Читать книгу Pregnant by the Sheikh - Olivia Gates - Страница 9

Three

“An heir.”

Jen heard her voice as if coming from someone else. Reaching her ears from the end of a vortex of incomprehension.

The hypnosis in Numair’s gaze only intensified, as if he was compelling her to say what he wanted her to say.

Good luck with that. It was a miracle she’d been able to produce sound at all, to parrot him. After the agitated excitement of meeting him, the soaring hope that he’d restore her freedom, the release of all tension when she’d made sure he would, it hadn’t shocked her when he’d said that he had a price. What had flabbergasted her was the price itself. She couldn’t even process it.

He couldn’t have really said... “An heir?”

At her croaking question, without any change in his expression, he inclined his head. “Yes. An heir you’ll give me.”

Ya Ullah, he’d said it again. And this time he left no doubt who would provide him with said heir.

The expansive room started spinning, and the sick sensations that earlier had her in their grip crashed back on her. She pressed her head into the headrest, as if to stop the churning. “You’re not joking.”

“I’ve never been more serious.”

Feeling as if she’d fallen into a trap, nausea almost blinded her. “Why are you doing this?”

In response, he covered the space between them. Before she could think of scooting away, she found herself half draped over his great body, stunned by his sheer strength.

“Doing what?” His whisper fanned her face, and the fragrant, virile scent of his breath and flesh only made the room spin harder. She tried to fidget out of his embrace, but he had her head cradled in the nook of his arm, supported by his muscle-laden shoulder, and her face tilted to look up at him. “Being truthful about what I want? I thought you appreciated total honesty.”

“When did you decide you wanted it?” she whispered. “You can’t have come up with it when I asked you to help me.” She tried to shake her head and only felt the world spin again. He secured her tighter and her queasiness quieted. She moaned, in relief this time. “I thought you would have a price, but I never thought it could be something like that.”

“What did you think it would be? Yourself?”

Now that he’d said it out loud, it felt presumptuous for the idea to have crossed her mind. But given his apparent interest in her, it had been the only thing she could think of.

She’d thought the most he’d want would be a short affair, maybe only while he passed through New York this time. But she wouldn’t have considered that a price. It would have been a reward to be with the first and only man she’d wanted breathlessly on sight. In any other circumstances, she would have given anything to be with him, no matter how fleetingly. To have both him and her freedom would have been the most incredible opportunity of her life.

But it was clear she’d read the situation all wrong. No, she couldn’t read it at all.

This was totally incomprehensible.

A gentle finger below her chin tilted her face up to him, his brooding gaze capturing her wandering eyes. “I never bargain for sexual favors, and I certainly would never take advantage of a woman’s need in any other way.”

Now that he put it that way, she again felt silly for thinking what she had. This was a man who must have his pick of the rare beauties and celebrities of the world, and there was no way he’d ever paid for his pleasures. She couldn’t see a woman alive who wouldn’t react to him like she had, wouldn’t want him at any cost.

He went on. “I also never stomached passing liaisons, but I never had any desire for anything more. My life revolved around work and amassing wealth and power. Those were everything I wanted for as long as I can remember. Then recently, everything changed.”

Curiosity, and something poignant and more powerful—empathy—dragged her out of her confused dismay.

Had he suffered some recent life-changing crisis that made him take stock of his life, forced him to reassess his lifestyle?

She realized he was waiting for her to ask before he elaborated. So she forced her constricted throat to release the question. “What happened?”

“I hit forty, and it made me feel I need to rearrange my priorities and adjust my path. It never bothered me before that I have no family, and no one to leave my fortune and legacy to. Now it does.”

She gaped at him. This was again the last thing she’d expected he’d say. She’d expected a reason as unique and earth-shattering as he was. He was the last person on earth she would have believed could have a midlife crisis.

Maybe she’d read him wrong all along. Just like she’d been way off the mark in assessing what he’d want in return for helping her. But she still could think of no reason that he’d want an heir from her, of all women.

She put her bewilderment into words. “So you decided to join the human race after a lifetime of just dominating it. But now you feel the urge to perpetuate your genes. If you make your desire known, women would form lines spanning the globe for a chance to be the one to give you your heir.”

“I am making my desire known. To the only woman I ever considered for the role.”

Her confusion deepened. “Why would you consider me at all, let alone have me on a short list of one?”

“To borrow your earlier words, you’re kidding, right?”

“To borrow yours, I’ve never been more serious.”

He caught her chin between those powerful, roughened fingers. “How can you be? You’re here with me—” he gathered her tighter against his incredible heat and hardness, making her senses whirl harder, her every muscle liquefy even more “—in my arms, within an hour of meeting. You would have been there within minutes had we been in different circumstances. The attraction between us combusted the moment I stepped into that ballroom, and it’s been raging higher ever since.”

She still couldn’t believe she affected him as intensely as he did her. Even if she did, that wasn’t an acceptable explanation. “I can understand this would make you want me in your bed—”

He interrupted her. “And you would have considered that a fair price in return for my services?”

“Your services would have been circumstantial, since I would have come to your bed anyway, if you wanted me there.”

At her admission, his eyes simmered with a triumphant glow. Which was weird, really. Didn’t he already know any woman would throw herself at his feet, if only he would let her?

But it was clear her words didn’t only please him, they stoked his lust. The heat emanating from him rose, igniting her own higher, and the hardness below her became a steel shaft of discomfort digging into her thigh. Her core throbbed with an empty ache she’d only ever felt since he’d touched her.

She wanted to wind herself around him, to tell him to forget everything—her need for his services and his for an heir—and act on the need burning them up.

Instead, she said, “As I was saying, even if you wanted me on sight, that still doesn’t translate to considering me for the role of mother of your heir. From my vast experience with the obscenely rich and powerful, sexual desire is not even among the prerequisites in choosing who to procreate with. I’m sure a man like you has strict criteria for said role, and countless other women who’re better candidates for it than me.”

“I may be obscenely rich and powerful, but I already told you I care nothing about anyone’s rules. I make and follow my own.” Sensual appreciation weighed down his lids, filled his lips as his hand painted her from shoulders to buttocks in luxurious caresses. “But I do have extremely strict criteria in the mother of my heir. That’s why only you will do.”

“Why? Do I somehow fulfill more criteria than others?”

“You fulfill every single one, and others I didn’t even have till I met you.” He cupped her cheek hungrily, his gaze devouring her. “I want my heir to be born of the perfect woman.”

This made her snort. “Boy, are you barking up the wrong woman. I’m so far from perfect I’m in another galaxy.”

His fingers sank into her hair, gave a pleasurable tug at her nape. “You are perfect to me. Just like I, with all of my glaring flaws, am perfect to you.”

Her snort was more indelicate this time. “What glaring flaws? You are perfect, and would be so in anyone’s eyes.”

“Would I? That’s news to me, since both allies and foes consider me a monster.” Before she could object, he pressed on. “From what you know of the business world, you must know what it took to rise to my current status and to maintain it. You know I must be ruthless and remorseless, and that I don’t give a damn what the world thinks of me, and that nothing is beyond me. From our interactions so far, you must realize I’m dangerous, even deadly, and I can destroy anyone I decide deserves it, even kill them, without turning a hair.”

She stared at him. He’d put everything she’d felt about him in her bones into words. Everything that made him even more perfect to her.

She nodded slowly. “Instinctively, and logically, I know you’re all that.”

His lips spread in satisfaction. “All that makes me the opposite of perfect to everyone. Except for my partners, I’m someone to dread, or at most to appease, either in the hope of winning my favor or avoiding my danger. As for the women who pursue me, most risk it for the lure of said obscene power and wealth, and a few for the misguided fantasy of attempting to tame the most dangerous predator there is. But all fear me, and none trust me.” His arms squeezed her tighter into his containment, his eyes growing more possessive. “You’re the only one to ever see me for what I am, scales and claws and fangs and all, and instead of putting you off, everything about me is exactly what appeals to you. As you say in your region, I’m the one to yemla ainek—the one to ‘fill your eye.’”

It was as if he was reading her mind. More, her deepest, most private beliefs and yearnings.

Again she nodded, not even thinking of contesting his verdict. “I left naiveté and idealism behind when I was seven, grew up in the cutthroat worlds of highest-level politics and business. I’ve long since learned that the best men need to have a lot of monster in them to be merciless enough to make the painful decisions, cunning enough to beat evil at its game, strong enough to enforce harsh changes for the better and resilient enough to be the one left standing after a war and doing as much good as possible in this crazy world.”

His eyes darkened with her every word, until those fathomless black pupils engulfed the glowing emerald. She felt as if she was watching a panther in the seconds before he pounced. And she couldn’t wait for him to. Even when she knew she might not survive his ferocity.

Then he did. Growling deep in his gut like his namesake, he brought her fully over him, making her feel she was no more than a twenty-pound baby. It should have been terrifying to realize just how much stronger than her he was. But his roughness was infused with such care, it only sent all her senses soaring.

She tumbled over him, the skirt of her dress riding up as he splayed her thighs wide, had her straddling him. The moment she felt him fully against her, between her legs, she almost fainted with the spike of arousal. Then his lips opened over her neck, and she did swoon. Her head fell back, giving him fuller access, surrendering to his pleasuring.

She needed this, needed him, come what may.

“You feel and taste even better than I imagined. Jenan...”

She jerked as if at the sting of a lash when he said her name. She’d never liked her full name. Now it inflamed her to hear it on his lips, in that voracious growl. But he was sending her out of her mind with everything he did. The way he moved against her, breathed her in, touched and kneaded and suckled her... It was all too much.

And too little. She needed more. Everything. His mouth and hands all over her, his potency inside her.

“Numair...”

At hearing her moaning his name, the same desperation she felt reverberating inside her seemed to emanate from his body in shock waves. Then he swept her around and brought her under him on the couch, then bore down on her.

The world disappeared again, nothing remaining in her awareness but his greed and urgency and lust dominating her.

Spreading her thighs around his hips, he pressed between them, his hardness grinding against her entrance through their clothes. Her back arched deeply to accommodate him, a cry tearing from her very recesses at the feel of him, the sight of him above her.

“Jenan.” His growl sounded pained as he surveyed her for one last second. Then his lips claimed hers, branding them. She opened wide to his invasion, and his tongue thrust deep, singeing her with pleasure, breaching her with need, draining her of reason.

Pressure built—behind her eyes, inside her chest, deep in her loins. Her hands convulsed on his arms, digging into his muscles, everything inside her surging, gushing, needing anything and everything he’d do to her. His fingers and tongue and teeth exploiting her every secret, his manhood filling that distressing void he’d created inside her...

Something buzzed against her thigh, made her lurch beneath him. After moments it stopped. Then it started again until it finally made him stiffen above her. Then he was cursing viciously as he rose off her.

The moment she lost his anchoring, she whimpered. His tempestuous glance told her he was feeling exactly the same. Wild with hunger and frustration.

He whipped out his phone in barely controlled fury. He only bit off a few phrases before ending the call. She vaguely understood it was one of his Black Castle partners. It figured only one of them would warrant Numair interrupting their first kiss.

As she finished the thought, she found herself snickering. First kiss indeed. First ravishing more like.

Numair’s grimace filled with mock reproach and a too-real self-deprecation as he surveyed her still boneless condition. “I’m glad one of us is not in agony, and can still laugh.”

“I’m not laughing... I’m snickering.”

His huff sounded genuinely amused, not to mention surprised. “Thanks for the correction. Care to share the source of your merriment? I can use something to take my mind off the urge to hunt Antonio down for interrupting us. Or to pounce back on you and finish what I started.”

Before she blurted out for him to just do the latter, she remembered they’d been in the middle of a game-changing conversation. And they hadn’t reached a resolution yet. There might not be even one to reach.

Dismay finally made her pull herself up from her flagrant surrender. Numair remained towering over her as she sat up, like some all-powerful genie from a fable. The searing sensuality of his scowl made it almost impossible for her not to pull him back over her. Only the “heir” thing stopped her.