by Ella Brooke
“I need more,” she said, her legs wrapping more tightly around him. Then she leaned up and traced her tongue over his ear, coming to his earlobe and pulling the sensitive flesh inside of her mouth. Her teeth scraped at the skin and he shivered under her ministrations. “Faster, Cemal.”
That was all he needed to release all the passion he’d been holding in for fifteen long, arduous years.
His thrusts became frantic in their frequency, even as his hands gripped tightly to her hips. She pushed back against him as her mouth found purchase on his skin—first his earlobe again, then his lips, and finally his neck. Even as he speared her with his motions, she suckled and teased the delicate skin of his neck until she reached his pulse point, her tongue flicking quickly against the vein there.
It was as if sparks were spreading out all over his body, as if he’d been shocked by an electrical socket. As she continued her efforts, her tongue tracing devious patterns against his skin, Cemal couldn’t handle it anymore. He thrust into her more deeply. Finally, it felt as if lightening had struck him, a huge searing sizzle snaking out through every nerve and fiber of his being.
Cemal stumbled a bit, but then felt renewed strength surge through him when Juliana came as well, the muscles of her inner core pulsing around him.
“God, Cemal!” she cried before her forehead fell onto his shoulder. He could feel the sweat of her brow against the skin of his neck. Clearly, she was as spent as he was. “How do you do that?”
He grinned, finally coming to his own senses. “I have my ways.”
“You certainly do.”
***
She ran her hand over the craggy surface of the sheetrock. There were tears springing forth in her eyes. The feeling of being here was indescribable. The fact that Cemal had thought such a creative and meaningful excursion up made her happier still.
“It doesn’t look like it used to,” Juliana said as she looked back up at her lover.
The wind swirled around him, causing dirt and sand to crash into his legs. Now she understood why he’d changed into his robes once they’d gotten near their destination. The heat of the Tunisian desert made her one trip to Texas seem like a day in Massachusetts in January. Jeans were great for most things. She blushed, thinking about what they’d done earlier on the plane. Scratch that. Jeans were good for many things, and easy access was chief among them. However, the robes like her own kaftan were light and free in the constant Tunisian wind. Anything that helped to keep them from passing out was a good thing.
Cemal quirked his head at her. “I’ve seen the film series…well, the originals. I heard the prequels were terrible so I skipped them.”
“You have to see The Force Awakens!” she gushed, even as she continued to circle the faded dome that had once been Luke Skywalker’s home on Tatooine.
Tunisia was where they’d filmed the first Star Wars, but she never made the connection with the trip and sightseeing the ruins that Lucas and company had left behind. They’d already been to parts of Mos Esba and seen the ruined towns, even the semi-scarecrows erected of Darth Vader’s robe and Jawa robes on empty sticks. It was amazing to be here, but somewhat bittersweet. The forty years of sun exposure had not been particularly kind to the site, neither had the Arab Spring. Yet it endured, and she was as close to being a chosen Jedi warrior right now as she’d ever be.
Cemal chuckled. “I’ve been busy, but I had heard that one was watchable.”
“It’s more than watchable. It’s great, even if I hate Kylo Ren, but I figured that was the point, especially when he and…never mind, because spoilers and…”
He slipped his arms around her and drew her close to his body. There was still that biting hint of saffron that hung around him, but now it was mixed with his sweat and the powerful aroma of his own masculinity. God, she wanted him all over again. Their time on the plane had only partially satiated her hunger.
Cemal kissed her lips and then laughed again. “You might want to take a breath before you force yourself to pass out with so much talking. I’ve never heard someone who could get on a tear like you. That’s what first caught my eye. I’d hear you giving book reports or explanations at the front of the class and the excitement that bubbled through was something new for me.”
She frowned back at him. “Yes, but I was the teacher’s pet and every kid there pretty much hated me for being a know-it-all. I was excited but it was dorky.”
“I think that enthusiasm should always be rewarded,” he replied. “I don’t think you understand who I was.”
“You were the coolest kid in class, even if no one knew you were the heir to a billion-plus dollar empire! I wanted to be you. You never let anyone get to you. It didn’t matter what teachers said or the principal said, you just did what you wanted to do. I’ve always worried about pleasing everyone my entire life.”
He reached down and stroked her neck, and she shivered at the touch of those callused fingers. Unlike the average prince or king—if there was such a thing—she knew that Cemal had never been afraid to get his hands dirty. Back at St. Paul’s, he’d always been fixing up his motorcycle or smoking. There was the heart of a grease monkey, for sure, lying under all of Cemal’s now cultured exterior—that rough and tumble badass who could still leave a jolt of heat tingling through her belly.
“But you knew what you wanted to do. You were already talking about Caltech or MIT in sophomore year of high school. I had no idea who I was going to be.”
“You had it easy,” she said, her tone honest. “You knew you were always destined to be the sheikh of Jordan. You knew that you’d always have enough money, even if you didn’t have a dream job or the right college acceptance letter.”
Cemal’s amber eyes seemed to dim a bit, their light dimming a little. “You misunderstand me. There’s a difference between who I am and my career. They’re not the same thing. Being the sheikh was what I couldn’t escape, but it was never what I wanted. I’ve done what I can in order to help my people because it matters. Because it’s what mattered to my father and what my mother cares about too, but it’s not my passion.”
“So you’re comparing my loving to code to being a life mission.”
“You are in love with your career, you can’t deny that.”
She sighed and entangled her fingers through his. “I love computers. I love code, but there’s so much more to my story, and I think there is to yours too. I…let’s finish looking at Tatooine, and then we can have dinner. I promise we have so much more to share, Cemal.”
“And you’ll tell me what I want to know?”
“I’ll be an open book. I promise,” she said.
Chapter Ten
Cemal would make a law when he got back to Jordan, a law that everyone had to go around naked. It was a risk, of course. Some people probably would be better off covered. However, if it encouraged Juliana to lay before him as she was now, completely nude and with the bare skin of her back exposed for him, then he’d call it a law entirely worth the risk. They’d finished up their tour of the Star Wars sets and then gone back to their hotel for a delectable five-star meal of roasted lamb and date bread. Now he was massaging her back, showing how much he cared for his kitten with every stroke of his hands.
He knew he loved her; Hell, he’d been craving her for well over a decade.
She wasn’t the same girl he knew, but he wasn’t that swaggering adolescent boy either. But he loved the woman she’d grown into—the luscious curve of her ample breasts, the smooth expanse of pale skin, and the softness of her full hips. She was all woman. He’d forgotten how great it could be to embrace a woman who owned her curves, who was more than the skin and bones of the latest it-girl models he could find in Paris or Milan. Juliana was a real woman who challenged him; that was her greatest strength.
“So,” he said. “I’m wrong about you.”
“Not wrong. It’s just that you know me and think I’m still mostly that sophomore, and I’m not. I’ve lived through a lot, Cemal.�
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He leaned lower even as his hands dug deeply into her shoulders. Ah, how his dark-haired beauty smelled of apple blossom. Already his erection was straining against his robes, but Cemal hoped that she wouldn’t notice. Not right now. Soon their bodies would inevitably meet. But for right now he did need to understand her. How would he ever be able to keep her, if he didn’t know all about the woman she’d grown to be? Both Juliana and his mother were right about that one. Of course, when he looked into her sparkling eyes, he still saw that sweet and tempting innocent she’d been. Could she really be that different?
“Your fiancé, right?”
“Yes. He and I didn’t just fall apart. He cheated on me, Cemal. I came home not even a month ago and found him fucking my so-called best friend.”
“I didn’t know.”
She snorted but didn’t look back over her shoulder to face him any longer. “They don’t exactly have a Facebook status for that. Whatever you might have scoped out on me, I’m positive that you didn’t find that information.”
“But why?”
“I guess Phillip is an asshole. Or maybe I’m just foolish. I’m not an idiot. I know that I’m the ugly duckling, and that’s a nice way of putting it. My sister got married right out of college and I’m pushing thirty. Mom stopped setting me up on dates until I did meet Phillip. I think she assumed that I was going to just be an old maid dedicated to computers, you know?”
“At twenty-three?”
“Momma was engaged at nineteen and married her summer before senior year. She had all the best Kappa Sig boys trailing after her. Just get her started. Mom and Katherine are the beautiful ones and I’m…plump,” she said. “I used to think it didn’t matter as much, but then Phillip wasn’t as in love with me as I’d hoped.”
Cemal growled. If he ever met that loser, he’d slug the hell out of him, leave him in the emergency room. No one should ever make his kitten feel like this. Couldn’t she see the revelation she truly was? Couldn’t she see the woman she was made to be?
“Then he was an idiot.”
“I thought he cared,” she said, her voice so quiet he could barely hear it.
Cemal shook his head and then ran his hands down, all the way to her hips. He wound his palms over the curves of her ass, squeezing the mounds of flesh between his fingers and thumb. “This is what a woman should be. If he didn’t want to have all of you and taste your nectar and rejoice in your curves, then he was the fool. Not you.”
“My mother says—”
“Then she’s an even bigger idiot. If your family spends all this time shitting on you, then you don’t have to listen to them either. You’re working at a great company in Silicon Valley. You’re the one they send out to help royalty because Ms. Grant trusts you that much. I think that speaks very highly about your capacity, about your talent.”
“I’m a thirty-year-old washout who still works glorified IT. I don’t have a family of my own and I wasted time on a man who strung me out for years. I just…I love code, but I thought by now I’d be revolutionizing things as well, creating apps of my own. That hasn’t been happening, and I don’t know what to do about that.”
“I’m offering you a way out,” he said.
She turned around then, and he tried not to become distracted by the tantalizing sight of her perky breast, of those dusky rose nipples rising into peaks before him. It made his mouth water. Oh what he’d do to her soon enough.
“But I can’t take that either. If I’m going to fix my career, I’m going to find a way to do that.”
“You could work here.”
“Maybe, but can’t we just date for a while? Nothing has to be rushed.”
“You’d date me from California? Would we Skype through it all?” he asked, the irritation rising in his tone.
“No, but I’m trying to tell you how we can’t just pick up in hot and heavy where we were as kids. We’re not those people and we have to learn about each other. One day, sure, maybe I’ll find a way to be in Jordan and to also be an app developer. Right now, though, I can’t just relocate for you. I thought you’d understand.”
“I’m trying, but I don’t have to like it. I just…the one thing I have wanted all this time was you.”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t have a career I wanted.”
Some of the anger seemed to cool from Juliana as she chuckled. “Well, I think king of a far-off, exotic land does sound pretty cool on a resume.”
He grinned back at her and sat taller. “Oh, of course. However, the thing I wanted, the one thing I wanted for myself was you. Maybe if I couldn’t figure out my own passion, I could borrow some of yours. Everything went to hell and beyond when your parents called the school on me, when they complained and I was yanked away.”
“Understatement,” she echoed.
“Yes, but I spent so many years dreaming of you. So, yes, if it makes you more comfortable to take this slow, I can do that. I can fly you out once a month.”
“That’d be expensive!”
“We have the gas, the oil, and the private jet,” he said, shaking his head at her practicality mixed with naiveté.
“Oh, well that is quite the solution. But I can’t be the only thing you live for, Cemal. Whether it was the ghost of me or now us and dating all over again, you have to find something else to drive you. To make me absolutely everything is too high a bar for me to live up to,” she admitted, a delicious rosy glow spreading over her cheeks.
He leaned down and kissed her. “But you want me to put you on a pedestal for the night, don’t you? Can’t I worship my goddess in the way I see fit right now?”
She curved her lips in a sly smile. “I’d never stop you from doing that.”
“Good,” he said, as he leaned down to lap at the soft skin of her right nipple.
His beloved must have put on a body lotion of some type as well before retiring for the night. Her skin tasted not only of her own salty sweat but also of honey—a light, sweet flavor that made his member as hard as granite. Suddenly, it was too much and his robes had to go. Standing up for a moment, hating that he had to break contact for even that long with his beloved, Cemal removed his robes.
He grinned back at her, amused to see the hungry smile on her lips. “You know, I could watch you stare at me all night.”
“Then I’m going to get cold,” she pouted, even as her nipples continued to harden before him.
“It’s still close to one hundred degrees outside. I think you’ll live.”
She shook her head, her long hair cascading over her eyes and face. Then, Juliana pushed her lips out in a pout that absolutely leveled him. “I don’t think I will.”
“Well, maybe I can come back,” he said, crawling back over the foot of bed and enjoying the way he crept slowly over her. It allowed him a chance to take in that sweet, fruity scent that clung to her skin all over again. Leaning down, he lapped his tongue over the hollow of her navel, letting it stray over every curve and bump.
There her skin was all salt and tang, and that gustatory revelation made his erection twitch with need.
She purred and arched her hips against his legs, the soft, silky skin of her thighs grazing up against his member. “You’re ready for me, aren’t you?”
“I’m ready for so much,” he said, as he moved his head back up to stare into the jewels of her eyes. “Are you ready for me, kitten? All of me?”
She gulped and he adored the way her throat bobbed with her anxiety. “I’m ready for anything you can give me, my sheikh.”
Cemal took the invitation offered him. Lining their bodies up, he pushed his length forward and let it trace delicately over the soft, sensual skin of her secret lips. Juliana gasped and that sound was pure music to his ears. The fact that he could make such a gorgeous woman shudder like that was almost a miracle. Even through all their fights, their ups and downs, neither of them could deny how much they affected each other. No matter what Juliana said, she bent so easily to his wi
ll and to his attention. Eventually, that would bring her back to him. He knew that.
He was betting on it.
“Please,” she mewled, her voice sweet and desperate.
He couldn’t tease her any longer. Thrusting his hips forward, he pushed his hardness deep inside of her. Cemal hissed at the heat of her. It had been pleasant before but now with no barriers between them, it was pure ecstasy. The sheikh sunk more deeply into her, until his shaft was covered by her honey. She moaned and raked her nails over his back, those talons of hers biting sharply into his skin.
Leaning up, she kissed his neck, even as her nails continued their bruising punishment. Her tongue traveled sensuously over his throat and her arms moved to wrap around his shoulders to give Juliana better leverage. Then she opened her mouth wider and scraped her teeth rapaciously over the sharp line of his jaw. That sensation set his nerves alight, made the mingled pleasure and pain race through his body as he pounded harder into her. There was nothing left now but the feel of her teeth against his chin, the sweet scent of her body lotion, and the hungry pace of their huffing in the darkness.
He thrust again, plumbing her most secret depths.
In, out. In, out.
Their bodies were locked in the same rhythm, both their breathing and their thrusting hips. It was hard to tell where she ended and he began, as if their very souls were touching each other. She stopped scraping against his chin and leaned up farther to kiss him, her tongue tangling deviously with his own. Once she did that, he was lost, the fire in his veins going as high and bright as a three-alarm blaze. He came then, shooting his seed deep inside of her, rejoicing in the feel of truly being intimate with her, of having nothing between them. Cemal continued to pump into her, spurred on by Juliana’s voracious and commanding tongue, until she came as well.
Her legs pulled more tightly around him, and she broke their kiss apart long enough to scream his name.
“God, Cemal, never stop!”
He did as best as he could to accommodate her commands, but he was only human. Eventually, he collapsed to the bed, pulling her down onto his chest with the motion. Craning his neck up, he kissed the top of her head and rubbed at her back.
