Page 35 of Kismet

“It is you who plays with fire.” She relaxed against him, feeling him accept her weight without hesitation. “You forget who you hold prisoner.”

His soft laugh blew heat across her shoulder. “A man would be a fool to forget such a thing.”

“I trust you’re not a fool then.” She smiled as his mouth nibbled at her ear. The back of his hand glided down the side of her neck and across her shoulder. It was a light touch, and it sent a tremor through her.

“Hardly,” he murmured. “But I do know when I’m being manipulated.”

Caught off guard by his comment, she stiffened in his arms. With a quick movement, she jerked away from him and whirled around to face him. Reluctantly, she admitted that the only reason she could do so was because he’d allowed it. The shadows hid most of his expression from her, but she could see the firm, resolute line of his mouth.

“Then leave me be so I can go to sleep,” she snapped.

“I’d be an even bigger fool to do that, don’t you think?”

There was a rough edge to his voice that sent a fevered chill skating across her skin. The raw power and strength of him was undeniable, and for a fraction of a second, she hesitated. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps he was a fire she couldn’t control. She mentally shrugged off the idea. Boldly, she stepped forward, and with a gentle tug, pulled his head down to hers. Her touch light, she brushed her lips against his.

“What I think is that I can pleasure you like no woman has ever pleasured you before.”

A dark growl rumbled out of his throat as his hands slid up her waist to cup her breasts, his thumbs scraping across her nipples until they were hard, swelling with anticipation. Pressing deeper into his touch, she framed his face with her hands and kissed him. With a gentle nip to his bottom lip, she provoked another primitive sound from him as she sought the heat of his mouth. Her tongue twirled around his, plunging then retreating in an intimate dance of seduction.

Increasing the intensity of her kiss, her mouth teased, and yet demanded in bold strokes a passionate response from him. There was a leisurely bravura to her unhurried movements as she removed the cloth belt encircling his waist. Caught up in her spell, he didn’t even consider resisting her as the material drifted to the floor and she slowly pulled his gambaz upward, enticing him to remove the oversized shirt.

God help him, but she was the most tantalizing creature he’d ever held in his arms. The image of Frances’s face flickered briefly in his mind before his attention was quickly drawn back to the present. Having broken their kiss, Allegra’s hot mouth had worked its way down the side of his throat and across his chest until her tongue licked at his nipple. An instant later, her teeth lightly bit down on him. Pain and intense pleasure mixed together to bring his cock to a full erection. In the space of less than a minute, she’d managed to bring him to the point of wanting to plunge into the heat of her, filling her until she cried out with the same need he was experiencing for her. Like an inexperienced young man intent on satisfying his first throes of lust, he half carried, half dragged her to the pile of pillows that served as his bed.

Tumbling downward, he tried to kiss her again, but she twisted away from him in an expert move to burn a path to his waist with her mouth. Unable to help himself, he groaned as her hand pressed firmly against his erection, stroking him through his sherwals in slow, mind-numbing strokes. The friction of the material against his skin intensified the pleasure of her touch, and he groaned a protest when her hand retreated.

Through the slits of his half-closed eyes, he watched her remove his boots before her hands slowly massaged their way back up to his waist. With agonizing leisurely strokes, she teased his body into a taut knot of need. God, he wanted her mouth on him, swallowing him with the same ease she had that damn banana. He reached for the waistband of his sherwals, but her hands stilled his.

“No,” she said in a throaty whisper. “Let me.”

Swallowing hard, he nodded his agreement. To his amazement, she grabbed the waist of his pants with her teeth. While one hand toyed with his nipple, the nails of her free hand raked across his buttocks as she pulled off the garment with her teeth and one hand. She stopped just past his erection to swirl her tongue around the tip of him.

Not once in all his years bedding a woman had he ever been driven to such an intense desire and lust with this kind of slow torment. He leaked a milky drop onto his stomach, and briefly closed his eyes in a fervent prayer that he wouldn’t lose his seed before he buried himself inside her slick folds. And something told him she would be hot and creamy for him. It was there in the feverish glint of her green eyes as her gaze never left his the entire time she slowly removed the remainder of his clothing.

His cock jumped as she blew a cool breath across his skin before her teeth gently nipped at the inside of his thigh. He groaned with impatience, and yet she still didn’t take him into her hot mouth. Tension gnawed at him with exquisite intensity.

“For the love of Christ, Allegra. Take me in your mouth.” His hoarse demand brought her head up and she directed a seductive smile at him.

“Is that what you want, Shaheen?” She enunciated his name correctly, but there was a flavor all its own to the sound. It was the first time he’d ever heard an Englishwoman speak his Amazigh name, and on the tongue of this woman, it was seduction itself.

“Yes,” he rasped.

Her eyes locked with his, she lowered her head toward the apex of his thighs. The heat of her tongue swirled across the head of his erection. Slowly, she licked and stroked her way down to the base of him. Seconds later she drew his ballocks into the liquid warmth of her mouth. With her tongue rolling his sacs around, she lifted her head pulling him slightly upward as her thumbs pressed firmly against the area of skin below. Surprised by the unexpected pressure, he uttered a guttural cry at the raw, primitive pleasure surging through his body. She rubbed at the sensitive spot, forcing his buttocks off the pillows in a sharp response.

Ballocks tight with the need to explode, he blindly reached for her, but she evaded him. Once again her tongue stroked his iron hard erection, all the while her thumbs continued to rub and apply pressure to the spot directly beneath his ballocks. When she took his cock into her mouth, he groaned deeply and shuddered at the sensations rippling over him. Christ, he wasn’t capable of holding back. His hands grasped her head, urging her to move faster. Without hesitation, she obliged him.

Her name a hoarse cry on his lips, he exploded in the burning heat of her mouth. She swallowed his seed and continued to milk him as he throbbed wildly in her mouth. The intensity of the experience slowly eased, replaced with a sense of satisfaction and a trace of remorse. Damnation, he’d been so caught up in his own pleasure, he’d failed to consider her needs. Completely spent, he didn’t move as she sat up and stared down at him. A small smile on her face, she trailed her fingers across his thigh in a lazy move.

“I trust you were not disappointed.” There was no hint of a question in her voice. She exuded the confidence of a woman certain of her skills when it came to satisfying a man.

“Your reputation doesn’t do you justice, ma belle,” he said quietly as he caught her hand and tugged her toward him. “But I regret not giving you satisfaction as well.”

“My pleasure is unimportant,” she murmured as she reclined back into the pillows.

He rolled onto his side to study her. Although she still wore her sherwals, the moonlight illuminated her full breasts and dark-colored nipples. Sliding his hand across her stomach, he brushed his fingers over one of the hard, peaked buds.

“On the contrary, ma chérie.” He lowered his head to gently suck on a taut nipple for a brief instant. “I want to please you.”

“Then send me back to Marrakech,” she said in a throaty whisper that edged along his senses like a red-hot branding iron.

He came up on one elbow to look down at her. Her expression was soft and seductive as she stared up at him in wide-eyed expectation. Frances used to look at him the same way when she wanted something, exploiting every one of her feminine wiles to get what she wanted. This time he knew better than to allow himself to become tangled in the spider’s web. In a casual gesture, he trailed his fingers from the base of her throat down to her waist.

“Do you really think I’m about to let you go now, ma belle?”

“I . . . I don’t understand.” Confusion darkened her eyes as she searched his face, a frown of bewilderment furrowing her brow.

“Don’t you?” he said with a tight smile. “You just demonstrated to me why you’re one of the world’s most renowned courtesans. Can you blame me for wanting more?”

“M–more?” she stammered.

“Of course. I intend to avail myself of your charms as often as possible in the coming weeks.”

Comprehension slowly dawned on her features, and she tried to sit upright. Arching an eyebrow at her, he quickly rolled over to trap her beneath him. Green eyes flashed with anger as she glared up at him. There was a fire in her that excited him, and he wasn’t sure he liked the way it made him feel.

“If you think I’m going to give myself to you without hesitation, you’re delusional,” she choked out in a strained voice.

“I’m far from delusional, Allegra, nor am I easily swayed by your skills.” Her eyes widened with alarm, and he smiled with satisfaction. “Did you really think you could seduce me into letting you go?”