The Sultan's Reluctant Princess Read online

It was always the same tactic. Get the man to make a move, be sure the photographer had snapped the image, then whisper something sexy about freshening up, and affect a silent escape before any real seduction could take place. She was happy to get the proof these women required, but not to be complicit in the marriage breakdown by actually doing anything with the sleazy husbands.

  “That’s not necessary,” she demurred, all the while making a show of eating him up with her eyes. It was not hard. He was sinfully good looking. Not in that movie star way that some girls seemed to go wild for. He was darkly tanned, with jet-black hair and dark eyes that were flecked with caramel. He had a scar that ran from his ear to his nose; it wasn’t dark nor deep, but it was still visible – a silver highway on the roadmap of his face. She would have guessed it had happened many years ago. She banked down on her curiosity. This was an act. Nothing more.

  “A beautiful woman on her own in a bar, buying one of my wines. Of course I will add it to my bill.”

  “One of your wines?” She blinked her huge blue eyes, feigning ignorance.

  His lips curled into a sardonic smile. “Si. Something I suspect you are well aware of.”

  Maggie’s heart was pounding against her chest now. She propped an elbow on the bar, and lifted the glass to her mouth. It was a beautiful red wine, light in body but robust and spiced. “It’s lovely,” she complimented, replacing the glass on the bar top. She lifted an index finger to her lips and wiped an imaginary droplet of wine from the corner of her mouth along her lower lip. His eyes followed the gesture, and when he looked at her again, the desire was unmistakable.

  “Shall we find somewhere more private to enjoy this?” He asked, leaning across her to pick up the bottle. In doing so, he brushed his arm across her breasts, and effectively trapped her where she was with his legs.

  She gulped. If she sought photographic proof, then surely that gesture alone would suffice.

  “Sure,” she nodded, leaning her head forward so that she could whisper in his ear. That would be the clincher for the snapper, she thought, inhaling his scent deeply. “Why don’t you find a table and I’ll go and freshen up?”

  “You are fresh enough,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “And I am not a man to be kept waiting.”

  Maggie’s pulse was going haywire; her nerve endings were reverberating with a strange energy brought on by this man.

  “Oh,” she said quietly, lowering her eyes. Though she was certain she had proven his intentions sufficiently for the photographer’s purpose, what would the harm be in getting a few more shots? An extra snap or two wouldn’t hurt. Telling herself it was the only reason she acquiesced, she found herself nodding, slowly, her eyes holding his steadily.

  “Excellent,” he said with a decisive nod of his raven-dark hair.

  Maggie followed behind him, uncertainty flowing through her veins. It was impossible to separate the assignment she’d been given with the very real desire that was beating its own pulse in her body. But it was unmistakable, the desire. Like a force pounding through her, she felt a bone-deep attraction to Dante Velasco.

  He was someone else’s husband! And a husband known to be unfaithful. She lowered her gaze to his long, tanned fingers and saw that he did not wear a ring. Well, why would he? If he intended to leave his wife at home and flirt with other women?

  “This looks good,” Maggie stopped walking and pointed to a table near the piano.

  “No.” He did not pause, but continued weaving through the bar, until finally he reached one tucked around a corner. It was too secluded to be an accident, and he was too quick to find it for it to be his first time.

  Just once, she would like to be proven wrong. Just once, she would like one of these guys to say to her, “Oh, I’m married. Have a great night though.”

  It was just not the way of men, though, she thought with a sigh. She had come here tonight, dressed in such a way that practically laid her out on a platter for him. And he was grabbing a fork and preparing to dig in.

  When she sat down, he didn’t even bother with pretending to keep his distance. He placed one arm along the edge of the chair, and he lifted the other hand, pressing a finger against her lower lip. “Your mouth is very sexy,” he said seriously, running his fingertip along the same path she had traced only minutes earlier.

  “Thank you,” she said, dipping her head forward. She felt shy around him. It was unusual for her, but such was his overpowering charisma that she felt her own natural ebullience weaken in response.

  “Here.” He held her wine glass to her. “Tell me what you taste.”

  Maggie took a large gulp. She was grateful for the feeling of it burning down her throat. “I’m not much of a wine connoisseur,” she lied, replacing the glass on the table.

  “Just try.”

  Maggie took another sip, and this time, she described the flavours. “Cinnamon and blackcurrant.”

  “Very good,” he said. “The flavour of wine is very personal. Everyone tastes something different. But I taste what you taste, and I think that bodes well. Do you agree?”

  Beneath the table, he put a hand on her leg, and slowly, lifted the flimsy material of her skirt, so that he was touching her bare thigh. Her mind was screaming objections but her body was shaking in response. All thought of the photographer immediately flew from her mind. It was only Dante, and her, and a darkened corner of the bar. Between her legs, she felt a slick moistness that demanded satisfaction. “Bodes well how?” She asked unsteadily, as his hand went higher still, to the lace of her underwear.

  “I suspect our tastes might be similar in other areas also.”

  She wanted to tell him to stop. Or rather, she knew that she should. But if he stopped, she knew she would cry out in desperation. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man. And an even longer time since she’d met someone who could make her insides quiver with just one touch.

  “It is difficult to know for certain,” she said quietly, trying to rationalise the fact that she’d come there tonight to screw him over, not screw him.

  “Yes. Further testing is required.” He smiled as he lowered his head, and took possession of her soft neck. She flinched as he kissed the skin, flicking her pulse point with his tongue, while his hand moved closer to her most feminine heart.

  He watched her with hooded eyes as he slid a finger slowly inside her core. The way her eyes flew open and her whole body jerked in immediate response was gratifying. He knew she would be a satisfying lover. Perhaps one satisfying enough to drive his troubles from his mind. At least for one night.

  He rubbed his finger against her slick centre, and then removed his hand, and body, from her. “This table is not private enough for what I have planned. My room is upstairs.”

  She stood without speaking, on legs that could barely hold her weight. If she was going to end this before it got too out of hand, now was her chance.

  So why did she once again fall into step behind him, and follow him to the bank of elevators at the centre of the hotel? He didn’t attempt to touch nor speak to her. He kept her at a distance as befitted people who barely knew each other.

  The doors pinged open, straight into the penthouse suite. She was not surprised, though the obvious signs of such extreme wealth were always a little difficult to comprehend. The chandelier, for example, probably cost more than a year’s turnover at The Darling Buds of May café. The floor was polished marble, and beyond the balcony was a view of the glittering Eiffel tower.

  “You are very beautiful.” It was a statement that sounded thick with despair, rather than the compliment she could have taken it to be.

  Beautiful enough to justify infidelity, she wondered with the small kernel of her brain that was still operational. Of course, nothing could justify it.

  But his wife was already divorcing him. His infidelity not a matter of issue, so much as the amount of payout Veronika was to receive. Maggie neatly put the question of her assignment in the box. She had done enough to
be paid her commission. What she was doing now was meeting her own needs with a man who saw sex as little more than breathing.

  His wife had left him.

  He did not belong to her any longer.

  And Maggie wasn’t looking at him as a relationship prospect.

  Guilt perfectly dispensed with, she decided she’d feel more confident if she assumed a position of control.

  She hooked a finger beneath the flimsy strap of her dress and eased it down her arm. It fell as a black ink spill at her feet. He watched its progress with an unreadable expression.

  She stepped out of her high heels, and then, wearing only her thong, crossed to him. “Do you do this kind of thing often?” She couldn’t resist asking.

  “Not as often as you, I suspect,” he drawled, dragging an insolent finger along her side and bringing it to flick one of her nipples.

  Her eyes widened in surprise as sensations flew through her.

  “On the contrary, this is a first for me.”

  His smile held cynical disbelief. “Unlikely.”

  Maggie shrugged. Whether he believed her or not was of little importance. She fixed him with the full force of her bright blue eyes and smiled. “So? What shall we do?”

  The possibilities were endless. There were so many things he wanted to do with this woman. This warm, sensual woman who was offering him what his soon to be ex-wife had denied him so long. The visage of a hot-blooded woman who didn’t deny her sexuality was too strongly alluring to resist. He thought of Veronika and shivered. Horrible, sexless, cold, deceptive Veronika.

  “The bedroom is through there. Go and wait for me on the bed.”

  She didn’t speak. This was practically a business arrangement, for all they were bothering to pretend an interest in one another. Sex for sex. Satisfaction in exchange for satisfaction.

  When Dante entered the room a minute later, he was naked, and holding something in his hand.

  As Maggie watched curiously, Dante lifted the lid and placed a spoon inside the container. He walked steadfastly towards her, lifting the spoon as he went. He placed the tub beside the bed, and the spoon he tipped upside down on her chest.

  She squealed in surprise as the cold, unmistakable iciness of gelati hit her skin.

  “That’s freezing!” She said on a laugh, propping up to watch the cream colored dessert pool between her rounded breasts.

  “Mmm,” he agreed gutturally. “Not for long.” He lowered his mouth over the ice cream and dragged it to one of her nipples. He sucked on her breast, and the combination of his warm mouth and the cold ice cream sent her overwrought nerves spiralling into a tormented sexual frenzy.

  She cried out as he scooped more ice cream onto her other breast and transferred his attentions, sucking and licking until she was incoherent with raging desire. “Too good,” she screamed, as her whole body began to shake and tremble.

  “Mmm,” he agreed, putting some ice cream into his mouth and lowering his lips to hers. He kissed her, and her whole perception of the world tipped on its axis. It was their first kiss, and it seemed to spark some kind of connection in her brain. She lifted her hands and dug her nails into his back. Her long, slender legs she brought up around his waist, hooking them at the ankles and holding him tight.

  His arousal was nudging at her entrance and she lifted her back, clinging to him and begging him to take her. To release her from the agony she was suffering. But he laughed, quietly and gently, and lowered his mouth to her neck. When she didn’t unhook her legs, he reached down and gave her bottom a tap, firm enough to make her squawk in surprise.

  “There is time,” was all he said in reply.

  He was in complete command of the situation, and Maggie was a passenger on his train. Well, she could handle that. If the last ten minutes were anything to go by, she was about to have the most mind-blowing sex of her life.

  He scooped some more of the ice cream onto his tongue, and pressed his mouth lower, against her most sensitive parts. Now, Maggie couldn’t help but scream. She was already throbbing with the need for release, and the freezing cold dessert against her over-heated nerve endings was unbearable.

  “It’s too much,” she said groggily, as waves of pleasure began to build in an undeniable way. “Too much.”

  “The best sex always is,” he agreed conversationally, lashing her harder with his tongue.

  Her orgasm was more intense than she’d known possible. Her body seemed to fall apart at the seams, and were it not for her soft, creamy skin, she suspected she might have become unstitched.

  “We were right,” he said with a twist of his lips, as he came to brace himself on top of her.

  “Right?” She blinked, her mind sluggish and unable to keep up.

  “Very compatible.”

  Maggie nodded, but her desire was far from satiated. “Yet to be completely proven,” she said with an inviting smile.

  His laugh was like warm butter on her body. “That’s true.” He nudged his erection towards her, watching, transfixed, as she seemed to be holding her breath in excited anticipation. Veronika had conditioned him, and he kept waiting for that moment when this woman would change her mind. When she would push him away and say that she wasn’t in the mood.

  But Maggie didn’t. She dug her nails into his buttocks, trying to push him towards her faster and deeper. “Please,” she groaned, as he kept himself poised just at her entrance. “I need you.”

  “You need me?” He asked with surprise. It had been so long since a woman had said as much to him. How long had he been married to the calculating, beautiful bitch? Three years? He shook his head. Time to lay that ghost to rest. By laying this delectable temptress instead.

  He plunged into her, hard and deep, crying out as her muscles expanded and then tightened around his length. He froze, as he adjusted to the sensation of this woman. With surprise, he noticed how perfect she felt for him. How completely her body seemed to welcome his. He moved, slowly, at first, watching her face to understand what pleased her. Then, faster and faster, stoking her fires so that they burned hotter and hotter.

  When she came, she squeezed her eyes shut and cried out, and her hands pressed into his back. He had seen her do it twice, and he thought it was possibly one of the most addictive reactions he’d known. He thrust once more and chased after her, finally freeing himself.

  God, he hated his wife, and now, he had finally broken the bonds of their marriage and separated himself for good.

  He rolled away from the redhead, pleasure and relief coursing through him. He was free. He reached over and wrapped some of her hair around his hand, marvelling at its lustrous glow. “Is this your natural color?”

  Maggie’s laugh was genuinely amused. “Yes.”

  “Why do you laugh?”

  “I don’t know your name,” she pointed out, a little dishonestly. “And you don’t know mine. And yet you ask about my hair color?”

  “Do names matter?” He asked seriously, his dark eyes scanning her face.

  Maggie shrugged, spectacularly un-self-conscious in her naked state of recline. “No. I suppose not.”

  “Good. We are in agreement then. No names.”

  “Fine by me.”

  “No names. No promises.”

  “No promises.” She nodded. “You aren’t secretly married are you?” She couldn’t resist prodding.

  His smile was grim. “No marriage. No children. Thank God.”

  She watched him carefully. “You don’t want that?”

  “No.” He smiled. “I am my own person. I do not want to compromise that with commitments – to a family. That is not my way.”

  She nodded slowly, and her understanding seemed to relax him.

  “I want to have you in every way imaginable, over and over again. Can you stay the night?”

  Her heart turned over at the very explicitly sexual request he’d made.

  “I have to leave early tomorrow.”

  “Until then?”

  Magg
ie’s body was still tingling as it came down from the high of her orgasm. She wasn’t going anywhere. She nodded.

  “Excellent.”

  One night. No names. No consequences. Just sex.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Two years later.

  The grand country house was decked out with all the Christmas trimmings. Swags of Ivy and Holly adorned every stair well. Mistletoe was clumped in attractive looking posies, suspended from the Tudor support beams. And the air was heavy with the smell of mulled wine and mince pies.

  “Everything is spectacular, Maggie,” Lady Cressida Andrews said with a frosty smile. “Your father didn’t exaggerate your talents.”

  Maggie knew she should have been grateful that her future step-mother had hired her for the weekend. With a daughter to support and all the expenses single parenthood entailed, Maggie would take any additional income she could.

  “Thank you, Cress.” Maggie knew the older woman hated the term of endearment, for the fact that it was more common than her full name. And therefore Maggie went out of her way to use it. Cressida was so infatuated with Maggie’s father, Clint, that she suffered the diminutive in silence.

  “There are just a few more guests arriving. My God-daughter, Amelie, and her new beau, should be here by in a few hours.”

  “Of course. Annie will have enough dinner for them as well,” she reassured confidently, referring to the country cook who was doing most of the leg-work for the weekend.

  Cressida compressed her perfectly pouted lips. “Just remember, Maggie, that you are not actually the hired help. I wanted to support you in your little catering business, but I do not want my family thinking you’re just a cook.”

  Maggie’s laugh was rich with both surprise and amusement. “I am just a cook.”

  “A very good cook. But one who has a wealthy father and no need to be scrimping and saving like this.”

  Maggie also had a very wealthy best friend, who had repeatedly offered money, property, anything to make Maggie’s life easier. Accepting handouts was simply not Maggie’s style, though.

  “Don’t worry, Cress. I have every intention of joining you all for dinner. I just want to make sure the kitchen team has a handle on the menu, first.”