LITMIR.BIZ

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same spirit I loved eight years ago.’

      ‘Spirit prompted by my desperate concern for my mother,’ she reminded him. ‘You promised to go back on board and save her.’

      ‘I did all I could,’ he said steadily. Her voice was shaking with emotion. Too much had been bottled up inside Millie for too long. He could imagine the child growing to be a woman, and never once losing control, because if she did the grief would break her. He wanted to comfort her and make love to her all at one and the same time, but his self-control would not allow it.

      ‘So, what do you want of me, Millie Dillinger?’

      ‘I might ask you the same question,’ she fired back with surprising passion.

      That was it. The dam was breached. ‘I want you,’ he said.

      Millie gasped. Sheikh Khalid wanted her. This was every dream come true, and every nightmare made real. Guilt and desire battled inside her. His grip was both gentle and firm. She wanted this, wanted him. He was holding her in front of him with a message in his eyes that even a relative innocent like Millie could not possibly misinterpret, and that message surged through her senses, urging her to act. He wanted her. She wanted him. As amazing as it seemed to someone whose sexual experience was limited to a few fumbles in the back of a car, Sheikh Khalid wanted to seduce her, and she wanted to be seduced. To be introduced to the world of sensuality she’d only dreamed about, by a man who could teach her everything, was—

      Madness.

      ‘I should go—’

      ‘And find out nothing?’ he said.

      What was he talking about now? That night? Or sex? She shook her head, as if to shake some sense into it, but primal hunger was a merciless force. What harm could one night do? And once they were truly intimate who knew what she might learn?

      I’m going to interrogate him as he seduces me? Did she seriously expect Sheikh Khalid to betray his brother?

      ‘Well?’ he prompted. ‘Are you staying?’

      ‘I think you underestimate me,’ she said tensely.

      ‘That’s not an answer.’ And then he laughed, a blaze of strong white teeth against his swarthy skin. ‘I would never make that mistake, Millie, but I suspect you might.’

      The Sheikh’s face was dangerously close as he dipped his head. She didn’t know what to expect and remained frozen as he brushed her lips with his. But frozen wasn’t an option for more than a split second, as he tested and teased and made every atom in her being long for more.

      She had thought she was stronger than this, but she had never encountered a force of nature like Khalid before. From teasing, he moved seamlessly to kissing and with so great a skill that she could never have been prepared for it. Even in her most erotic ramblings, she could never have dreamed this. When he pressed her back against the wall, animal instinct consumed her, until there was only one thought in her head, and that was for him to take her. She wanted everything he had to give, the searing kisses, the physical pleasure. The past was obliterated by the searing heat of the present as Khalid teased her lips apart and took possession of her mouth.

      * * *

      With that one kiss he had crossed an invisible line. There was no going back. What had been done could not be undone. But he’d take this slowly. Millie deserved nothing less. She would be properly prepared for pleasure when he took her. Cupping her face in one hand, he mapped the swell of her breasts with the other. They were so full, so firm, he searched for a reaction in her eyes and he wasn’t disappointed. She groaned, and covered his hand with hers to urge him on as he lightly abraded the tip of her nipple with his thumbnail before attending to the other breast. Her legs trembled as he moved on to stroke the smooth line of her belly. She sighed rhythmically with approval in time to what he knew would be delicious little twinges of pleasure, and gasped out loud when he captured the swell of her buttocks to press her hard against his straining body. Arching her back, she positioned her bottom high for more touching, but he had decided that that was enough for now.

      ‘Why?’ she asked, her voice ringing with disappointment when he stopped.

      ‘Because greedy must learn to wait,’ he murmured against her lips.

      ‘I don’t want to wait,’ she exclaimed.

      He could change his mind. An excited breath rushed out of her as he eased her legs apart with his thigh. Having spread her, he allowed his fingertips to trail tantalisingly lower. As he had expected, she gave a sharp cry of need. ‘Not yet,’ he whispered, teasing her ear lobe with hot breath and his tongue.

      ‘When?’ she demanded on a shaking breath as he swung her into his arms.

      He carried her deeper into the privacy of his suite, into his bedroom, but as the door closed behind them, enveloping them in opulent silence, he was aware of his body like never before. It felt like a brutal weapon against the yielding accommodation of Millie’s soft frame. He had always prided himself on his steely control, but having her here took things to a knife’s edge. If Millie had been a different, more experienced woman, his physical hunger was such he would have had her up against the door by now, bringing them both the release they so badly needed.

      ‘I want you,’ she whispered urgently against his neck, adding to the torment.

      ‘Temporary relief?’ he suggested.

      ‘More than that,’ she assured him. ‘A lot more,’ she added in a voice shaking with excitement. A wild flame of passion burned in her eyes, wiping out reason. It threatened to do the same to him.

      ‘When I decide,’ he told her firmly.

      ‘Okay,’ she agreed, gulping convulsively. ‘Whatever you say.’

      She’d agree to anything in her present heightened state. It was up to him to set the pace.

      ‘Please,’ she begged, reaching for his belt buckle. Her hands were trembling as she wrenched and tugged until finally the buckle yielded. She gave a little growl like a tiger cub with a thorn in its pad, and then yanked the belt out of its loops. ‘Oh!’

      His zipper didn’t just slide down, but burst open as he sprang free. Her lips were parted in an expression of such surprise, he wanted to laugh, but that would definitely have broken the mood. Then, she surprised him by exclaiming, ‘I can’t possibly accommodate that.’ And now they were both laughing.

      ‘What are you doing to me, Millie Dillinger?’ he demanded. This was turning into something far more than a seduction; it was a getting-to-know-you process such as he’d never experienced before, laced with a surprising degree of, I really like this woman.

      ‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘I can’t.’

      ‘You might surprise yourself.’

      ‘You’d like to surprise me,’ she corrected him. ‘Are you a freak, or is this normal?’

      ‘You don’t know?’ Alarm bells rang loud and clear. Millie was either a virgin, or she was inexperienced beyond any woman he’d ever known. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is normal for me.’

      ‘Hmm.’ She considered what he’d said. ‘That’s what I thought. And I’m glad you think it’s funny,’ she added when he laughed out loud.

      ‘Funny?’ he queried as he moved away to rearrange his clothing. ‘I’m not laughing at you. It’s your unique take on things that amuses me.’

      ‘Well, I don’t know who you’ve known before me—’

      Her outrage amused him even more, but he curbed the smile in favour of cupping her chin and bringing her close. ‘Your expression amuses me, habibti. But there is one thing I must ask: are you always this reckless?’

      She trembled as he whispered this against her mouth, but he could feel her relief that he’d backed off. ‘Never,’ she admitted frankly.

      *

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