Except they’d never shared this room. She hadn’t so much as stepped foot in it before.
“Let’s not worry about old memories for now,” he said quietly.
The playful smile was back on her face. “You’re right. We should just concentrate on making new ones.” Julia bit down on her lower lip again and let out a small laugh. “Only…It’s the strangest thing. I mean, you’re my husband, for goodness sake. But I actually feel nervous. Like this is our first time or something.”
“We don’t have to do this, Julia.” He kissed the tip of her nose gently. “We have the rest of our lives. Why don’t we wait a few days, at least, until you’re feeling more like yourself?”
“No.” She shook her head from side to side. “Make love to me now, Zayn, or I might just divorce you.”
He wanted her with a force so strong it made his whole body ache and burn. Without missing a beat, he lifted her long shirt over her head and discarded it across the room, exposing just her beautiful breasts encased in a silky black bra. They were the perfect size for his hands, small but round, and so soft, like her whole body. He slipped the bra off with ease and let it drop from his fingertip onto the floor.
Julia sucked in a deep breath as he brought his mouth down and tasted her nipple, flicking the sensitive aureole with his tongue; with his fingers, he massaged the other tip, until she was shivering against his body.
“I feel…” she said and then paused, searching for the word. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “Just… I feel…wow.”
Zayn’s smile against her breast was one of triumph. He dug his hands into the waistband of her pants and let his fingers run across the bare skin of her arse. So perfect; so smooth. Impatiently, he unbuttoned the pants and removed them quickly. He was impatient now. They’d have plenty of time to explore each other’s bodies. What he needed now was to bury himself deep inside her and slake his need with the only woman he’d ever craved like this.
He disposed of his own clothes efficiently, and finally, after years of waiting, he brought her naked body against his, simply savoring the feeling of her warm skin against his own. Their heart beats raced in unison as the moment of truth approached.
He moved his hands to sacred skin at her core and held his palm there, feeling the tiny beat of her pulse against his hand. “Are you sure you feel okay?” He asked earnestly. “I want you, but I can wait until you are feeling like yourself.”
“No. I don’t know how I know it, but I know that making love to you now is important. Crucial.”
He narrowed his eyes, hoping her mind didn’t know more than he did. After all, if making love was the act that brought her memory back, his plan would back fire. He needed more time with this version of Julia before she remembered that he’d tricked her into the whole marriage.
“I’m relieved to hear it,” he said with a slow smile that made her insides buckle.
She glanced across at the bed. Enormous and comfortable in the center of the room, but Zayn had other ideas. He scooped her up easily – she was, after all, almost half his height, and kissed her hard on her lips. Instinctively, Julia wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs she hooked at the ankles behind his back, so that she was secured against his torso. Gently, Zayn eased her downwards, at the same time as backing her into the wall of his bedroom.
As soon as his tip rubbed against her entrance, he felt his control waning. He had dreamed about this moment for time immemorial, since he’d first met her. Only the greatest will power in the world had kept him from claiming her before this.
With his lips still plundering her mouth, he continued to lower her slowly, so that bit by bit, they joined together in the most intimate manner. Julia’s face was flushed as he gradually took possession of her.
Then, unmistakably, he encountered a barrier. It was swiftly removed, but it had been there. He would have bet his life, and his brother’s, on the fact that he had just taken Julia’s virginity. He swore, his eyes laced with confusion and accusation, as he looked into her face. Her own expression mirrored his – confusion, anger, fear, and pain.
He pushed aside his own uncertainty and reclaimed her breast in his mouth. He breathed warm breath against her skin at the same time his tongue chilled and tortured her. And now, barrier removed, he allowed his entire length to be absorbed by her.
Her moan of pleasure was enough. He moved slowly, gently, careful not to hurt her untested muscles, but, as her pleasure intensified he felt his ability to go slowly evaporate completely. Julia dug her fingernails into the flesh of his shoulders as she tipped over the edge of the chasm, into the deep ravine of fulfillment, and Zayn spilled into her all of his pent up need and hunger for this woman.
As their breathing returned to normal, his mind regained its sanity, and he unleashed a tirade of curses in his mind. She had still been a virgin? He had photos to the contrary. He thought of the images she’d sent him years earlier. He’d been incensed by them, and he’d jumped to the conclusion that they were taken after a passionate encounter. But perhaps they weren’t.
He frowned against her shoulder, still moist with beads of perspiration from the afternoon heat and their pleasurable activities.
“I don’t get it,” she said slowly, but her hands were still running up and down his back.
Gently, he eased her to the floor, but he kept her trapped in the apex of his legs, hard against the wall.
“We are just married,” he said honestly. “Your accident happened only one day after we arrived in Naman.”
“But I can’t believe we didn’t…”
“We both wanted to wait until we were married,” he explained quickly. “But I always assumed you’d had other lovers.”
Her cheeks flushed pink. “Apparently not.”
“It just doesn’t seem possible,” he said, lancing her with his inquisitive gaze.
Out of nowhere, a memory came to her and she grabbed onto it with both hands. “I used to joke that you’d ruined me for other men.” She smiled up at him. “I remember having dinner with Georgie and someone asked me out. I don’t remember who. I can’t even picture their face.” She waved a hand in the air. “That doesn’t matter. Anyway, I was busy at university, or that’s what I said. But Georgie knew better. She knew that I couldn’t be with anyone else after meeting you.”