“Yes.” She bit down on her lower lip. “I don’t know why he was so kind to me.”
“Don’t you?” The question was layered with unspoken answers.
She frowned. “It felt like we’d met before.”
A muscle jerked in Malik’s jaw. He reached behind Sophia then, shutting off the water. “Enough.”
She blinked. “Enough?”
“I do not wish to speak of Addan with you, Sophia.”
Sophia’s heart turned over and regret filled her. Of course he didn’t. Malik had lost his mother, father and now his brother – he knew so much of loss. Why would he want to speak about it, and in that moment? “I’m…”
Before she could finish her sentence, he scooped her up out of the shower and hoisted her over his shoulder, carrying her through the bathroom. He grabbed a towel as they passed, wrapping it over her bare back, and then placed her feet on the floor. She looked around.
His bedroom.
“You have not been sleeping here.”
She shook her head slowly. “It didn’t feel right.”
“Why not? You are my wife. You don’t think your place is here, with me?”
She shrugged her slender shoulders. “You haven’t been here.”
He rubbed the towel over her flesh, drying her, and he wasn’t gentle – nothing had ever felt better, though. Her breasts were so sensitive, between her legs was warm and wet. She stifled a moan as he brushed the towel there.
“Whether I am here or not, you should be.”
She opened her mouth to fight him but he kissed her, a dazzling kiss of pure possession, of absolute need and fire. He kissed her with all the flame in his body and she surrendered to it and him immediately, an ancient, desperate need firing her senses, filling her with an absolute fever pitch of lust.
Her hands ran over his body, reaching his arousal and cupping his hard length, feeling his strength in her hands.
“You are my wife.”
The words were discordant, and seemed to come to her from a long way away. Sophia, always a fighter, responded with light sarcasm.
“No kidding. I was there when we married.”
The words caused his expression to tighten, if anything. He moved his body, guiding her back to the bed. She fell onto it unceremoniously and his own frame, so large and powerful, was on top of hers. His hands caught her wrists in them, lifting them above her head, pinning them to the mattress easily. He parted her thighs and thrust into her, deep, hard, so she arched her back, welcoming him and this.
Every movement of his body was a beating of a drum, a call that her spirit answered, a primal, physical need she couldn’t help but respond to. Six nights since they’d made love and her body was craving his.
She whimpered as he moved deeper, and then his mouth dropped from her lips to her breasts, his tongue swirling her nipples, sucking one peach aureole deep into his mouth rolling it with his tongue, flicking it before pressing his teeth into her sensitive softness, before transferring to the other breast. His fingers tormented the nipple he’d first kissed, plucking it, rolling it between his forefinger and thumb until she was moaning and whimpering, pleasure thick in her voice.
She lifted her legs, wrapping them behind his back but he caught them at the ankles, pushing them over his shoulders and straightening, staring down at her, his eyes watchful as his body drove hers to the point of explosion.
It was fast and satisfying. Just as soon as she tumbled over the abyss, delight and euphoria erupting from her, he followed after, his own guttural cry in his native tongue, deep and rumbling.
Their panting, torn breaths split the room afterwards. She lay beneath him, her body weakened and strengthened, her mind spinning.
“Well,” she said, to break the silence, as he stayed where he was, his powerful frame atop hers, his head dipped so she couldn’t make out his expression. “You’re back.”
But something had shifted. It was as though there’d been a terrible dark storm building between them, and sleeping together had burst it open, breaking rain upon the earth and now there was just relief.
Her fingers trailed the length of his back, lightly, and she felt his body pull in response. Her power was intoxicating.
“How was your trip?” The words were husky, coated with desire.