“We’ll just have to be tired tomorrow,” she said, running her fingers through the top of his hair. He skipped kisses up over her low belly, pushing her blouse up to her shoulders. Then he sat back, gently helping remove her shirt, followed by her bra. A moment later she was nearly naked, grinning up at him. He tweaked a nipple.
“You’re so easy to undress,” he teased.
“There’s something about you that just makes the clothes fall right off my body.” She tugged at the hem of his tunic. “Now get this off.”
Yonas complied, shedding the tunic as well as his linen pants. When he stood palming the bulge in his briefs, Maia shimmied out of her panties.
“Get those off too,” she said, flinging her underwear across the bedroom by her big toe. “And fuck me.”
Heat seared through him, and he stumbled removing his briefs. Once he tossed them to join Maia’s panties across the room, he eased between her legs. She immediately locked her ankles behind his back, a throaty chuckling erupting from deep inside her.
“You’re mine now,” she cackled.
Yonas buried his face in the hollow of her neck. “Consider me a willing victim.”
His lips trailed over the sharp line of her collarbone, down the slope of her breast and then up over the other one. By the time his kisses reached her earlobe, she was panting beneath him. He kept his body hovering over hers, making sure that no parts touched just yet.
“You’re teasing me,” she huffed.
“No. I’m kissing you.” He smiled as his kisses moved to her mouth. She grunted, arching her back. Their chests brushed.
“You’re not touching me.”
“Yes I am.” His kisses moved down her neck, heading for the valley between her breasts. “I’m touching you with my lips.”
She laughed and sighed at the same time. “Come on. Now I need it.”
“I give it to you every night.” Her insistence warmed him; he felt the same way. It was hard to beat back the hunger for more sometimes. “For two weeks now.”
“Okay, but I need it again.” She wriggled beneath him, hooking her legs around him once more. He grinned, sinking down on top of her, their skin colliding.
“Ahhh.” She wiggled her hips as his cock pressed into that familiar groove between her legs. “There we go.”
“I should get a condom,” he murmured into her ear, only half-meaning it. With his dick so close to the velvety heat between her legs, his willpower was making a rapid exit stage left. She wiggled her hips again, making a small noise into his ear. The last of his willpower faded.
“Or maybe not?” she whispered hotly.
The suggestion shivered through him. The list of women he’d ever chosen to not use a condom with was non-existent. But Maia didn’t have to ask twice.
“Don’t joke,” he warned, pushing up to look her in the eye.
“Not joking,” she said, and he grunted, reaching between their bodies to align his cock. The fat head found her slick entrance, and he pushed the tip in. A shuddery groan escaped him.
“Yesss,” she hissed, clutching at his lower back, digging her nails in. “Please, Yonas.”
He pushed himself in slowly, relishing each new millimeter of depth. The heat and silkiness of her pussy blew his mind—he wanted this to never end. Maybe he could never sleep with anyone else ever again. Maia could be the last and he wouldn’t complain.
His thoughts disappeared as pure instinct took over. He started a slow but fierce rhythm, each thrust sending warm prickles from head to toe. Maia’s girlish gasps only stoked his fire higher. And she begged for more.
Sweat prickled on the tops of his shoulders. His mind buzzed with activity, yet there was distinctly nothing there. Nothing other than the permeating thought of Maia. Her scent, the feel of her wrapped tight around his cock, the sheer pleasure that they always shared. Pleasure that was amplified so much more simply because of…her.
Yonas squeezed his eyes shut, beating back his orgasm with every ounce of mental control he possessed. But it was hopeless. Maia scratched at his chest, hissing as he thrust into her again. He could make her unravel every night for the next year and still want more. And maybe he wanted that. Wanted that more than he could even properly understand.
Maia groaned low, something in her tone telling him that she was damn close if not already coming. He was learning her signals, and her own release could prompt his. His lower abs tightened. He scooped her up into his arms, bringing every inch of their body together.
The heat of her against him did it. He grunted, the first wave of pleasure coating him in a hot rush. His body jerked as he came, their cries mingling together in his beloved sanctuary.
When the pleasure ebbed, they were both left panting and wild eyed.
“Holy…” she began, digging her nails into his shoulder, “shit.”
He laughed weakly, pressing a kiss to her lips. Yeah, he might not ever get tired of that connection. That next-level sex. The way she could rib him in just the right way and it was somehow a turn on.
“Agreed,” he said, pulling out of her. The weight of their decision bore down on him suddenly. When he met her gaze, he could see the same hesitation swirling in her eyes.
“Are you particularly fertile?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Well.” She smiled, brushing some loose hair off her face. “I guess we’ll find out.”
15
Maia checked her watch.
It was nine a.m. on December 29. Two days left until the big party.
And this church still had a long way to go.
She drew a fortifying breath, the same way she had every morning for the past week since Yonas opened the doors to the space of her dreams. Once the palace had given the green light on using the church as the official location for the much-awaited Maatkaran New Year’s Eve party, Maia and Sondra, the event planner, had gotten to work to pull off the impossible.
Yonas organized the cleaning crew as promised, but what remained was a sparkling clean holy space—with an emphasis on the space. The place was huge, and though the party would be big, she wasn’t sure she knew how to fill all the different nooks and crannies alongside the yawning empty spaces to create the ethereal gala she envisioned.
Yonas helped—or at least he tried. He showed up damn near every day to check in on her. But she kept her distance as much as possible. She didn’t want to give him much more than an inch, because then he’d take the whole damn mile. And that was the problem—she needed to keep that mile for herself.
After their explosively intimate lovemaking session—because that’s what it was now, making love—on Yonas’s couch in his bedroom at the palace, she realized she’d gone too far. Not only had she fallen for this man, she’d given him access to the most sensitive, special part of her. Unprotected sex was a big deal to her. She’d loved every second of it. And now? She had two weeks to curtail the future heartbreak awaiting her.
Unless, of course, she could find a way around it.
That was how her days went: decorating like a mad woman and figuring out how something with Yonas might possibly work in the long term. Even though she was certain he’d never go for it, she wanted to envision the scenarios. Just in case.
Just in case he felt the same way.
Just in case he was also trying to finagle a happily-ever-after with her.
Just in case she wasn’t the only lovesick person in this affair doomed to suffer a debilitating broken heart once this ended.
He could visit the United States frequently—he had the money and time on his hands. Or maybe she could split her life between the US and Maatkare. She wouldn’t be opposed to spending a lot more time here. But when Julian started school? She frowned at the tulle she wrapped around a column. Then their visits would be drastically limited—summers and holidays only.
The thoughts drained her. Luckily, the pace of decorating was at an all-time high, so she was able to get more time away from
Yonas. Whether it was pre-emptive heart healing or strategic future planning had yet to be determined.
After a week of these nonstop-cycling thoughts and worries, she knew she had to say something. It was getting in the way of their sex, and at the very least, that needed to remain free and clear.
So, tonight. She’d say something that night once they met up at the palace. They’d spent the last week at his place, which thrilled Julian to no end. He still requested that Yonas attend every night’s storybook session, despite Maia’s objections. She nibbled on her lip as she clipped the tulle into place, assessing her work thus far.
Even with Sondra and a few palace employees at the helm, they would only just make the deadline. Panic streaked through her, but she tried to quell it. This had been her idea. And if she could pull it off...it might very well be the most epic party in Maatkaran history.
Excitement shivered through her. Admittedly, part of what excited her was spending the party at Yonas’s side. Would he tell his family about them? Would he introduce her as his girlfriend or simply “the decorator”? Butterflies swarmed her belly on a daily basis. She was in so deep she couldn’t even see the surface.
But dammit, she deserved some happiness. If anything, her ex had browbeaten her into expecting boredom and predictability. She loved that Yonas was the opposite of that.
Maia worked until nearly five p.m. and then called for a palace car. She wanted to talk to Yonas now. She couldn’t wait. After a week of trying to will it away, she needed this pulsing revelation to come out into the open between them.
Besides, part of her suspected that he felt every inch of this just as she did. How could he not? Their sex was passionate, practically life-changing, as if it altered their very DNA somehow. She might never be the same after meeting Yonas Yared. And that couldn’t possibly be one-sided.
Still, the dark doubts lingered. Whispered cruel things. Like maybe every love interest of his was like this. That whoever he’d been messaging before her was just the most recent casualty of the playboy Yared brother. Maybe she was next in line.
She pushed back the dark thoughts on her way to the palace. By the time the car slowed, nearing the front doors, she was ready to open the door and barrel roll out. She stumbled as she got out of the car, tripping over the gravel pathway. She scampered up the steps to the main doors, lovesick fool that she was, heading to Yonas’s bedroom on auto-pilot. She could find her way to his room in the dark. Blindfolded. Missing part of her brain, even.
She knocked quickly before pushing the door open. “Yonas?”
No response. The room was quiet, the bed still neatly made from that morning. If Yonas had been back, the covers would at least be rumpled. She frowned, pulling the door shut again. A palace employee came her way, and she stopped him, asking in French if he’d seen Yonas.
The employee gestured toward the back gardens, saying that Yonas was receiving a guest back there. Perfect. Maia thanked him and scurried along.
The jasmine and lavender wafting through the air made her smile as she headed through the palace gardens. The packed gravel paths wound around neatly trimmed bushes, past award-winning roses. A fountain burbled as she walked by, the sound of voices finally reaching her.
Yonas’s voice. Arabic. Her pulse quickened.
He wasn’t expecting her, which would mean he wouldn’t be expecting the serious conversation. She needed this advantage. She worried that alerting him that she wanted to talk might hail the heartbreaking turn of events. No, she wanted this to be as genuine and honest as possible. It needed to be a surprise attack. She just wanted him to confirm or deny this rapidly growing sensation of—she wouldn’t use the word love—attachment, possibility in her chest. Tell her she was crazy. Or spot-on.
She just needed to know.
Maia was breathless by the time she rounded the corner to a small sitting area nestled in the back gardens. A feminine giggle set her on high alert. And once she took stock of her surroundings, she realized her intuition had picked up on this far earlier than her senses.
Across the way, in front of a fountain with a giant bear standing tall in the center, a woman who could only be a Middle Eastern model giggled with her arms thrown around Yonas’s neck. She looked up at him, batting eyelashes so thick they had to be fake. She wore a skintight dress, more like spray paint than fabric.
And Yonas held her there, his hands on her forearms. He smiled down at her like she was the queen of the world. Or at least of Maatkare, which maybe she would be someday once Yonas decided to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her.
Shame shuddered through her, followed by heat. The anger. The betrayal. The surprise.
She couldn’t even force herself to move. All she could do was stand there and watch. The shiny-haired model said something probably seductive in Arabic, to which Yonas shook his head.
And then he looked up.
Yonas’s black eyes found her immediately, and the air between them went so taut it might as well have snapped. Every cell in her body told her to run. But she couldn’t leave. Not when the train wreck was still happening before her very eyes.
Yonas took his hands off his beautiful guest. His brows knit into a dark line. Confirmation of guilt. Everything happened in slow motion, as though the universe wanted her to see just how wrong she’d been. His dark-haired queen stepped backwards, her slim calves flexing in the sky-high heels she wore. She turned too, but Maia had had enough.
She spun on her heel, rushing away from the gardens. She didn’t need Yonas’s explanation. The situation had been obvious the second she’d stumbled back there. And it wasn’t the details that mattered. It was the feeling. His kneejerk reaction had betrayed Yonas. The oh fuck she saw me look that couldn’t be faked, or replicated, or imagined.
Maia headed straight for the bedroom Julian stayed in each night. Thankfully, it would be easy to pack his things. She hadn’t brought much over. She still took him to Iliana’s house each day, since her friend loved spending time with him. At least he wouldn’t be here to ask questions, though she could imagine them as well as if he were next to her: Mommy, why are we leaving? Mommy, why are you packing so fast? Mommy, why are you crying?
She wiped away a tear that had fallen. She should have known better. She’d gone all in on a man who’d showed signs from the beginning that he was every ounce a playboy.
Finding him with another woman in his arms made her wonder what he’d done on the few nights they’d spent apart. And she’d been stupid enough to make love to him without a condom. What if she was pregnant? After such a horrible discovery?
Humiliation consumed her, and she was a roiling mess of self-pity and hatred. Footsteps pounded down the hallway and then into the bedroom. A moment later, hands gripped her wrists. Through the sheen of tears, a blurry vision of Yonas wavered before her.
“Maia.”
His warm palm cupped her face, but it only made her angry. She jerked away. “Don’t you touch me.”
“Maia, please listen to me.”
“I don’t want to hear what you have to say.” She continued packing, putting all of Julian’s tiny things into the big black suitcase.
“Come on,” he said, his voice cracking. “You can’t be upset about this.”
“Can’t I?” She laughed dryly. “Pretty sure I can be. You’re a fucking liar and a cheat. I’m out of here.”
Yonas stayed quiet for a few moments, which unnerved her. And somehow confirmed his guilt. Finally, he said, “I didn’t tell her to come here. She just showed up.”
“Who even is she?” she asked, her voice wild.
“Shaia—” he began.
“Oh, I don’t fucking care,” she interrupted. “You’re a whore; that’s all that matters.”
Her heart thudded so loudly she could barely hear anything else. Yonas got down on his knees, trying to insert himself into her line of vision.
“Maia, please let me explain.”
“I don’t care,” she s
aid, more forcefully this time. She dared to meet his gaze, fire licking through her veins. “I’m done here. I’m done with you.” She sniffed, unable to control the vitriol spewing from her. She hurt—and this was how she showed it. “You’re just a playboy fuckup. And I’ve known it all along.”
16
Yonas’s world shuddered to a jerky stop. Everything unfolding in front of him seemed surreal; he’d suddenly slipped into a dream where he absolutely knew he was asleep but somehow couldn’t shake himself awake.
“You don’t have to be such a bitch,” he spat, her razor-edged words finally hitting where she’d intended.
“A bitch?” She looked up at him with wild eyes. “So am I supposed to just accept the fact that you’ve probably been sleeping with a whole cheerleading team of women behind my back since I got here?’
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “If you’d let me explain—”
“I don’t need to be mansplained,” she said, her voice tight. She zipped up the luggage she’d packed, the sound ripping through the room. “I have a son, I have a career, and I have a life that means something. I don’t need some immature fuckup like you to ruin any aspect of that. Goodbye.”
Maia stormed past him, leaving the air taut and ugly in her wake. Her jabs had stolen the breath out of his lungs. But this wasn’t over. He raced after her, heart pounding between his ears.
“Immature fuckup?” he challenged. “What about the woman who won’t even have a civil conversation?”
She scoffed, her breakneck pace toward the front of the palace not wavering for a second. “To establish what? That you’re exactly who I suspected you were since the beginning? Come on.”
“You know me,” he insisted, her lack of faith cutting through to his core. Every part of him was wilting, and the worst part of all was that Shaia still lurked somewhere on the grounds. If he could have cast her out even five minutes earlier and avoided this whole fiasco, he would have. “You know who I actually am. And fuck, Maia, you’re right—I was a whore. But that’s not true anymore. God, can you listen to me for a second?”
Christmas with the Yared Sheikhs: The Complete Series Page 19
