Demanding His Desert Queen Read online

  Safiyah told herself she shouldn’t want this. Shouldn’t want him. Not the dark coffee taste of him, not his sea and sandalwood scent, not that honed body. And especially not the tight, spiralling feeling low inside as he pressed against her, his erection a blatant male demand.

  Yet there was no escape. Because already her fingers clenched into the soft cotton at his shoulders, digging into taut muscle so she felt the bone beneath. Safiyah tried to make herself let go, but her body acted on instincts that had nothing to do with self-preservation.

  Karim murmured something against her lips that might have been her name. She couldn’t hear it, just felt it as a vibration in her mouth. Then he kissed her harder, and she clung to him as everything spun away in an explosion of sensual delight.

  When she could think again it was to find his hand sliding under her shirt to close over her breast. Her knees wobbled as, instead of a hard, crushing hold, she felt his touch gentle. Her breath hissed out as one finger traced narrowing circles around her silk-covered breast till he reached a nipple pouting with need.

  Safiyah trembled at the pleasure of Karim’s touch. Even the way he moulded her breast in his hand seemed designed to please her as much as him. The rush of moist heat between her legs surprised her. How could she feel like this when she didn’t want him?

  But you do, Safiyah. You’ve wanted him for weeks. For years.

  It was the knowledge she’d tried to avoid. But denial was impossible as she shook in his arms. Only the support of his embrace held her upright.

  As if reading her thoughts Karim broke the kiss, in the same movement scooping her up into his arms. There was something shocking about being held that way, reliant totally on him, curled against that broad, powerful chest as he strode towards the inky shadows beneath the cliffs.

  Her eyes widened as she realised the most shocking part was how much she revelled in it. How the coiling twist of heat between her legs grew to a pulsing, urgent throb.

  Safiyah caught a glimpse of their horses grazing at the edge of the beach. Then the world tilted as Karim lowered her to cool sand. He knelt above her, the star-quilted sky behind his head, his shadowed face unreadable.

  For a second the idea infiltrated that she should stop this. She’d come here to get away from Karim. But only for a second. This...whatever this was...was unstoppable, like the surge of the tide or the rise of the moon.

  Karim’s knees were astride her thighs, his heat warming her through her trousers as deft fingers worked the buttons of her shirt undone. Safiyah reached for his shirt, flicking those buttons free with an ease borne of urgency. She was working her way down when he pulled her shirt wide and sank back, imprisoning her legs with his weight.

  His eyes glinted like starlight, and he had the stark look of a man about to lose control, his flesh pulled tight over bone.

  In one quick, ripping movement he tore his shirt free of his trousers and shrugged it off, leaving her in possession of a view that blew her mind.

  She’d felt the solid muscle beneath his shirt, seen the way his wide shoulders and broad chest tapered down towards a narrow waist. But the naked reality stunned her.

  Safiyah’s throat dried. Karim was built like an ancient sculpture of idealised male athleticism. Dark skin and a dusting of even darker hair covered a muscled torso that drew her like iron to a magnet. Her hands lifted, pale against his bronzed flesh, to settle, fingers splayed, across satiny heat. Intrigued, she let them rove higher, over pectorals weighted with muscle and fuzz that tickled her palm.

  Karim’s ribs expanded into her palms as he snatched in air. In the soft darkness all she could hear was ragged breathing and the pulse of her blood, louder even than the shush of the waves.

  Safiyah let her hands slide down across all that searing heat. She reached his belt, her knuckles grazing his flat belly and the tiny line of hair that disappeared into his trousers. Muscles tautened at the brush of her fingers, the tiny movement incredibly erotic.

  ‘You want me.’

  It wasn’t a question. How could it be when he could read the need in her touch, in her quickened breathing, in the way she ate him up with her gaze? Yet she felt compelled to reply as he waited for the admission.

  He’d challenged her to admit what she’d tried to hide, even from herself.

  She swallowed, feeling that, despite their wedding vows last week, this was the real moment of truth between them. The moment of consent. With no witnesses but the vast sea and impervious stars. Where even in the shadows she could no longer hide.

  ‘I want you, Karim.’ She watched the quick rise of his chest on another mighty breath as if her words brought relief from pent-up pain. ‘And you want me, don’t you?’

  His teeth gleamed in a smile that looked more like an expression of pain than pleasure.

  ‘Of course.’

  He took her hand and dragged it low, pressing it to his trousers. Her hand firmed on his erection and his eyelids lowered, his breath hissing as he pushed forward into her palm, his hand still cupping hers around him.

  Heat suffused Safiyah. The sight of Karim half naked, questing after her touch with his head arched back in pleasure, was the most arousing thing she’d ever seen. The pulse between her legs quickened and she squirmed against his solid thighs. The sensations were simultaneously delicious and terrible. She’d wanted him for so long, even as she’d told herself she didn’t.

  The depth of her desire frightened her with its unfamiliarity. And that gave her the strength to drag her hand away.

  Karim made as if to grab her hand, then stopped.

  ‘You didn’t come to me.’ Her voice was a harsh rasp of fury and hurt as she struggled for breath. ‘Ten. Whole. Days. You ignored me.’

  How could she be sure he wasn’t still playing some cruel game? Making her want, despite her better judgement?

  Karim shook his head like a swimmer surfacing, trying to clear water from his eyes. ‘You hold that against me?’

  Suddenly Safiyah knew this was a bad idea. She lay half naked with a man who’d toyed with her before. Yet here she was, baring if not her soul her desires.

  She tried to shift him, but those strong horseman’s thighs held her in place.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  Karim’s apology froze her in place. Or maybe it was the way he trailed his index finger from her navel over her ribs till he reached her bra. Her nipples pebbled and she couldn’t prevent the arch of her back, thrusting her breasts higher. He pressed his thumbs against her nipples and Safiyah gasped as pleasure shot straight to her core.

  ‘I wanted to be with you,’ he murmured, his voice low as he bent over her, his breath hot on the bare upper slopes of her breasts. ‘But I couldn’t. There was too much work to ensure key people were loyal to me, not Shakroun.’

  He squeezed her breasts through the lacy bra and everything inside her turned molten.

  ‘I worked day and night to make sure he couldn’t mount a challenge.’

  His words blurred under the force of her restless hunger but still he spoke.

  ‘To ensure you and Tarek were safe.’

  A mighty tremor racked Safiyah from head to toe. Whether from the idea of Karim—of anyone—putting her and her son first, or from the erotic intensity of his touch, she didn’t know. But her indignation bled out like water through sand.

  Karim reached behind her. Then her bra was undone and he pushed it high. She felt his thighs tighten around her hips. He bent, one hand closing around her bare breast while his mouth locked onto the other. No feather-light caress this time. Karim drew her nipple hard into his mouth and fire shot from her breast to her womb, spilling liquid sparks in a torrent through her blood. His hand kneaded her other breast and she bucked against his constraining legs, trying to shuffle her own legs wider.

  Safiyah had never known such urgency, such need. Doubt was forgotten as
her fingers dug like talons into his hips. She wanted him to move so she could spread her legs, wanted him to stay where he was and ease the hollow feeling inside her.

  He moved, lifting his head and his hand from her body, and Safiyah bit back a cry of loss. Everything in her throbbed, aching for more. She’d felt a weak shadow of something like this in the past, but never so intense.

  She was still absorbing that when Karim tugged her boots and socks off, tossing them aside. Then his hands were on the zip of her trousers, wrenching it undone and hauling the fabric down.

  Safiyah lifted her hips, helping him drag her trousers and underwear down over her thighs, past her knees, then off. Cool air brushed her skin as she wrestled off her shirt and bra.

  But when she’d finished, eager to help Karim undress, he hadn’t started. Instead he knelt above her, his gaze like hot treacle, sliding over her bare body.

  ‘You’re beautiful.’ His voice was hoarse, his hands possessive as they skimmed her trembling flesh.

  Safiyah caught his wrists, holding them still as she met his eyes. ‘You’re slow. Take your clothes off.’

  Never had she spoken so. Never had she made sexual demands. But something had altered within her.

  Maybe it was that uninhibited race down the beach, unleashing a woman more elemental, less cautious than the one she’d learned to be. Maybe it was the fact that with Karim, for this moment at least, she felt able to admit to desire rather than just submit to another’s wishes.

  She felt strong as never before, even while his stance, as he loomed over her, was a reminder of his greater physical strength.

  Karim laughed, the sound ripe and rich. Then he shifted off her. But instead of stripping his trousers off he moved lower, his hands spreading her bare legs. ‘I like a woman who knows her mind.’

  Then, before her stunned eyes, he sank onto the sand, his hands on her upper thighs, his dark head between her legs.

  Safiyah felt a slow, slick caress that trailed fire. And then another caress, in a way no one had ever touched her before, and she shuddered, a deep groan lifting up from the base of her ribs to lock in her throat.

  She shook all over, torn between shocked rejection and utter delight. Her hands locked in that dark hair, clawed at his scalp. She was going to push him away, because what he was doing made her feel undone in a way she’d never known. It scared her and aroused her and demanded too much of her.

  She was about to—

  The third caress—slower, harder, more deliberate—turned into something new. Safiyah opened her mouth to demand he stop when something slammed into her and she lost her voice, herself, lost everything in a searing, sparking, exquisitely perfect moment of rapture.

  Not a moment but an eternity. It went on and on, rolling through her taut, trembling, burning body. It went beyond acute delight to a soul-deep conflagration that catapulted her into the stars.

  * * *

  Karim gathered her close in his arms as she shuddered and gasped and clung. He’d expected passion, known there’d be pleasure, but this...

  He stopped trying to catalogue why this was different and merely held her. Finally Safiyah softened in his embrace and turned into him, nuzzling at his collarbone.

  He was smiling in anticipation of entering that satisfaction-softened body when he registered wetness on his skin. He pulled back just enough to look down at her face. She watched him with stunned eyes. Silvery streaks tracked her cheeks.

  He frowned. ‘Safiyah? You’re crying.’ He’d had the occasional emotional lover, but the sight of Safiyah weeping unknotted something in his belly.

  ‘Am I?’ She raised a hand and wiped her cheeks. ‘I’m sorry. I just never—’ She bit her bottom lip, as if to stop the words tumbling out.

  ‘You never what?’

  He waited, but her gaze slid away. He fancied he saw a blush rise in her cheeks, except surely in this light that was impossible. As was the notion her words had planted in his brain. It couldn’t be. Could it...?

  ‘Are you saying you’ve never had an orgasm?’

  His voice rose in disbelief and he saw her face shutter. As if he’d accused her of something bad. It confounded him.

  ‘Safiyah, talk to me.’

  Five minutes ago it hadn’t been conversation he’d wanted. As it was, his groin felt so hard he feared one wrong move might make him spill before he even got his trousers off. Yet he needed answers.

  ‘It’s nothing.’

  Her mouth curved up in a smile that didn’t fit.

  Quickly she reached for his belt, starting to unbuckle it. ‘I know what you want.’

  Yet she didn’t sound eager any more. She sounded...dutiful.

  Incredibly, Karim felt his hand close on hers, stopping her when she would have pulled the belt undone. She was shaking, fine tremors rippling beneath the skin. The aftermath of her climax or something else?

  ‘What I want is an answer.’

  His voice emerged harsh. He felt her flinch and guilt eddied. Curiosity, too, about her relationship with Abbas. For years he hadn’t let himself dwell on that. Now he was consumed by the need to know.

  ‘But you haven’t even—’

  ‘I can wait.’ He couldn’t believe he was saying this when desire still rode him so painfully. ‘Tell me, Safiyah.’

  ‘It’s nothing. I’m just a little...overwhelmed.’

  ‘Because you’ve never climaxed before?’

  The idea battered at him, making it difficult to think. It didn’t change anything. So what if Safiyah hadn’t found sexual satisfaction with her husband? So what if her eagerness to satisfy him suggested her experience had been about giving rather than receiving pleasure?

  But it did matter.

  Karim didn’t understand why, but it did. He gathered her in and held her close till the last tremors subsided, even though it was torture in his aroused state. When she was warm and pliant in his arms he released her and moved away.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  She sounded shocked. As shocked as he felt.

  ‘To get your clothes. We’re going back to the palace.’ He grimaced, his gait stiff and uncomfortable with his erection.

  ‘Don’t you want me?’

  Her voice was a whisper, and when he turned she was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her pale flesh glimmered seductively and it took everything he had not to drop to his knees and continue what they’d begun.

  ‘Of course I want you.’ He drew a deep breath, strengthening his resolve. ‘But when I take you, Safiyah, I want the first time to be in a comfortable bed—not hot and hard in the sand and over in two seconds.’

  Which sounded good in theory, yet Karim wasn’t sure how he was going to make it last—bed or no bed.

  Why, precisely, the location suddenly mattered, he wasn’t sure. Except he suspected Safiyah hadn’t been an equal partner in sex before.

  Karim didn’t want her sharing his bed out of duty. He wanted her as she’d been moments before, full of passion and delight. She deserved more than a quick coupling on the beach.

  He wanted to make their first time together special.

  Karim refused to dwell on what that meant.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SAFIYAH LISTENED TO the sound of the shower in the next room and slumped down to sit on the end of the bed. Karim had spoken barely a word on the ride back to the summer palace, or after they’d left the stables for their bedroom.

  Their bedroom.

  Instead of horrifying her, those words settled in her mind like a comforting blanket. Because she’d given up hiding from the truth. She wanted her new husband and she looked forward to being with him. Even though she knew from previous experience that the actual sex act would be less than satisfying, she still wanted him.

  Because he’d been the first man to give her an orgasm?r />
  Her lips curved at the memory.

  That would be an easy explanation. But Safiyah refused to settle for anything less than the truth.

  She’d never stopped wanting Karim, even after he’d treated her so callously.

  Throughout her first marriage she’d compartmentalised, putting her feelings for Karim away in a box marked ‘Ancient History’, devoting herself to her husband. But now there was nothing holding back those old feelings and they were stronger than ever.

  She shifted, trying to ease the ache between her legs—so inexplicable given that stunning climax. Beneath her clothes she felt the abrasive scratch of sand. What she wanted—apart from Karim—was a wash, but he’d stalked straight to the bathroom and she, out of training and habit, was content to wait on her husband’s wishes.

  Except Safiyah wasn’t content. She felt edgy and uncomfortable. She wanted a wash and she wanted Karim.

  His words kept replaying in her head. He wanted her in a comfortable bed where he could take his time. He didn’t want sex to be hot and hard and over in two seconds.

  She knew about sex that was over almost before it had begun, and she was accustomed to the listless sense that she’d missed out on something just beyond her reach. Now she knew what she’d missed and she wanted more. How would it feel to reach that pinnacle of bliss with Karim moving inside her?

  Safiyah shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold in the breathless excitement. An image rose in her head of herself following Karim into the bathroom, stripping off her crumpled sticky clothes and joining him in the shower. Her skin drew tight and her palms dampened as she remembered how good he looked without his shirt.

  How would he look totally naked?

  Once more she shifted. But nothing could ease that restless ache. Except Karim.

  Abbas would have been horrified at her making a sexual advance. He’d always taken the initiative. Not that she’d ever wanted to.

  But then he’d never caressed her with his mouth the way Karim had. Never made her fly in ecstasy and never, for that matter, pulled back without taking his own pleasure. Seeing Karim do that tonight had stunned her, making her question what she knew about him.