“A mistake,” he growled. “A terrible mistake.” He heard the pliers drop to the floor and clatter on the tile, but the sound barely registered in his consciousness. They’d fallen from his hand as his lips pressed hotly over that disturbingly beautiful and argumentative mouth.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Uh-oh. Mackenzie felt her body melt like hot caramel sauce in Amahd’s firm embrace. Dammit! How did he do this to her? One minute she was risking her job insulting him and the next he was teasing the inside of her mouth with his hot tongue.
Heat flashed through her, more intense than any anger at herself or him. There was something between them. Something undeniable, urgent, impossible to ignore.
“Come with me.” His fierce whisper was a command she didn’t have the power to ignore. He didn’t wait for an answer but tugged her by the hand. They hurried along the corridor—which was mercifully empty—toward a private hallway she’d never been down before.
He pressed the key code on a tall arched door and pulled her into a cool room with austere white walls and windows shaded by white curtains. Once they were inside he kicked the door closed and kissed her with ferocity that made her toes and fingers curl.
She could stop this right now. She knew that. This was the affair he’d politely asked for and which she’d refused to agree to. It was happening anyway.
She should stop it.
If she had the strength and willpower to stop kissing him for even one second.
Which she didn’t.
Her treacherous hands groped at the thick muscles of his back and swooped down to his firm backside. She could feel his equally eager fingers brushing her nipples, caressing her rear and sliding into her hair.
Her pulse raced and her breathing grew unsteady as they refused to pull their lips apart to gasp for air. Her whole body quivered with tension and desire. With energy that had been building between them since that first awkward introduction at the Christmas wedding. Energy that kept spiraling further and further out of control.
“This is my bedroom,” he growled softly, almost apologetic.
“I figured.” It was hard to stop kissing long enough to speak. They both knew what was going to happen next. They might as well try to stop a tidal wave or a sandstorm or a rockslide in the high mountains.
She was already tugging at his robe, lifting it higher, wondering how hard it would be to pull over those broad shoulders, when he took over and shucked it with lightning speed. Her first glance at his hard chest stole her breath. A trail of dark hair disappeared into his eminently sensible blue boxer shorts. Exactly the underwear she’d expect for Amahd. And his shorts bulged with undeniable excitement that echoed her own.
They managed to get her out of her silky shroud and the matching bloomers, until she stood before him in her own sensible cotton underwear and her sturdy workaday bra. His dark gaze roamed over her, heating her skin.
He lifted his hand and ran his finger over her nipple, through her bra, which sent a shiver of desire to her core.
She should be mad at him. She should be mad at herself.
Instead, she wanted nothing more than to rip off his underwear and feel him inside her. She took the waistband of his shorts between her thumb and finger and tugged. His erection sprang free and his hard belly contracted as a groan of pleasure escaped his mouth.
He kissed her with ferocity, tugging her close, until his hard length pressed against her belly, tantalizing her. How did he do this to her? She didn’t remember ever feeling so much desire for a man. And a man who was all wrong.
Her royal boss.
It was bound to end in tears—most of them hers—but she couldn’t help clinging to him right now like he was the last life raft on a sinking ship.
If he wasn’t her boss, Amahd would be everything she admired and hoped for in a man: intelligent, strong, sensible and kind. Oh, and tall, dark, muscular and handsome. Those last wish list criteria were optional, of course, but infinitely tempting.
And he was an incredible rider. It had been torture watching him guide big, powerful horses through their elaborate courses during the last few days’ events. He’d banished every last image of daring rodeo cowboys from her mind with his athleticism and grace.
And damn but he was a good kisser.
Why did he have to be so irresistible? It wasn’t fair.
He’d managed to unhook her bra, and a sigh escaped his sensual mouth as he pulled it loose. Her breasts cascaded against his chest, nipples taut with excitement. Her belly shivered as he bent his head and took her nipple in his mouth. He sucked gently, his tongue hot on her aroused flesh. She heard her own sharp inhale as he laved his tongue over the beaded tip of her nipple.
Her knees felt like they might buckle if it wasn’t for his strong arms around her waist. She tried to remind herself that he probably did this all the time, with different women—most of them wealthy and important. On the other hand, Amahd was so serious and devoted to his work that it was hard to imagine him playing the field. Really, did that ham-fisted request for a brief affair seem like something a notorious player would come out with?
No way. That was the laughable attempt of a desperate man to remain honorable while sleeping with someone he shouldn’t. And she’d absolutely done the right thing in turning him down.
Except that now he was doing something terribly wrong—but oh-so-amazing—with his tongue.
Amahd’s face slid between her legs, expression serious as ever as he teased her molten flesh with his tongue. A tiny moan escaped her and her hips bucked against him. Oh dear. She couldn’t stand up for too long like this. His big hands cupped her backside with enthusiasm as he crouched in front of her, eyes closed, utterly focused on driving her completely insane.
“Stop, please!” Her voice was a tiny squeak.
He stopped instantly, and his dark eyes flashed up at her. He’d thought she meant for him to stop…completely. And he intended to obey her command.
That was the very last thing she wanted!
“I…I need you to make love to me.” Her rasped confession was embarrassing. Especially when she registered in the outer edges of her consciousness that she’d used the dreaded L-word.
His gaze warmed, and the hint of a smile crossed his lips. “I’d be delighted.”
His rich voice soothed her as he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, where he set her overheated body down gently on the soft, cool, white sheets.
Amahd admired her lying there for a second, eyes soft with pleasure, then he reached into the bedside table and pulled out a condom.
Something that—in the heat of the day’s events—she’d completely forgotten about. Luckily, one of them had a brain that still functioned.
She watched him roll it on, while her insides heated with anticipation. A smile crept across her mouth as he climbed over her, and it deepened as he entered her carefully and filled her—oh-so-slowly—until he could dance inside her.
Oh, my.
The sensations filling her were so intense she could barely stay focused in the moment. Amahd’s big body over hers, his hands cupping her face as he propped himself on his elbows and kissed her senseless, while moving inside her just enough to send her body reeling.
Gradually he increased the motion, and her hips bucked against him as he drove harder and deeper inside her, making her gasp with excitement. Her fingertips explored the rippling hard muscle of his back, enjoying the sheer masculinity of his gorgeous body.
Their kisses continued, hot and relentless, and they rolled over so that she was on top. She rode him like a fine rodeo horse, filling her body with sensation so intense it made her cry out. She felt her orgasm creep over her like a slow-moving sandstorm that stole her breath and her thoughts and left her gasping and helpless, clinging to Amahd.
He let out a low shout as he climaxed and his arms tightened around her like a vice. They crashed together to the tangled sheets and lay there panting slightly, their lips still touch
ing, kissing as if they couldn’t stop.
Well, damn. Sex with Amahd was every bit as overwhelming as she might have imagined—if she’d been fool enough to dream about that kind of thing.
“Are you okay?” he rasped, at last. His hair stuck to his forehead, and his eyes were dark slits of passion.
“I think so.” She giggled a little, unable to stop the explosion of mirth that bubbled up inside her. “It’s hard to tell.” She’d certainly never felt like this before. “How about you?”
“I’m very well, thank you.”
She laughed again at Amahd’s oh-so-polite and formal reply. He looked rather stunned. Where did they go from here? She didn’t dare ask. It was easier to just lie here with her arms wrapped around him and banish all thoughts of the future.
She watched Amahd’s chest rise and fall. Then he cleared his throat. “Have you ever been…in love?”
The question shocked her so much she didn’t reply at first.
“With Maddy’s father, I mean,” he continued.
“Oh.” She frowned. It was such a personal question. She had trouble talking about it even with her girlfriends. “I thought I was. Now that I look back, I’m not so sure.” Maddy wasn’t planned. But she didn’t want to say that out loud. It seemed as if she might wish that she’d never been conceived, which wasn’t how she felt at all. She had a feeling she knew why Amahd was asking, though. “I did want to marry him. I didn’t plan to raise my child alone. He wasn’t interested in the responsibility, though. It scared him off. We split up before she was born.”
Amahd’s brows lowered. “He was a fool.”
The passion in his voice surprised her. They were still cheek to cheek, arms wound around each other.
“It hurt me a lot, I won’t lie. And I was scared about raising a child alone. But looking back I think he did me a favor.” She smiled. “I don’t think he was man enough for me.”
“Definitely not,” agreed Amahd. “A man should never run out on his family.”
She wondered how he would react if she became pregnant by him. Would he be so quick to claim responsibility when he’d wanted only a quick affair with her? You never knew how people would react until they were put to the test.
Even they didn’t know.
Probably this was some kind of cosmic test and she was flunking miserably. The thought made her giggle again.
“What’s so funny?”
“Life! A year ago I had a steady job in boring old Midland, Texas. I never had an inkling that I’d end up here in Ubar, let alone in bed with you.”
“Life has been full of surprises for me, too. Before my father’s death, I had no plans to come back here myself.”
“But now you like it here.”
“I do. I love it. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.” His earnest expression made her heart squeeze. He was such a passionate man under his stony exterior. Some woman would be so lucky to have him as her husband, and the father of her children.
She cursed herself for the thought. She had no business thinking about such things. Any more foolishness and she’d start falling in love with him. Which would be a huge mistake.
This was just an affair. He’d made that clear, even though he’d admitted that asking for it so openly was a miscalculation. So why couldn’t she ask the bold questions, too? “Have you ever been in love?” She lifted a brow.
“Never.” He spoke quickly and with conviction. No doubt he wanted to let her know that whatever was happening between them right now, it was most definitely not love. He probably thought he was too smart, too calculating and too in control to do anything as foolish as fall in love.
And maybe he was right.
Her phone vibrated from somewhere down on the floor, jolting her out of her maudlin train of thought. “Shoot! I’m supposed to be working. What time is it?” She leaned over Amahd and fished around on the floor until she found her phone, then jerked it up. “I need to go pick up Maddy!”
She flew from the bed. It was nearly six o’clock. Not only had she not fixed all the items on her list, but she’d got so carried away that she’d totally lost track of the time and left her daughter in day care past her scheduled pickup time.
She dialed the number for the kind receptionist. “Hi, Maya, I’m running late at the palace. I’ll be there soon, I promise.” Maya assured her it was no problem and that she quite understood that the festivities were taking up a lot of everyone’s time.
Mac’s face was burning with guilt by the time she hung up. “I could blame you for making me abandon my responsibilities.” She lifted a brow. “But you didn’t exactly need to drag me in here.”
“I would have carried you.” A teasing smile played about his mouth.
“I bet you would.” Desire surged through her again and she stole one last kiss before searching on the floor for her clothes.
Amahd was only half-dressed when his phone started buzzing. He picked it up and greeted Gibran, listened for a few seconds, then froze, one arm half into a sleeve. “You have a confession?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Amahd strode along the inside of the west wall with Gibran, whose eyes glittered with triumph. There was no one nearby, but still they spoke in hushed tones. “So it’s not Darud?”
“It’s one of his closest advisors.”
“In which case he’s probably following Darud’s orders.”
Gibran stopped and inhaled sharply. “That’s what I thought at first, but from what I can tell this man—Isfar Dallah—is working independently. His fingerprint was the closest match to the partial on the bomb, but it wasn’t clear enough to be solid evidence. We’ve been watching him constantly with hidden cameras. I don’t think even the men he hired, and who have been painstakingly faithful to him until now, know his true motives.”
“And one of them actually confessed?”
“I tricked him.” Gibran frowned. “I suspected he was hired by Darud so I backed into it by saying that his boss was upstairs enjoying the hospitality of the palace and laughing at the foolishness of his hireling in getting caught.”
“And he took the bait?”
“Yup. Surprised me when he’d been silent so long. I guess he’d just had enough. He knew they were all up there feasting and enjoying themselves while he was stuck in a cell. He cussed out Isfar saying it wasn’t worth blowing up the plane even for six months’ salary because now his family was going hungry without him.”
“Nice. That’s a real confession. And you got it on tape?”
Gibran lifted a brow.
“Of course you did. You’re a professional. Well done. But what made you think he wasn’t ultimately hired by Darud?
“I asked him. He said he didn’t think the old fool knew anything about it. He said Darud thought about nothing but horses and hunting and that he—Isfar—had put years of work into negotiating leases for the wells and preparing to manage them and make himself a fortune, when the old king of Ubar died and ruined all his plans.”
“That explains why the deal never happened. Neither Darud nor my father really cared about the oil.” Amahd shrugged. “All that money sitting there right under the soil.”
“No doubt that’s how Isfar felt. In his mind he was so close to his goal, and all he had to do was run off you young upstarts…”
Amahd let out a low chuckle. “He never had a prayer. So now you can use this information to extract confessions from the others.”
“Already underway. I wasn’t sure whether the first one was trying to mislead me until I tricked another into revealing the same information—that Darud knows nothing about it. Osman got another one of them to cave while I was walking to meet you.”
Amahd was glad Gibran had no idea what he’d been doing while his brothers were working hard to end the attacks. “Glad to hear it. What is the plan for confronting Isfar? We can’t let him get away.”
“And we need to do it in front of Darud. That’s the only way we’ll know for sure if he was in
volved or not.”
Amahd frowned. “It’ll have to be public.”
“Exactly.” Gibran’s brow lowered. “There’s one more day of the contest left. Do you think you can ride ahead as if everything was normal?”
“Of course.”
“Because that will give us time to get confessions from each man in custody, then we can confront Isfar—and Darud—with the evidence.”
Amahd nodded, and tried to ignore a sense of unease gripping his gut. Gibran did this kind of thing as his full-time job for years. He knew what he was doing.
“I’ll ride like I know nothing. And you’re sure you can prevent Isfar from leaving?”
“The palace is on lockdown. Silently, of course. And communication between Isfar and the men in custody is impossible. They have no contact with anyone except myself, Osman, Zadir and you, since we know from recent experience there has been staff involvement with the saboteurs.”
Amahd nodded. “I’ll be glad when this is all wrapped up. I’ve had to bring their dinner for the past two days.” He hated dealing with men who’d set out to harm his family, as well as innocent people.
And he had other issues tugging at his mind.
Mackenzie Malone, for one. He couldn’t talk to anyone about his powerful and confusing feelings for her while important matters of state were foremost on the agenda.
She wasn’t at all the sort of woman he’d planned to spend his life with. And he’d achieved success in life by conceiving and following his plans.
Still, he loved how strong she was. That she rode and loved the outdoors. That she wasn’t intimidated by him or afraid to put him in his place. And then there was her breathtaking voluptuous body and all that vibrant red hair.
“I’d like you to sit next to him at dinner tonight.” Gibran’s voice jerked Amahd from his feverish contemplation.
“Next to who?”
“Who do you think?” Gibran shot him a look.
“Isfar,” said Amahd, as low as he could. They were drawing closer to the garden, where guests gathered for pre-dinner refreshments. “All right. I’ll do my best to act like I suspect nothing.”
Desert Kings Boxed Set: The Complete Series Books 1-6 Page 76
