by Sophia Lynn
His laugh was abrupt.
“Listen to me, beautiful one,” he said, his voice low. He didn't loosen his grip on her for one moment, and if she were being truthful with herself, she didn't want him to. “Listen well. When we are this close, when I am touching you, there is only one question I care about. Tell me the truth. Do you want me?”
Anna looked up at him, and she knew to the core of her that the answer to that question would never change. She was who she was, and she was drawn to him in a way that was beyond sense. It would have been the sensible thing, the wise thing, even the safest thing to lie, but she couldn't. It would betray him, betray herself, and it would break something inside her.
“Yes,” she whispered, and his grip on her tightened a little, making her gasp.
“Say it again,” Rakim growled. “Louder.”
“Yes, I want you,” she said, and even giving in to that command sent an erotic thrill through her body. “Please, Rakim—”
“That is the only question that matters. That is the only question that will ever matter to me,” he snarled, and his mouth came down over hers again. This kiss was no less savage, but the difference was that she responded in kind. Instead of being a passive recipient of the kiss, she threw herself into it, her arms around him and her fingernails digging into his back. When she drew her fingernails down to his waist, he groaned with desire, pulling back to look at her.
“What a beauty you are,” he purred. “How could we ever be apart?”
Right then, Anna had absolutely no answer to that question. Her entire body felt like it was burning up with hunger for him, and right then, there was only the two of them together, their bodies shouting for each other.
She clung to him, relishing the feel of their bodies together. When he pulled away from her, she thought that they were going to go to his bedroom or to hers, but instead, he only strode over to the door to lock it.
“I can't wait,” he confessed. “It has been so long. I need you.”
In a matter of moments, he had come close to her again, and the kisses he gave her were deep and drugging, full of the dark things that lived between them, and breathless with desire.
As they kissed, his hands pulled at her clothing, tugging hard. Finally, Rakim lost his patience entirely and his hands became rougher. Anna cried out when his hands fisted in her clothes and pulled, and in a matter of moments, she was bare before him. His fingers found her bra even as she tugged her panties down, but when she was entirely naked, she grabbed on to his clothes.
“I can't tear these,” she whispered, looking up at him, “but please, I don't want them on you. I want to feel you as close to me as you can get. I need it, Rakim, please...”
There was a softness in his eyes then, and somewhere deep within her, she knew that he couldn't deny this to her, that he might not be able to deny her anything. A surge of power ran through her, but she ignored it as his hands went to his own clothing. The tailored and expensive clothes joined hers on the floor. She barely had time to give them a passing thought before he pushed her against the wall.
She yelped a little at how cold it was, but that was before his hand slithered down between their bodies, finding the mound between her legs. Eagerly, she parted her thighs for him, allowing him to find the center of her pleasure as she clung to him.
“Perfect girl, my perfect little Anna, you are all I have ever wanted,” he murmured.
She held her breath as he stroked his fingers along her slit, feeling her getting wetter and hotter with every pass.
“Don't tease me,” she found herself murmuring, “not when I need you so much.”
He chuckled through gritted teeth, and when he finally parted her to touch her clit, there was a sense of urgency about it. He worked her until she was groaning and clinging to him. He pushed her right to the edge, but when she would have gone over, her hand landed over his.
“No,” Anna panted, “not like that. Rakim, I want you with me. I need you.”
It sounded perilously close to a command. When she had said things like that in the past, he had laughed at her, and he might have kept going for hours yet. This time, however, it was clear that he was close to the edge himself, and he nodded tightly.
“All for you, then, little darling.”
She had wondered if he was going to bend her over the table or perhaps spread her out on the floor. They had done both of those things before. Instead, he lifted her up with her back to the wall, and stepped closer. Instinctively, her bare legs wound around his waist, and pinned between the wall and his powerful body, she gasped.
She felt the head of his shaft brushing against her sex for a few agonizing moments, and then with a curse, he pressed deep inside her. In that first moment, Anna cried out, her voice broken and wild because it felt so good, so right. It felt perfect, and she clung to him hard.
“Anna? Anna, are you all right? Too rough, I can—”
“No,” she cried out, panicked. If he stopped now, she was afraid that it would kill her. “No, don't stop, I need you.”
The only response that he could make was a groan, and with no more warning than that, he started to thrust into her. His thrusts were powerful and steady at first, but sooner than either of them expected, he was pressing into her heavily, rocking her against the wall with every movement.
She was so close to the edge before that it did not take her much longer to spill over entirely, but she tried to push it off. She needed to savor this closeness to him, wanted to make it last forever, but at last she couldn't. Her entire body started to tremble, and with her eyes shut tight, she gave herself up to the powerful burn of pleasure he was forcing onto her.
“Oh...oh Rakim!” she groaned, clinging to him as the shudders took over her entire body. She clung to him so tight that she knew she would ache later, and just as the sensations started to recede, she could feel him start to shake as well. As the waves of pleasure pulled back from her body, her eyes drifted open so that she could watch him at the apex of his need.
There was something both savage and beautiful about him as he shook, pinning her to the wall with even more powerful movements. The muscles of his body stood out under her hands, and even though he shook, she knew that he would never drop her. His dark hair hung down in his eyes, and in the moment of his release, he looked almost vulnerable. He was entirely given over to the power of his desire, but somehow he was with her still, giving all of these sensations to her and somehow making her truly be a part of what was going through him.
Rakim's climax seemed to last forever, and when it was finally done, he rested his chin on the top of her head for a moment. Then with a regretful groan, he pulled away from her and allowed her feet to touch the floor again. He might have let her go, but then he had to catch her as she stumbled.
“Are you all right?” he asked, and she smiled wryly up at him.
“I am,” she said. There was still so much between them, so much that separated them, but for now, that was in the background. Their need and desire for one another had been more important, and the urgency of everything else was still faded.
“Good,” he said, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead. “You are coming back to bed with me now.”
“I see how it is,” she said as he gathered up their clothes. “You come back and now you are in charge again.”
He raised an eyebrow at her as he handed over her clothing. It was early yet; there were still staff members around the palace, or else he might have simply carried her back to his rooms naked. He had done so in the past.
“Do you not wish it to be this way?” he asked, and to her surprise, Anna caught a slightly nervous sound in his voice. It was foolishness; what could a man like him have to be nervous about?
“I suppose I do want it like this,” she said softly, dropping her gaze from him. “When you are not around, it is all I think of, and when we are together...this is the way that makes us both the happiest. But Rakim—”
“No buts,”
he said, resuming his air of command as if nothing had happened. “We are returning to my room now. Later on, there will be time for your questions. Until then...”
He touched her chin, and then sensuously slid one finger into her mouth. She drew on it with her lips before looking up, startled at her own response. When she looked up into his eyes, there was a satisfied sexual glow there, one that could leap up again with just the right touch.
“Until then, I want to show you exactly how much I missed you.”
***
“Anna?”
There was no response, and when Rakim listened, he could hear the soft sound of her breathing. For a moment, he let his eyes drift closed, and he matched his breath to that sound. It struck him all over again how much he had missed it—had missed everything about her, as a matter of fact.
He had taken her back to his bedroom and ravished her for hours, and now in the darkness, he could listen to the sound of his woman, exhausted and satisfied. It was a sound that was hooked into his very being, and he couldn't get over how much it had hurt to lose it.
Rakim had done what he could. In the past, years could go by between his visits to the mountain palace. He tried to ignore her. He tried to get her out of his head. No matter what he did, though, she was there, and it was too easy in the end to simply find his way back to her.
The sheikh sat up in bed and looked down at the woman slumbering next to him. She was curled on her side, her blond hair a halo around her face. When he brushed a few stray strands back, it only made her beauty clearer. In her sleep, she murmured at his touch and nuzzled his hand, making him smile.
No, there were no others like Anna, and he would be damned if he allowed one incident to pull him away from someone that he wanted so very much.
Now that he had learned that, however, he needed to figure out how to make her work with the rest of his life. There was one obvious solution that presented itself, but he pulled away immediately. No. It wouldn't work. It was too much.
Instead, he considered what else could be done, and with one arm curled around her, he thought long into the night.
Chapter Twelve
The next morning, Anna woke up alone, and she was slightly upset before she woke up all the way. Then the memories of the night before came flooding back, and her eyes widened.
Last night, everything had been a haze of pleasure and need, but this morning, she had to wake up and discover herself naked in the bed of the man who had hurt her so much. He had nearly accused her of infidelity when her only crime had perhaps been how naïve she was. Now she had muddled things further by climbing into bed with him, and her stomach fluttered with nerves.
She was alone in his bedroom, and when she glanced around nervously, he was nowhere in sight. She hurried to the bathroom to wash her face and gather her thoughts, but she couldn't account for the whirling mess in her mind.
“What am I going to do?” she wondered, and then she took a deep breath.
She knew what she had to do. She had move forward. Anna refused to let herself be derailed today. She was going to get to the bottom of things, figure out where they were going, and she would not be thwarted by Rakim, no matter what he said or how good his touch felt. She was resolved, and she nodded at herself in the mirror.
She wasn't quite ready to come out of the bathroom in only his robe or shirt, so making a face, she put on her clothes from yesterday. It helped her feel a little calmer, at least, when she stepped out into the living room of his apartment.
He sat on the leather couch waiting for her, a breakfast of fruit and cheese on the table, and he turned to her with a wide grin.
“I was just going back there to wake you up,” he said with a smile. “Come, eat. I have had them bring up your favorites.”
It was all of her favorites—honeydew, gouda and grapes—and she settled on the couch next to him. Rakim raised an eyebrow at the fact that she left space between them, but he allowed it, and they both ate. Anna realized abruptly that she was ravenous, and thought wryly that that was what came of intense activity after so much time without.
“Rakim, this is lovely, but I can't just keep going as if nothing has happened,” she said at last. “We can't change the fact that something happened... It happened, and it changed things between us.”
“It did,” he said, and she was heartened when she saw a look of sadness flicker across his face. For a moment, she wondered if he had finally understood what had happened, and was prepared to apologize, but then he stood and started pacing.
“I understand that you must have been overwhelmed the night of the soiree,” Rakim began. “It was the first time you had been around that kind of life, and I'll admit, I was perhaps not as attentive as I could have been. I always wanted to make sure that you were comfortable, but I had not been in the city in a long time, so I got distracted.”
Anna felt some hope stir in her. She hadn't been terrified, but yes, it was difficult navigating the crowds herself.
“It makes sense that you would be easily charmed by a man like Iriq, even that you would be attracted to him.”
Anna sat up a little, shocked and confused. She hadn't been charmed, not even a little, and attraction had been the furthest thing from her mind.
“I accept this, and while I am sorry that this has happened, I want us to move on. You are right that things have changed, and of course that means that nothing can be the same. I was wrong to think that changing the terms and environments of our relationship would be a good thing.”
Anna started to speak, confused by where this was all going, but he held up his hand.
“I am going to say just one more thing, and then I will leave you to make your decision,” he said, his tone stern. He waited until she had subsided into silence and nodded.
“Anna, you are very important to me. You are a beautiful woman, and when I am around you, it is difficult to even think about how good you make me feel. However, what I have learned, what we both have learned, is that we need to be a limited part of each other's lives. You will stay here at the palace. You have your work, though if you no longer wish to do it, that is fine. You'll have all the money you want, and of course you can make trips wherever you wish, though perhaps it might be best if you stayed away from Abu Dhabi. Perhaps you might enjoy Dubai, or even Paris.”
Anna felt stunned. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she knew that she needed to speak up, to speak against whatever nonsense this was, but she felt frozen. Instead, she could only sit still and wait for whatever he was going to say next.
“You will have everything you like, and I will come and visit you,” he said. “I think that at this point, we have proven where we are most comfortable with each other. I want you, and you want me. This is a simple thing that we have tried to complicate, and now we have a solution that gives us what we want without risks of endangering it.”
Anna started to speak, but his face grew grim.
“Because, Anna, I care about you, but what happened in Abu Dhabi will not happen again. I am a generous man, but my temper has limits, and seeing you with Iriq was sickening. There are things I will not tolerate. I do not care how charmed you are, that is not going to be tolerated.”
She felt as if someone had driven an icicle through her heart. She couldn't find words, and Rakim nodded.
“Take your time and think about what I have said here,” he said. “If you consider it, you'll find that it does not mean a great deal of change. It is the solution that is best for both of us.”
He hesitated, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to reach for her, to stroke her hair or to run his knuckles over her cheek gently. At the last minute, it seemed that he thought better of it and pulled back. Right then, Anna didn't know if she would have welcomed it at all.
“Think about it. I am going to be in conference calls all day with my ministers in the city. It is a decision that does require some thought, and I certainly do not expect you to make it all at once. Just r
emember...”
He trailed off, a slightly unsure look on his face. Then it smoothed over, and he looked as confident as he always did.
“Remember that it is always your choice. Do not think of this as something I am doing to you, but instead something that I am doing for both of us. Something that will allow us to have the relationship that we should be having.”
He turned and walked out of the room, leaving her in a silence that seemed enormous and absolute.
Anna felt hollowed out, and for a few minutes, she had to sit and wait for what would come next.
***
In the hallway, Rakim paused for a moment, his hand still on the doorknob. There was something that was pulling him back into the room that refused to let things lie, but he resisted it.
There was a part of him that wanted to go back in there, to shake her and to demand what she was thinking by falling all over Iriq. He wanted to tell her that nothing like that would be acceptable again, and at the same time to offer up his heart on a platter.
He forced himself to pull his hand off of the doorknob and to stride down the hallway. There were things he needed to do. She would come to her own decision, and for one as important as this one, he could not command her.
***
Anna went to the library, but even her beloved books couldn't help her. She kept picking up books and putting them down, and when she had moved the same pile back and forth twice in a row, she realized that it wasn't doing any good.
He wants...a mistress, I think, Anna thought, and she had to go sit down, hugging herself as she shook.
It was the truth, and no matter what language she tried to use or how beautiful the palace was, that was what he wanted for her and with her. He wanted her here, out of his city, accessible when he cared to visit her and quiet when he didn't.
The grief that drove through Anna then was intense. It was enormous, and with every pulse, it felt like she was going to be split apart. She held herself tightly as if that could prevent her from flying apart, and when she thought that the sobs would overwhelm her, she stuffed a fist in her mouth.
