Once again, her cheeks were on fire, but so too—more worryingly—was her body. A strange aching had made her breasts feel so heavy—just like that peculiar sensation she’d first experienced in the scented bathwater at Kaliq’s palace. This was desire, Eleni realised—and the sheikh was such a proficient lover that he could manufacture it by words which were not even sweet or admiring!
‘No?’ he continued ruthlessly. ‘Nothing to say?’
She could sense the unknown and potent danger in the air. His eyes were challenging and his body language was suddenly tense and Eleni recognised that if she allowed this conversation to continue, then it might end up in the place she most wanted yet most feared to be. In his arms.
‘I am very tired after the journey and I would ask the sheikh if I may be excused,’ said Eleni stiffly.
There was a pause as Kaliq’s eyes narrowed. Excessively formal, he thought. And how insolent of her to ask to be excused before her royal host had left the room. But mightn’t it be easier to have her stripped naked and waiting for him?
‘Then don’t let me stop you,’ he drawled. ‘In fact, I have business I need to deal with.’ His black eyes glittered with anticipation. ‘Think you can find your way back upstairs?’
‘Of course,’ said Eleni, the heavy chair scraping back as she stood up, her heart beating fast beneath her breast. Remind him why you’re here—and remind yourself in the process before you get carried away with this rich and privileged life of his. ‘And when will we see the horse?’
‘Tomorrow. There is a polo match at a nearby ground—you might as well see him in action before you exercise your judgement.’
‘I shall look forward to that.’ Eleni curtseyed. ‘Good… goodnight, Highness.’
His lips curved into a sardonic smile as he heard her tremulous hesitation. She was innocent, yes—but she had a natural intelligence which surely would not deny the chemistry which existed between them. Did she really think that she would lie alone tonight? That he would allow that to happen?
‘Goodnight, Eleni.’
Her mouth dry with nameless fear, Eleni went upstairs to her room—trying to tell herself that of course she wasn’t surprised or disappointed that the sheikh had let her go so easily. For hadn’t his words unsettled her? The way he had described her response to him in the back of the car—why, it had made her feel ashamed and yet full of desire, all at the same time!
But it was with a sense of urgency that she undressed quickly—her hair still ribboned as she turned off all the lights and then slipped between the sheets.
Through the filmy curtains was a silver scythe curve of moon and she could see the occasional pinprick of a star—but they looked like pale imitations of the bright stars in the Calistan heavens, and suddenly Eleni felt very alone.
She tried to keep awake, to be on her guard in case the arrogant prince tried to enter her bedroom uninvited. And she should have been too excited and nervous to sleep after everything that had happened—the drive, the flight, the fact that she, Eleni Lakis, was in England! But one way or another it had been an exhausting day and the bed was unbelievably comfortable so that she couldn’t seem to stop eyelids which felt as if they had been weighted by lead, from shutting out the world.
It seemed like only seconds later that Eleni awoke to the sensation of the bed dipping and her eyes snapped open in alarm. For a moment then it had almost felt as if someone was… getting into bed beside her!
Her eyes adjusting to the half-light from the stars outside, she turned her head and there… there… lying next to her as if he had every right to be there and clearly naked as the day he had first entered the world of men—was the Sheikh Kaliq Al’Farisi!
She sat bolt upright in bed, her fingertips flying to her throat, feeling the pulse fluttering wildly beneath. ‘By the desert storm,’ she breathed. ‘What do you think you’re doing here?’
He gave a soft laugh as he reached his hand up to twist a silken braid of hair around his fingers. ‘Innocent you might be, my beauty—but I don’t really think you need me to give you an answer to that, do you, Eleni?’
Afterwards, she told herself that she might have screamed—had he not pulled her down against his bare flesh. And the sensations which powered over her were so intense that she closed her eyes and prayed that she would be strong in the path of such temptation.
‘Highness, please!’ she protested.
‘Please, what? Please this …?’
Almost lazily, he drifted his lips to hers and kissed her, feeling her tremble beneath his touch.
‘H-Highness!’ she stumbled, weakly.
Kaliq levered himself up to look down into her face, his expression stern—his eyes glittering fiercely in the half-light as they raked over her with proprietorial hunger.
‘Now listen to me while I tell you this and listen well. For tonight I am not your Highness, Eleni,’ he said. ‘Tonight I am just Kaliq. In this bed at least, we are equals. Do you understand that?’
And a little bit of Eleni’s heart turned over as she heard the simple appeal in his words—the sense that tonight he just wanted to be treated as a man and not a prince. Could she deny him a gift so simple—or was that just wishful thinking on her part?
She wanted to ask him how he thought that she could ever call him by his Christian name—but by then the sheikh’s hand had moved beneath the sheet and had taken her breast. It seemed that he, at least, had no problem with familiarity. Eleni closed her eyes, trying to fight the great wave of pleasure which whispered through her as he cupped the small globe and teased its tip into throbbing life.
‘H-Highness!’ she gasped.
‘Kaliq!’ he reminded her.
‘K-Kaliq!’ Vaguely, she thought how odd it was to utter the name of her sheikh—and yet how delicious it felt on her lips. Nearly as delicious as the sweet caress of his fingers.
‘Yes, Eleni, what is it?’
‘I… I…’ She shook her braided hair distractedly against the pillow as he worked some kind of magic with his touch. ‘I don’t remember.’
In the semi-darkness, he smiled as he continued to stroke her. ‘That’s good. Just feel. Just enjoy what I’m doing to you. Tell me, do you like it when I do that, Eleni?’
‘Oh! Oh. Oh!’
‘I think we must judge from your response that you do,’ he murmured drily. ‘Shall we try something else?’
Carelessly, he let his fingertips trail to dip into her belly button and let them stay there—waiting instinctively until she circled her hips in restless but silent entreaty. And then slowly—more slowly than he had ever moved in his life—he moved his hand lower still until he had delved deep into her honeyed sweetness—and was taken aback by how fresh and how ready she was for him. ‘And what about here—do you like me touching you here, too?’
As she bucked beneath his fingers Eleni honestly thought she was going to faint with pleasure—that was if she allowed herself to give into it, and not focus on the fact that this was the sheikh. Or just what he was doing to her. ‘But surely that is wrong?’ she breathed as he moved luxuriantly against her heated flesh.
Kaliq swallowed, strangely moved by her combination of innocence and enthusiasm. ‘How can it be wrong when it is what a man and a woman were designed for?’ he questioned huskily.
Eleni felt as if she were drowning in unbelievable sweetness—far sweeter than anything she had ever known. She knew the basics of sex—of course she did—so why was the sheikh not joining with her as she expected him to?
Why was he moving his fingers