She looked at him with mock sternness. “You know it is.”
“I have been busy.” He hadn’t. But he didn’t yet know how to handle Olivia. And the surety that he was alienating her time and time again had kept him at a distance in every way but one. “Has life in Talidar been hard for you?”
She lowered her gaze, staring at the glistening water. “No.” It was the truth. “I mean, I miss my mother, and I worry for her. And I need to let my work know when I’ll be coming back. But other than those worries, I’ve found it… fine… to be here.”
His anger was unwarranted, but nonetheless, it flashed through him. She did not need to worry. Not about work, and not about her mother. He wanted her by his side, forever more, without any sadness intruding on that. He wanted to protect her. Hell, he wanted to protect her as he had not been able to Marni. For the first time in years, he allowed himself to see the other woman’s face, and he groaned. He’d wounded her, and now he was wounding Olivia.
He kissed her with the full force of his emotion. His need to reassure her, as well as himself, was an indomitable force. Somewhere, on the edge of the cliff, members of his security team would be waiting for them. Tamir wanted Olivia, desperately, but he could not expose her to the eyes of those men. He lifted her from the water, carrying her against his chest, to the tent that had been built in preparation for their arrival. He reached it as quickly as he could, pounding the soft white sand of the beach with the woman he had married in his arms. He lay her down gently on the large carpeted floor, pressing himself against her before she could move. He kissed her again, this time, with all his desire and longing. His mouth moved over hers with possessive heat, while his hands worked to strip her wet bathers from her body. He flung them aside, uncaring that they landed in the sand at the far corner of the tent. Naked beneath him, finally, he let out a sound of relief. She would soon be his. Soon. He kissed her salty, wet skin, smiling as goosebumps ran the length of her body. The mark he’d made on her neck had faded. He pressed his lips to it again, and this time, as he sucked her flesh, she smiled.
Olivia was shocked to realise that she liked the idea of being marked by this man. Of a secret sign that only they knew about, which revealed his possession of her. His hands were demanding on her breasts, pulling at her nipples, while his leg moved between hers, spreading her wide, preparing to take her. She arched her back, begging him wordlessly, needing him.
He pushed his own swimmers off, and came to hover over her. She was so beautiful. He stared down at her, and saw Olivia. Only Olivia. The woman he had intended to marry. The woman he had taken from her home, and brought to live with him.
He took her gently now, easing into her carefully, watching the way her expression changed as he moved within her. Theirs was an understanding that defied comprehension.
His fingers danced across her skin, and his mouth teased hers, while his body moved inside her. It was a warm afternoon, made warmer still by the electrical current that flared between them. He ran his fingers through the curling mass of blonde hair. The way it felt in his fingers was like warm silk.
When Olivia fell over the cliff into the most pleasurable state on earth, he followed after her, driving into her until he couldn’t control his release.
“I won’t let you go, Olivia,” he whispered in her ear, as their rapid breathing returned to normal.
Olivia’s heart turned over. Right sentiment; wrong words. She tilted her head, so that she could stare at the flapping fabric of the tent.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she snatched between breaths.
“Doesn’t it?” His smile was humourless. “You don’t think everything we just did makes sense?”
Her cheeks flushed pink. “Maybe.” She looked up at him, her lips a half-smile in her face. “But that will change.” She lifted her finger to his lips, before he could say anything. “Let’s not think about it now.”
They would have to face the future when it came, but not before. Not in that moment, when everything was so perfect.
CHAPTER TEN
Selena was even more beautiful and intimidating than Olivia had remembered. Olivia cast a rueful glance at her own appearance. She was still in a dressing gown, her hair wild and curled about her head, her face free of make up. In her defence, it was still very early, and Tamir had travelled to the North for meetings he couldn’t avoid.
“Will you need anything else, ma’am?” Eleni asked Selena, her expression guarded as she looked at the Sultan’s glamorous sister.
Selena waved a dismissive hand in the air, and sent the high-ranked aide away silently.
Olivia watched her go, a sinking feeling descending on her chest. She had planned on resting, and trying to get her head around her life in Liya. She had now been there a month, and every day had brought her a new level of pleasure and contentment. But in the back of her mind was the certainty that it would not last. That it could not.
That every day they shared would bring her one day closer to the end of her marriage.
How would she bear it? When the time came to leave Tamir, how would she be able to walk away, as though her heart weren’t breaking? Tamir said he didn’t want their marriage to end, but he didn’t love her. And she couldn’t stay with him without love.
“Eleni said you were not busy,” Selena explained shortly. She took the seat opposite Olivia without waiting for an invitation.
The small balcony overlooked a fruit orchard below, and in the distance, Tamir’s favoured golf course. It was a spectacular outlook, but all the pleasure had been sucked out of it by the emergence of Tamir’s sister.
“Would you like some coffee?” Olivia offered politely, nodding towards the pot in the centre of the table.
“Yes.” Selena looked towards one of the servants and spoke in Talidarian. Presumably, she’d ordered the young woman to attend to her needs, for she came flapping over to lift the pot and pour it into a spare cup.
Olivia compressed her lips to stave off expressing her disapproval. Whatever Olivia might think of Selena, she was Tamir’s sister, and for that reason alone, Olivia owed her courtesy. “What can I do for you, Selena?”
“Actually, sister, it’s what I can do for you.” Her eyes dropped to Olivia’s wedding ring, then lifted to her young, innocent face. Selena could almost have felt sorry for her. Almost. But not quite.
“Oh?”