But it was the sight and position of Rahim’s bed that made her eyes widen. Set on four solid pillars, the bed was suspended halfway to the soaring ceiling, with twin curving staircases leading to it from the middle of the cavernous room. Around the heavy cream silk framing the giant four-poster, multipillowed bed, wrought-iron railings, painted a matching gold and white, had been erected. And the headboard, more than twice the size of her own, was even more enthralling, the sheer magnificence of the erotic artwork holding her captive for endless seconds.
Imagining Rahim and his hard, lean body spread out on that bed, heat powered through her, freeing her from her stupor. Dragging her gaze away from the decadent sight, Allegra gulped in air before she snatched back her focus.
Her frantic gaze scoured the endless displays dotted around the room until she found the Louis XIV cabinet she’d seen in the coffee table book. Tightening her hold on her wrap, she sped across the carpeted floor to the display.
Her grandfather’s box sat in the middle of the top shelf, a tiny spotlight showing off the superb craftsmanship and utterly dazzling ornament to full effect. It was beautiful beyond belief, and for the first time since he’d asked her to retrieve it, Allegra accepted how special the box was.
Heart in her throat, she took a step closer to the cabinet, then whirled around with a gasp at the sound of a door sliding shut behind her.
Rahim entered the room and every atom in Allegra’s body screamed alive. First with dread. Then with a fiery excitement so strong she wondered whether she’d turn to char by the time the man who was rubbing his hair with a towel, and hadn’t yet seen her, realised she’d violated his privacy.
Rahim lowered the towel a second later, then froze. Shock flared through his eyes, before the hazel depths darkened. Narrow-eyed, he stalked across the bedroom floor, his gaze pinned like lasers on her.
With each step, Allegra cautioned herself not to look at his body. To instead think of a plausible explanation as to why she was here, in the middle of the night, dressed as flimsily as she was.
By his fourth step, she’d lost the battle. Her eyes devoured the wide, lean expanse of his shoulders, and the hard, washboard stomach. Against the stark white towel knotted carelessly at his waist, his dark olive skin glowed with mouth-watering vibrancy, his skin so gloriously sleek her fingers burned to touch. Desire dredged through her belly and her mouth flooded with acute hunger as he neared and she saw the droplets of water clinging to his skin.
He was beautiful beyond words; from the ink-black damp hair to the powerful legs eating up the distance between them, Rahim Al-Hadi was a panther-like specimen of male beauty, and she accepted in that moment that she couldn’t hold that against him. Not when every inch of her wanted to be plastered to every inch of him. Long and hard and in every imaginable position possible.
‘Allegra,’ he breathed her name, his voice heavy with an emotion she couldn’t name, but which echoed all the way through her body. ‘I’m not sure whether to applaud you for your reckless daring, or chastise you for your foolishness in coming here.’
The deep growl in his voice made the secret place between her thighs throb urgently. Chagrined, she wondered how she could react like this to his voice alone, even as her breasts tingled, her nipples turning to hard peaks at the blatant hunger in his face.
‘I hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t sleep, not without coming here to...’ She trailed off uselessly as he shifted the towel from his neck and flung it away. In her bare feet, she was eye level with his pecs, and with the absence of the towel, his flat, brown nipples were displayed in perfect, round discs.
‘Coming here to...?’ he echoed mockingly.
She blinked. Tried to breathe.
God. Think, Allegra!
‘I... I wasn’t happy with the way we left things. I wanted to make amends.’
Rahim took another dangerous step closer, and she caught the faint smell of chlorine mingled with an earthier scent of warm, male skin. A visual image of him, swimming naked, surged up to collide with all the X-rated images speeding through her brain.
‘And how exactly do you wish to make amends?’
For as long as she lived, Allegra doubted she would be able to explain the sensation that overtook her in that moment. Perhaps she had been seeking a connection to something...or someone...all along without realising it. Certainly, the feeling of being adrift, of being alone since she lost her mother countless years ago, had been a pain waiting to rear up and stab her in her weakest moments. It wasn’t a feeling she freely expressed, because she knew her sisters and brothers viewed their often volatile mother differently, that they wouldn’t welcome Allegra’s lonely sentiment. Nor would she want to remind them of how she’d personally failed them when it came to providing the stability they’d needed when it’d most counted.
Whatever she was suppressing, the moment her hand connected with the naked flesh of Rahim’s torso, a deep, visceral emotion moved through her that made her soul sigh in relief and surrender.
Warm and alive and vitally intoxicating, she could no more stop touching him, exploring him, than she could stop breathing.
Sleek muscle clenched beneath her touch, followed by a sharp intake of breath.
When she managed to pull her gaze from the expanse of skin heating her fingers, she glanced up to see eyes lit with a voracious fire that threatened to consume her. Knowing he wanted her as much as she wanted him lent Allegra the strength to make the next, completely insane, but almost inevitable, move.
Because in that moment, she couldn’t not kiss the sensual lips that were parted hungrily. Nor could she not wrap her hand around his thick neck and draw herself up. Up to taste the exotic decadence of his mouth. Up to lose herself in the fever infusing her blood.
His lips were warm, drug-like in their complete intoxication of her senses and firm in their demand. They clung to hers, allowed her to explore... He even let her pull away for a second when the wonder of it overwhelmed her. Eyes glued to one another, their breaths mingled as he waited, for what, Allegra couldn’t tell.
But with the inevitability of a diver jumping from a plane, she surged up for another taste. And in the space of a heartbeat, Rahim was devouring her. Strong, corded arms lashed her body to his, his grip so tight she could barely breathe. Not that breathing was uppermost in her mind. No, the tongue sliding against hers, driving her senses wild, was more an urgent need. One she couldn’t get enough of no matter how much she strained against him.
A moan slipped free, which triggered an answering groan from Rahim. Her fingers traced his neck, gloried in the pulse hammering at his throat, before spiking into his damp hair. Against her belly, the thin covering of his towel did nothing to disguise the surging evidence of his arousal.
Wetness pooling between her thighs, singeing her with even greater need, she strained closer. Then almost cried out in despair when Rahim gripped her waist and set her away from him.
Breaths panting, they stared at each other. Allegra had no words to describe the state she was in, so she gazed mutely at him, hoping against hope that he wasn’t about to send her away. The very thought made the fingers she’d clenched in his hair tighten.
‘This is how you want to make amends?’ he enquired, his voice gravel-hoarse with arousal. ‘Think carefully before you answer, habibi. Because once you answer in the affirmative, once I have you in my bed, there will be no going back.’
She wanted to tell him she knew she’d already burned bridges where he was concerned. From the moment they’d touched, she’d known Rahim Al-Hadi had inexplicable power over her. Allegra knew it was why she’d reacted so uncharacteristically strongly to him. Whether she wanted him