LITMIR.BIZ

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feelings started to subside, sending sharp twitches through her body as reminders of what she had just experienced. Anna opened her eyes to see him staring down at her.

      She looked so beautiful. Never had Zahir witnessed such beauty, such wild abandonment. Removing his arm, he released her body, moving her off his lap so that he could stand up, rip off his clothes and devour her in the way that he had been so desperate to do for the past hour…for the past twenty-four hours…ever since he had first clapped eyes on her. He had told himself that he would wait until after they were married, that that would be the right thing to do. But now waiting was an impossibility. Now the right thing, the only thing, he could think of was to claim this beautiful young woman for his own. To take her now, for himself, to satisfy his immense carnal need in the only way possible. By having her beneath him and making love to her in a way that neither of them would ever, ever forget.

      With his breath coming in harsh pants, his chest heaving beneath the sweater that he tugged over his head, he was down to his boxer shorts in seconds, his powerful erection straining against the black cotton fabric, swollen and painful with need. He knew Anna was watching his every move from the floor, and that only increased his fervour, fuelled the frantic craving that was coursing through him.

      ‘Lie down.’ He barked the order without knowing why he felt the need to be so domineering.

      Primal lust roared in his ears as he watched Annalina do as she was told, stretching out on the animal-skin rug, her body so pale in the flickering light of the fire, so delicate, so desirable. Bending down beside her, he pulled the scrap of fabric that was her panties down and over her legs, screwing them into a ball in his hand. Then he removed his boxers with a forceful tug and straddled her body with his own, holding his weight above her with locked elbows on either side of her head. She seemed so fragile compared to him, so impossibly perfect, that for a moment he could only gaze down at her, the corded muscles in his arms rigidly holding him in place, defying the tremor that was rippling through the rest of his body.

      ‘You want this, Annalina?’ He ground out the words, suddenly needing to hear her consent before he allowed himself to take her, this most precious creature.

      ‘Yes.’ It was the smallest word, spoken in little more than a whisper, but it was enough. And when her hand snaked between them, tentatively feeling for his member, he closed his eyes against the ecstasy, lowering his elbows enough to reach her lips and seal their coupling with a searing kiss.

      Lifting himself off her, he unscrewed his eyes to look down at her again. Her hand was circling his shaft and it was taking all of his control not to position himself and plunge right into her. His need was so great, unlike anything he had ever felt before, that his body was screaming at him just to do it, to take her as fast and furiously as he liked, anything to satisfy this infernal craving. But he knew he had to find some restraint. If Annalina was a virgin, which it seemed she was, he had to try to take it slowly, make sure she was ready, control the barbarian in him. Though if she carried on the way she was right now, her fingers exploring the length of him, caressing the swollen tip, his body was going to have severe trouble obeying his commands.

      ‘Is this right?’ Slowly her hand moved up and down.

      Zahir let out a moan of assent. Frankly she could have done it any damned way she liked, could have done anything she wanted. He was past the point of being able to judge.

      ‘I don’t want to disappoint you.’

      Disappoint him? That was not going to happen. He was sure about that. He moved one arm to cover her hand with his own, to position himself over her, to the place he so desperately needed to be able to enter her. His fingers strayed to find her, to part her in readiness, but then something made him hesitate. The catch in her voice, the slight tremor, suddenly permeated the lust-ridden fog of his mind and now he rapidly scanned her face for clues.

      ‘What is it? You have changed your mind?’ It killed him to ask but he had to be sure.

      ‘No, it’s not that.’

      ‘What, then?’ So he had been right—there was something.

      ‘Nothing, really.’ She removed her hand, bringing her arms around his back. But, as they skittered over the play of his muscles, their touch was as unconvincing as her words.

      ‘Tell me, Annalina.’

      ‘Well, it’s just… I’m a bit nervous.’ Her throat moved beneath the pale skin of her throat. ‘I hadn’t realised that you would be so…large.’

      ‘And that’s a problem?’

      ‘I don’t know. I suppose it could be. I mean, there was a problem with me and Henrik, and he wasn’t anything like as big…’

      Henrik. The mention of his name on her lips had the effect of pouring an icy waterfall over Zahir, at the same time as stirring a roaring tiger in his chest. Henrik. He knew what he’d like to do if he ever got his hands on that slimy creep of an individual. He couldn’t bear to think of him touching Annalina at any time, ever. But he particularly couldn’t bear to think of him now.

      ‘But I think we should try.’ Still she was talking, seemingly oblivious to the cold rage sweeping through him, her voice nervous but determined in the now suffocating air of the cabin. ‘Now—before we marry, I mean—to see if we can. I’m worried because of what happened with Henrik…’

      ‘Henrik!’ Zahir roared his name, making Annalina jump beneath him. ‘Do you really think I want to hear about Henrik?’ He moved his body off her, leaping to his feet, cursing the damned erection that refused to die, mocking him with its disobedient show of power. ‘Do you really think I want to be compared to your failed lover?’

      ‘Well, no, but… I just meant…’ Annalina sat up, covering her chest with her arms, her blue eyes staring up at him, wide, frightened and beseeching.

      ‘I know what you meant. You meant that I’m not the man that you were meant to marry, the man you wanted to marry. You meant that having sex with me was a chore that you were prepared to endure. Or maybe not.’ Another thought tore through his tortured mind. ‘Maybe you thought that if we weren’t able to have sex, if you could prove that, you wouldn’t have to marry me at all.’

      ‘No, Zahir, you’re wrong. You’ve got it all wrong.’

      ‘Because, if so, you are going to be sorely disappointed. We will marry, as planned, and we will consummate our marriage on our wedding night. And believe me, Annalina, when we do, I will drive all thoughts of Henrik from your mind. Banish all thoughts of not being able, or not being ready, or whatever other pathetic excuses you seem to be toying with. For when we do make love, when it finally happens, you’ll be thinking of nothing but me. Nothing but the way I am making you feel. And that, Annalina, is a promise.

       Chapter Nine

      FROM INSIDE THE chapel the organ music paused and Princess Annalina’s grip on her bouquet tightened. As the strains of Wagner’s Wedding March began she felt for her father’s arm, slipping her own through the crook of it. This was it, then. There was no going back now.

      Not that she had any choice. Beside her King Gustav stood rigidly to attention, his gaze fixed straight ahead. If he had any misgivings about handing over his only daughter to this warrior prince, then he wasn’t letting it show. As far as he was concerned this wedding was a business deal, a means to an end, and his job was to deliver his daughter to her fate. And to make sure that this time nothing went wrong.

      Sitting side by side in the vintage car taking them the short journey from the castle to the chapel on the Valduz estate, Anna had thought maybe this would be the moment her father would say something encouraging, comforting—she didn’t really know what. Instead he had simply checked his watch a dozen times, tugged on the sleeves of his morning coat and looked distractedly out of the window at the cheering crowds that lined the route as they passed. And when her hand had

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