LITMIR.BIZ

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felt momentarily disorientated because he hadn’t been expecting to see her waiting up for him. He swallowed. The sight of her alluring body was making him want to ravish her with a hunger which never seemed to wane, no matter how many times he took his fill of her. And it had never happened to him before—not like this. Every night since their wedding had been spent in her arms and not once had he grown bored. Unusually, he’d found himself cancelling trips to Europe and the States—feeling it wasn’t really fair to abandon his pregnant wife in a strange new country, even though no such complaint had come from her. Despite the huge leap of being catapulted from chambermaid to queen, she hadn’t been in the least bit clingy or dependent. She had been...

      He swallowed.

      She had been irresistible.

      Beguiling him little by little—her shy sexual confidence had increased daily until he wondered which of them was the tutor and which the pupil. But it wasn’t just sex she excelled at. It was other stuff, too. She seemed to instantly grasp what was important to him and what was not. She didn’t say unnecessary things or do that glazed-eye thing women did when they were pretending to be interested in your job. Her interest in his work seemed genuine. His gaze distracted by the hard points of her nipples, which were thrusting against her pink gown, he dragged his mind back to the question she’d just asked him. Something about a meeting...

      ‘It was good,’ he said vaguely, even though this particular meeting had been months in the planning. ‘Malik was unusually compliant.’

      ‘So you think he’s eager to embrace solar power at last?’

      Kulal frowned. He didn’t remember discussing that either, but he supposed he must have done. And why the hell was he getting into a discussion about renewable energy when he’d come here specifically to make love to her? ‘Not nearly as eager as I am to embrace you,’ he murmured, walking over to the desk and switching off the lamp, before pulling her to her feet. ‘You should be in bed.’

      Those amazing eyes widened. ‘I’ve been reading.’

      ‘It’s late.’

      ‘So what? I’m pregnant, Kulal—and I’m getting plenty of sleep. The doctor says I’m in peak health and right now I feel wide awake.’

      ‘That’s good. Because so do I.’ He slid his hand down over one undulating hip and instantly heard a long breath escape from her lips.

      ‘Kulal.’ He heard her swallow. ‘I...I wanted to ask you some more about the solar power initiative and...and...oh!’

      Her words faded away as his lips brushed hungrily over her neck. ‘Which is the very last thing I want to talk about, Hannah. I’d rather concentrate on...this...’ He started rucking up the gauzy gown to explore the silken territory of her thighs, his fingers finding her moist heat as he explored further. ‘Wouldn’t you?’ he said unsteadily.

      ‘Well...’ She tipped her head to one side as if she was giving the question careful consideration, but he saw her eyes become opaque as his finger found her sweet spot and began to drum softly against it.

      ‘You were saying?’ he prompted softly.

      ‘I don’t...remember,’ she moaned.

      And neither did he. She felt so good and tasted so good that he could wait no longer. With a low groan, he picked her up and carried her over to the bed, ignoring her habitual protestations, because although she was almost six months pregnant with his child, he could still lift her with ease. She was wearing her nightgown, but Kulal was too hungry to care. In fact, he couldn’t even wait to remove his own robes. But silk and satin could be pushed aside enough for him to gain all the access he needed and before too long she was breathlessly urging him to enter her. Kulal needed no second bidding as he filled her with an erection that had never felt quite so hard. Each thrust seemed to take him deeper. He felt as if he wanted to explode. As if nothing else in the world existed outside this room and this bed. He teetered on the brink of pleasure until at last she gave a strangled cry and almost immediately he let go with a harsh and breathless shout of his own.

      Kulal didn’t know how long he lay there before withdrawing from her, but her face was flushed and her eyes dark as they gazed at each other in the lamplight. ‘That was a very welcome homecoming,’ he said eventually.

      ‘I’m glad,’ she said demurely.

      ‘Where the hell did you learn to be so...responsive?’ He gave a wry smile. ‘Or are you just one of life’s natural seductresses?’

      ‘I’ve read some stuff,’ she admitted a little shyly. ‘I figured that an inexperienced wife might drive you into the arms of someone else if I wasn’t careful.’

      The unexpected candour and humility of her response made Kulal’s heart punch painfully in his chest. ‘But I promised you my fidelity,’ he growled.

      ‘I know you did, but I...’

      She seemed about to say something else when he saw a shadow cross over her face, and instead she shrugged.

      ‘What?’ he probed.

      ‘It doesn’t matter. Honestly.’ She fastened her arms around his neck and planted a lingering kiss on his lips. ‘What matters is that you should enjoy your coming home at night as much as I do.’

      ‘I certainly enjoy coming,’ he mused.

      ‘Kulal!’

      He gave a low laugh. ‘I don’t really think you’re in any position to be shocked by my words, Hannah—not when you seem pretty unshocked by some of the things we do together. Now...’ his voice dipped ‘...why don’t we rid you of this nightgown—beautiful as it is—which, in my haste to be inside you, I neglected to remove?’

      He helped her slide out of her nightdress, but took his time while undressing himself, deliberately making himself step back from the easy intimacy which seemed to have developed between them. Because sometimes, didn’t disquiet whisper over his skin—as warm and as insidious as the slow trickle of blood? Instinctively, his fingertips went to the ridged scar which ran all the way from nipple to belly. At the time, he hadn’t felt the knife enter his body because he had been on a rush of adrenalin, and sometimes he felt the same way now, when he was in bed with his wife.

      He had warned Hannah what he would and wouldn’t tolerate within their marriage yet he hadn’t expected her to be quite so accepting of his demands. Hadn’t he anticipated rebellion once she realised he would not bend the stringent rules he had imposed on their union? But she had confounded all his expectations. She hadn’t sulked, or bargained, or pleaded for him to spend the whole night with her. She hadn’t drummed her fingernails on the table and told him what she wanted. She had just seemed to slot into palace life as if she’d been born to it. According to his aides, she spent her days quietly, either in the gardens or in the library, with the occasional trip into the city as she prepared for the birth of their child.

      ‘Kulal.’ Her voice sounded soft—like a harp playing on a spring evening.

      ‘What is it?’ Yanking off his robe, he slid into bed beside her.

      ‘I want...’

      ‘What do you want, Hannah?’ he questioned indulgently.

      ‘To...to kiss you.’

      It was such an innocent request—how could he refuse? Why would he even want to refuse? Was it because he detected a trace of some indefinable emotion in the melodic caress of her words? Or because kissing represented an intimacy which sometimes felt as if it was mushrooming out of his control? As he bent to brush his lips over hers, he told himself it was only a kiss, but within seconds they were having sex again. If she hadn’t been pregnant he might have been a little rougher with her—made her ride him like a cowboy riding a bucking bronco, to demonstrate that this was nothing more than physical.

      But if she hadn’t been pregnant, she wouldn’t be here, he reminded

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