Heart of a Desert Warrior

by Lucy Monroe

  It reminded her of how he used to be at university.

  “I want to.” She reached up and cupped his face between both of her hands, loving the feel of his closely cropped beard against her fingers. “I want to very much.”

  He nuzzled into her touch, turning his head so he could kiss each of her palms. “You do?”

  “Yes.” She wasn’t any good at the games women played with men, and she didn’t want to be, either.

  If Asad decided he wanted Iris in his future, he would have her as she really was, not something she pretended to be to gain his attention.

  He gently pulled her to him, his desert robe enveloping them both. “There is one way you know me better than anyone else.”

  “Really? No other lovers have learned all your body’s secrets?”

  “No. You do not know them all though, either, not yet.”

  “Maybe I could learn some more right now.”

  He jerked as if startled by her suggestion, but then he smiled. “I thought we both had work to do?” he asked, sounding bemused.

  “My work can wait a little. Can yours?” She reached up and kissed the underside of his chin.

  He shuddered. “Yes, my dove, for you…for this, it can.”

  “Good.”

  “It will be.” He started to undress.

  But she stopped him. “Let me.”

  Silent, his eyes darkened by lust, he nodded.

  She took her time, removing each of his desert layers with intermittent kisses and caresses until he stood naked before her, the timeless Bedouin sheikh.

  She took off her own clothes while he stood watching her, his erection so hard it was nearly parallel to his stomach. They had only made love that morning, but clearly something about this was exciting him beyond bearing.

  And then she realized it was the first time she’d initiated the lovemaking since they’d renewed their intimacy.

  Apparently he missed her feminine aggression.

  She let her last garment fall to the ground and stood proudly naked before him. “I want you.”

  His entire body shuddered at her words, his nostrils flaring, his eyes narrowing, his gut tightening. Her gaze skimmed lower and she noticed a pearl of preejaculate on the end of his penis. More evidence of sexual desire at its peak. She reached out, swiped it with her finger and then brought the bead of viscous fluid to her mouth.

  It was sweeter than when he climaxed, which she preferred not to swallow. He never seemed to mind, but was always complimentary and grateful when she took him in her mouth at all. Even though he gave her oral almost every time they made love.

  One thing he had taught her to appreciate six years ago was that if they both enjoyed it, then whatever they did was beautiful.

  She loved tasting him and the way he lost himself to her touch when she took him into her mouth. She felt like he truly belonged to her for those frozen minutes in time, no matter what their future held.

  She went to drop to her knees in front of him, but he grabbed her under her arms and stopped her.

  “Why?” she asked, not understanding.

  He loved this.

  “You will hurt yourself.”

  She looked down at the hard ground and shrugged. “I’ll survive.”

  “No. We will fold my robe into a pad for your knees.”

  She smiled, realizing the man wasn’t turning her down, just taking care of her. “All right.”

  It took only a moment and then she was where she wanted to be. Wrapping her fingers around his engorged member, she said, “Today you are mine.”

  “You are not usually so possessive.” The bemused tone was back.

  She looked up and met his dark gaze. “You don’t know what goes on in my head when we make love.”

  “Perhaps I should.”

  She just shook her head before leaning forward to lick delicately at the tip of his hardness. He groaned, his hips jerking forward. And she did it again. She loved this game, where she licked and mouthed, but didn’t quite take him inside.

  After a few minutes of that treatment, he cursed. “You are such a tease.”

  “Am I? I thought a tease did not follow through.”

  “My knees will give before you are done playing.”

  “Poor sheikh…his knees are going weak.”

  He growled and she grinned and then pushed his foreskin back to take him fully into her mouth. She could never take much of him, he was too big, but she didn’t need to. Coordinating the movement of her hands and mouth, she soon had him gritting out a warning that he was close to coming. She pulled her head away to finish him with her hand.

  She liked being able to see his face as he climaxed, as well. The ecstasy there always excited her and touched something deep in her heart.

  He looked down at her as his body went absolutely rigid, their gaze locking in primal connection. He whispered her name reverently and his ejaculate exploded like a geyser between them. He wasn’t inside her, but it felt like their very souls connected in that moment.

  “Thank you,” he said hoarsely, his eyes devouring her naked body kneeling before him.

  She kissed the glistening tip and then licked her lips, the flavor more salty and bitter now that he’d come. “I like it.”

  “You are a very giving lover.”

  No. She simply loved him. Someday he would understand that, but she swallowed the words back. It wasn’t the right time to admit her emotional vulnerability to him, no matter how close she felt to him in that moment.

  She let him tug her to her feet and bring her body flush with his, his expression intent and deliciously predatory. “It is a good thing that my powers of recovery are beyond average.”

  “I would expect nothing less from the lion of the Sha’b Al’najid.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  HE STARTED. “How did you know I am called that?”

  “Your name means lion. There’s a lion on your bedspread. It wasn’t much of a leap.” She was a scientist after all, making deductions based on observations was one of the things she did best.

  “My grandmother told you, didn’t she?”

  She would dearly love to say no, but Genevieve had mentioned it, confirming Iris’s supposition. “She said the mantle of lion had been passed from Hanif to you when you took over the tribe.”

  “My grandfather is still strong.”

  “But not the primary protector for the Sha’b Al’najid.”

  “No. That is now my honor.”

  She rubbed their bodies together delightfully. “Just as it is my honor to give you pleasure.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes.”

  “It will then be my honor to please you, as well.”

  She wasn’t going to argue that. Their lovemaking was always explosive and very, very special. At some point, Asad was going to realize what that meant.

  They were meant to be together.

  He’d gotten sidetracked six years ago, but this time her eyes were fully open, which meant she could help him get the sand out of his when his vision got a little cloudy concerning them.

  He made a bed on the ground with their clothing piled under his robe, and still he insisted on her riding him rather than lying beneath him. It wasn’t her favorite position, not because it didn’t feel good, but when she got lost in the pleasure, sometimes she forgot to move. He helped her, guiding her with a strong but tender grip on her hips, his own body thrusting upward and sending her into panting delight.

  His own lust grew faster than she would have thought possible as his eyes fixed on the way her breasts jiggled with her movement. “You are so lovely in your passion, little dove.”

  Her feminine pride preened under his heated approval, while the bliss inside her body coiled tighter and tighter.

  They kissed to muffle their cries when they climaxed, their bodies shuddering in unison. She collapsed on top of him and lay there quietly for several moments of utter contentment.

  “This is right,
” he said.

  “Us?”

  “Here in the open, with my land all around us, my people tending their herds in the distance.”

  He liked making love outside. Before coming to Kadar, that was one thing she would never have guessed. She thought it endearing how he considered the land his, though really, it belonged to the country.

  They cleaned up with Asad’s kuffiya, and then returned to the survey site with him wearing only his shirt and loose trousers. He looked debauched and she found she liked the look on him.

  When she told him so, he informed her that she looked sated and that was a look he found pleasing, as well. She grinned in response and took his hand without hesitation when he reached out to her.

  When they got back to the survey site, Russell told them that Nawar was still sleeping. Iris felt the need to check on the little girl regardless. When she backed away from the tent after insuring Nawar was still slumbering, Iris bumped into Asad.

  He smiled down at her. “You wanted to make sure she had not woken, despite the fact she has not left the tent?”

  “She might have realized we were not here—I mean, you weren’t here—and been nervous about coming out.”

  “But she is fine.”

  “Yes.”

  He smiled, his white teeth flashing. “When she was a baby, I would go into her room at night and lay my hand on her chest to confirm she was breathing.”

  “I probably would have done the same thing,” Iris admitted with a laugh.

  “Yes, I think you would have.” He brushed her cheek. “You will make a wonderful mother.”

  She didn’t answer, just kept his gaze for several long seconds filled with profundity she only hoped he felt, as well. Then Russell broke the spell, telling her he needed help with a measurement.

  Feeling guilty for neglecting her work, Iris sprang to her feet to do so, but Asad grabbed her wrist.

  She looked at him with question.

  “I am glad you are here.”

  “I am, too.” And she meant it from the very depth of her soul.

  She only hoped she’d feel that way in a few weeks when it came time to leave. If he did not ask her to stay, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t beg him to let her anyway.

  What was pride in the face of love and the hope of a family?

  *

  Asad’s phone rang and he picked it up from his desk. “Hello.”

  He was enjoying a rare day working in his office; Iris and Russell were testing samples in their portable lab.

  “Hey, cousin.”

  “Hakim.”

  “How is Project Iris going?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, come on. You insisted she be the geologist for this study. You don’t think I was blind to your ulterior motives.”

  “I wanted to help her move forward in her career.” And maybe he’d wanted her back in his bed, but now…he wanted more.

  The certainty had grown with each passing day. They fit in a way he had never done with Badra, and Iris was so good with Nawar. She would be a fantastic stepmother because she understood what it meant to be rejected. Iris would never visit such a thing on a child, but particularly not a child she had shown so much genuine fondness for already.

  “And?”

  “Maybe more.”

  “From the way the air sizzled between you even after six years’ separation, I’d say a lot more.”

  Asad had told Hakim about his former relationship with Iris and expressed his guilt for hurting her when he ended it. The king had been one hundred percent behind Asad’s plan for some small restitution. Now he had to wonder if Hakim had not seen something all along that Asad had been blind to.

  All he said however was, “Perhaps.”

  “Have you convinced her yet?”

  Into his bed, assuredly, not that he would say so to his cousin. But for the more?

  “I do not know.” He only wished he did, but his aziz seemed to make it her goal in life to confuse him.

  Hakim laughed. “Good.”

  Asad verbally encouraged his cousin to do something with a camel that was not anatomically possible.

  The king’s laughter sounded over the phone again, this time louder. “You deserve a woman who will keep you on your toes. I am glad you found Iris. I cannot even wish you had not screwed up so badly with her in the past—if you hadn’t you would not have Nawar and she is a delight.”

  Asad could not argue with any of that. At one time, all he’d felt toward the very existence of Nawar was anger and disgust, though he’d been loath to admit it, even to himself. But the first time he’d held her, he’d known. He would love that child forever.

  He thought it was possible he was in the same boat with Iris, though he wasn’t quite ready to admit it…again, even to himself. “I would stand on my head for this woman, but she seems oblivious to my every effort.”

  “That’s quite an admission. Changed your mind about the whole love thing since the last time we talked?” Hakim asked in a tone that said he knew the answer already.

  “What are you? A gossiping old woman? Wanting to know my feelings.”

  Instead of getting offended, Hakim’s chuckle said he was mightily amused. “What has you so confused, cousin?”

  “She will not allow me to call her aziz.” He’d made the mistake of letting it slip out the night before and he’d woken up to an empty bed, Iris’s pillow cold from her departure.

  “Catherine wasn’t thrilled with me using endearments she didn’t think I meant, either.”

  “But you meant them?” He had to have. Hakim loved his wife fiercely.

  “Yes, though it took me a while to realize it. Have you figured it out yet?”

  “I have never heard my grandfather tell my grandmother he loves her, but their marriage is as enduring as the mountains.” Personally, Asad could happily live the rest of his life without making himself that vulnerable.

  So long as it didn’t mean losing Iris.

  “You don’t know what he says in their private moments,” Hakim observed. “But more importantly, he has not given Aunt Genevieve cause to doubt him. My esteemed great-uncle treats his wife like she is the queen of his existence and always has.”

  “I have done my utmost to treat Iris with great affection and care since she arrived in Kadar. I’ve given up working in my office, put off meetings with important business associates and politicians.”

  “Does she know that?”

  “Naturally not.” He did not wish to make her feel bad for the time he made for her.

  “How is she supposed to know she’s become the queen of your world if you don’t tell her?”

  “I did not say she was my queen. She will be my lady.”

  “She’s going to be the Sha’b Al’najid’s lady. You want her to be your wife.”

  “It is the same.”

  “Don’t believe it.”

  Asad grumbled, “Catherine ran you a merry chase.”

  “She did and I have never regretted one moment of it, or joining my life with hers.”

  “You once told me that Catherine had regretted it,” Asad said, carefully.

  What if Iris came to regret her time with him? She’d made it pretty clear in the beginning that she’d regretted their time together six years ago. Though he knew that was his fault and no one else’s.

  “It’s true. Catherine almost left me once,” Hakim agreed, old horror at the thought tingeing his voice. “Do you want to lose Iris again?”

  “No.” That was one thing he had no doubts about.

  “Then you have to convince her to stay.”

  “I am doing my best.” Asad made no effort to hide his exasperation. “She is more than receptive to my lovemaking. She adores my daughter and my grandparents.”

  “But you are not sure if she still loves you?” Hakim asked perceptively.

  Asad frowned, though his cousin could not see it and then sighed. “Does it matter?”

  “You tell me
.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Tell her the truth, that you brought her to Kadar to woo her into staying.”

  But even he hadn’t known that was what he was doing at the time. Just as he’d been unaware of naming his daughter after Iris. Self-aware he was not, he thought cynically. “She’s already figured out that I was instrumental in her arrival here.”

  “Does she know that most of the land she’s surveying is owned by your family?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe you should tell her.”

  “Badra’s only interest was in my possessions.” He never wanted to see the light of avarice in Iris’s eyes.

  Not that he would. Intellectually, he knew that, but there it was.

  “Iris isn’t like that. Catherine and I only saw her for two days, but we worked that out immediately. The geologist will make you a much better wife than your late princess ever did.”

  “Badra was never mine, no matter that she spoke vows.”

  “And you were never hers.”

  The truth of that would have taken Asad’s legs out from under him if he had not been sitting at his desk. “I love her,” he said with wonder and no small amount of trepidation. His heart and soul belonged to the introverted scientist irrevocably. “I always did.”

  “Did you really just figure that out?” Hakim asked with disbelief.

  “It’s not something I thought about.” Not until he’d had no choice but to do so.

  “Catherine would say that’s something you should be telling Iris, not your cousin.”

  “That I didn’t want to label my feelings for her?”

  “That you have those feelings for her. I love you like a brother, I really do, but for all your brains, you can be dense, Asad.”

  “You’re right.” It wasn’t easy admitting, but he had been beyond blind when it came to his feelings for Iris. If he’d had an ounce more self-awareness, he would never have left her in the States the first time. And that was something Iris needed to know. She deserved the words. “Your wife, on the other hand, is a brilliant woman.”

  “She is that. She picked me, didn’t she?”

  “Iris calls me arrogant. I think it’s a family trait.”

  “Catherine is certain of it and is convinced I’ve already passed it on to our son.”