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Caitlin swallowed as his black eyes glittered, his words firing up everything she already felt for him and igniting the smoulder of feelings she’d been trying to keep at bay. But this wasn’t a fairy tale, she reminded herself bitterly. Nobody could accuse Kadir of building her up with false hopes. He wasn’t professing love, or emotion. He was spelling out exactly what he felt for her, which was lust—no more and no less. It shouldn’t have been enough and yet somehow...
She closed her eyes. Would it be so wrong to be intimate with the man who had fathered her child? Wasn’t she allowed to enjoy her body, like other people? Last time around she’d been vulnerable. She’d started to believe she was falling in love with him but this time that wasn’t going to happen. Why would it when Kadir had expressly told her that love was a trap?
But sex. Sex she could do.
‘So what do you propose we do about it?’ she asked him, her voice coming out all breathy.
He stilled, as if her easy assent had taken him by surprise, but quickly he reasserted his mastery. ‘I’ll tell you exactly what we’re going to do. First we’re going to get rid of the view.’ He walked across to the wall and the touch of a button made electric blinds float silently down over every window, dimming the light so that it looked like a gilded and exotic boudoir. ‘And next I’m going to kiss you.’
He was walking towards her, his black eyes glittering, his steps slow and deliberate. He was giving her time to change her mind, Caitlin realised. But somehow, making her wait was only increasing the hunger she felt for him, so that by the time he stood in front of her and pulled her into his arms, she was almost on fire with need.
And suddenly he was kissing her and she was kissing him back. Kissing him hard—as if trying to imprint her mouth indelibly on his. And he was saying things against her lips—soft, urgent words in a language she didn’t recognise.
‘Kadir,’ she whispered as his fingers curled possessively over her silk-covered breast and the nipple immediately sprang to life.
‘I want you,’ he said
deliberately. And he picked her up and carried her across the gilded room, towards the wide divan and the powerful scent of orange roses.
CHAPTER NINE
WITH A SWIFT economy of movement, Kadir peeled off Caitlin’s tunic, revealing the modest bra and pants she’d bought in a discount store in Edinburgh. As his hungry gaze raked over her, she wondered if he was used to his women wearing bewitching scraps of silk and lace and how she could possibly measure up against them. But the hot flash of his eyes and the growl which erupted from his lips seemed to imply he didn’t feel in the least bit short-changed by her appearance.
He unclipped her bra and bent to slide her panties all the way down her thighs, effortlessly lifting her up so that they fluttered from her ankles, before setting her down again. He kissed her hair as he reached down to touch her breast, a slow, circling thumb making the nipple grow hard again.
‘I have wanted to see you naked like this for so long,’ he husked.
Her cheeks grew hot, but Caitlin was determined to match his matter-of-factness. Because emotional danger beckoned if she read too much into what was simply a biological act. ‘And you,’ she whispered. ‘I have longed to see you naked, too.’
‘Then what are you waiting for, Caitlin? Why don’t you take off my clothes?’
His uneven words were coated with need and Caitlin trembled beneath their rush of elemental power. She had never undressed a man before and she’d certainly never undressed a powerful king of the desert. But there had to be a first time for everything, surely? Her hands were unsteady as they moved towards the hem of his robe, mainly because she could feel the heat of his body beneath the silk and knew what delights awaited her. Pulling the garment over his head, her fingers tightened around its voluminous folds, her breath catching in her throat as she realised that, unlike her, he was completely naked beneath.
And it was impossible not to stare at him. To feast her eyes on the broad shoulders and honed chest and gleaming olive skin. The narrow hips and muscular thighs and long, hard legs. But most of all, she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from the thick pole of his erection which sprang from between his thighs, pale against the dark forest of hair.
‘Do you like what you see, Caitlin?’ he questioned softly.
She lifted her gaze to his face. He’s playing a game with me, she thought, and maybe he wanted her to play it, too. Was that what long-parted lovers were supposed to do when they met up again? But what if you didn’t know the rules of the game—when your only experience of sex had been one short night which had ended so abruptly? ‘It’s okay,’ she said coolly, the fabric slipping from her fingers to the floor.
‘Just okay?’
His black eyes challenged her and suddenly Caitlin wondered why she was even trying to flirt with someone who was light years ahead of her in terms of sexual experience. ‘M-more than okay,’ she admitted truthfully, the words coming out in a rush. ‘Your body is beautiful.’
Was it her shaky praise which provoked the sudden tension in his body? Which made his eyes narrow before he bent to capture her lips again, searing them with a kiss which felt as if he were branding her with fire? Caitlin didn’t know and somehow it didn’t seem important. She just kissed him back as if her life depended on it, because hadn’t she dreamt of doing this so many times during the long nights she’d spent alone, and then woken up frustrated in the morning to realise it had all been a dream?
He lifted her up and laid her down on the divan, the smoky expectation in his eyes leaving her boneless with longing as he began to stroke her. And Caitlin closed her eyes, giving herself up to the sensation as he began to explore her skin. Because last time it had all been so new and she’d been so overcome with emotion that she hadn’t really had the chance to appreciate what was happening, but she wasn’t going to allow that to happen this time. No way. Instead of having pointless fantasies about having found ‘the man of her dreams’, she was going to concentrate solely on the physical. On the way he was stroking her inner thigh with a thoroughness which quickly had her squirming with frustration. On the way his tongue was licking its way luxuriously over each nipple, so that she wriggled with pleasure. The way he groaned when she smoothed her hand over the jut of his hips and stroked his curving satin-skinned buttocks. The way his blunt tip brushed tantalisingly against her belly, and already she could feel a little bead of moisture there.
‘Kadir,’ she whispered.
He reached out to slide out a drawer from beneath the rose-covered table, before producing a small square of foil which glinted in the dim light. As he smoothed on the protection with a slow and provocative deliberation, she wondered if he just happened to keep those condoms there, or whether the whole scenario had been a set-up. Again, her cheeks grew warm and this time Kadir must have noticed, because his black eyes were curious.
‘Are you blushing?’ he murmured.
‘Not at all. I think the air-conditioning must be failing. It’s very hot in here.’
Unexpectedly, he laughed before pulling her into his arms and suddenly words were forgotten because his mouth was on hers and his hand was back between her thighs. Where it belongs, she thought fiercely. But then her fingertips encountered the rough ridge of a small jagged scar, which snaked across his lower abdomen, and inexplicably she felt a sharp pain shooting through her. Almost as if she were experiencing second hand the hurt he must have felt at the time. She opened her mouth to ask who had caused it, who had inflicted such a wound on him—but by then his finger was brushing against her quivering bud and her brain wasn’t functioning at all.
Her body was hungry and her need was intense. Her throat dried as he straddled her and she parted her legs to accommodate him. And at last he was inside her. Easing slickly into her waiting heat and not seeming to notice the hard dig of her nails as she clung to him.
