When she finally shattered, she thought she gripped his hair so tightly she was sure it must have been painful. But she was much too busy being overcome by wave after wave of devastating pleasure to care too much. Eyes closed, she was vaguely aware of Khal moving up over her, his mouth laying kisses along her neck.
‘You are even more beautiful when you climax.’
She smiled, unable to feel embarrassed after the earth-shattering bliss of what she had just experienced. She felt beautiful when he looked at her this way, as though he could devour her in a single bite.
She reached to his waistband and unzipped the front of his trousers quickly before she lost her nerve. She wanted all of him. It seemed unfair that she was completely nude while he was still dressed. As though reading her thoughts, Khal pulled his shirt over his head and helped her by pulling the trousers off the rest of the way.
She began her exploration on his bare chest, feeling the strength of his pectorals under her fingertips and moving lower to where his abdomen dipped in at the hips. It was the body of a leader, a warrior. Her protector, she thought with a quiet ferocity. She wanted to show him the same care and pleasure that he had shown her, but fear of her own lack of practice made her settle for encircling his length with her hand instead. He thrust forward into her palm, a low hiss escaping his teeth as he exhaled hard. She stroked him, slowly at first then increasing her pace.
‘I need to be inside you,’ he growled low in his throat, pulling her hands above her head and moving over her to crush her mouth against his.
She luxuriated in the feeling of all that powerful bare muscle pressed flush against every inch of her. She could feel the heavy heat of his arousal pressing against the top of her thigh and she rocked against him, showing him with her body that she had never wanted anything more in her life.
* * *
Khal willed himself to take it slow when all he wanted to do was plunge hard and fast into the delicious heat he knew awaited him. She moved against him again, sliding her slippery heat against him. She was trying to kill him.
He placed one hand on her hip, stilling her as he entered. Her body grasped him so tightly he seriously doubted his ability to last longer than ten seconds.
He wondered if anything on earth was as perfect as the sheer pleasure of being buried fully inside her molten heat. Her body gripped him like a vice, such an absolutely perfect fit it took every ounce of the patience and skill he had to hold himself still and allow her a moment to adjust. The torment of waiting heightened every nerve ending in his body, so much so that he could feel his climax building almost immediately. He leaned down, taking one hard nipple in his mouth and grazing his teeth along the pink flesh. She gasped, her muscles relaxing and tensing as she took him deeper, squeezing him tight.
‘You drive me to madness, habibti,’ he gritted, burying his face in the hollow of her neck as he moved slowly against her. Taking his time to let her catch up, urging her body upwards to join him. He felt her pulse quicken under his lips, her skin salty with the barest sheen of sweat. She was lost to it just as he was, the storm of sensation dancing and growing in the delicious friction of their bodies.
He groaned as his climax approached, moving harder against her and reaching down to caress the sensitive spot he knew would tip her over the edge. He knew the very moment she began to fall, her eyes meeting his for a split second with nothing but raw, primal need in their depths. That was all it took—one look and he could hold out no longer.
Mine, the demon inside him growled. With a hoarse cry he gave in to the pleasure and fully lost himself in Cressida’s heat.
* * *
There was a man in her bed. Cressida smiled to herself, taking in Khal’s glorious muscular form spread out alongside her. Her body felt stiff in places she hadn’t known she could strain but nothing could ruin this for her. They had made love once more last night after Khal had carried her to the bathroom and showed her the hidden pleasures that could be found in the shower.
Sex was so much more than she had ever imagined it to be. It had felt like a meeting of their bodies, like two parts joining together in a mutual dance. And what a dance it was with Khal...
She remembered his words the first time he had taken her into his arms on that nightclub dancefloor, about dance being a temptation. The thought made her smile quietly to herself.
He stirred alongside her and she closed her eyes, not quite brave enough to admit she had been awake and ogling him while he slept. A hand splayed across her stomach, sliding across her skin for a moment before she felt his lips touch the delicate skin of her breast.
‘Keep your eyes closed,’ he murmured. ‘We can pretend that you are still asleep and haven’t ruined my very specific plans to wake you.’
Cressida shivered, opening her eyes just as he moved over her, kissing a path down the valley of her breasts and over her stomach. His lips were like hot silk moving over her skin, familiar and tantalising. He paid special attention to each hip before deftly bypassing the place she ached for him most in favour of laying a trail of kisses down the insides of each thigh.
‘That’s not fair.’ She tried to laugh but the sound came out a breathy moan. She hadn’t even known she was capable of making such feminine sounds until Khal.
‘Never let it be said that the great Sheikh is not a fair man,’ he teased, moving down to settle between her thighs with dark promise. She did not tense at all as one finger slowly entered her, closely followed by a second. She gasped, feeling him hit just the right spot and begin to work it in a perfect rhythm. Her hips bucked upwards, the pleasure so acute it was almost painful. Spreading her wide, his tongue darted over her sex once, twice...three times, but not quite allowing her to move towards climax.
Cressida sighed, looking up at him just as he moved over her. She pressed her hands on his chest, rising up from the bed so that they both kneeled facing each other. She looked down at his impressive length, running one fingertip along the silky-smooth skin before encircling him with her hand and meeting his eyes purposefully.
‘I want to return the favour,’ she said boldly.
Khal raised one brow, lying back on the bed in silent invitation. He was not submissive in bed. He was controlled and knew exactly what to do to drive them both over the edge. She wanted the chance to learn how to drive him crazy, just like he did to her. She leaned over him, taking him into her mouth with one smooth movement. He tasted like sex, the action so utterly erotic she felt herself grind her hips a little. One strong hand moved to slide up the outside of her thigh, dropping a light smack on the curve of her behind. He repeated the action and she bit her lip, amazed that she enjoyed it.
‘That’s it. Just like that.’ He exhaled hard.
Typical Khal, she thought, still trying to maintain control. Not this time. She took him deeper into her mouth, feeling his taut stomach muscles shudder beneath her hands.
‘I could have you do this all day,’ he growled, letting his hand coil into the length of her hair, stopping her movement but still not withdrawing entirely. ‘But I cannot wait another moment before I can be inside you again.’
She sat back, running her fingers down his powerful thighs and trying to take a mental photograph of this moment. She did not know how long this mindless passion between them would last. But right now it felt as though they were the only two people in the world and she wanted to savour every moment. His hand encircled her wrist, gently tugging her so that she lay draped over him. She kissed him, softly at first before letting her arousal take over and taking the kiss deeper. Her mind no longer intruded, her body recognising his and knowing just what lay in store.
Strong hands gripped her hips. He thrust upwards, and both of them filled the room with the kind of throaty moan that only came with that very first joining. He thrust deep, filling her to the hilt, and withdrew halfway before he let his hands drift to his sides and went still.
>
‘Show me how you like it,’ he said, lying back to watch her with a look of deep male appreciation.
She bit her lip, feeling momentarily vulnerable with his eyes devouring her, but the delicious slide of him inside her was enough to move her thoughts elsewhere quickly enough. She moved over him slowly, finding her rhythm and gasping at the sensation of being filled so very deeply.
She trusted him completely, she realised, suddenly unable to look at him as the force of her emotions began to build, along with her climax. He moved, sitting up so that their chests were only inches apart; his hands on her hips kept her rhythm in check as he thrust in time with her. After the mind-exploding pleasure of their orgasms had passed there was only silence, and then the sound of their laboured breathing. Khal moved away first, darting a quick glance in her direction before lying flat on his back.
Something in his eyes told her that he felt it too, this painful closeness. She inhaled, feeling a lingering tightness in her chest from the force of keeping her emotions in check. She stood from the bed, moving to the bathroom on shaky legs and closing the door gently behind her.
This was so much more than feeling overwhelmed by sex, she thought, biting her lip at her own naiveté. She had known she was in danger from the moment he had looked into her eyes in that wedding tent. He had started out as the man she had been forced to choose and somehow wound up being her perfect fit. Her lover. The word seemed to caress something deep inside her, a tiny speck of romanticism that she would never have dreamed existed within her cynical heart. But there it was, clear as day. And, just as that speck began to glow and blossom, realisation dawned that she had done what she had vowed not to do.
She had let her emotions get involved. She had fallen in love with her husband.
* * *
Khal woke with a start, a light sheen of sweat on his chest as he sat up in the unfamiliar bedroom. It took a moment to realise where he was. He stood up, walking to the long terrace doors and opening them a few inches to take in a breath of fresh air. The city of Valar spread out before him in a glittering blanket of lights. The dream had been much the same as it always was. Priya’s voice haunting him, reminding him of his unworthiness, only tonight she had not been alone. Beside her, Cressida had appeared, tears falling from her eyes.
He contemplated slipping out to his own room, but immediately disregarded the idea as cowardly. He was not some kind of lothario who slipped in and out of bedrooms in the darkness. He splashed some cold water on his face and went back into the bedroom. The light beside the bed was on and to his dismay he found Cressida was sitting up, waiting for him.
‘I had not meant to wake you.’ Khal lay heavily back down onto the bed, turning on his side to take in the beautiful sight that greeted him. Cressida lay back against the pillows, ash-blonde hair spilling around her bare shoulders and the satin sheets tucked demurely under her arms to cover her chest. The innocent display of modesty was a delicious distraction from his troubled thoughts; he could think of no better way to redirect his mind than by peeling away those sheets, inch by glorious inch...
‘You were talking in your sleep...’ Cressida disturbed his train of thought, a nervous tone to her quiet voice ‘... I was debating whether or not to wake you but then I heard you get up... I wasn’t sure if perhaps you were sleepwalking.’
‘I hope I at least said something entertaining,’ he joked easily, but still he wondered how much she might have gleaned from his night-time ramblings.
Cressida did not smile. ‘I believe that you...you were dreaming of your wife.’
He could hear the sadness in her voice, the uncertainty. ‘You are my wife. Let us not get mixed up on that fact, habibti.’
‘You were saying her name.’ She took her lip between her teeth, worrying it slightly, weighing up her words before she spoke. ‘Priya. Do you dream of her often?’
Khal exhaled, deeply uncomfortable with the turn this conversation had taken. He had never spoken to a soul about the dreams that’d plagued him since Priya’s death. How their final conversation seemed to haunt him so heavily. And even now, four years later, the dreams would come back every now and then. It tended to happen at very inopportune times, like when he slept in a jet surrounded by staff or the first night that he slept beside his new wife after making love... He silently cursed himself.
‘I’m not exactly sure what triggers the dream, maybe stress or lack of sleep. It just kind of happens every once in a while.’ He curled one arm behind his head and studied the ceiling for a moment, knowing the conversation had only begun, judging by the curious look on Cressida’s face.
‘No one ever seems to talk of how she died,’ Cressida said slowly. ‘It’s as though it’s some great big secret. Ironic, coming from me, I know.’
Khal attempted a smile but found the muscles in his face seemed suddenly tight. He did not speak of Priya’s death to anyone. He never had. Other than to aid in the investigations into her accident, no one addressed the subject and he certainly did not bring it into conversation. It felt as though every comfortable boundary in his life had begun to slowly erode from the moment he had met Cressida.
‘You don’t have to speak about it,’ she said quickly, feigning a sudden interest in the pattern on the sheets that covered her abdomen. ‘It’s probably quite presumptuous of me to even ask. I’m sorry.’
Khal felt like an utter ass, seeing the look on her face. Of course she had the right to ask; they were married and he had just been speaking another woman’s name in their bed. The rules surrounding their marriage were still blurred at present, neither of them knowing exactly what was okay or not. The initial agreement for a marriage in name only had most definitely been broken, but it left them in a kind of limbo. They were not man and wife in the truest sense, but neither were they the kind of formal arrangement he had originally envisioned. He knew that right now was most definitely one of those moments where he needed to do the difficult thing.
‘It’s not something I’m usually comfortable talking about,’ he said slowly, watching as her eyes raised up to meet his. He reached out and laid his hand over hers on the sheets. ‘But you spoke through your own discomfort; therefore perhaps it is only fair that I do the same.’
‘You don’t have to...’ Cressida began quickly.
‘I want to,’ he said, surprised to realise that he was speaking the truth. ‘I told you once before that my marriage was not all that it seemed. To the public we were untouchable. I was the picture-perfect husband and she the perfect wife.’ He shook his head, a cruel laugh escaping from his lips. ‘Not a single soul knows the last words she ever spoke to me... The words that haunt my dreams at night. She told me that she would rather die than be my wife a moment longer.’ Khal turned his head, expecting to see disgust in Cressida’s eyes. But what he saw there instead was more uncomfortable. Pity. Oh, how he had despised that look of pity on people’s faces in the months following his wife’s death.
‘Couples have arguments all of the time,’ Cressida began.
‘It was not the first time that she had spoken in that way.’ Khal shook his head. ‘I was not the best husband, by any standard.’ She didn’t understand; she didn’t realise that when Priya had said those words she had truly meant them.
‘How awful, to have that memory in your mind,’ Cressida said softly, covering his hand with hers.
Khal inhaled deeply, wanting to recoil from the pity he could hear in her voice. ‘You wanted to know how she died. I’ll tell you, but you must forgive me if I still hold some anger.’ He had unconsciously begun to tap his foot at some point, a nervous gesture that he constantly tried to overcome since teenage years. Kings did not fidget, he remembered his father telling him. Control—it was always about showing control.
‘There has never been a definitive answer on how she came to be on the road that she was, at the time that she was. One point of view is that she was on her
way to meet her lover. I was aware that she had been unfaithful to me on a number of occasions in the later years of our marriage.’ Khal saw a look of shock cross Cressida’s features, followed by a brief hint of anger. ‘Another view is that she purposely drove her car over the side of the ravine at a high speed in order to end her own life.’
Cressida winced, her grip tightening on his hand.
‘In Zayyari culture, both of those possibilities spell out shame. I was not prepared to have her name sullied, so the nature of her death was never disclosed. The perceived secrecy led to speculation and rumours. Most of which involved various theories of how I was a ruthless barbarian who had arranged his wife’s murder. Or worse, that I had killed her myself and had the truth covered up.
‘I was assured that her death was instantaneous. For that I was grateful.’ He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the onslaught of memories. The smell of burning rubber in the air as he had moved down the side of the sandbank, his guards shouting at him to stop. He remembered watching as one of his sports cars was hoisted from the shallow water. Priya’s lifeless body had already been transported to the morgue where he had identified her, but for some reason Khal had needed to see the car. He had needed to see the place where it had happened, to make sense of it all.
Claiming His Replacement Queen Page 13
