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He was like the city itself. Exotic. Exciting. Full of mystery and adventure and all of the world mixed together, and he was hers for the night.
Her breath caught, her lips parted as he drew her closer. ‘I believe it,’ she said, her eyes on his mouth, bare inches away from hers, because there was nowhere in the world she’d rather be right now, than right here, with him.
‘Beautiful,’ he said, and he drew her closer, his lips slanting across hers, a silken touch, a teasing caress, followed by a kiss so soft and gentle that it left her dizzy and breathless and she would have collapsed against him but he had already wrapped his other arm around her and gathered her close against his hard chest.
And he tasted so good, of spice, and heat and the promise of a night of the pleasures of the flesh.
His kiss deepened, ratcheting up her need as she answered the heady demands of his hot mouth and seeking tongue, as she clung to him, breathless, her head spinning in the whirlwind of desire.
He heard a growl—his growl—as he pulled his head back and she looked up at him to see him frown and his dark eyes conflicted.
‘I hope you have a strong stomach,’ he said, and his voice was gruff and contained more than a note of bitterness.
She blinked, confused, an ounce of fear wending its way into the warmth of her arousal as she realised. Nobody knew where she was. Nobody but the polis who had all but handed her over to this man. And she had nobody but herself to blame for being seduced by the promise in his words.
He was a stranger.
He’d promised pleasure.
But there was nothing to say that his version of pleasure equated with hers.
She shivered. What did he have planned for her?
And that flash of fear must have been reflected in her eyes.
‘I will not hurt you,’ he said, though his voice was barely gentler, as if he realised the fears he had triggered, ‘but I warn you now, what you see will not be pretty.’
CHAPTER FIVE
HE’D HAD TO warn her, he told himself.
His usual kind of woman was worldly-wise. His usual kind of woman could forgive anything, be it age, obesity, or deformity, given the right incentive. A night or two in a five or more star resort with all the trimmings. A gown. A trinket. Great sex.
He knew this for a fact.
Because his usual kind of woman blinked and looked away and pretended nothing was wrong and then was only too happy to move on.
This woman wasn’t his usual kind of woman. She might not be innocent in the strictest sense of the word, but she was still more ingénue than sophisticate.
That was why she was now biting her lip. That was why she had run from him in the Spice Market.
And if she had run from him then, what would she do when she saw?
Perhaps he should have let her go after all.
But letting her go wasn’t an option any more. She was his responsibility and now she had chosen what course she wanted for the night. Pleasure, rather than duty, and he could see in her eyes that she was expecting some kind of perfect night. A night to take away as a souvenir of her trip. A holiday fling to tell her friends about when she got home. She was still nervous and shy, but she had convinced herself that this was what she wanted and she was brimming with anticipation, and so responsive and eager in his arms, her mouth so much like a siren’s song, that it had been almost impossible to pull away.
But she was unpractised. Unworldly. And he would not take her to bed without warning her that things might not be as rosy in reality as the light of an Istanbul sunset.
She looked up at him, only the slight tremble in her bottom lip now betraying her hesitancy. ‘I’m a big girl, Kadar. I can cope.’
He kissed her then, mostly because she looked so vulnerable and uncertain and only a little because there was a tiny part of him that feared she might change her mind when she saw, and, God only knew, he didn’t want her to change her mind. Only to be aware.
‘Then come,’ he said, ushering her inside, closing the sliding doors on the fading sky. ‘And I will show you.’
The day had been intense. The evening was proving even more so.
And Kadar, the man who had moved her, the man who had rescued her, was at the centre of it.
Amber’s emotions hovered between excitement and fear, and fear now had the edge. Her body hummed as he shrugged off his coat and took her hand to lead her to the big bedroom.
He flicked a switch and it was just as she imagined. A wide bed with a gold coverlet, drapes in rich jewel colours and Turkish rugs on the floor that brought all the shades of the room together in a splash of silken splendour.
