Читать книгу Modern Romance December Books 5-8 - Дженнифер Хейворд - Страница 16
ОглавлениеTADJ HAD EXPLAINED that the stateroom he was about to show Lucy was unique. Not only was it full of treasures beyond compare in the historical sense, but also it was stuffed to the gunnels with golden ornaments and furniture, as well as the fabulous, famous sapphires.
‘Do I get to see your etchings too?’ she asked lightly.
‘No etchings. Erotic hangings,’ Tadj informed her. ‘No joke,’ he assured Lucy when she looked at him in surprise. ‘So, I hope you’re not easily shocked.’
‘Me? No,’ she said on a throat turned suddenly dry.
‘Extremely erotic hangings,’ Tadj teased, seeing her discomfort.
‘I’m not entirely unaware of the workings of the human body.’
He laughed. ‘These aren’t so much workings, as the most outlandish contortions.’
Lucy gave him one of her ‘so you think I’m dumb’ looks. ‘Well, it sounds like a very special room.’
‘Sarcastic,’ he commented, smiling faintly.
‘Curious,’ she said honestly. And then she frowned. ‘But it doesn’t sound much like a room for lingering in.’
‘You might change your mind.’
‘I doubt it.’
This was a deck reserved for very special guests, Lucy thought as a security guard, having recognised Tadj, stood back to let them through. The corridor was as luxurious as everywhere else on the ship, with plush carpets, pristine ivory walls, decorated with fascinating objets d’art, all shown to best advantage by discreet lighting. Plump upholstered seating invited a pause at convenient intervals—goodness knew what went on there, Lucy thought, but Tadj wasn’t interested in lagging behind to explain, and curiosity propelled her forward. For some crazy reason, she trusted him. With no real foundation, that was reckless maybe, but she had a good feeling about him that she couldn’t explain.
Even so, it was better not to take any chances, she thought as he stopped outside the most stunning golden door. ‘Five minutes and I’m out of here,’ she warned in a teasing tone to soften the information.
Seemingly unconcerned, he shrugged.
‘I’m impressed,’ Lucy admitted as she stood back to admire the door’s intricate ornamentation.
‘Wait until you see inside,’ Tadj advised. Opening the door, he invited her to enter the Golden Chamber.
Having overdosed on luxury for the past hour or so, Lucy was complacent, thinking she was ready for anything, but her first sight of the unique room stunned her into silence. It was so bling, she wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. But, ‘Wow,’ she exclaimed as she stared around. Her feet sank into a carpet that was deep, sapphire-blue, while every surface, wall, ceiling, and piece of furniture was composed of solid gold. She guessed the ornaments would be the same, and these were studded with glowing blue sapphires, and were quite obviously precious artefacts from some ancient time.
‘I’m not sure about the elevator music,’ she teased Tadj, turning to face him and raise a brow at the strings playing softly in the background.
He laughed. ‘Me neither. I guess it’s supposed to improve the ambience.’
‘It smells good, anyway,’ Lucy conceded. Incense was burning in golden salvers, and, closing her eyes, she drew deep on the exotic scent.
‘Time to look at the shocking hangings,’ she said matter-of-factly, opening her eyes. She stared around, but her gaze always returned to Tadj. He was more interesting than the erotic hangings, though she did have a few questions for him.
‘Is that pose even possible?’ she asked, tipping her head to one side. ‘I had no idea human bodies were even capable of doing that.’ She wasn’t easily shocked, just perplexed.
Smiling his unreadable smile, Tadj made no answer. Opening a second, heavily ornamented door, he revealed another glittering golden stateroom, one so large it easily accommodated several glittering crystal chandeliers.
To swing from? Lucy wondered.
‘You’re laughing,’ Tadj commented with interest. ‘Don’t you like it?’
‘Sensory overload,’ Lucy explained. ‘Otherwise, I actually feel quite humble to be invited here to see what must be one of the hidden wonders of the world.’
‘I’m glad you think so,’ he said with a touch of humour in his tone.
She wasn’t only thinking about that, but fantasising about Tadj lowering her slowly down on top of the thick, soft wool rug they were currently standing on.
‘This is my topic,’ she reminded him. ‘The display of important historical works of art falls well within my field of interest.’
‘Then, I’m glad I brought you here,’ he said.
Propping a hip against a console table that appeared to be made of solid gold, Tadj folded his arms and stared at her. ‘You’re hard to read,’ he said. ‘Tell me more about yourself...’
‘Am I?’ she said, ignoring the question. The connection between them was stronger than ever, and more than ever she wanted to stay and chat, but the atmosphere inside this room was just too seductive. ‘I can’t stay too long at the party,’ she said in a reminder to them both, ‘and I want to make the most of it,’ she added, moving towards the door. ‘I have responsibilities.’
‘As do I,’ Tadj assured her.
Stalemate. Several tense seconds ticked by, while Lucy gazed out at the brilliantly lit marina, where the bustle of ordinary life carried on in what seemed like a million miles from where they were standing. She’d be back there soon enough. She certainly wouldn’t remain on board when Sapphire slipped its moorings.
‘Penny for them?’ Tadj prompted.
Turning, she lifted her chin so she could stare him in the eyes. ‘I’m just taking everything in—you...me...this,’ she admitted, glancing around. ‘Very soon the Sapphire will sail, and you’ll sail with it.’
‘Will you miss me?’ he teased.
‘No,’ she lied. The time had come to examine her feelings, and decide whether to stay, or go.
He sensed the change in Lucy. From pure enjoyment and wonder, she had paused to consider her feelings, and where she fitted into this scenario. Her decision was typical Lucy, in that it both pleased and surprised him.
‘I want you,’ she whispered with a shrug of her slender shoulders.
Her candour fired his hunger as nothing else could. Slowly drawing her towards him, he kissed her neck, before brushing her lips teasingly with his. Turning in his arms, she rested back against his chest, so he kissed her again and felt her tremble. Innocence demanded a measured response, and for once in his life he wasn’t sure he was in full command of his control.
‘Isn’t this beautiful?’ she murmured, staring out of the floor-to-ceiling balcony window, to where the soft pop of gunpowder heralded the sight of fireworks bursting into vivid flame.
His answer was to rasp his stubble very lightly across her neck. The rush of light across the night sky seemed appropriate, somehow. Was there more to this than sex? Lucy was exceptional. And impatient, he concluded with amusement, as she moved restlessly in his arms. But she wasn’t done surprising him just yet. Turning to face him, she reached up and laced her fingers through his hair, bringing him down to kiss her, as a far more experienced woman might have done. Instantly hard when she rubbed her lush, warm body against his, he mapped her breasts appreciatively and was rewarded by her nipples turning pebble-hard against his palm.
‘Don’t tease me,’ she begged. ‘By the way,’ she added with one of her comic looks that only revealed how vulnerable she was feeling, ‘you don’t think I’m fat, do you?’
He smiled to reassure her, with what must surely be a perplexed expression on his face. ‘Fat? You’re perfect.’
She relaxed and smiled mischievously up at him. ‘Then...?’
‘Delay is the servant of pleasure.’
‘Don’t give me that,’ she warned him teasingly. ‘Give me you...’
‘Your wish is my command.’ Swinging her into his arms, he carried her into the bedroom. As he laid her down on crisply dressed sheets, it felt more like taking a lover of long standing to bed than a woman he’d just met. He had no explanation for this, other than to say being with Lucy felt right. Her freshness and inexperience had won him over, and introducing her to pleasure was the only thing on his mind.
‘Tadj...’
As she reached for him, he stared into eyes that had turned black, apart from a small rim of jade green around her pupils. ‘Soon,’ he promised, and, dipping down so he could kiss her, he smiled against her softly yielding mouth.
‘Now,’ she argued hotly, digging her fingers into him.
Lifting his head, he stared down with amusement. ‘You’ll regret it, if you rush.’
‘I’m prepared to risk it.’ Then her mind switched up a gear. ‘I’m tired of being steady and prudent,’ she admitted. ‘I want tonight to be different. You’re different. And I trust you—sort of,’ she added with a rueful smile.
‘That’s quite a responsibility you’ve given me,’ he said, grinning down.
Running her small hands appreciatively over his shoulders, she commented, ‘I think you can take it.’
Shrugging off his jacket, he dropped it on a chair. Lucy was already pulling at her dress. He helped her. In just a bra and thong, she was the Venus de Milo made flesh, unbelievably beautiful and lush—and wild with impatience. Yanking at the buttons on his shirt, she managed to pull a couple off. As they flew across the floor, he freed his sapphire cufflinks and put them safely out of reach. They didn’t lose eye contact for a second while all this was going on, and by the time he’d kicked off his shoes, she was working on his belt. Snapping it out of its loops, she gave a sound of triumph and fell back.
‘Hussy,’ he accused as she greedily sucked in air.
‘You bet,’ she said. ‘You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this.’
‘From the first moment you saw me in the café?’
She laughed. ‘Something like that.’
‘Still, savour the moment—make it last...’
‘Not a chance,’ she assured him.
He sucked in air between his teeth as she boldly brushed her hand over his body. Her hand was tiny and he was big. Lucy wasn’t the only one being seduced here.
‘You’re loving this,’ she gasped, her pupils huge and black with excitement. ‘The chase, I mean. Have I spoiled it for you, by becoming the aggressor?’
‘Not at all—and that might change soon,’ he warned.
She shrugged, but for a moment he thought she seemed uncertain. He loved sex, and did nothing to stop her as she explored him with exquisite skill. Sex had never been so much fun before, he thought as she slipped her hand into his boxers. It was just a hunger like anything else, to be satisfied on demand. With Lucy, sex had become an open-ended possibility. Her lack of experience was no deterrent to enthusiasm. When she stared into his eyes, there was fire in the depth of the black, as if she was claiming her mate.
‘Do you trust me?’ she demanded.
In the moment it took to answer, he hooked a thumb into the neck of his shirt, ready to pull it over his head.
‘Trust works both ways,’ she insisted, stilling as she stared at him, waiting for his answer.
‘Trust has to be earned,’ he countered as he tossed his shirt aside.
The most plausible liars could arrive in the most pleasing of packages, he had discovered in his youth. Lucy had gone some way to wipe out his recollection of an older woman who had found it all too easy to convince a gullible young prince, whose brain had been firmly lodged below his belt at the time, that fate intended them to be together. To help fate along, a loan from Tadj would really help her to build her business, she’d said. The jewels she’d plundered from the Emir’s palace were to form part of an important exhibition, she had explained in court, after walking out on him in the middle of the night. His heart had turned to stone when her duplicity had been uncovered, and he had focused his mind solely on Qalala, vowing never to be duped again. So yes, trust was an issue for him. It was as vital as the air he breathed, and he was always waiting to be disappointed. But he’d put all that aside for this one night.
‘When you surrender to pleasure there are no barriers left,’ he told Lucy as she undressed him.
‘And none required,’ she promised as her nimble fingers flew over his remaining clothes.
Placing her hands palms flat against Tadj’s chest, Lucy indicated that she would set the pace. He could have thrown her back and done anything he wanted, but that was what she meant by trust. One night to remember for all the right reasons, she thought, though her inner self warned that one night wouldn’t be nearly enough. It would have to be, she thought.
Beneath Tadj’s control, she sensed a fire raging. She had never felt like this...so excited and lustful, which was hardly surprising when he stood before her naked and magnificent, like a bronze cast by Michelangelo. Fear of sex with such a big man had quickly been replaced by a hunger to know him inside her. Tadj would put her needs first, of that she was sure. He was such a compelling presence, he had pushed all the horrors she’d witnessed at home behind her with no effort at all. If he hadn’t been the Emir of Qalala, and she no one in particular, she could easily have fallen in love with him.
‘My turn now,’ he said.
There’d be no argument there, she thought as he deftly removed her bra, maintaining eye contact while he did so.
‘Good?’ he murmured, surely knowing that everything he did was so much better than good.
Lucy couldn’t help her shiver of delight. Burying her face in Tadj’s hard, warm chest, she listened to the steady beat of his heart. It calmed her, and seemed to promise that whatever happened next, she would know pleasure as never before. Stretching out his length alongside her, he proved to be even bigger than she’d imagined. Against him, she was like a slender twig with breasts—breasts he seemed to admire—and she gasped with pleasure when he gave them his attention. She craved him, ached for him, and only one thing could ease that, but Tadj appeared to be in no hurry to relieve her frustration. Moving down the bed, he began by massaging her feet and kissing them. Sensation overload, she thought as the pleasure transferred to her core. Turning her, he dropped kisses on the back of her knees. More sensation...more gasping for sufficient breath—she’d had no idea she was so sensitive.
She was naked apart from her tiny lace thong, and shivering with arousal in his arms. Writhing against the sheets, she craved firmer contact and yearned for release. Tadj answered this with firm-handed strokes down the length of her back, as if he were taming a spirited pony. Shaking uncontrollably, she finally settled again, and had to wait to see what he’d do next.
‘You’re very sensitive,’ he commented, as if this pleased him.
She could do no more than hum contentedly, though she cried out with excitement when Tadj transferred his skill to her thighs. Almost without knowing she was doing so, she parted her legs in a blatant invitation for him to explore. She had never ached with need like this before, and was almost begging by the time he allowed his fingertips to brush against her. Grabbing a pillow, she clutched it to her chest as if that could imbue her with the strength to wait.
‘Turn onto your back,’ he instructed.
His tone aroused her beyond bearing, and she hurried to do as he said.
Scraping his stubble across the very sensitive skin at the nape of her neck, he made her cry out with need. If this was being instructed in the art of pleasure, she was the most willing student there could ever be.
Resting her legs over his shoulders, Tadj concentrated his attention on that area that had waited so patiently, while she moaned softly and rhythmically as he attended to her needs with his tongue.
‘Now,’ he prompted in a low, yet commanding tone, and, lifting his head, he watched her reaction as he replaced the touch of his tongue with his hand.
She couldn’t hold on—impossible. The thought that she was exposing herself, body and soul, flashed briefly across her mind, but carnal hunger had soon extinguished the last of her doubts, and she fell greedily, screaming repeatedly with pleasure as the most powerful release took her over.
‘Good,’ Tadj praised, soothing her with kisses as he slowly brought her down.
Good didn’t even begin to describe what she had experienced. Clinging to him, she silently begged for more...and not so silently, which made him laugh, just a low chuckle down deep in his chest, but it was the feeling of closeness she valued most of all. She couldn’t allow herself to believe that this must end. Tadj was so right for her in every way. There was only one thing wrong with that thought, which was that reality had to intrude at some point.
‘Beautiful,’ he whispered, pulling back.
She wasn’t beautiful, but he made her feel beautiful. Somehow, her hang-ups deserted her with Tadj. Which was strange when the contrast between them was so stark. He was beautiful. Built like a gladiator, swarthy and tanned, he was tough, yet careful with her, and exceptionally easy on the eye. No other man could compare, which almost certainly meant she’d never have another lover. Fate was a cruel mistress. Tadj was the Emir of Qalala and out of reach, but that couldn’t stop them enjoying each other’s bodies.
‘What’s amusing you now?’ he asked with one of his dark smiles.
‘Just one of my fantasies,’ she admitted.
‘Forget fantasies,’ he advised, moving over her. ‘Reality is much more fun. And don’t tense up when there’s no need.’
Was he joking? It would take both her hands to encompass him, and then only just.
‘I won’t hurt you,’ he promised. ‘Greedy must wait,’ he warned, teasing her with kisses as she thrashed her head about on the pillows.
‘But not for long,’ she argued fiercely.
Finding her needy place, he gave it his close attention, which brought her to the edge in moments. But just as she was about to tip over into pleasure, he withdrew his coaxing hand, leaving her panting and unsatisfied.
‘Part your legs wider,’ he commanded softly. ‘That’s better,’ he approved. ‘Now...’ Reaching for a pillow, he slipped it beneath her buttocks, raising her even higher for his attention. She was completely exposed, completely vulnerable, which allowed Tadj to stimulate the area all around her sensitive core, without allowing her the release she so badly needed.
‘I can’t hold on,’ she heard herself wail.
‘You must,’ Tadj insisted, ‘or I’ll stop.’
With a noisy gust of frustration, she raged, ‘But I can’t—I need it now!’
‘You need me to teach you the benefit of restraint,’ he argued softly.
‘Just a bit more,’ she begged in what she hoped was her most appealing voice.
‘And have you lose control?’ Tadj asked. He gave her one of his looks.
‘Why shouldn’t I lose control? Isn’t that what this is about?’
‘As I said, you have a lot to learn,’ he told her. ‘You will lose control, not once, but many times, if you listen to my instruction. Hold your legs open for me,’ he commanded.
He only had to brush his fingertips across that painfully sensitive place to send her screaming off the edge. Arcing her body towards him, she thrust mindlessly in a rhythmical pattern that was an age-old hunt for union with her mate.
Tadj coolly denied her his hand. ‘Wider,’ he insisted.
By this point she was glad to do anything he suggested. ‘More,’ she managed on a shaking breath.
He brought her to the edge again, easing into her fractionally. When he withdrew, the agony of frustration was indescribable. Reaching out, she clamped her hands around his buttocks.
‘Not yet,’ he warned.
‘I’m done with waiting,’ she said fiercely, and as she spoke she claimed him. Tadj could have held her off with ease, but a line had been crossed, and they both knew it, and with a growl of triumph he pressed her into the bed, and took over.
However much he wanted this, wanted Lucy, he was determined to go slowly, so she would remember this for all the right reasons. However eager she might be, he would hold back. His body cried out for immediate satisfaction, but he ruled it ruthlessly. Pinning Lucy’s hands above her head on the soft bank of pillows, he took her slowly and deeply, taking his time to make sure she savoured every moment of pleasure. His reward was that she lost control immediately, and as she bucked wildly beneath him he held her in position to ensure she explored what was possible.
Making love to Lucy was as natural as breathing. They each responded without the need for words, and grew closer, in amusement, in pleasure, in trust, in ways he’d never imagined possible with a woman, after knowing each other for so short a time. When she finally fell back exhausted, he smiled to think that the erotic hangings above the bed were tame by comparison with this.
‘Do you never tire?’ she asked when he stroked her into awareness again. Smiling into the pillows, she gave him an engaging sideways look. Curled up on the sheets like a contented pussycat, she made his stone heart long for the impossible, and so he took her again, turning his thoughts from complications to pleasure.
A long time later, he realised he was murmuring words in his own tongue to Lucy, and these were words he had never said to anyone. Whatever difficulties faced them, she was part of his life now. He had claimed her as she had claimed him, and, settling back with her safely nestled in his arms, he closed his eyes and they slept.
* * *
Dawn light woke Lucy when it streamed into the Golden Suite. Tadj lay sprawled across the bed. She had slept contentedly through the night in his embrace. He was so beautiful, she thought, staring down.
Hearing noises on deck, she was instantly alert. The consequence of being on board when the Sapphire left dock struck home forcefully, and, slipping out of bed without waking him, she went to peer out of the window. Her heart lurched as her worst fears were confirmed. The Sapphire was about to sail. Racing to drag on her clothes, she only knew that she had to get off before that happened, and there wasn’t a moment to lose. Last night had been a wonderful dream, but she had always known she would wake up at some point. They both had their lives to live, and she didn’t belong in this very different world. Tiptoeing back to the bed, she stared down wistfully, but some things could never be. Putting the past behind her had meant striving to move forward every day, and how could she do that if she stayed here? Wrenching her gaze away from the only man she could ever love, she left her heart with him, and hurried out of the room.
Tadj would move on when he tired of her, Lucy’s sensible self insisted as she bolted down the gangplank. Life would continue as normal for the Emir of Qalala when the Sapphire sailed, while Lucy didn’t have the luxury of taking time out.
Turning in response to the shouts of the sailors tossing ropes from shore to ship, she knew their strident voices were the death knell to the dreams she had so foolishly tucked away in her heart.
