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It reminded her of how he used to be at university.
“I want to.” She reached up and cupped his face between both of her hands, loving the feel of his closely cropped beard against her fingers. “I want to very much.”
He nuzzled into her touch, turning his head so he could kiss each of her palms. “You do?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t any good at the games women played with men, and she didn’t want to be, either.
If Asad decided he wanted Iris in his future, he would have her as she really was, not something she pretended to be to gain his attention.
He gently pulled her to him, his desert robe enveloping them both. “There is one way you know me better than anyone else.”
“Really? No other lovers have learned all your body’s secrets?”
“No. You do not know them all though, either, not yet.”
“Maybe I could learn some more right now.”
He jerked as if startled by her suggestion, but then he smiled. “I thought we both had work to do?” he asked, sounding bemused.
“My work can wait a little. Can yours?” She reached up and kissed the underside of his chin.
He shuddered. “Yes, my dove, for you…for this, it can.”
“Good.”
“It will be.” He started to undress.
But she stopped him. “Let me.”
Silent, his eyes darkened by lust, he nodded.
She took her time, removing each of his desert layers with intermittent kisses and caresses until he stood naked before her, the timeless Bedouin sheikh.
She took off her own clothes while he stood watching her, his erection so hard it was nearly parallel to his stomach. They had only made love that morning, but clearly something about this was exciting him beyond bearing.
And then she realized it was the first time she’d initiated the lovemaking since they’d renewed their intimacy.
Apparently he missed her feminine aggression.
She let her last garment fall to the ground and stood proudly naked before him. “I want you.”
His entire body shuddered at her words, his nostrils flaring, his eyes narrowing, his gut tightening. Her gaze skimmed lower and she noticed a pearl of preejaculate on the end of his penis. More evidence of sexual desire at its peak. She reached out, swiped it with her finger and then brought the bead of viscous fluid to her mouth.
It was sweeter than when he climaxed, which she preferred not to swallow. He never seemed to mind, but was always complimentary and grateful when she took him in her mouth at all. Even though he gave her oral almost every time they made love.
One thing he had taught her to appreciate six years ago was that if they both enjoyed it, then whatever they did was beautiful.
She loved tasting him and the way he lost himself to her touch when she took him into her mouth. She felt like he truly belonged to her for those frozen minutes in time, no matter what their future held.
She went to drop to her knees in front of him, but he grabbed her under her arms and stopped her.
“Why?” she asked, not understanding.
He loved this.
“You will hurt yourself.”
She looked down at the hard ground and shrugged. “I’ll survive.”
“No. We will fold my robe into a pad for your knees.”
She smiled, realizing the man wasn’t turning her down, just taking care of her. “All right.”
It took only a moment and then she was where she wanted to be. Wrapping her fingers around his engorged member, she said, “Today you are mine.”
“You are not usually so possessive.” The bemused tone was back.
She looked up and met his dark gaze. “You don’t know what goes on in my head when we make love.”
“Perhaps I should.”
She just shook her head before leaning forward to lick delicately at the tip of his hardness. He groaned, his hips jerking forward. And she did it again. She loved this game, where she licked and mouthed, but didn’t quite take him inside.
After a few minutes of that treatment, he cursed. “You are such a tease.”
“Am I? I thought a tease did not follow through.”
“My knees will give before you are done playing.”
“Poor sheikh…his knees are going weak.”
He growled and she grinned and then pushed his foreskin back to take him fully into her mouth. She could never take much of him, he was too big, but she didn’t need to. Coordinating the movement of her hands and mouth, she soon had him gritting out a warning that he was close to coming. She pulled her head away to finish him with her hand.
She liked being able to see his face as he climaxed, as well. The ecstasy there always excited her and touched something deep in her heart.
He looked down at her as his body went absolutely rigid, their gaze locking in primal connection. He whispered her name reverently and his ejaculate exploded like a geyser between them. He wasn’t inside her, but it felt like their very souls connected in that moment.
“Thank you,” he said hoarsely, his eyes devouring her naked body kneeling before him.
She kissed the glistening tip and then licked her lips, the flavor more salty and bitter now that he’d come. “I like it.”
“You are a very giving lover.”
No. She simply loved him. Someday he would understand that, but she swallowed the words back. It wasn’t the right time to admit her emotional vulnerability to him, no matter how close she felt to him in that moment.
She let him tug her to her feet and bring her body flush with his, his expression intent and deliciously predatory. “It is a good thing that my powers of recovery are beyond average.”
“I would expect nothing less from the lion of the Sha’b Al’najid.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
HE STARTED. “How did you know I am called that?”
“Your name means lion. There’s a lion on your bedspread. It wasn’t much of a leap.” She was a scientist after all, making deductions based on observations was one of the things she did best.
“My grandmother told you, didn’t she?”
She would dearly love to say no, but Genevieve had mentioned it, confirming Iris’s supposition. “She said the mantle of lion had been passed from Hanif to you when you took over the tribe.”
“My grandfather is still strong.”
“But not the primary protector for the Sha’b Al’najid.”
“No. That is now my honor.”
She rubbed their bodies together delightfully. “Just as it is my honor to give you pleasure.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“It will then be my honor to please you, as well.”
She wasn’t going to argue that. Their lovemaking was always explosive and very, very special. At some point, Asad was going to realize what that meant.
They were meant to be together.
He’d gotten sidetracked six years ago, but this time her eyes were fully open, which meant she could help him get the sand out of his when his vision got a little cloudy concerning them.
He made a bed on the ground with their clothing piled under his robe, and still he insisted on her riding him rather than lying beneath him. It wasn’t her favorite position, not because it didn’t feel good, but when she got lost in the pleasure, sometimes she forgot to move. He helped her, guiding her with a strong but tender grip on her hips, his own body thrusting upward and sending her into panting delight.
His own lust grew faster than she would have thought possible as his eyes fixed on the way her breasts jiggled with her movement. “You are so lovely in your passion, little dove.”
Her feminine pride preened under his heated approval, while the bliss inside her body coiled tighter and tighter.
They kissed to muffle their cries when they climaxed, their bodies shuddering in unison. She collapsed on top of him and lay there quietly for several moments of utter contentment.
“This is right,
” he said.
“Us?”
“Here in the open, with my land all around us, my people tending their herds in the distance.”
He liked making love outside. Before coming to Kadar, that was one thing she would never have guessed. She thought it endearing how he considered the land his, though really, it belonged to the country.
They cleaned up with Asad’s kuffiya, and then returned to the survey site with him wearing only his shirt and loose trousers. He looked debauched and she found she liked the look on him.
When she told him so, he informed her that she looked sated and that was a look he found pleasing, as well. She grinned in response and took his hand without hesitation when he reached out to her.
When they got back to the survey site, Russell told them that Nawar was still sleeping. Iris felt the need to check on the little girl regardless. When she backed away from the tent after insuring Nawar was still slumbering, Iris bumped into Asad.
He smiled down at her. “You wanted to make sure she had not woken, despite the fact she has not left the tent?”
“She might have realized we were not here—I mean, you weren’t here—and been nervous about coming out.”
“But she is fine.”
“Yes.”
He smiled, his white teeth flashing. “When she was a baby, I would go into her room at night and lay my hand on her chest to confirm she was breathing.”
“I probably would have done the same thing,” Iris admitted with a laugh.
