She suddenly felt exhausted, limp, and when he eased off her but held her in such a way that kept their bodies intimately joined, she moaned as she rested her head against his chest. She felt his arms tighten around her and she snuggled closer to him.
And when she felt the gentle kiss he placed on her forehead and the words he whispered telling her to rest, she opened her eyes slightly to stare at him, love rising in her chest, in all parts of her body, and she heard herself whisper words to him before drifting off to sleep.
Rasheed lay there and watched Johari slept. He had not meant for her emotions to come into play. He had not meant for her to fall in love with him. Yet those were the very words she had spoken before drifting off to sleep. She had whispered she loved him.
She was to marry one man but had fallen in love with another. But then, he had to remind himself, although she didn’t know—she didn’t have a clue—he was one and the same.
He rubbed a hand down his face. What had started out as a way to teach her a lesson about being rebellious had backfired on him and in a big way. It seemed he was the one who had been taught a lesson. No two women were the same and, as far as he was concerned, Johari was in a class by herself. At twenty-four, a virgin, she had made him feel things no other woman had. And he wasn’t sure just what he would do about it. A wife was not supposed to make her husband feel these things and to this degree.
And he wasn’t sure he wanted a wife to love him. Obeying him would have been enough. Women in love got possessive toward a man when it came to other women. She had already made it clear that she wanted to be the only woman in her future husband’s life and didn’t relish the thought of him having mistresses. If she fancied herself in love with him that would only make matters worse.
Now he was faced with the problem of what to do. Tomorrow they would leave Vanuatu to spend their remaining days on his Greek island, then they would return to New York. He would not be completely satisfied until he watched her get on a plane headed for the Middle East and then later get a call from Jamal informing him she was safely back in Tahran.
Chapter 13
“Your secret is out, Monty. I know where you are from now.”
Monty’s hands paused in midair. He lifted his head and glanced into Johari’s eyes. She was lying on her stomach on a blanket as he leaned over her and rubbed lotion onto her back. They had arrived at his oceanfront villa on the Greek island yesterday and had spent most of today outside on the beach. He had requested that none of his staff be present when he arrived so he and Johari would have the small island to themselves.
She was smiling and his breath caught as he inhaled deeply before moving his hand again, his fingers coming into contact with the smoothness of her skin. He loved touching her. He loved kissing her. He loved making love to her. But most importantly, he loved being with her.
“And where do you think I’m from?” he asked, his eyes never leaving hers as he continued to stroke her back.
“From here. I heard how you converse with the people at the airport. You were comfortable with them. Comfortable in being here. You are from here. You speak Greek too fluently not to be.”
The tenseness flowed from his body and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her reasoning. “I speak several languages fluently,” he said honestly.
She shifted her body, flipping onto her back to stare directly into his face. “Are you saying you are not Greek?”
Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? “Do you want me to be Greek for some reason, Jo?” he asked, and then held his breath awaiting her response.
He watched as a smile touched her lips, beginning at the corners and then spreading before she said, “It doesn’t matter to me, Monty. I enjoy being with you. Your nationality is of no concern. What matters is that you are a good person, someone I trust. Someone I love being with. I’ve had such an amazing time with you.”
She lowered her head and he watched as she then lifted it back up while drawing in a slow, deep breath. “And I don’t look forward to my time ending with you. I will think of you every day of my remaining time here on earth.”
He could feel his heart pumping fast and furious and knew he needed to help her understand why she couldn’t feel that way about him—especially not as the stranger who had entered her life, swept her off her feet, seduced her mercilessly and had somehow captured her heart. He had to make it real for her now. Allow reality to set back in. They had only three more days to spend together.
“And how do you think your fiancée will feel about that?” he asked, staring deeply into her eyes. “Will you ever tell him about the time you’ve spent here with me?”
Holding her gaze, he saw how her entire body responded to the reminder that she was engaged to marry another. “No, I won’t tell him,” she answered somberly. “I’m sure he will come to our marriage with secrets of his own. Secrets he won’t have any qualms about not sharing with me. So it will only be fair that I keep a few of my own, as well.”
He nodded, thinking he could accept her reasoning considering her ingrained rebellious nature, a trait that was beginning to grow on him. It kept him on his toes and his body aroused. “And after you are married,” he ventured on to say, “if our paths cross and the opportunity presents itself, will you become my lover again if I can discreetly make it possible?”
He watched as pain settled into the depths of her eyes before she shifted her body to sit up. She then reached out and touched his face. “Please, Monty, don’t ask that of me, for I cannot. I am here with you now, but this is all there can ever be for us. Once I commit my life to my husband I could not and will never betray him, no matter what. Not even for you. I will be committed to my marriage vows.”
He stared at her. “Even if he refuses to give up his mistresses?”
He saw the grief in her eyes when she said, “Yes, even then.”
She then leaned up and placed her head against his chest. When he felt a tear touch his skin he fought everything within him to tell her the truth right then and there. But at that moment he could not risk seeing what he knew was love in her eyes turn into hate. And when a whimper eased from her lips he tightened his arms around her.
“Shh. It’s okay, Jo. Forgive me for bringing him up,” he whispered close to her ear. “I, too, will cherish these days, these moments and I, too, will never forget.”
And he would not, especially when she discovered the truth of his duplicity. There would be hell to pay and he had a feeling she wouldn’t forgive easily and that’s what bothered him the most. He was silent and so was she. His hands stroked her back and he wondered at the situation he was now in. It was one of those where his friend Jake would laughingly say the hunter had gotten captured by the game. And so it was.
He had always appreciated women. He thought they were boxes of jewels filled with surprises, excitement and pleasure. A few he had decided were challenges, especially those who thought they could capture his heart, tame his soul or make him vulnerable to their lovemaking skills. But he knew now, could easily admit, the woman he held in his arms was different. She had taught him that there could be more important things to share with a woman than endless passion, unspeakable pleasures and never-ending sexual gratification. There were things such as companionship and contentment. Johari’s willful, rebellious and defiant nature challenged him in more ways than one. In the bedroom she’d had an innocent thirst for carnal knowledge and outside the bedroom she was still everything he would want in a lover, and he would even go so far as to admit that she was everything he would look forward to having in a wife.
She lifted her face from his chest and pushed her fingers through her hair after quickly wiping away the last of her tears. “I’m sorry. I did not mean to become emotional. I am here to have a good time.” And then in a soft voice, she added, “There will be no regrets, Monty.”
He reached out, captured her chin in the palm of his hand. He was silent for a long moment as he studied her features, immersing his vi
sion in every single detail. He knew at that moment his only regret would be when the truth was brought to light and she assumed the worst. But then hadn’t the worst been his plan all along in order to teach her a lesson? A lesson she rightly deserved to learn?
He could feel himself floundering in that regard, going so far as to consider having a change of heart. But a part of him, the part that refused to give in to emotions of any kind, stood fast, unmovable. So here he was fighting for a sense of balance and logical thinking where she was concerned and wasn’t doing a good job of it.
At that moment he didn’t want balance or logical thinking. He wanted her. And he wanted her in a way he’d never wanted a woman before and on his secluded Greek island underneath a beautiful June sky. Here out in the open. No restraints.
“I want you, Jo.”
He leaned over and captured her mouth, sliding his tongue into it at the same time he lowered her back onto the towel. Those four words were ones he had found himself saying a lot lately and each time he’d said them, he meant them.
There was an intensity in their kiss, a countdown of the days they had left. Not many of them. And a promise to make the rest of them special, more than significant in some way. He wanted to remember every detail of her mouth, every single inch and how it felt to use his tongue to taste her, make her groan and whimper as he raised the level of pleasure for both of them.
He felt her hands gripping his shoulders and then they wrapped around his neck when he took the kiss deeper still. She was as desperate to taste him as he was to taste her and it showed in the way she was responding. Her taste was erotic. It fired his senses, escalated his arousal and made him want to get inside her something awful.
He pulled back and breathed in deeply. It didn’t take much time to dispense of her skimpy bathing suit or his swimming trunks. The earth seemed to tilt the moment he rose above her. Naked. Hard. Ready. He stared down at her as desire vibrated through him, in every single pore of his body. Instinctively, she raised her hips to him and the feel of her heated flesh on him sent shivers down his spine. When he slid inside of her, a maelstrom of pleasure, as deep as it could get, ripped through him.
When he began to move, his senses exploded in a need so strong he had to fight to retain control. But moments later he lost it when her inner muscles began stroking him, pulling him in, taking everything he had to give, increasing his hunger for her that much more.
His greed was reflected in his deep penetration, his downward thrusts. Her body deserved satisfaction and he was giving it to her in every way he could. And when an orgasm struck, a rumbled groan erupted from his throat the moment he felt himself go up in flames. Profound rapture, as intense as it could get, shot through his system.
And seemingly spontaneously, she was consumed to the same degree of pleasure. She screamed his name as the lower part of her body held on to him, clenched him tighter within her, gripped his shaft with her inner muscles, holding it hostage until the very last of the semen was drained from him.
It was only then that he bent his head and captured her lips, licking and nipping at the corners before thrusting his tongue into her mouth, tasting her with a voraciousness that made him pull his mouth back and growl out his pleasure.
At that moment he knew that she had drawn more out of him than his seed. The feel of her chipping away at his guard, the security net and the safety shield he had kept for thirty-nine years around his heart, nearly broke his control. The very thought that she had accomplished such a thing sent shock waves through him and he felt consumed by her in a way he had never felt consumed before.
And for the first time in his life more than lust was driving him. And when he stared down at her, held by the depths of her incredible, beautiful, dark eyes, he knew Johari Yasir had done the impossible. She had captured his heart. Totally. Completely. Exclusively.
He heard his own sharp intake of breath at that admission and didn’t want to think about what that meant and how such an emotion thrown into the mix now drastically changed his plans. He no longer wanted to humiliate her before putting her on a plane bound for Tahran by telling her how he’d intentionally set out to seduce her just to teach her a lesson.
He forced those thoughts to the back of his mind to deal with them later. Right now the only thing he wanted to concentrate on was the woman beneath him whom he wanted to make love to all over again.
“More.” That one word flowed from his mouth in a ragged and rough tone, and he watched her gaze darken with renewed desire the same moment she licked across her bottom lip with her tongue.
Without giving her the chance to drive him any further over the edge, he leaned down and captured her lips at the same time he began moving inside her. The one word that suddenly flared to his mind was mine.
And he knew at that moment that Johari was truly his.
Chapter 14
Exactly two weeks after their first meeting Johari stood on the balcony of Monty’s condo in New York and stared down at him. He was standing below on the sidewalk talking to the man who had picked them up from the airport yesterday.
Ishaq’s appearance was a stark reminder that her time with Monty was up and he would be taking her to the airport. She had called and spoken to her mother and, surprisingly, no questions had been asked. Nor had her mother seemed surprised that she would be flying out of New York and not California. But she could tell by the exuberance in her mother’s voice that she was glad she was coming home. A private plane would arrive at the Kennedy Airport for her around noon today.
Johari had then placed a call to Cel, who had agreed to bring Copper to the airport so she could cuddle him one last time before she left the States. She didn’t want to think about when and if she would ever see her puppy again.
The sound of a car horn blasting broke into Johari’s thoughts and she watched as Ishaq walked toward the limo he’d been driving, leaving Monty standing alone. He was extremely handsome and elegantly dressed in a tailored business suit. His attire was another stark reminder that her carefree days had come to an end.
She left the balcony to return to his bedroom to continue packing. She would not only miss this place but all the other places she had been with Monty. When she had arrived in New York two weeks ago she had figured she would mostly stay in her hotel room and venture out in late evenings in time to enjoy the nightlife as she sought out lively entertainment. She’d had no idea that a handsome stranger would whisk her away to three different islands where she would spend time with him and indulge in fantasies she had only dreamed about. He had given her enough exciting moments to last forever.
After arriving back here yesterday they had spent most of their time in bed, ordering room service when the need for food had overtaken their need for each other. That hadn’t been often. It was as if they needed to store up all the passion they could, knowing it would never come their way again. At least she doubted it would come her way. There was no doubt in her mind that once she was gone Monty would replace her with someone else. A part of her could not get angry about it, because she’d known he was a sophisticated, experienced and worldly man, a jet-setting playboy. But that knowledge hadn’t kept her from flying off with him. Nor had it stopped her from falling in love with him.
At the sound of footsteps she turned toward the open door and seconds later Monty walked into the room. His presence caused her heart to begin pounding in her chest and sent a stirring in the pit of her stomach. She would miss him. Oh, how she was going to miss him.
“I’m almost packed,” she said when she met his gaze and saw intense heat lodged there.
“No hurry. Ishaq is early. We still have time.” He hesitated for a moment and then said, “Come here, Jo.” He then reached his hand out to her. “I want to hold you for a while.”
Without any hesitation, Johari crossed the room and placed her hand in his. He swept her into his arms and carried her over to the love seat and sat down with her in his lap.
For a long moment nei
ther of them said anything. In essence there was nothing left to say. In a few hours it would be time to part ways. Since she wasn’t sure whether or not Jamal would be on the plane sent to get her, she had asked Monty not to be seen with her once they arrived at the airport. She needed to walk in alone. He had reluctantly agreed.
She lifted a smiling face up to him. “I talked to Cel and she will have Copper at the airport so I can give him one final hug before I leave the States,” she said to break the silence.
“That is kind of her to do so.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed, aware of the sexual tension building between them. She then added, “I’m sure Copper will be well cared for.”
“I’m sure that he will be.”
She nodded. “I wonder if he will miss me.”
“Yes, he will miss you. I will miss you.”
She felt his hands tightening around her waist and felt the huge, hard bulge beneath her bottom. They had made love that morning, a number of times. Greed and a need for memories seemed to have overtaken their senses.
She twisted around in his arms, needing to see him, to feel his heat one last time, to fuse to her mind his perfect features. Beautiful and flawless as anything she’d ever seen. When he darted his tongue out to lick the corner of her mouth, she became breathless, had to force herself to take a deep intake of air.
“Last night you proved just how resourceful you are in putting all your new knowledge to use.”
A blush crept across her face with his mention of what she had done last night. In a surprise move she had pushed him onto his back and, before he could stop her, she had gone down on him, taken him into her mouth and made love to him that way. She had known from his groans and the tight hold on her hair that his enjoyment was just as deep as hers. And when she finally released him and lifted her head to smile up at him, the satisfied pleasure she’d seen in his eyes touched her in a way that made her pulse race.
Wrapped In Pleasure Page 29
