She’d spent most of the night practically writhing in shame—and unsated desire. When Zayed had started touching her, she’d been helpless to do anything but respond. Want. Beg. Just as he’d once said. Even now the memory made her face flood with colour and she closed her eyes briefly against it. How could she be so helpless when it came to her response to this man?
Zayed walked swiftly through several corridors and then finally opened the door to a small, ornate room that looked like a private study. Olivia stood in the centre of the room, knotting her hands together so they wouldn’t shake.
Zayed closed the door and then whirled around to face her. ‘Could you be pregnant?’ he demanded tersely.
Olivia blinked. That had not been what she was expecting at all. ‘Pregnant...?’
‘From our wedding night.’ He ground the words out, his mouth compressing. ‘I did not use birth control and, as you were a virgin, I question whether you were on it.’
‘I’m not,’ she confirmed quietly.
‘And you have no...issues with fertility?’
Her face burned even hotter. ‘None that I know of, no.’
Zayed swore under his breath and turned away from her in one abrupt movement. At least she knew how he felt about a possible pregnancy, and could she even be surprised? He was planning to divorce her. Of course he didn’t want her to have his baby. Yet strangely, stupidly, Olivia felt hurt.
Zayed squared his shoulders, his taut back to her. ‘So there is a chance you could be pregnant?’
‘Yes, I suppose.’
He turned around. ‘You suppose?’
Irritation bit. ‘Yes, I suppose. I’m not omniscient, Zayed, and this is not my fault.’ Her voice quavered. ‘I thought you’d realised that, but it seems you’re back to blaming me.’
‘No, I’m sorry.’ He rubbed a hand wearily over his face. ‘I don’t mean to blame you. I blame myself, if anyone, for being so presumptuous and rash. It’s just another complication in what is already a very complicated situation. And I should have thought of it sooner.’ He dropped his hand from his face, giving her a surprisingly wry and honest look. ‘I’m ashamed that I did not.’
‘It’s understandable,’ Olivia murmured. Her flush had thankfully faded but she still felt embarrassed to be talking about this at all. ‘You’ve had a lot on your mind.’
‘Yes, but...’ He stared at her for a moment, his gaze hard and assessing. Olivia looked back at him warily. ‘You realised,’ he said, and it was a statement. ‘A while ago, I think. Yet you didn’t say anything.’
‘What was I supposed to say?’
‘That you might be pregnant?’ His brows drew together in a line. ‘I know it’s stating the obvious, but it is clearly a potential issue, and one that we needed to discuss.’
‘I suppose I didn’t see the point of discussing it until it was a certainty.’
‘But by that point you might have been out of my life!’ Zayed took a step closer to her. ‘Were you considering not telling me about my child, Olivia?’
She gazed at him in disbelief. ‘Are you serious, Zayed? Are you accusing me of something that hasn’t even happened yet? I may not even be pregnant. I’m probably not.’
‘Probably? Why do you say that?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but there’s a good chance I’m not.’
‘But there is a chance you are. That is the point.’ He gave her a long, level look. ‘Would you not have told me?’
‘I...I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead.’ She turned away from him, hating this whole conversation, all the what-ifs that had come into her life when everything had once been so certain, so safe, if a little staid. And she hated that a conversation about their possible child was so clinical, so cold. Some part of her wished for an alternative scenario, one where they hoped for such a thing. Revelled in the miracle of it. Was she insane?
‘What did you think, then?’ Zayed asked.
‘Why does it matter?’ she demanded, whirling around again. ‘Why do you always have to make me feel guilty, Zayed?’
Remorse crumpled his features for a split second. ‘Is that how I always make you feel?’ he asked in a low voice, and Olivia heard the sudden innuendo in it, as well as the intent.
‘No, but now... I know this is a potential problem, Zayed, but it’s not my fault.’
‘I know it isn’t.’ He closed his eyes and shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to act in such a way. When I’m around you...’ He stopped, and curiosity flickered through her, along with an excitement she could hardly credit.
‘When you’re around me...?’ she prompted.
Zayed opened his eyes and the blazing heat she saw in their depths lit a fire in her soul. ‘When I’m around you I lose my head. My very self. I can think of nothing but you...of having you.’
Excitement exploded inside her; she felt dizzy with it. Dizzy with desire, the rush of it so unexpected considering they’d just been arguing. But had it ever really gone away? She’d been fighting it, in one form or another, since the moment she’d met him.
‘I know it’s wrong,’ Zayed murmured. ‘I know it’s foolish. I know we shouldn’t, and yet I want to. I crave you, Olivia. Why do I crave you so much?’
‘I crave you,’ Olivia whispered. She couldn’t look away from his fierce face, every muscle straining as he sought to control himself. Then he couldn’t, and as she watched in breathless anticipation he swallowed the space between them in a couple of strides and she was in his arms, his mouth coming down hard and demanding on hers, the dam they’d both been constructing finally broken, the desire rushing in.
His mouth was hard and soft, the kiss sweet and strong at the same time, both sexy and sacred. Wonderful. Olivia returned the kiss with all that she had, unable to stop from giving him her everything. Zayed backed her across the room and her bottom came up against a desk. He growled against her mouth as he hoisted her on top of it, papers and books spilling onto the floor with a clatter.
No sweet seduction now; the force of their desire swept them along, caught up in its tidal wave as it dragged them under. Zayed nudged her legs apart with his own and then stood between her thighs as he plundered her mouth, his hands roving possessively over her body, demanding even more from her. And she gave it. Her mind a frenzied blur of sensation, she gave it willingly, joyfully, because, no matter how impossible their situation was, this man called to something in her that she hadn’t even known she had—and she called to him. That alone was a miracle, a wonderful, incredible miracle.
She felt Zayed’s fingers on the edge of her underwear, pulling it down. She moaned aloud, squirming against the feel of his hand, unable to wait even a second longer for the satiation they both craved, needing it with every fibre of their beings. This. Again this.
Zayed fumbled with his trousers, and with one swift stroke he was inside her. Olivia’s muscles clenched around him and she wrapped her legs around his waist, uniting their bodies as closely and completely as she could, glorying in the feeling of it, the pleasure as well as the unity. She felt complete again, as if everything in her had been waiting to feel this way since the last time.
Zayed began to move, each strong, sure stroke sending Olivia higher to that dizzying peak. She matched his movements, learning the rhythm, finding it naturally, as if this had always been a part of her. As if he had.
And then she reached that glittering pinnacle, a cry bursting from her like a song of joy. She buried