Sheik Down

Sheik Down

Mia Watts

He had everything—except for the one thing he wants…

A loner most of his life, Sheik Raid Faisal has the Royal pedigree, the lucrative jewelry business and billions of dollars at his disposal. What he doesn't have is Lucas Talstaad bound, bent and begging. That's about to change.

Lucas has been Raid's sole building contractor for the past seven years, and in love with him for half of them. Building BDSM furniture for the sheik has Lucas's cock in a bind—in more ways than one. He's never been submissive to anyone, but Raid presents a tempting offer. Sex and satisfaction, no-strings attached, suddenly gets messy when Lucas goes after Raid's unavailable heart.

eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement of the copyright of this work.

SHEIK DOWN

Shades of Naughty Collection

Copyright © 2013 MIA WATTS

Cover art by Amanda Kelsey

Edited by Trinity Scott

ISBN:
978-1-936387-60-1

All Romance eBooks, LLC Palm Harbor, Florida 34684

www.allromanceebooks.com

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental.

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with out written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First All Romance eBooks publication: May 2013

Raid Faisal made Lucas sweat. Not the sexy kind of sweat that made a guy look like he’d just oiled his body after pumping iron, but that nasty, armpit-itching, cold line down your back kind of sweating that never did anybody any favors. Raid Faisal was sex in a tailored European suit. He wore the modern low-rise waistline and flawlessly tapered business shirts that skimmed the lean, narrow line of his torso with a casual elegance of being born into it.

He could’ve stepped from a fashion magazine. Like
GQ
. Hell, he could’ve stepped out of
Forbes
and been perfectly positioned among its ranks, because
Sheik
Raid Faisal wasn’t just a walking, talking orgasm. Sheik Raid Raisal had
bank
. The
bank
of a royal Arabian family behind him, thanks to the love affair of one wayward prince for an American debutante some thirty-five years ago.

And thanks to that same heritage, the owner of Kanz international jewelry chain had the natural bronzed skin, black curled hair and ebony eyes of his mixed heritage. The sonofabitch was blessed, from his equine nose to his full, smooth lips.

Lucas Talstaad dreaded working for the no-nonsense perfectionist. Yet four times a year, Lucas cleared his schedule. Raid coming to town meant something in his hillside mansion would need renovating. Despite the list of impossible demands Raid would give him, Lucas would take the paycheck. In turn, Lucas would bring his demands back to reality, then ride his Raid’s last nerve to watch the muscle tick in Raid’s perfect jaw, and do it
knowing
he was the only contractor the sheik trusted.

They’d been doing this dance for seven years. If Raid wanted something to happen between them personally, he’d have made damn sure to lock Lucas down like any other business deal. Raid hadn’t, which meant that the incredibly lickable Raid Faisal was completely and utterly off-limits.

So it was for business, not pleasure, that he stood in the main entryway of Raid’s home, with his tool belt slung low on his hips. He could hear Raid’s dark, sultry voice echoing off the marble as he approached. Like hearing the musical buildup before a shark attack, Lucas had a crazy mix of butterflies and dread.

“See that it’s done,” Raid murmured before ending his call.

Lucas stayed perfectly still as that black gaze traveled over his face—but only his face, sadly. Raid had rolled up his sleeves, revealing beautiful forearms covered with crisp black hairs. The silver-toned watch he always wore glittered beneath the chandelier lights. So did Raid’s smile when his lips suddenly parted on a deep laugh.

“Lucas! Good to see you.”

Lucas smiled too. “Raid,” he acknowledged, tipping his head in a brief nod.

Lucas would like to say that every time he saw the man he felt exactly the same way—stunned with his good looks but otherwise on the job. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true. Three years ago, the job Raid pulled him into had sealed the deal on Lucas’s heart. A very important, lavish, one-room tree house, designed by Raid for a little boy dying of a horrible disease. That had been the linchpin.

Well, probably not the tree house itself, more like watching Raid interact with the boy in the garden, seeing them run and laugh and watching the brick façade of Raid’s normal demeanor crumble into a million pieces all for the joy of a child. That instant, when Lucas caught a glimpse of the man beneath the business, he knew—
knew
—he was in trouble.

“What do you have for me?” Lucas asked, all serious talk on the outside, when his insides were a puddle of warm chocolate.

“A special project.” Raid’s smile disappeared and his gorgeous black eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “This is one you may not want to participate in. If that’s the case, I’ll need to know up front so I can hire another contractor.”

“Have I ever let you down?” Lucas asked, affronted.

“Never. This time it’s personal.”

“More personal than the tree house?”

“And far more confidential than anything you’ve ever created for anyone.”

“Now how would you know that, Raid. I’ve never discussed any of my outside jobs with you,” Lucas teased lightly.

Raid wasn’t smiling.

Lucas mirrored him. This time really
was
different. “Okay. Let’s go to your office and see what you want done. I’ll find the most discreet men to pull the project together.”

“No, Lucas. Only you.”

Lucas’s cock filled. The way those words spilled across Raid’s lips in his dark voice rose goose bumps on Lucas’s arms and made him think all kinds of dirty thoughts. None of them were job related.

“Right.” It was the only word that fit through Lucas’s constricted throat as he fought the lust clawing its way through him.

Raid didn’t lead him to the well-appointed office. He led him toward the back of the mansion, and through several lesser hallways. At the end, he opened an ordinary white door.

“This door will have to be soundproofed,” he began.

Lucas relaxed instantly. Of course a guy like Raid would want a private media room. He probably wanted stadium seating too. Why it had to be confidential was anyone’s guess. Maybe he’d use it for brainstorming sessions with his board, complete with visual aid work-ups. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. Lucas would give him everything he asked for and more. Just like always.

“Soundproofing won’t be a problem. I can think of a dozen fantastic places where I can get solid doors that will match the existing one here, so that nobody will know this door is different from any of the others in the hall.”

“Excellent. And locks. I want a key-coded entry lock,” Raid told him.

“A little harder to hide, but doable. I can imbed it in the wall. I can put it behind that picture there.” Lucas pointed to a painting several feet away. “Using an existing piece means it won’t stand out to anyone. The door can open on a three-second delay to give you time to approach.”

“Follow me.”

Lucas followed.

“Motion sensitive lights that are programmable as to intensity,” Raid said.

Lucas moved with him down stone-laid steps to the bottom landing. A large room stretched out before him. The poured concrete floors were professionally stained. The walls resembled the gray, bland textures of a warehouse. Lucas had already known this room existed from the house plans he had on file.

Raid prowled closer, as though there were a hundred people in the same space and he didn’t want to be overheard by any of them. “You’ll build special furniture for me here. Later, once I’m satisfied by the unique work I’m requesting, a secret passage with two opening points. One will enter my bedroom. The other, my office. They’ll lead here and be unnoticeable to anyone but me. Can you do that?”

“I’ll have to steal space from the two rooms and some of the adjoining ones. I’ll study the blueprints, but anything is possible,” Lucas answered, trying not to get lost in the other man’s charisma.

“The furniture comes before anything else.” Raid must’ve seen his surprise, because he smiled. “A carpenter’s special of solid beams and metal accents. I have sketches for you to follow to exact specifications. I will also hang items from the ceiling. The ceiling will need to be shored up.”

The way Raid looked at him—speculatively and a bit like he was testing Lucas’s fortitude—tightened Lucas’s jeans a little more.

“How much weight do you want the beams to support?” Lucas asked.

Raid’s smile turned feral. “How much do you weigh, Lucas?”

“Excuse me?”

Raid’s smile smoothed and mellowed. “Enough to hold the weight of a grown man and then add another hundred, just in case.”

“Capacity of three hundred to three hundred and fifty then. What are you making, a ceiling-mounted bowling ball shelf?’

“Suspended balls are definitely on my agenda,” Raid answered.

He said it so calmly that Lucas was sure the double meaning was the fault of his own charged libido and not because the savvy businessman had meant anything other than exactly what he’d said. Wishful thinking was a bitch.

“I’m having cameras installed in each corner of the room tomorrow morning,” Raid continued. “They’ll have night vision capabilities. All the furniture will be in direct line of those lenses.”

“Raid…” Lucas couldn’t stand it anymore. His mind was going a thousand times a minute and if he didn’t get clarification soon, he knew his cock would jump to the wrong conclusion. There’d be no getting the image of a sex dungeon out of his mind if that happened. “
What
am I building?”

Raid slipped his hands in his pocket. He blinked coolly at Lucas. “A playroom.”

“Playroom?” Lucas asked. As in, childcare? That would explain the cameras, but the private entrances and cement floor?

“Sex, Lucas. You’ve heard of
sex
, correct?”

Lucas’s cheeks rushed with heat, which was ridiculous because he was a grown man. Of course he’d heard of sex. It was sex he had been trying desperately
not
to think of the whole morning. Now he was expected to build a sex room for Raid? To imagine all the women he’d drag in there, torment them to the point of orgasm, imagine their pleasured screams and Raid’s cock pounding—oh, God. Lucas’s balls throbbed jealously.

“Sex. Sure, I know what that is,” Lucas answered dryly. “It’s the letter following ‘W’ in the alphabet.”

Raid threw his head back and laughed. The deep, booming sound filled the open space and bounced off the walls. “I don’t know about that, but I’d like to learn
your
alphabet. Sounds much more fun than mine.”

“I’d love to teach you my alphabet,” Lucas answered. Then he winced when he realized exactly how suggestive that sounded.

Raid’s eyes still danced with humor and his wide white smile did funny things to make breathing difficult for Lucas.

“Perhaps I’ll let you teach me someday,” Raid replied.

Lucas’s gaze sharpened on him. Had Raid
meant
to sound that sexy? Because it had sounded like—just for a second there—Raid might be into sex with Lucas.

“Do you like my plan?”

“For a sex dungeon?” he murmured, pretending to consider the room at large by not looking at the man who tied up his insides in giant lusty knots. “Yeah, it’ll work.”

Raid caught Lucas’s chin and wrenched it to face him. “I didn’t ask if it would work. I asked if you liked my plan for a room dedicated to sex.”

Raid’s obsidian eyes bored into Lucas. They glittered, and this close Lucas didn’t resist the urge to
look
at the man. His permanently sun-kissed face may have been several inches lower than his own, but Raid’s absolute control wouldn’t allow Lucas to mistake him as weaker. Raid’s tight body reined in every extraneous movement from the way he walked to the stillness in his current hold over Lucas.

Lucas admired the high gloss of Raid’s black curls, the textured roughness along his jaw just below the surface of his skin, and locked on full lips that slowly, slowly pulled into a knowing smile.

“Say it,” Raid demanded, his voice barely above a rasp.

Lucas clamped his still-captive jaw, refusing to admit that there was a big, sexy elephant in the room holding a whip with its trunk.

Raid moved closer. His body heat radiated toward him and though they stood in a room that could easy hold a small home, Lucas felt completely enclosed by the simple presence of this man and his electric stare.

“You don’t think I’ve seen you look at me?” Raid questioned. “Do you think I took my father’s company this far without being keenly observant?”