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She scooped her T-shirt off the floor, tugging it over her head.
He jumped up to snag her wrist before she could run from him again.
Her eyes widened as her gaze shifted to the strident erection that he could not disguise. The vivid blush flared across her collarbone as her eyes met his.
‘I’m not sleeping with you again, Kamal,’ she said. ‘So you can just get that idea right out of your head.’
‘I told you to ignore that,’ he shot back. ‘I would never force myself on a woman,’ he added, his own temper rising. ‘But I wish you to tell me—if I am not your first lover, what did you do with the others?’
The jealousy blindsided him, making the words spill out, and reminding him painfully of that boy who had always needed validation, approval, when it had never been forthcoming.
‘Did you get on your knees before them too? Did you make them ache, the way you made me ache?’
Liah twisted her wrist out of Kamal’s grasp and glared back at him. But her fury was tempered by her panic. Kamal Zokan was formidable—and even more annoyingly hot—when he was being a possessive, macho jerk. His chest heaved with indignation—and he was apparently completely unembarrassed by his nakedness and that strident erection.
What the hell?
The truth was, she’d never got past kissing any of the boyfriends she’d had in school and college. She’d gone on the pill six months ago when it had looked as though she and Colin were getting serious, until she’d overheard him talking to one of his friends about her.
‘She’s a frigid bitch, but she’s gorgeous, and she’s going to be a queen one day. So I’m more than prepared to suffer for the cause.’
Maybe he had been joking, but the joke had been on her. She’d thought he liked her, for herself. That he found her exciting and interesting. But he’d been manipulating her all along, and laughing at her, because of who she was—and what he could get out of her. It had sickened her and upset her. How could she have trusted such an idiot? They’d been going out for four weeks and she’d never guessed that he was like all the other men and boys she had dated, only interested in her because she had status and wealth that they craved.
What had hurt most of all was that Colin had never even excited her that much, but she’d been willing to go all the way with him to discover if there could be more.
With Kamal, though, it had always been different. There hadn’t really been much thought to any of it. She’d been swept away on a tidal wave of yearning, and so had he. Or at least that’s what she’d assumed.
But now, once again, she was unsure of herself. She’d thrown herself at him tonight, believing they had made a connection when she’d recognised the boy behind the man. Someone vulnerable who had struggled with their position in the world, something she could relate to. But now she wasn’t so sure, because he looked every inch the desert prince again. A man who took what he wanted and wasn’t interested in intimacy or emotions.
One thing she did have to thank Colin for, though, was the fact she was using contraception, because until Kamal had mentioned, oh, so casually, that he hadn’t suited up, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy. She had been way too steeped in afterglow and had become stupidly sentimental about the feel of his strong arms cradling her—even the press of that enthusiastic erection against her bottom—to worry about anything other than when she was going to get her next endorphin fix.
But she’d come crashing back to earth, with a vengeance. Because he was looking at her as if he owned her, and as if he had a right to expect an in-depth history of her sex life. Something she had absolutely no intention of giving him, because it would make her look and feel pathetic. They wouldn’t be equals any more. But had that been an illusion too—the power she’d thought she’d wielded?
What had she been thinking, giving in to him again? His outrageous questions though, deserved an equally outrageous answer.
‘If you’re asking me whether I’ve had oral sex before,’ she said, slapping a hand on her hip and trying to look a lot more experienced than she actually was, ‘I’ll let you figure that out for yourself.’
She’d loved kissing him, touching him, caressing him. She was proud of the fact she had made him ache. But he’d made her feel cheap and used now. He’d taken all the power away from her. And she hated him for it.
She swung round, planning to march out of the tent, glad she’d got in the final word. But he leaped forward, grasped her arms from behind and wrapped his strong body around hers. Suddenly she was trapped, sensations she couldn’t control streaking through her again.
‘Let me go,’ she murmured, trying to struggle free, the tears she refused to shed making her throat hurt.
‘I am sorry, Kaliah.’ The gruff apology shocked her—almost as much as the feel of his arms softening and then releasing her. ‘I was jealous. It is a new experience for me.’
She gulped in several raw breaths, the emotion still pressing against her chest but, when she turned to see the haunted look in his eyes, she was stunned.
He cradled her cheek in his palm, the calluses rasping against her skin. She should pull back. They were having an argument, and he still had that possessive gleam in his eyes. But she couldn’t seem to draw away from his touch, or deny the thundering of her heartbeat. No man had ever looked at her like that before, with such intensity.
‘I know you have not done such a thing for another man,’ he said.
She blinked, trying to push her temper back to the fore. ‘How do you know that? Wasn’t I any good at it?’ she demanded, feeling insecure again, and hating it.
Colin had called her frigid. And, as much as she’d hated him for it, she had always been a little scared it might be true.
But Kamal simply laughed, the chuckle releasing the tension that crackled around them. ‘You are fartoogood at it. Which is why I am honoured you chose me to experiment with.’
She could deny it, of course. Pretend she had experience she didn’t. But her throat closed on the lie as she braced against the warm glow in her chest, the stupid sense of validation. She didn’t need this man’s approval. So why did it mean so much?
