in her chest, tying knots in her throat. There was a vulnerability and a tenderness there that she’d seen only occasionally as the weeks had progressed. It had shown itself in slight hesitations where before there were none, in a flicker in the depth of the eye. But now the eyes that looked upon her were unveiled and calling into the depth of her soul. She took a ragged deep breath and turned away. His gaze was too intimate. She felt it would annihilate her if she let it.
She looked fixedly up at the stars, aware that he was now looking at her with the same intensity.
She wanted him now. She didn’t want to build their life together on lies. She wanted the truth, she wanted to honor him as the Imam said.
“I’ve never seen such stars.” She turned to him once more. “You know, as a girl I was obsessed with stars, I used to know them all, the constellations, the planets, the far-away stars, but I could only ever see a few.”
“Why would you be so interested in what you couldn’t see?”
“Because I knew that beyond the darkness were beautiful things, better and brighter than I knew. I needed to know that they were there. At university I still used to search for them but it was too bright in the city.”
“You needed to go to the country.”
“And I needed money for that so I never went.”
“So are they as beautiful as you imagined?”
She didn’t speak for a long time because her mind was a whirl of images and feelings that spun together, resolving themselves into a different shape: her love for her son, her need for freedom. Only weeks ago she’d been afraid she was losing both. Now she knew she’d never lose her son and she had a nagging feeling that perhaps she’d found more freedom here, with Zahir, than she ever had before. Perhaps not enough—but still more.
“More so.”
“You look thoughtful. What are you thinking of?”
She smiled, not willing to open her thoughts so completely yet to him. “That I found it hard to leave Matta tonight.”
“He reminds you of Abduallah, doesn’t he?”
She looked up into his eyes unable to believe that he truly could not see that Matta was his child.
“No. That wasn’t it. He really doesn’t look much like Abduallah.”
“He has his coloring.”
She briefly raised her eyebrows and sighed.
“Zahir, I—”
But he silenced her with a finger that brushed her lips and took away her thoughts. She closed her eyes, her mouth parting under the gentle pressure of his finger that circled her lips before the tip of his finger rubbed back and forward along her lower lip. The tip of her tongue found his finger, before her lips closed around it, sucking lightly before kissing it. She could feel the heat building in her, was aware of the sharp intake of his breath as she sucked his finger.
All her thoughts and intentions slipped away as she felt his hot breath quicken against her skin. They moved together, their lips finding each other’s in a kiss that had none of the gentleness of their previous kiss, none of the delicacy and none of the hesitancy. Like the welling up of the thermal water from deep within the hot earth, their passion came from somewhere deep inside where it had been building its heat, heightening its pressure until it was ready to explode.
As their mouths searched each other’s for the connection from which they’d both held back for so long, Zahir pulled her through the water into his arms. Straddled across his lap, his arms around her, the barrier between them broken at last, Anna wanted nothing more than for the final barrier between them to be gone. Her lips opened wide to allow his tongue entry to caress hers; her arms pulled him tighter to her so she could feel his hard, muscled chest pressing against her soft breasts and the strength of his arousal pressing against her body.