It was still dark, but the air had changed. The cool of the evening was being drawn out, and heat was replacing it, thick and stultifying. She moved slightly and came up against something hard and warm.
Her body stilled. She spun in bed and it all came crashing back to her.
She’d fallen asleep in his bed.
And no wonder.
Her pulse began to throb inside of her as memories surged. Memories of the way they’d made love so hard and fast against the wall like two jungle animals. Of the way he’d made her beg for him, and how furious she’d been.
And then, his admission – the reasons it mattered to him. And her heart had burst. She’d felt… she’d felt sympathy and something far more dangerous. Something unwanted and unpleasant.
She’d wanted to hug him.
She’d wanted to tell him she’d never needed another person in the way she did him. That the depth of her physical desire was enough to make her want to walk to the ends of the earth. That she would do just about anything he asked of her, if it meant more of this.
That she was his very willing sex slave, and she wasn’t even sure she cared. But there was so much danger in even admitting that to herself; she couldn’t admit that to Malik. Not yet. He was too much. Too powerful and closed off to her. She couldn’t be vulnerable to him – not more than she already was.
They’d had sex, and then, he’d tormented her body in the best possible way for hours, driving her to the point of oblivion, his mouth moving over her most sensitive nerve endings, teasing her, delighting her, his hands controlling her body, showing him to be a maestro of her in every way.
It had been somewhere near three when she’d exploded, and he with her, their hoarse cries mingling, the sound of release ricocheting around the room. And she’d intended to get up and leave almost immediately afterwards, but he’d clamped an arm around her waist and fallen asleep, and it had felt so good just being there, her body had been weak and exhausted.
But daylight was coming and everything looked different now.
She shifted in the bed a little, moving away from him, watching him, making sure he stayed sleeping. She pushed her feet out and stood, swallowing as she turned away from him. The dress she’d worn the night before had been left on the floor; it was dreadfully crushed, but that wouldn’t matter. She pulled it up silently, dragging her hair over one shoulder and checking her appearance in a small mirror as she approached the door.
Her heart burst up a gear because she looked like exactly what she was: a woman who had been thoroughly made love to all night. Her eyes had silver grey circles beneath them, her lips were dark and heavy, her skin had stubble rash across it.
“Going somewhere, Cinderella?”
She startled, spinning around to find her husband watching her with indolent speculation, the sheet discarded so she could see for herself that last night’s release hadn’t abated his desire for her one bit.
She swallowed, staring at his arousal, feeling a flood of desire thick within her abdomen.
“Come back to bed.”
It was a command. That alone made her want to defy it.
“Please.”
And then he did something like that. She weakened, staying where she was but smiling a little.
“Playing hard to get?” He prompted, standing in one lithe movement, striding across to her, his powerful body mesmerizing for its strength and vitality.
“I’m not playing anything, Malik,” she murmured softly. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He made a tsking noise of disapproval. “And what if I want you to wake me?”
He reached for her hand, his eyes slightly mocking as they held hers. “What if I want you to do this?” He curved her hands over his length and she made a groaning noise as she felt his strength throb in her palm.
He brought his mouth closer to hers, brushing his lips over hers. “Stay here.”
Of its own accord, her hand moved up his length, her fingertips brushing over his tip. He made a noise deep in his throat of pleasure, and power exploded inside of her.
She had done that. She’d made him feel that. She moved her hand down to the base of his arousal and then up again, squeezing a little and he tilted his head back, exhaling on a hiss as he stared at the ceiling, before sweeping his eyes shut.
And suddenly, she wanted to feel all-powerful, even more than this.
“I was a virgin before our wedding night,” she said simply, and he jerked his head down, looking at her. “And now we’ve slept together. But I don’t know how to do… anything else.”