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‘And she died of pre-eclampsia when Zayn was born. My father was negligent in not ensuring that she had the very best medical care. But by then they were already living separate lives.’
‘Why was he like that?Souncaring?’
‘I don’t know. His mother died young and his father was elderly, which meant that he was only twenty when he came to the throne, too immature to have such power and wealth. He neglected his duties to chase a jet-set lifestyle across Europe and quickly fell into drugs. He built Alihreza because he was getting pressure to spend more time in Zenara, and he could only face that if he could have a very private bolt-hole where he could continue to indulge in drugs and sex.’
‘Did he die from an overdose?’ Izzy whispered.
‘No, someone poisoned him, which is why I have a food taster.’
‘Afoodtaster?’ she gasped in disbelief. ‘But those timesIcooked for you...’
‘I broke the rules set by the executive council for my upbringing,’ Rafiq murmured with amusement glinting in his dark golden eyes. ‘How could I have explained a food taster while I was posing as an ordinary businessman?’
‘Why was he poisoned?’ A shiver ran through Izzy. ‘That’s seriously scary.’
‘He had made so many enemies. He was a notorious womaniser. He slept with just about every woman around him and it’s unlikely that they wereallwilling partners. I’ve always believed that it was a revenge killing. His death was exhaustively investigated but nobody was ever brought to trial. Now may we please talk about something else? I have answered all your questions.’
Izzy had lots more to ask but she suppressed the words bubbling in her throat because she could see that trudging through that weighty back story of his had loaded him down with unhappy recollections. And she didn’t blame him—she really didn’t blame him. Although he had been born into almost unimaginable status and wealth, he had not enjoyed the love, support and security that all children needed to thrive.
‘So, both your parents were gone and that’s why your uncle had to raise you and your brother,’ she summed up quietly.
‘And we could not have had a better guardian,’ Rafiq sighed. ‘Becoming Regent and agreeing to raise his nephews was a huge responsibility for Jalil to take on and he has never been a man who enjoyed the limelight, yet he did it because he felt it was his duty.’
Gently settling her down on the sofa, he stood up and began to get dressed. ‘Let’s return to the palace,’ he urged. ‘It’s getting late and you must be tired.’
But Izzy wasn’t tired. As she was shuttled back along a rough track in a four-wheel drive, Izzy’s brain was teeming with thoughts. They had become intimate again. She hadn’t planned that, hadn’t truly had time to consider that aspect of their marriage because one minute they had been two separate people and the next they had been married. Keeping it casual wouldn’t come naturally to her, she acknowledged ruefully. But, somehow, she had found herself saying what she believed that Rafiq needed tohearto relax with her.
He had felt trapped in his first unhappy marriage. He hadn’t said so, but she had guessed how he felt about those years, years spent with a woman she didn’t believe he had loved. She definitely didn’t want him to feel trapped withher. She wasn’t going to attach strings just because sex with Rafiq was mind-blowing. She wasn’t about to tell him that though, wasn’t an idiot. What had started out as a random, utterly unexpected first-time sexual experience had turned into something more for her, but she wasn’t about to share that either. Her feelings were getting deep and complicated where he was concerned. Feelings that made her feel attached and involved in a way she was terrified of being but somehow couldn’t help, feelings that were stronger than common sense and self-preservation. But was that really so surprising when the man she had married was also the father of the twins she carried?
Right now, her hormones had to be firing on all cylinders because of the pregnancy, she reasoned anxiously, and that might well be why her emotions were all over the place. It was even possible that she could be imagining the sense of attachment pulling at her.
Closing a firm hand over hers, Rafiq urged her into his bedroom with him and closed the door.
‘What am I doing in here?’ she muttered. ‘I thought you liked your privacy.’
‘Not when you’re around,’ Rafiq said succinctly, staring down at her with hooded dark golden eyes alight with sexual heat, his well-defined jaw line taut and beginning to shadow with stubble, accentuating his beautiful mouth. He looked so hot, her knees wobbled, butterflies flying loose in her stomach. ‘Give me one good reason why I’d want to sleep alone.’
‘Thought you preferred it that way.’
‘Thought the same about you,’ Rafiq incised, lean brown fingers rising to frame her flushed face. ‘Got that wrong,verywrong.’
Enthralled by the dark liquid sexiness of his deep voice, Izzy tilted her head back to have a better view of him and that was a mistake because her mouth ran dry when she met the scorching heat of his appraisal. Her body reacted instantly, nipples tightening, pelvis clenching, that hollow ache between her thighs stirring afresh.
‘Five minutes after I have you, I want you again,’ Rafiq husked.
Her hands lifted and settled at his narrow waist to steady herself and she shifted closer, feeling the heat of his lean, powerful physique soak through the barrier of their clothes. She shivered, the strength of the pull he exercised over her unnerving her as she tried to fight it. It was the work of an instant for him to haul her fully into his arms and detach her from the cloak she had been wrapped in, casting it aside to unbutton the tunic she wore beneath.
‘Rafiq...’ she began.
‘Tell me you don’t want me.’
Her breath snarled up in her throat because she couldn’t lie to him, couldn’t lie to herself, had never in her life before realised that hunger could be so overwhelming that she could barely think, never mind speak in the grip of it. ‘Can’t do that,’ she muttered in a pained whisper.
He gathered her up into his arms and brought her down on the big bed. ‘A little taste of you only makes me want more. It makes me greedy.’
As his lips closed around a straining pink nipple, her spine arched, and she gasped helplessly in response. Shimmering dark golden eyes surrounded by dense black lashes gripped hers and her heartbeat hammered, liquid heat shooting straight to her core. He spread her over the bed and worked a skilled path down over her squirming body, teasing at the more receptive spots, lingering at his leisure when her response was more immediate, toying with her as her movements grew more agitated. It was a slow burning torment after the swift release he had granted her earlier when his dominant masculinity had been exactly what she craved.
Her control was hanging by a thread, tiny tremors rippling through her as she stayed poised on the edge of climax, frantically seeking that ultimate goal. He swiped his tongue across her exquisitely sensitive bud and her whole body rose in a whoosh of sensation, fierce arousal linking with bone-deep craving and the clenching tightness in her pelvis to combine in a rapturous rush of pleasure that sent her careening into space, splintering delight shockwaving through every sense.
