Winter Blockbuster 2012 (17 page)

She was so grateful he hadn’t pushed her. Maybe she might have taken longer to get to this stage if they hadn’t already been married, but for now there was no reason to delay. This was the man she was wedded to. This was the man she was bound to.

And when she looked up at him, tall and broad and wanting her, it felt not such a bad place to be.

‘Are you still scared?’ he asked as he gathered her into his arms. She nodded, afraid to speak lest he hear the quake in her voice, before he said, ‘Then I will do my best to make it as pleasurable as possible. I owe you that, at least.’

His hot mouth went to work on her to smooth her concerns away as he laid her reverently on the bed. He made no move to undress her, and she wanted to cry with relief, for she wasn’t yet ready to bare everything to him. It felt so good, anyway. He made it feel so good.

He made
her
feel so good.

She liked the way he kissed, giving her all he had to give. Their mouths meshed, his tongue inviting hers into the dance.
She liked the way his hands skimmed her body, curving over a hip or cupping a breast, making her gasp when his thumb flicked over a sensitive nipple.

She liked the way his body felt under her hands. Firm. Strong. Sculpted.

Except she was too hot and he was wearing too many clothes. Way too many clothes. She pulled his shirt from his trousers so she could slide her hands up the bare skin of his back, relishing the feel of skin against skin, only it was not nearly enough to satisfy her.

And all the while the need inside her built, the heat inside her escalated. She felt as if she was losing herself, drowning under a wave of sensations, but wanting more, driven to find more.

He gave her more.

His mouth dipped to her breast, his hot tongue laving at her nipple, and she gasped as heat met need in a rush that sent sensation spearing through her, a direct line from breast to her heated core.

She was way too hot, and if his hand hadn’t already been at her knee, smoothing her abaya up from her legs, she would have ripped it off herself. His hand scooped higher, deliciously higher, as his mouth wove magic at her breast and she wound her fingers through his hair hoping that he would pause,
there
, where her need was so great.

But he did not pause. She whimpered a little as he moved on and drew her gown higher over her belly. He lifted his mouth now, so that he could slip her gown higher, his fingers trailing sparks under her skin, or so it seemed. She unwound her arms and he eased the gown over her head and rocked back on his knees, looking down at her in just her underwear, drinking her in from her toes to her eyes, looking at her in a way that banished her fears that he might find fault with her
now when she was so close, that put a fire under her blood. ‘You are beautiful, Princess,’ he said as he unbuttoned his shirt. ‘You are perfection.’

His voice was so thick and tight that it was like gravel against her senses. His dark eyes were almost black, and brimming with need.

She knew little of love-making apart from what she had read in books, but she knew that it must be taking too long because this need inside her burned so hot!

‘I want you,’ she said, wanting him to know that in case he was taking his time because he thought she might yet change her mind. He growled deep in his throat, tore the shirt from his shoulders and undid the buckle of his belt. She watched, transfixed, as his busy, clever hands worked the trousers undone, watched hungrily as he slid them over his hips and kicked them aside.

She gazed at his masculine beauty, at the perfection of his form, at the bulge in his underwear, before he joined her once again on the bed, scooping her back into his arms.

Skin brushed by the cooling air was now brushed with the smooth of his hand and with his heated lips. He kissed her lips, nose and eyes, he trailed kisses down her throat, took her hand and kissed his way up her arm, her wrist, the inside of her elbow and down the other.

He didn’t so much kiss her as worship her body, and when he dispensed with her bra she let it go with no protest. Why would she protest when her breasts wanted his mouth on them with no barrier between them?

His tongue took a wicked trail across her belly and it was almost too much, her body never more alive, never more on fire. And then his hand cupped her mound and her spine arched into the bed. ‘Please,’ she begged.

‘What do you want, Princess?’

‘I want you,’ she gasped. ‘Inside me.’

Laughter rumbled from him and into her as his mouth found her thigh and he proceeded to kiss his way down one leg.

Why was he taking so damned long? Her hands fisted in the covers as she was driven wild with desire, wild with need. She needed him inside her, and he was raining kisses on her instep.

‘Someone is impatient,’ he said as she kicked at him, urging him on.

‘Haven’t I waited long enough?’ she came back with, her chest heaving, pulling her leg away.

‘But if you have waited this long, surely a few more minutes won’t matter?’

‘I might die before then,’ she replied and threw her head back into the pillows as he kissed his way up her inner thigh. ‘Oh God.’

‘Do you like that?’

‘Mmm,’ she managed. He must have been listening because she felt his fingers trace the waistline of her lace panties, felt them sneak under and scoop them down, felt his hands gentle her legs apart.

Oh God
.

Every cell in her body tensed and clamped shut. This was it!

It was, and yet it wasn’t, for in one shocked moment she realised his head was still between her thighs. ‘You can’t,’ she said, then he parted her and she felt the sweep of his tongue against her inner lips and she almost cried out with the utter pleasure of it—did cry out when she felt his tongue circle that tiny, concentrated nub of nerve endings.

Already she was lost. She was panting now, lost in a new world with no idea how to find her way out and with no wish to find her way out any time soon. Not until she found this magical place he was taking her.

She hated him for making her wait, for delivering such
exquisite torture, hated him and loved him for making her feel so very much.

Just when she thought she could not take any more, she felt his fingers upon her, circling her very core, working in train with his busy lips and tongue. One finger pressed inside her and her muscles clamped down at the invasion. But it was hardly unwanted. A swish of his tongue and she sighed and relaxed, only to feel another push into her alongside it.

Suddenly it was too much. There was too much to enjoy. Too much pleasure. She felt that pleasure spiral upwards, felt her whole being reduced to sensation, and then with a final flick of his clever tongue and press of his fingers inside her she was sent catapulting into the sky.

He held her while she rocked back to earth. He pressed kisses to her belly and breasts and lips where she tasted herself on his mouth.

‘But you…’ she managed, feeling as limp as a rag doll.

‘Think you’re amazing.’

And some part of her that still registered compliments glowed. She had done nothing and he could still say that? She sensed him rise up, heard the swish of fabric over skin and opened her eyes to see him between her legs, his hand guiding his erection towards her. So large. So alive and wondrous.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ she whispered in awed reverence. ‘Do you think…?’

‘Oh,’ he said, leaning down to suck her into his kiss, ‘I know.’

She tasted his mouth on hers then, felt it tug her into his world, convincing her with the persuasive play of his tongue and losing her until with a start she realised he was there, butting and straining against her entrance. Even when she panicked, his hand was there below her to lift her and ease the angle.

But he was there,
right there
, and she would have panicked but he was also right there with her, taking her higher again with his kiss. Suddenly a pressure became a presence and, with a flash of pain that went as quickly as it had come, he was inside her.

She stilled then, stunned by what had happened, feeling his fullness deep within her body. He was inside her and, now the moment of pain had gone, she felt only that amazing sensation. But was that it? Was this how it was supposed to be?

He kissed her eyes. ‘Are you all right?’ She blinked up at him, seeing his concern in the tiny creases around his eyes, and she knew she loved him, just a little, even then. He shifted his elbows, a movement that shifted his body subtly so very far below and she gasped at the unexpected friction.

‘I’m good,’ she said. ‘You
feel
so good.’

He growled at that and raised his hips, and she felt the sliding loss of him even as muscles she’d never realised she possessed battled to hang on.

He thrust back into her, this time with greater force. Why had she never done this? she wondered as her head was driven back into the pillows. Why had she waited when the pleasure was so exquisite, so addictive?

Then he withdrew and thrust into her again and she knew why—because she had wanted to save herself for the one who was special, the one who could make her feel this good. Zoltan made her feel this good.

Zoltan was the one.

She had saved herself for the very best.

And with every thrust of his hips she knew that to be true; with every thrust of his hips she knew she would never find a higher place.

But she found it now, when the slide of him inside her
turned incendiary, and she combusted in a shattering explosion that featured the sun, moon and stars.

It could have ended there, but she heard his roar, felt his shuddering climax, and it drove her still further through the galaxies until he launched her again into nothingness and the sky gave way to the glow of a tiny kernel of knowledge.

She loved him
.

Something had shifted the sands beneath his feet. Something had shifted the foundations of his very world while he wasn’t looking.

Something?

Or
someone
?

For, while Zoltan’s body pulsed with the post-release hum as he lay back against the pillows, his breathing slowly steadying, his mind grappled with the impossible. She was perfect in every way. How could she be? Yet she had responded instinctively to his every move, naturally and sometimes even wantonly, despite being uneducated and unrehearsed, and her unskilled reactions had stoked the fire raging inside him, higher and higher, until he had even felt himself consumed.

When had that ever happened before?

How could she, a virgin before this night, do such a thing? He had expected to pleasure her, to make this coupling as easy as possible. Never had he expected that he would find paradise himself.

He turned to her, touched the fingers of one hand to the line of her cheek, wanting to put into words how he felt but unsure how to go about it, surprised when he felt moisture there. He sat up. ‘Did I hurt you?’

She shook her head, blinking away the tears. ‘I had no idea. I didn’t know it could be that good.’

‘Usually it’s not,’ he said, sliding one arm beneath her.
Then, because some part of him realised that honesty could be couched in better terms, he went on. ‘It’s never been that good for me. Never before.’ She looked up at him, her dark eyes wide and a tiny frown between her brows, as if wondering whether to believe him or not. Suddenly she shuddered in his arms and her eyes and lips squeezed shut, a woman battling to keep control.

‘Aisha,’ he said, smoothing her brow with his free hand as tears insisted on squeezing past her closed lids, ‘I did hurt you. I’m sorry. I was trying to be gentle.’

She shook her head, tried to turn away, but he gathered her closer into the circle of his arms. ‘No. I was thinking about Mustafa and what he said he’d do to me. Zoltan, if you had not come I would still be there. If you had not saved me, it would be him in my bed. It would be him…’ She shook her head. ‘Oh God, it would be him in my bed.’

He tried to gentle her with his hands as his own heart grew weightier in his chest. ‘He cannot hurt you now.’

‘He would have.’ She sniffed back on the threat of more tears. ‘He had an old woman examine me,’ she said, her voice thready and thin. ‘He wouldn’t believe me until she had poked and prodded and confirmed what I had told him. Only then he believed. Only then he left me alone.’

Her voice cracked on the last word and this time she dissolved into tears. He pulled her in, cradled her head against his chest and let her cry, her tears ripping at his soul.

He did not deserve her thanks. She had been right all along—he was a barbarian. He—who knew Mustafa better than anyone—had paid no heed to what she must have suffered at his half-brother’s hands. He had seen her rescue as a way of evening the score between them. And once she had been in his hands he had asked her nothing. He had demanded everything.

Worst of all, he had not believed her.

He was no better than his half-brother and that knowledge tore at his gut. He dropped his head to hers, pressed his lips to her hair. ‘I am so sorry, Aisha, that I did not believe you. I was so wrong.’

He lifted her tear-streaked face to his, kissed her damp eyes and the tip of her nose. ‘Can you ever forgive me for the way I have treated you?’

She blinked up at him, her soft lips parted, looking so lost and vulnerable, so very kissable, that he felt the kick all the way down in his groin. She gave a tentative smile, touched a slim hand to his chest and down his side, her fingers curling deliciously into the flesh of his buttock. ‘Maybe,’ she said hesitantly, taking his hand, putting it to her breast, her eyelids fluttering closed as his hand cupped her breast, his thumb stroking her nipple.

‘Anything,’ he said as she set both her hands on him, exploring, tracing every detail, setting his skin alight, turning his voice to gravel. ‘Name it.’

‘Make me forget him. Make love to me again. I mean, when it is possible.’

He growled low in his throat and, still holding onto her, flipped onto his back so she straddled him, his eyes drinking in the sight of her rising up from him, his hands drinking in her satin-smooth skin.