But no amount of closeness seemed to be enough. They were both feverish with desire. His hands pushed up inside her bikini top, exposing her breasts to his lips, his mouth, his tongue. Lightning flashes fired through her as his impatient hands slid under her bikini bottom and tore them off, the loose knots easily giving way to his impatient hands.
Naked, on top of him, Anna could feel his need for her clearly through his shorts. It was her turn to yank them off and as they floated down the pool to join her bikini, she eased herself forward until he was touching her: his breath upon hers, her breasts upon his chest and her sex upon his, touching him, driving them both crazy with need.
The warm water surged around them as Zahir reached behind him and plucked a condom from a robe pocket. With shaking hands she tore the wrapper; with impatient hands he slid it into place and slipped back into the pool again. She raised herself into the cooler air, her skin and nipples peaking, before she plunged down on top of him.
She trembled at the sensation of his flesh inside hers. Her skin felt tight with need. Her hands, her feet, her shoulders, her breasts, tingled with nerve endings made electric by the smooth slide of him against her most sensitive skin.
She could feel the pulse of him from deep within him, surfacing deep within her. She hardly dared to move for fear of the devastating sensations that made her lose herself, made her feel that she was disintegrating.
But she wasn’t disintegrating; she was complete. One look into his eyes in which she could see herself reflected back as if she filled him as much as he was filling her, told her that. As they moved together, she could feel the beat of his heart beneath her hands, echoing her own rapid heartbeat.
But with each shift of her body up and down onto his, she felt her body lose that grounding connection with the physical as it turned as liquid as the water that pumped around them. It was only his strong arms holding her that kept her upright—and the fact that she could no more stop creating the sensations that devastated her body and mind, than stop breathing. He sat up and held her then and she fell back into arms that were strong and yet gave her the room to surrender to the feeling of total bliss that exploded inside and swept out and engulfed her whole being. Her cries, immediately followed by his, carried around the clearing, bouncing off the walls that enclosed them, before drifting up with the steam, up into the stars.
She stopped moving and fell against him, still connected, still aware of every movement of his hard body inside her, on the edge of her. He lifted her chin and kissed her tenderly on the lips before he withdrew, picked her up in his arms and stepped out of the bath. Water fell from them both in heavy rivulets, withdrawing its heat from her overheated body and allowing the cooler air to spike her body with new sensations: sensations that the movement of Zahir’s hands only increased.
Within minutes Zahir had set her down on a soft rug beside the pool, strewn with cushions. He kissed her once more but her hand sought out what she wanted and he groaned as she caressed him before pulling him closer to where she wanted him. He frowned briefly before ripping open another packet and this time her fingers didn’t hesitate as she pulled it down onto him with both hands caressing him. She dropped onto her back and he plunged deep within her as her legs came around to capture his body, pressing him into her. But any sense of capture was fleeting. He controlled her: physically, pushing her body rhythmically against the cushions, and emotionally, holding her gaze with eyes that held only a reflection of her own star-lit eyes, until the twisting spirals of sensation flared and shot through her body as she called out his name. Only then did he climax, pulsing into her with a cry that shot straight into her heart.
She kept her legs wrapped around him tight, not wanting the intimacy to end, not wanting him to withdraw but he did. And he kissed her then with an all-encompassing tenderness that made her realize that the intimacy hadn’t ended, it had only just begun.
She awoke inside the tent. She scarcely remembered returning there. But she remembered the love-making that had followed throughout the night. Thinking back to the weeks she’d spent at the palace, she couldn’t believe she’d waited so long for him. Yet she knew that she’d needed that time to come to terms with her own emotions.
As the soft grey light morning stole into the tent, she looked across at Zahir. He was sleeping peacefully but as soon as she sat up, his eyes flicked open. She laughed.
“Don’t you ever sleep deeply?”
He shook his head. “Years of living in the desert; years of having to be alert to danger—I cannot rid myself of the habit.”
“It’s a useful habit because it makes things quite easy for me. Just one movement and I have you where I want you.” Her hand slid under the sheet and stroked him. He closed his eyes and groaned.