Читать книгу Modern Romance July 2018 Books 1-4 Collection - Sharon Kendrick - Страница 22

CHAPTER NINE

‘SO,’ SAID KULAL, his voice unsteady. ‘Time to seduce my new wife. But first, I need to get you out of this infernal wedding dress.’

Hannah’s heart was hammering as the Sheikh turned her round to begin unhooking her decorative gown. It seemed to take him ages, but that might have had something to do with the fact that he kept brushing his mouth over each inch of newly exposed flesh, so that by the time he had laid her trembling and naked beneath the embroidered bedcover, all her nerves had dissolved beneath a feeling of mounting anticipation. Just enjoy this, she told herself fiercely as he pulled the ceremonial robes from his darkly muscular body and slid naked into bed beside her. Because this is your wedding night and it will lay the foundations of your whole life together.

‘I’ve never had sex with a pregnant woman before,’ he murmured as he grazed his mouth over hers.

Brushing the back of her hand across her forehead, Hannah mimed relief. ‘Thank goodness for that.’

He paused, lifting his head away from hers so that their gazes collided. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, Hannah.’

‘I’m tough,’ she said truthfully, though she was talking physically, not emotionally. Because when he looked at her in that seeking way, she felt almost boneless with a deep longing which was alien to her. But surely she was permitted to experience it on her wedding night... Surely just this once she could hint at all the passion lying deep inside her, waiting to be unlocked. ‘Just hold me, Kulal.’ Her voice trembled a little. ‘Touch me.’

His features hardened as he stared at her and she wondered if she’d sounded needy. But suddenly, his mouth was on hers and he was kissing her with a hunger which seemed to echo her own and she felt a great whoosh of excitement flooding through her. And although Hannah wasn’t—in Kulal’s own words—very experienced, somehow that didn’t seem to matter. Not to her and not to him. Not now, when she was his wife. When she was at liberty to touch him without inhibition. And why be shy when his baby was in her belly? Wasn’t their flesh combined in more than one way?

‘Oh,’ she said breathlessly as he began to drift his fingertips over her skin.

‘Your breasts are magnificent,’ he said throatily.

‘You don’t think they’re too...big?’

He gave a strangled kind of laugh. ‘What kind of a question is that?’

Now wasn’t the time to admit that the fashion magazines which Tamsyn had always passed on to her to read had always made Hannah feel like an over-curvy freak. Not when he was bending his head to suck hotly on each aroused nipple. She shivered as his fingertips skated over the curve of her belly, lingering there for just a moment. She waited for him to say something about the baby, but he didn’t and she told herself it was stupid to feel disappointed. To think that if this were a normal honeymoon, then he might have mentioned the unborn life within her.

But why think about the things he wasn’t saying when his seeking fingers were delving in between her parted thighs and beginning to stroke her. He was tantalising her as he rubbed his fingers against her slick, wet heat until she moved restlessly—her hunger beginning to mount.

She knew she couldn’t just lie there passively. During her solitary nights last week on the other side of the palace, she’d furtively read a book on sexual satisfaction within marriage, which she planned to put to good use. But when she summoned up the courage to slide her palm over the enormous erection which was nudging hard against her belly, Kulal dragged his mouth away from hers and gave a decisive shake of his head, before moving her hand away.

‘No,’ he said sternly.

‘Why not?’

‘Because I’m too close to coming and I want to do that when I’m inside you.’ His voice was almost gentle as she sank her hot face into the sanctuary of his neck. ‘And I don’t really think that now is the time for blushes, Hannah. Do you?’

She remembered that once he’d told her he liked her blushes, but that had been way back when—when he’d thought she would be in and out of his life in a few short hours. If he had been able to look into the future—if he’d known that their single night in Sardinia would have ended with her as his new Queen in this amazing golden palace—would he still have gone ahead and had sex with her?

Of course he wouldn’t.

Would she?

But the crazy thing was that Hannah couldn’t find herself regretting that night—and not just because Kulal had introduced her to a physical pleasure she was discovering hadn’t been a one-off. It was more than that. Because already she felt a fierce love for the new life growing inside her—so how could she possibly have regrets?

‘Hannah,’ he said sternly, as if he’d guessed she was miles away. ‘Pay attention.’

With a shy smile, she opened her mouth to his and that was when sensation took over, obliterating all thought and replacing it with feeling. She swallowed as his moist tip nudged against her and gasped as he eased himself inside her molten heat.

‘No protection,’ he exclaimed as he stilled inside her and gave an exultant sigh. ‘Just you and me, with nothing in between us.’

She knew his words were supposed to be erotic, but Hannah felt deeply emotional as he filled her with his hard length and began to move. She’d wondered if making love while she was pregnant would feel any different, but the blissful truth was that it felt amazing. Maybe even better than that blissful night in Sardinia. It certainly felt more intimate. Almost too intimate. She clung to him as his thrusts deepened and she felt the tantalising build of orgasm, but she was so intent on kissing him that it seemed to creep up on her by stealth, so that when pleasure came, she cried out his name in a way she hadn’t planned, the gasped word echoing around the vast bedchamber so that it sounded like some sort of prayer. Was she imagining the sudden tension in his body before his movements resumed and he shuddered out his own release?

Afterwards, she waited for him to say something, because she had no idea about post-sex protocol, especially between a man and a woman who’d been forced to marry. Did they act as if today had been no big deal? Did she try to explain that the curiously vulnerable way she’d called out his name hadn’t actually meant anything? She waited for some sort of reassuring hug, but instead he rolled away from her, his hot black gaze briefly roving over her rounded curves, before lying on his back, his breathing still ragged.

‘So...’ She cleared her throat. ‘All in all, I thought today went off quite well, didn’t you?’

He could hear the faltering delivery of her words and a battery of responses ran through Kulal’s mind, but he took his time before selecting one. Should he tell her he’d felt nothing but duty as he had exchanged those meaningless vows? Yet the truth was that he’d been almost comfortable with that, because he was familiar with detachment and he enjoyed the barrier it created between him and the rest of the world. That part had all gone according to plan and afterwards, at the reception, he had acknowledged the congratulations offered by the Sheikhs and Sultans of adjoining regions, knowing that his royal line would be continued. Again, so far, so expected.

But when he had brought his new wife to bed...

He swallowed.

When he had stripped away her constricting bridal gown to reveal the cushioned flesh which had burgeoned so much since last time he’d seen it and which had welcomed him so eagerly, he hadn’t felt quite so detached then, had he? He told himself it was because he’d never had unprotected sex with a woman before and that was the reason why it had felt so...

He stared at the dappled rose light which flickered across the ceiling.

So what?

As if he’d never been that close to a woman before—which in one sense was true, because he’d never had sex without the obligatory thin layer of latex. Was that the reason why he had felt so alive and so vital? Why his heart was still pounding fit to burst in his chest? It had been the most incredible sexual experience of his life, yet he couldn’t deny that his response had the potential to add complications to his life. Especially if Hannah got the wrong idea. He didn’t want his new bride to think his rapturous reaction meant anything more than an amazing orgasm.

Because that was all it had been.

All it ever could be.

Kulal stifled a sigh. Once he had found out about her pregnancy, he’d been determined to keep his baby and known it would make more sense if Hannah was around, too. It would certainly make it easier. But while he was prepared to be reasonable to get her to stay, he would not lie to her. Because lies could seep into people’s lives like poison. They could darken everything they touched. And the first lie was always the most dangerous. The gentle tap which would send the whole line of dominoes tumbling down...

‘Not as bad as I expected,’ he said, turning his head to look at her. ‘I think it served its purpose, don’t you?’

‘Oh.’

Her voice sounded muffled and he didn’t have to see her face crumple to sense her disappointment. That much was evident from the sudden slump of her shoulders and the way she’d started chewing her lip. Was she secretly longing for him to adorn the day with romantic embellishments which didn’t exist? Or was she trying to guilt-trip him—even though she’d known the score from the very start?

‘What did you want me to say, Hannah?’ he demanded. ‘That it was the most wonderful day of my life?’

‘No, of course not.’

He saw the confusion which had clouded her eyes and fury at being hit by another wave of guilt prompted his next words. ‘To go through a marriage I didn’t particularly want—you think that gives me pleasure?’

His words were harsh but honest, and he thought she might turn away from him. To lie there trembling with silent resentment. And wasn’t that what he wanted her to do? To draw a line in the sand between them that she would never dare cross again. But she just kept staring at him, those aquamarine eyes so wide and dark in the rosy tint of the lamplight, as if she was summoning up the courage to say something he wouldn’t want to hear.

She cleared her throat. ‘So are you against marriage generally?’

Kulal’s mouth hardened. Too right he didn’t want to hear it—the question he’d been asked a million times, usually by women on the make. One he always slapped down as coldly and as finally as possible. But Hannah was not one of those women; she was his wife. She had succeeded where so many had failed and he couldn’t slap her down, not completely.

‘A man in my position is always expected to marry,’ he said. ‘But I saw no urgency to do so. For someone who doesn’t believe in love, it was always going to be an academic exercise of settling down to produce a family at the optimum time.’

‘And what would you consider to be the optimum time?’ she echoed cautiously.

‘Never?’ he questioned sarcastically.

‘Kulal, I’m serious.’

He shrugged. ‘In perhaps a decade and a half, when I had reached fifty years and sown every last wild oat.’

‘So this early and unwanted marriage has prevented you from having hundreds of different relationships? All those wild oats which will remain unsown.’

‘I am not totally indiscriminate, Hannah,’ he said gravely.

‘But all that...all that unexplored opportunity,’ she breathed. ‘Won’t it make you resentful?’

Kulal frowned, feeling momentarily wrong-footed. Surely she was the one who was supposed to be feeling resentful—not turning it around so that she was coolly interrogating him. ‘I have no intention of straying, if that’s what you’re getting at. Infidelity is something I am vehemently opposed to—despite many of my royal peers feeling it their right to keep a mistress.’

He saw the surprise on her face as she brushed a heavy swathe of hair away from her forehead and blinked at him.

‘I have the feeling I shouldn’t be grateful just because you’ve told me you won’t break our wedding vows, but the fact is that I am,’ she said. ‘And a little curious, too.’

Her instinctive intelligence was enough to make him prolong the conversation, even though he sensed he was venturing onto precarious territory. ‘About what in particular?’ he questioned.

‘Well, you’ve told me you don’t want love.’

‘I don’t.’

The rumpled white sheet barely covered the creamy swell of her breasts and her eyes suddenly seemed very bright. ‘So why would you care about breaking your wedding vows, if another woman should suddenly take your fancy?’

He was on the verge of telling her that she looked so entrancing at that moment, that he couldn’t imagine another woman holding a flame to her.

Until he remembered.

He tried not to remember, but sometimes it came out of nowhere and hit you like a vicious blow. He felt the pain course through him like a black tide and his body tensed. ‘If you had grown up with parents like mine,’ he said, a trace of savage bitterness creeping into his voice, ‘you would understand.’

There was a pause before she spoke. ‘But how can I understand if you won’t tell me, Kulal?’ she whispered. ‘And if I understood, then maybe I could help you. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I grew up in a dysfunctional foster home which wasn’t in any way loving, so I don’t think anything you can tell me would shock me.’

He could see the eagerness on her face—a desire to help, which tugged at something deep inside him, but successfully he pushed the feeling away. Did she think it was that simple? That telling her would free him from the demons which had lived in his heart for so long? From his secret torture and sense of powerlessness? He felt a new resolve creep through his veins, for he would not give her that power. He would not give it to anyone. Hadn’t he promised his brother that?

‘And besides—’ her voice had softened hopefully as she fixed him with that same wide-eyed stare ‘—we’re married now. Aren’t we supposed to share those kinds of things?’

There was a split-second pause before Kulal was galvanised into action. ‘No, we’re not,’ he grated as he pushed the sheets from his naked body. ‘I don’t want that kind of marriage. I told you that from the start. Weren’t you listening, Hannah? Or did you think you could change my mind just as soon as my ring was on your finger? Did you believe, as so many women mistakenly do, that it was just a matter of time and proximity before you could get me to backtrack on my words? In which case, I fear you may be a little premature, as well as misguided.’ His voice hardened even more. ‘In my culture, we don’t spill out our innermost thoughts and feelings, as if life was just one long therapy session!’

‘I didn’t mean to pry,’ she said, in a small voice. ‘I was just trying to...help.’

‘Well, don’t because it’s a waste of time—yours and mine. The past is none of your business, Hannah. You’d better accept that now or this isn’t going to work. I will give you my fidelity and my support for our child. And I am prepared to make this marriage work within the framework we’ve laid out.’

‘You’ve laid out, you mean.’

He shrugged. ‘I’m the King. Sorry, but that’s the way it works around here. I am not an unreasonable man and anything you require will be yours, within reason. But please don’t ever ask me that again.’

There was a silence as she studied him, like someone hoping for a sudden miraculous change of heart, and Kulal saw the exact moment when resignation entered her eyes. When she realised that he meant every word he said.

‘And that’s the end of the discussion, is it?’ she questioned flatly.

He nodded as he slid from the bed. ‘Yes. And now I think it’s time you got some sleep.’

‘But...’ She sat up and the white sheet fell to her waist, showing the luscious thrust of her breasts. ‘Where are you going?’

He saw the alarm in her eyes, but years of practice meant he was able to steel his heart against it, even though he wasn’t managing to remain quite so indifferent to the sight of her rose-pink nipples. Did she really think he was going to lie there night after night, while she fired her questions at him, shattering those sleepy moments of post-coital intimacy and ruining them? Should he tell her the reasons why he didn’t want love and why he never would?

No.

Not on their wedding night. His mouth hardened. Perhaps not ever.

‘I’m going to sleep next door. It’s better that way.’

‘Better?’

‘Once again, I will draw your attention to royal protocol,’ he said softly. ‘It is quite normal for the Sheikh and his Sheikha to sleep separately—a pattern which was set many centuries ago. We can still be intimate.’ He reached for his discarded robe. ‘But you need your rest, Hannah. And I’m going to make sure you get it.’