“Because you could right this moment be pregnant with my child, Sophia. Do you not think that requires some consideration?”
She clamped her lips shut, because his observation was accurate – and she hadn’t stopped to consider that...
“And because you are not me,” he finished, growling the words with a low, deep husk.
“So I don’t have the same privileges as you?”
“No.” The word was said with sheer frustration. He brought his body over hers, his eyes locked in a battle of the wills with her pale blue gaze. “You begged me to bring you here. Fool that I am I thought you would respect the desert and its inherent dangers. I thought you would at least respect the difficult political situation we are in.”
“How is talking to Saliyah disrespecting that?” She demanded, her breath ragged, so her pert breasts moved up and down of their own accord. He brought a hand between her legs, spreading them wide.
“Because I am trying to get Laith to make this decision for himself,” Malik muttered.
“And if he makes the wrong decision?”
He rolled his tongue over one of her nipples and arrows of pleasure perforated her veins, filling her body with shark sparks of desire.
“Precisely why I am handling this with delicacy.”
But temptation and need had overtaken common sense. Sophia wanted to argue for Saliyah but rational thought was so far from possible.
Acting purely on instinct, she arched her back, the tip of his arousal so close to her womanhood. She wanted to beg him to take her, but the words stayed buried in her throat.
But he understood anyway. He stared into her eyes as he thrust deep inside her, hard and fast, so she dug her nails into his shoulder and bit back from crying out his name – damn her – knowing how much he needed to hear it.
He dropped his mouth forward and took her lower lip between his teeth, biting down on it to tease her.
She almost swore in surprise and he laughed, kissing her more gently. But it was Sophia who fired back, mashing her lips to his with all-consuming need.
He thrust into her again, the motion firm. Her body writhed beneath his, and suddenly, he could think only of this. Only of her.
He swore in his mind as he dropped his head to her breast, running his teeth over her nipples, his finger and thumb tormenting first one and then turning to the other, until she was moaning over and over. He thrust into her, his body dominating hers, and yet it wasn’t enough.
He needed… He needed to make her crazier than she’d ever been. He needed her to understand how terrified he’d been to come into this tent and find her missing. Those moments of her absence, before she’d been sighted, had filled him with ice. He needed to make love to her now to overwrite those fears.
“You should not have left the camp.”
She closed her eyes, her body quivering, a mess of desire.
He thrust into her, his possession absolute and she made a low, moaning sound of surrender, of acceptance.
He pulled out, bringing his hand between her legs, teasing her most sensitive cluster of nerves. “You are to be kept safe. Even if that means locking you in the tower in which we spent our wedding night and throwing away the key.”
“Are you actually threatening to imprison me?” She demanded breathily, her orgasm so close he could feel her nerves tingling.
He moved his hand away, bracing himself directly over her.
“Yes,” he said, simply. “If that’s what it takes.” And he drove himself into her, and her tight, wet core spasmed around his length as she exploded. He felt her come and he kissed her, tasting her exhalations, her cries, and swallowing them deep inside of himself.
“I am no one’s prisoner,” she moaned, as he lifted up from her.
He begged to differ. He thrust into her and she made a small keening noise of pleasure.
“Come here.” He stood, pulling away from her reluctantly, and moving to the small dressing table that had been set up along the edge of the tent. An ornate mirror hung at its centre.
He watched her in it, watched as she walked to him, her slender body marked with the signs of their lovemaking, which made his whole body jerk with renewed pleasures.
“Do you remember our wedding night?” He asked, positioning her in front of him.