‘Someone after you?’ Nabil drawled lazily as she looked up into his face. A face that was still slightly unfamiliar without the black growth of beard. The scar that marked his cheekbone stood out brutally now, spotlighted by a ray of sun that slashed through the windows. ‘You looked as if you were escaping from a demon from hell.’
The demons in her own mind, Aziza told herself, starting to lift herself out of the pool then immediately letting herself drop back into the concealing water as she became aware of her nakedness.
‘I just needed the exercise.’
She hoped that he would take her breathlessness as being the result of her exertions rather than the effect his appearance was having on her. He had obviously come to swim but, unlike her, he was actually wearing a pair of sleek black swimming shorts. There was so much satiny bronze skin on show that Aziza felt as if the water around her had heated to boiling point, all the cooling she’d aimed for destroyed in a jolting heartbeat. It was foolish to feel any embarrassment at the thought of him seeing her nakedness when he had explored every inch of her body throughout the night. But the heavy sensuality of the bedroom made sharing her body with his so much more intimate and private than here, in the burning light of the day.
‘I think we could have found another more enjoyable way to burn off all that energy, habibti.’
The black eyes gleamed with heightened awareness, the warmth of his smile like a caress in itself as it slid over her burning face, down to where her breasts, swaying in the rippling water, were clearly visible just below the surface.
‘So you’ve finished all your other important business?’
The assessing, sidelong glance he turned on her had her curling her toes against the patterned tiles on the floor of the pool. She was revealing too much of her secret feelings and by doing so was making herself vulnerable in ways he wouldn’t even be able to guess at.
This is our honeymoon, were the words she longed to fling at him. He had never actually described this stay at the mountain palace as a honeymoon; it was only in her foolish heart that she had allowed the words to slide in and take root.
‘You married a king.’ The reminder was low, laced with a deadly intent that shivered over her exposed skin. ‘There are always those demands on my time. Day or night.’
She didn’t need the pointed emphasis on the last word. If it really had been the affairs of state that had taken him from her bed, she could have had no complaint. But last night had shown her that it was nothing so demanding that had disturbed his sleep, making him abandon her. It was some darkness in his own mind, some memory, and she could have little doubt just who had been in his thoughts.
‘So are you feeling rather neglected, my bride?’ Nabil enquired in a very different tone. ‘Do I not pay you enough attention?’
Not enough for someone who wanted a meeting of minds and hearts as well as the fiery connection their bodies shared. Not enough for someone who had started to realise that the love she had given to this man when she was just a child was still in his possession. And that that love was a one-way street with nothing coming back at her.
‘You—’ she began but the words were broken off, snatched back, as Nabil made a sudden move, reaching down from where he sat, hooking his hands under her arms. A moment later he had lifted her out of the pool, water sluicing down her body as he raised her high enough to sit on his lap, the warmth of his skin against her naked body, the sleek tightness of the swimming shorts, doing nothing to hide the power and heat of his desire.
‘Nabil!’ Aziza gasped, but the word was crushed back down into her mouth as Nabil took her lips in a hard, demanding kiss that pressed them open, let in his marauding tongue, setting up a wild, erotic dance as he took her mouth, tasted her, tantalised her.
His hands were all over her body, hot against her water-cooled skin, stroking, caressing, hard palms cupping and enclosing her breasts, making her writhe in heated response to his burning touch.
‘Does this feel like neglect, my lovely wife?’ he muttered against her mouth, trailing his kisses down and along the lines of her throat. ‘Is this what I’ve not done enough of to please you?’
‘No...’
It was a shaken moan. At the juncture of her thighs the pressure of his desire was making her hot and restless so that she shifted against him, hearing his groan of hungered response as his fingers tightened, bruising, around her arms.
‘If you want more then you only have to ask,’ Nabil muttered against her throat, lowering his face to taste the velvet texture of her breasts where the water drops glistened like diamonds against the smooth honey colour of her skin. ‘Hell, you don’t even have to ask...’