‘Checkmate.’ He smiled. ‘You are too easily distracted. You need focus.’
‘I will beat you one day,’ she warned, and then he saw her jaw clamp down, because no matter how they hid from the world and got lost in their own they were constantly reminded that the clock was counting down on them.
But instead of dwelling on that Layla focused on the game. She opened differently and awaited his response.
‘I’m thirsty, Mikael.’
‘Then get a drink.’
She didn’t. She moved into attack again and again, and suddenly they were game on.
‘I’m very thirsty, Mikael.’
‘Good,’ he said, refusing to allow her to distract him. ‘Shall I get up and run a tap?’
She shot him a look and stood up. Usually nothing distracted Mikael, yet as she returned and repositioned herself a very ripe nipple might have done. Had he had his time again he would not have made the move that he did. Not that his face told her that, and he hoped she wouldn’t see the opening he had given her, but as he watched her fork him with her knight he realised she had.
‘Your phone is ringing,’ Layla pointed out as she sacrificed her queen.
‘So?’
He let it go to voicemail as they played on, and soon her pawn had crossed the board and Layla had reclaimed her queen.
She smiled at him, but it wasn’t returned for his phone was ringing again.
‘What the hell does Demyan want?’ Mikael’s voice was irritated.
‘How do you know it is Demyan?’ she asked as he stood.
‘He has his own ringtone.’
‘That’s sweet!’ she said, and watched as he took the call.
The vague irritation in his expression disappeared and his face snapped to impassivity. She had a growing sense of unease as Mikael spoke in length to Demyan in Russian.
‘What did he want?’ she asked when he ended the call, and when he did not answer her straight away she knew that something was wrong. ‘Is it the baby?’
‘The baby’s fine,’ Mikael said.
But just as she relaxed he took her hands, and she knew she was going to hear bad news.
‘Layla, Demyan and Alina were so curious about you that they looked you up. Your disappearance has just hit the press. The police are looking for you…’
‘No…’ she whimpered. ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘They won’t find me here.’
‘Yes, Layla, they will,’ he said. ‘The staff at the hotel will recognise you, and the booking was under my name. This is serious now.’
He let go of her hands, turned on the television and found the news.
There she was: black eyes, black hair, and a face that was unforgettable.
The police could be there in a matter of moments.
‘We need to get you back.’
When she didn’t respond he elaborated.
‘Layla, it will be better for you if you return under your own steam than have the police find you.’
‘One more night,’ Layla begged. ‘Mikael, please, I just want one more night.’
She was not manipulating him now; instead she was pleading.
‘Just one more night and then I promise that I will go back happy. I will never interrupt your life again, Mikael, if you will please just give me one more night.’
‘One more night…’ he said. ‘We’ll take out my yacht…’
He was already loading a cool bag with supplies: champagne, fine food—anything he could think of to give Layla the very best final night.
‘Go and get dressed and sort out the clothes that you’ll return to your family in.’
‘Mikael?’ She frowned. ‘I’ll get changed here, tomorrow, after our night.’
‘We won’t be coming back here, Layla. If we’re going to leave then it has to be now.’
It was the most horrible thing she had ever heard, and she simply did not now how to respond.
‘Layla?’ He was very calm; he could see how much she was struggling. ‘Come on,’ he said, deciding to find clothes for her. Just now it had nothing to do with her being a princess that she could not dress herself.
She was simply trying not to break down.
They were heading to his car in a matter of moments.
‘Mikael…?’ She said as he opened the passenger door for her.
‘You’re not driving.’
‘No, of course not.’ She was suddenly serious. ‘Tonight, if I tell you to make love to me, if I plead with you that I don’t care, please…’
‘You’ll be fine, Layla.’
She would be—he knew that.
But only for as long as she was in his care.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IT FELT LIKE the last night on earth.
Mikael sailed the yacht till it was far enough from his home that he was satisfied they would not easily be found, and then dropped anchor in a pretty cove.
He looked over to where she stood, leaning on the rail and looking out to the view, and he wondered how he could possibly give her the night of her dreams while knowing that tomorrow she’d be gone.
She could feel his eyes on her as she looked out at the view, at the gorgeous red sky. The next sunset she saw would no doubt be on her way back to Ishla.
Why had Zahid let her father know?
Tears stung her eyes because she had not wanted to hurt her father.
She remembered her threats to Zahid and Trinity that she would go to an embassy—she would never have done that, though. All she had wanted was a week.
‘It is beautiful,’ she said as Mikael came and joined her. But not even a sunset could soothe the hurt. Instead it made her want to cry. ‘Why did they have to tell my father? Why did the police have to get involved?’
‘I would guess they were very worried last night, when I didn’t text and say that you were okay until so late.’
‘I should have called and let you know that I was safe,’ Layla admitted. ‘It truly never entered my head. If I had had a phone there were a few times I would have liked to call you to tell you what was happening, but I don’t have one.’
‘I know,’ he said, and put his arm around her shoulders. He looked out to the night and wished he could take away their row.
It had been no one’s fault—she didn’t know about public phones and, after all, he had told her not to ring him unless it was an emergency.
For Mikael, not wanting his day to be interrupted by her felt like a very long time ago.
‘You were right to text Zahid, though,’ she said. ‘I was thinking about it after you left me alone last night. I believe that had you not texted him the first night to say that I was safe then my father would have been informed by the morning. At least we had some time.’
‘You didn’t get a week,’ Mikael said, ‘but have you had a nice few days?’
‘They have been wonderful,’ she said. ‘You have been wonderful to me.’
Mikael made her favourite dinner—without setting the kitchen on fire—and she sat on the bench and watched him.
‘Sick of prawns yet?’ he asked.
‘Never.’
They took their dinner up on deck and washed it down with champagne, and Layla shivered a bit when he asked her what would happen when she went back to Ishla.
‘I know you said there would be trouble for you, but can I ask what sort?’
‘I expect that my father will ban my computer,’ Layla said, ‘and I will have to apologise to Trinity and Zahid, and perhaps I will not be allowed to teach…’ She ran a hand through her hair and thought of the smiling faces of her students and how much they would miss her. ‘I was selfish, I suppose. They will miss out because of me…’
‘It might not be for lon
g,’ Mikael offered, but she shook her head.
‘My father has already told me that my future husband might find it offensive if I work…I expect that decision will be made for him.’ She told Mikael the truth then. ‘My father will bring my wedding forward, I expect. I have been trying to avoid it, but he will say I have given him no choice.’
‘Layla…’
‘Please don’t ask that question again.’
He let out a tense breath in exasperation, but she had not finished speaking yet.
‘I am so loved and so happy at home,’ she said. ‘I wanted adventure—just one big adventure—and I have had that, I just forgot the first rule of chess.’
‘Tell me.’
‘To look to more than the next move,’ she said. ‘I planned and researched escaping, being here, and all the things I wanted to do, but I forgot to consider the leaving part. I never thought it would hurt—it never even entered my head that I might prefer to live life here.’ As Mikael went to speak she shook her head. ‘I would never do that to my father, to my country, to my people.’
‘Even if you won’t be happy?’
‘Of course I will be happy. I will just miss things here,’ she said, and tried to hold back on just how much she would miss Mikael. It would not be fair to either of them.
She had not lied to him that first day. Revealing her thoughts always got her into trouble, and possibly never more so than now. It was imperative that she did not break down and tell him just how she was feeling.
‘I wanted tonight to be wonderful,’ she said, ‘but all I feel like doing is crying.’
‘Come here,’ Mikael said and led her to the day bed where they lay for a lovely while.
‘Do you have any regrets?’ Mikael asked and she shook her head.
‘You?’
‘None,’ Mikael said and then thought for a moment. ‘I wish that I’d got you that joint.’
‘I don’t need it now,’ Layla said because lying here next to Mikael with the stars shining so brightly and the feel of being in his arms she had her high. It was a gorgeous navy sky, so dark except for the stars and just the tiniest sliver of moon.
‘That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw you,’ Mikael said, gazing up at the moon and remembering walking into his office and seeing her standing there in her silver dress. ‘Make a wish on the new moon,’ he said.
Perhaps he should not have said that, because he had just managed to get her to smile.
‘I just made it,’ Layla said, and turned her head and looked at him.
‘You can’t tell me what your wish is,’ he warned.
‘Okay.’
She looked up at him and thought how lucky she was to be here even if just for a little while. ‘I’ve done everything,’ Layla said. ‘I have danced…’
‘You can really dance!’ He nodded approvingly.
‘I have had a romantic dinner with a very romantic man. We have held hands, touched knees, kissed…’ she looked over at him. ‘We have exceeded my list with orgasms.’
‘Good.’
‘I have had flowers, a whole day in bed…’ She counted things off. ‘A day out sightseeing.’
‘What was your best bit?’
‘Apart from the orgasms? Then your verdict party,’ she answered immediately. ‘Have you enjoyed it, Mikael?’
‘Very much?’
‘What was your best part?’
He paused as he tried to think, but he could not choose a best part, from her biting her teeth at him on the day they met, taking out that ruby—there was not one part that he could list above another.
‘It’s all been good,’ he settled for saying. ‘Though I do feel bad about our row.’
‘Mikael!’ she scolded. ‘I loved our row. If it wasn’t for our row you wouldn’t have had to calm me down and agree to bring me to your home…’
Mikael actually laughed. ‘Were you manipulating me then?’ He was impressed rather than annoyed. ‘Do you ever stop?’
‘Never.’ She grinned. ‘Every word I say is with the intent to get what I want…’ She looked over to Mikael, still smiling and looking a whole lot happier than he had on the day they’d first met. ‘Can we have sex like the actors do?’
That was the wish she had made.
And he would make it come true.
‘Yes,’ he said, and decided that for however long they had left he would simply let himself love her.
‘You could film it with your phone and then we could watch it together afterwards,’ Layla said as he led her down to the cabin.
‘No!’
‘It would be fun.’
‘Not a chance,’ Mikael said, and he meant it even though he was laughing.
He would miss her so.
‘You are so good to me,’ she said as she sat on the edge of the bath and watched him shave just so that he wouldn’t mark her.
‘Why wouldn’t I be good to you, Layla?’
‘All the people who think you are a savage bastard…’ she said. ‘They don’t know you.’
‘I don’t want them to,’ Mikael said.
He’d liked living under his lonely rock—a career that consumed nearly all of him and pretty meaningless sex had been enough till now. But tonight, for one last night, he stepped out into the sun.
‘You remember what I said back at the car?’ she said as he dried his face. ‘That even if I beg…?’
‘Layla, you don’t have to worry about that,’ he said. ‘Right—where do you want me?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Am I coming home from work, or are we already in bed? What was happening in the episode of that TV programme you saw?’
She started laughing—on a night she’d thought she never would. It was a side to Mikael she had never seen.
They were drunk on lust and enjoying it.
‘We’re on a boat and sailing for ever,’ Layla said as he took her face in his hands. ‘Tomorrow never comes.’
They had shared many, many kisses, but she had never tasted him so tender as his hand traced her spine and then unhooked her bra. She felt her breasts naked against his skin; it made her ache from the inside.
It was Layla who went for his belt but then changed her mind. Her hand held him through the fabric, growing him, holding him, stroking him, till Mikael pushed her hand away and led her to the bed.
Layla lay there, watching him undress, and she slid under the sheet as a naked Mikael joined her.
He kissed not her mouth but the breasts he had never tasted, and Layla relished the gentle licks and soft sucks, looking down at his lips as he blew her nipple to a painful peak and then kissed down her stomach and then back upwards.
‘Take them off,’ she said as his fingers stroked her through her bikini bottom; she wanted to feel him there.
But Mikael would not.
And so she did.
She undid the sides as he kissed her, and they wrestled just a little with each other, and with self-control—and then Layla’s hand went where it must not, and she held him with no barrier this time.
Mikael rose to his knees and Layla looked at him.
‘Just a little way?’
‘Not a chance,’ he said, and his hand was over hers this time as she stroked him, feeling the soft, soft skin that encased his manhood, moving him closer to where she wanted him. And it was cruel, for they deserved more.
Mikael moved down the bed and kissed along her thighs, over and over, till she pleaded with him to taste her there again.
This time he pulled her legs so that they lay over his shoulders and down his back, and she felt every breath from him; the flicks of his tongue were intense and they made her sob with both need and frustration, for she wanted him inside.
He s
truggled to stay gentle, not to bury his face in her mound and suckle and nip and probe her till she was ready—for that was where his mind was, and so too was Layla’s.
‘I don’t care, Mikael…’ she said as her fingers tried to pull his head from her, as she tried to move her legs so he would slide up the bed and take her. ‘I don’t care what happens when I get back…’
But his arms held her legs down, and his tongue was more rapid and probing, and he took her from the edge of potential disaster to temporary oblivion. Yet even as she came to his mouth, even as her body rode the high, somehow it was not enough.
She still wanted more.
‘I want to taste you,’ she said, and she smiled as she felt him moan with want between her legs.
‘You said…’
‘I can do this,’ she said—for she would make her own rules. She would never do it with another…she would marry Mikael the only way she could: with her mouth. ‘Please, Mikael, I will only ever do this with you.’
He lay on his back and Layla lay astride him, lowering her head to the base of him and slowly kissing the long way up.
‘My hair…’
She lifted it and tied it into a knot.
‘That is better,’ Layla said. ‘Now I can concentrate.’
She kissed him with her eyes open—not just his lovely shaft but down to his balls, which she took one by one into her mouth and sucked gently, because every bit of this she wanted to remember for ever.
He tasted clean, and she was about to give thanks for all the showers he took, but the moan from him and the slight pressure on her head told Layla he might not appreciate a break for conversation.
She was as turned on as she had been when his mouth had been on her, and she felt one hand cupping her bottom as his other hand guided her just a little further down.
She ran her tongue around the top and then swallowed him a little way down, and then more, over and over, working him with her hand, somehow imagining that the hips that bucked in her mouth bucked between her legs.
Yes, she married him—for she would never be as intimate with another, would never moan and purr in pure pleasure.
She forgot her stride for a second, coming herself as he moved in her mouth, and just as it subsided Layla got the shock of her life as he swelled and started thrusting and she felt the first splash of Mikael.
Protecting the Desert Princess Page 10
