“An excellent idea. Matta is wanting to stay another night at Firyal’s so we will have the night to ourselves.”
“And day.”
“A day in which to make amends for my behavior last night.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Your behavior? If you were bad I would have told you off. Just ask Matta.”
“Not bad perhaps, but I can certainly be better and it is that I would like to show you.”
“Really? Where would you like to begin?”
They held each other’s gaze for a moment: hers playful, Zahir’s suddenly revealing a softness she’d never seen before. He reached over and caressed her cheek with his fingers.
“Where would you like me to begin?”
She brought the palm of his hand to her lips and kissed it, before looking up flirtatiously into his eyes. “I could demand an apology, I suppose.”
“You have it. I am everything you’ve ever accused me of: arrogant, stubborn, cold.”
“True. So if you’re sorry about that does that mean you’re going to change?”
He sat back in his chair. “Unfortunately no. I cannot.”
“Good. Because I’ve learnt how to warm your coldness.”
“Indeed you have.”
“And I know how to get through to your stubbornness.”
He frowned. “Stubborn is simply another word for sticking to one’s beliefs.”
“Yes and I know it’s hard for you to understand but sometimes, just sometimes, you’re wrong. And sticking to what you believe in when you’re wrong, is just plain stubborn.”
“I am always open to rational argument.”
“Just as well I’m going to be a hot-shot lawyer then, isn’t it?” She grinned. “So that just leaves your bossy, arrogant ways. And you don’t have to apologize for them either because I’d kind of miss them if they went away. I mean, where would the fun be in disregarding a bossy man.”
“You dare disregard me?”
“Of course. And where would be the thrill in teasing a humble man?”
“Fun and thrills. Is that all you are after from me?”
His brown eyes had slowly warmed and formed the hot connection she’d been seeking. A slow smile spread over her lips as she slipped off her sandal and lifted her foot under the table and swept the arch of her foot up his calf, his thighs, before she found her target and caressed him intimately. His eyes flicked closed momentarily as he felt the smooth caress of her foot, arched to cup him with her toes molding to fit his hardening shape.
“Exactly.”
“Come here.” His voice was gruff, hoarsely aroused.
“There you are again, being bossy.” Her foot didn’t stop moving. “I told you I don’t respond to bossy men.”
“You respond well to me, at night, in the dark. You recognize the truth of my words then. Perhaps I need to show you why you need to come to me now.”
He caught hold of her foot and rubbed his thumb up its length, touching enough pressure points to ignite several parts of her body at once. With her foot resting once more on his lap where it resumed its caress, his hands swept up her bare leg briefly tracing the moist curves of her sex over her panties before dragging his nails down her leg again.
He took her foot and let it drop to the ground.
“Come here,” he repeated.
She had no choice but to go. “It’s only because I want to,” she said defensively as she sat down on his lap. “You can be very persuasive.” He pulled her face to his in a kiss that made her forget what she was being defensive about. She pushed her hands under his shirt, wanting to feel more of him, needing his clothes to be gone. She pulled away from his lips and stood up, relishing the look on his face of unabashed lust as she stripped off her panties. She unzipped his trousers carefully until she could hold him in her hands as she straddled him, skimming the surface of his arousal with her own.
“Woman. You’re teasing me.”
“As I said I like to tease.”
Two strong hands pulled her down on him and all teasing ceased.
He knew what she was doing but he had no wish to stop. It was too pleasurable even if it was ineffective. The morning had passed in passionate love-making outside in the bijoux garden overlooked by nothing but the birds, trees and sky. He’d made use of the softly springy, pungent chamomile on which to lie the tender, pale body of his lover—the only lover he would ever have in the true sense of the word, he now knew. He watched her skin peak under the chill of the light breeze and flush under the internal fire that his thrusting ignited, and all the while felt himself sinking deeper into this woman who had changed his life. It was only when the pale blue sky had turned to grey and they’d lain, hearts beating, soft rain coating their sweat-slicked bodies, that he felt her begin to chill and he carried her upstairs to the bed.