The Sheikh’s Unexpected Son: The Blooming Desert Series Book Three

by North, Leslie

  She pretended to consider for another moment, then stepped back to let Maram and Raed into the house. “I’ll need a few minutes to change. Unless we’re going somewhere casual.”

  “Put on one of your dresses for me once Jake is ready for bed.”

  Maram pretended to be absorbed in the painting that hung by the door—something by a local artist, Raed had told Lise.

  “Okay. It’ll just be a few minutes.” Lise beamed at Maram. “Make yourself at home.”

  Raed lingered at the bottom of the stairs while she went through Jake’s bedtime routine, and it felt strangely off without him. Lise missed his presence in the room and the way he pressed a kiss to the top of Jake’s head before he put him down in the crib. She had to take several deep breaths and recommit to slowing down, even if it meant keeping Maram and Raed waiting downstairs. Don’t rush this time with Jake, even if you desperately want to be out to dinner.

  Which she did.

  It had been a long time since Lise had accepted a dinner date. She dressed up regularly for her job, but pulling the black sheath dress from its hanger in the closet sent a thrill up both arms. One matching bra-and-panty set later, Lise ran into the bathroom and dove headfirst into her makeup bag. All those hours she’d spent in front of the mirror as a teen paid off handsomely in this moment. She had her evening look routine down to five minutes flat and finished it off by tying her hair into an elegant knot at the back of her head.

  Raed was still standing at the bottom of the stairs as she descended, and the look on his face when he caught sight of her—surprised and delighted, his gaze darkening with want—lit her up. Easy. Don’t lose your mind over a single dinner date, Lise warned herself. But facts were facts: no man had looked at her quite like that since she’d met Raed the first time.

  Maram had settled in on the sofa with a paperback in her hands, and she waved them out the door with an approving grin. A car waited in a space in front of the house—sleek and black, though not one of the usual royal SUVs. Raed squeezed her elbow and brushed by, taking his spot in the driver’s seat.

  “You’re taking us into the city?” Lise called after him.

  He’d already rolled down the windows, and his grin glinted in the dim light inside the car. “When I invited you to dinner with me, I meant with only me. Security will follow at a respectable distance.”

  Lise didn’t see any sign of the bodyguards who usually stayed close to Raed when he went outside the palace, but no matter. This was about a date. Not about bodyguards. She climbed into the passenger seat and buckled in while Raed rolled up the windows and tested his hands around the steering wheel. His shoulders dropped, and he looked completely at home driving.

  “We’re not racing to the restaurant, are we?”

  He reached over and took her hand. “I’ll go the speed limit.”

  Lise laughed. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Watch me.”

  He did drive the speed limit, all the way through the city. The sun had finished setting while she put Jake to bed, and now the lights spilled from store windows and streetlights, bathing everything in a glow that reminded her of being in college. Back then, nights had seemed endless and full of possibility. This night felt just like that. She let out a happy sigh. Life had gone differently than Lise thought it would. Who’d have predicted that she would be so taken with the idea of going out for one evening?

  Raed took one turn, then another. Lise took one calming breath, then another. She needed to think of this as a way to pass the time together, not some momentous occasion. Like going to the movies. Or having coffee together. Raed took a left into an underground parking garage, and Lise couldn’t help but search for clues about the restaurant. There were too many of them in the area to know which one Raed had chosen, and she didn’t even see security’s black SUV parked on the street.

  They climbed out of the car, and Raed offered her his elbow, which she held on to, pretending they were threading their way through a crowd at the opera. Maybe that was a little much, but this was her night out. For all she knew, it could be her only night out. They crossed the street and entered a building that looked like pure luxury. A gleaming white façade. Six stories. Lush flowers out front, and a uniformed doorman at the door. Raed nodded to them as they passed by.

  “This is not a restaurant,” Lise murmured into his ear.

  “This is unlike any restaurant you’ve ever seen.” They went into a lobby with high ceilings and a polished black floor, the center of which was covered by a long red carpet.

  “Are they not serving food?” Lise joked, but Raed only patted her hand with an indulgent smile that made her want to kiss him or smack him. Maybe both. He led her to a bank of elevators and Raed drew a white card from his pocket and pressed it against a keypad outside the last set of silver doors. Oh—not just an elevator, then. A private elevator. The doors slid open, and they stepped inside. Raed’s fingertips on her shoulders turned her away from him. “What am I looking at?”

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Nothing.”

  Then the blindfold came down over her eyes.

  She gasped, her hands flying to her face, but Lise didn’t pull it down, her heart hammering. “What kind of game are you playing?”

  He tied it firmly behind her head, tugging it to make sure it stayed in place, and pulled her back against him. For that moment, Raed was the only person in the world—there was nothing else except the tugging ascent of the elevator. A moment later, the doors opened again, and Raed’s hand on her back guided her out onto another stretch of soft carpeting.

  “Good evening,” said a man’s voice, smooth and welcoming. “I’ll be your personal guide tonight. Do you need help with your blindfold, sir?”

  “No, thank you.” Raed stepped away, and she felt his elbow brush against her upper arm. He really was tying on a blindfold, then. “We’re set.”

  “If you’d reach your hand out to my shoulder, I’ll take you to your table.”

  “What is this?” Lise kept her voice low. Who knew what kind of room they were entering? “Is it some kind of obstacle course?”

  The other man chuckled. “This is dark dining. All of our guests are similarly blindfolded, so you’ll have complete privacy—except for your voices, of course. It’s a unique sensory experience. Here’s your table. It’s a booth for two, tucked into a corner.”

  Lise reached forward and found the hardwood edge of the table, her knee bumping into the seat of the booth a second later. Raed followed her in. The lightest possible touch came after—the guide, showing her where her silverware was, where her water glass was, where everything was.

  “Your server will be by with the first course in a few minutes,” he said, and then she could sense the empty space where he had been—a shift in the air.

  “This is mind-blowing,” she whispered to Raed. “Just listening...”

  Every sound around them seemed amplified, and Lise craved more of it. Behind the blindfold she had no sense of the lighting in the room. It was probably kept dimmed so that mishaps with the blindfolds didn’t leave people stumbling and blinking, she decided. The swell of conversation rose around them—so, not a big room—and all of it was punctuated with the click and ring of silverware against china.

  “Incredible, isn’t it?” Raed’s hand caught hers so easily she wondered for a split second if he’d taken his blindfold off. Only one way to find out. Lise traced a path up his arm, over the crisp white shirt he wore, and found the smooth pane of his cheek. He felt...exquisite. Expensive. Like royalty. She’d never imagined that a person could feel royal, but there he was, all cut angles and defined cheekbones, a smile playing over his perfect mouth.

  “Good evening,” said a new voice. “I’ll be your waiter for this evening. Simply raise a hand if you need my attention, but I’ll be keeping note of anything you need. I have your first course.” Another gentle touch on her hand showed Lise where the edge of the plate was. She grabbed for a fork. “Mini
kebabs,” came that voice. “In a sauce of our chef’s invention.”

  It felt so risky and delicate to spear the plate with her fork and lift it to her mouth. Flavor exploded on her tongue—the sauce was sweet and salty and the beef underneath so tender that she let out a little noise. Raed’s hand—still holding hers—tensed.

  “That good?”

  “Haven’t you taken a bite?”

  “Not yet.” A laugh rumbled out of him. “And now that you’ve made that sound—”

  She squeezed his hand back. “We’re not leaving yet.” A charge went through her. “Here. Taste this.”

  Getting the bite to Raed’s mouth involved tracing the lines of his lips, and the blindfolds—if everyone was blindfolded, then Lise could risk...

  Once his mouth closed around his bite, she leaned in and brushed a kiss to those lips. Raed took in a sharp breath and then his hand was on her arm, tugging her closer, to kiss her again.

  It was like being hit by a wave—sudden and powerful, and she sat up, her whole body singing with the sensation. No one could see, but they were all so close—murkiness and laughing.

  “My turn,” said Raed, and then it was time for Lise to lift her chin and open her mouth for him. Another bite. Another burst of flavor.

  “This is—I think you planned this,” she breathed. “I think you chose the most distracting way to eat in the entire city.”

  “Distracting?” A stroke down her arm, his fingertips moving lightly over her wrist. “I think we’re both completely focused on this meal. Don’t you?”

  Yes. Yes. The courses came and went, but what stood out to Lise was the closeness of him. The warmth of Raed’s body, inches away in that booth. The sure touch of his fingertips as he fed her bite after bite. Her nipples peaked under her dress, and Lise found herself delightfully on edge. The waiters could see, after all, and so she let herself sit in the pleasant tension of wanting to climb into Raed’s lap and kiss him furiously and not allowing herself to do it. Not when anyone could see.

  By the time he took her hand and the two of them went out behind the guide, every inch of her was alive with that tension, alive and sensitive. Even when they removed their blindfolds at the elevator, her skin kept reacting like they were in the dark of the restaurant.

  It was impossible to keep her cool. It was nearly impossible to stop herself from reaching for his hand again, but she managed it. It had been a dinner date, that was all, and so what if Lise couldn’t let herself get farther than a few inches away from Raed as they walked? So what if she needed to lean into him, just a little?

  He brought her to the door of the cottage, night falling in dark silk sheets all around them, and she broke. Lise rose up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek in thanks, and Raed turned, his lips meeting hers, and—

  Oh. Yes. He kissed her slowly, taking all the time in the world, backing her up against the door and bracing one hand beside her head. He kissed her as if there was no chance anyone would ever see them and even if they did it wouldn’t matter. He devoured her, and Lise parted her lips and let him in—and then she kissed him back, the heat intensifying, the want intensifying until she threw her arms around his neck and—

  The cry from inside woke her up from the dream.

  12

  Raed’s heart reacted to his son’s call before he could tear himself away from Lise, but they both drew back, breathing hard.

  “Mama!” Jake cried, his voice muffled by distance and the door. Raed stepped around Lise and opened it, and then they were inside, meeting Maram’s eyes. She was halfway up the stairs.

  “He just started calling a minute ago,” she told them. “I think he wants his mother.”

  “Thank you so much, Maram. No need to stay.” Lise smiled at her. “Thank you. Thank you.” And then Maram was gone, and the two of them could both go up the stairs to Jake, standing at the side of his crib, arms reaching.

  Raed got there first, gathering the little boy into his arms and rubbing a hand down his back.

  “What happened?” he murmured. “Did you wake up with Maram here and not Mama? It’s all right,” he soothed. “We’re here now.” Lise reached over and stroked his hair. Jake leaned his head against Raed’s chest, his body relaxing, the fight going out of him. He was snoozing again within a minute. Raed bent over the crib and put him gently back down, and then he and Lise tiptoed out, closing the door softly behind them.

  Her eyes had been glowing from the dinner when they first arrived—excitement had infused her kiss. But now her shoulders sagged, and she glanced away as she brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  Lise’s green eyes flew back to his, a rueful smile flickering across her face. “I’m feeling guilty,” she admitted. “For having been away from Jake so much. He’s with a nanny so often while I work, and now, while we were out—” She shook her head. “Of course he goes to day care when we’re in the UK, but the guilt still gets to me.”

  He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. This woman—this woman—had raised her baby without his father for so long.

  “You’re a great mother,” he insisted, feeling the truth of it behind his breastbone. “You should be proud.” Raed pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her. “You should be so proud of yourself, Lise.”

  “You’re a great father,” she said into his shirt.

  An earthquake of feeling rocked him on his feet. A great father? He hadn’t even known he was a father until recently. He hadn’t been there for those long early nights or the months of introducing foods or all those trips to day care. He had not had his son where he belonged, on the palace grounds, where he’d be safe. And yet Lise was still offering him this gift.

  He tipped her face toward his and kissed her.

  She returned the kiss hungrily, with all the heat from their kiss at the door returning a hundredfold, heating and heating until he was reaching for her clothes, tugging uselessly at them in the hallway. The black sheath dress had to be stripped off from the hem, he decided, but Raed couldn’t stop kissing her. He kissed her all the way into the master bedroom and positioned Lise by the foot of the bed. Cheeks flushed, she tipped her head back and let him kiss all the way down her neck to where the dress skimmed her collarbone. He continued down her arm to her wrist, to her fingertips, and then pulled the dress over her head.

  Lise lifted her arms to help him do it, and the sheer obedience of it, the trusting nature of it, squeezed at his heart. As soon as her dress was off she lunged for his shirt, tearing at the buttons with such force that he thought he might lose a few of them in the process. He’d gladly sacrifice a hundred buttons—a thousand—to see her this way, pupils blown dark and open with desire and her lips slightly parted, waiting to be kissed again. A desperate fire flared in the pit of his belly, and even as Lise unbuttoned his shirt he forced himself to concentrate on unhooking her bra and guiding it off her shoulders.

  Her nipples stood out proud and peaked, and he took the invitation, rolling each one between his fingers as she shivered and gasped, then finally thrust the shirt back over his shoulders. Raed stripped off his undershirt next, and Lise dropped to her knees, hands working at his belt. His zipper. The pants felt to the floor, and he stepped out of them. Lise was already tugging down his boxers, and the length of him sprang free.

  Her mouth was on it instantly. Hot. Warm. Taking him in with delicate strokes of her tongue. Her nails dug into the backs of his thighs, pulling him closer. A groan tore from his throat. Raed wound his fingers through her hair, disturbing the bun at her neck, popping it free from its restraints and letting all her hair loose down her back as she flattened her tongue against him so he could feel her precise licks and strokes all along his length.

  Raed could spend hours letting her do this. On any other day. Today, he was too desperate to wait, and he pulled her up from the floor and took her mouth again. Lise hung her weight around his neck, and the two of them tipped backward onto the bed,
and all his muscles engaged as he moved them to the center so he could have her.

  Have her now.

  He bent to kiss her clit, making her wriggle and writhe underneath him.

  “Hurry,” she urged. “Hurry, hurry.” Lise threw him off, twisting around to reach the bedside table, and her mouth crashed into his again a moment later as she pressed a foil packet into his hand. He had never rolled on a condom with such intense focus in his life, and then he was over her, pushing inside of her, taking her again.

  All the memories from their time together cascaded down over him, making him go deeper, harder. Raed hadn’t known how much he would think about her afterward. He had taken her body and her voice and her mind for granted—he didn’t take it for granted now. The sex was hot, elemental, wild, and he reached up to cover her mouth to stop the moans from waking up their son.

  Somehow he’d expected a slow seduction, but this wasn’t it. This was fevered, hungry sex, and Raed lost himself to it. His body worked over Lise, and all of his senses fired with her. Her hair, spread out over the pillow. Her mouth, panting for breath. Fingernails down his back. Her hips, rising to meet his, again and again and again.

  All the ideas of the kind of woman Raed had wanted flickered through his head and winked out one by one. How could he ever want anything but this? Anything but Lise? He felt connected to her below the skin, in the very center of his heart and body. The sounds she made called to something in him, something ancient and possessive, and he lowered his mouth to her skin to tease it with his teeth.

  “Oh—” she said into the palm of his hand. “Oh, oh—”

  And then Lise’s strength met his as she wrapped her legs around his waist and shoved, rocking them both onto their sides and then pushing Raed down onto his back.