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  His eyes sparked with emotion as they locked to hers. “You should have asked me to remove it.”

  “I managed.”

  He shook his head and lowered his lips to the marks on one side, kissing them gently, before transferring his attention to the other. His hands caressed her body with care, stroking her and reassuring her, driving any thought or feeling but anticipation from her mind.

  He brought his mouth to hers and now his kiss was gentle, as it had never been with them. He flicked her tongue lazily, teasing her and enticing her until she moaned against his lips. Desire was a fire in her veins.

  “I know,” he whispered, cupping her breasts with his hands and feeling their weight appreciatively. She shifted beneath him, lifting her hips in silent, instinctive invitation.

  Her hands ran down his body, finding his length and wrapping around him. “Jesus.” He was enormous.

  He reached for a condom she hadn’t even realized he’d brought and unfurled it over his length before coming to hover at the entrance to her core. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  It was hardly a declaration of love but the words touched her.

  “You won’t.” She wasn’t convinced of that but no way in hell was she going to go without him.

  He was so careful as he entered her, so gentle and caring, that tears fell from her eyes. He saw them and stopped, pulling out of her without hesitation.

  “No, no,” she shook her head, lifting her hands to his chest. “Please don’t stop. It’s amazing.”

  His lips twitched into a smile as he returned, gently plundering her depths, moving into her as her body was able to accept his. He didn’t push. He was careful, and when he felt her adapt to his size he began to move, stoking the fire that he’d lit the night before.

  Her cries were fevered. She was quivering in his arms, balanced on the precipice of extreme pleasure.

  “It’s too much,” she cried out. “Too much good ... Feeling… I can’t …”

  He laughed but his own expression showed the same flash of desire. He kissed her when he felt her orgasm crescendo. He kept his mouth to hers, reassuring her, softening her surrender, surrounding her in beautiful comfort when her world was spinning out of control.

  The moment was a rare bubble of absolute perfection.

  Her heart, so bruised and battered the night before, soared now, high into the heavens, shimmering with renewed life.

  But he wasn’t finished. He began to move again, faster now, and the pleasure she had thought rendered mute by completion jumped through her. The second orgasm was fiercely intense. All the more so for he came with her, holding her tight as their bodies shuddered in mingled pleasure and relief.

  Their breath was loud in the silence of her bedroom. Sweat beaded their brows, mingling on their bodies, combining as a sign of their joint passion.

  How long did it take for reality to sink in?

  That perfect moment, so blissful, was shredded by so many sharp reminders of all that had come before.

  And at the forefront of recollection? Leilani. In his room. Only hours earlier.

  Revulsion quickly replaced sensual satisfaction.

  She pushed at his chest and wiggled away from him, breaking their seal devastatingly quickly. Malakhi watched her from hooded eyes, following her as she rolled away from him on the bed. She didn’t stand, but she lay on the farthest edge, her eyes staring up at the ceiling as her breathing slowed.

  He reached out and traced a finger over her nipples with an insouciant sense of ownership.

  She shrugged him away.

  Malakhi was amused, despite the dawning of worry that he would never be able to atone for his sins of the night before. He’d stuffed up. He’d reacted in the worst possible way because he’d been completely blindsided by her virginity. He wasn’t used to being surprised. Nor was he used to being wrong. And he’d been both. But the way he’d spoken to her was difficult to explain.

  “I can’t believe we did that. Again.”

  He revealed little of his inner-torment. “Did you truly think once would be enough?”

  “Crap. I don’t know what I thought.” She was an idiot! Why had she ever thought she could play with fire and not get burned.

  His words were more heavily accented as he selected them with care. “You agreed to be my lover. Are you reneging on our arrangement?”

  “Yes. No.” A harsh, angry laugh jangled from her lips. “I can’t do it. I can’t just be some woman who comes to your room when it occurs to you to think of me.”

  His eyes narrowed at the admission she wasn’t making. “Leilani.”

  “Yes, Leilani. And whomever else there is to warm your bed. I won’t be another harem girl.”

  His smile was one of genuine amusement. “There is no such harem; I’ve told you this.”

  “Whatever you want to call it. The women who ‘service’ you.”

  He’d opened that can of worms himself. He’d wanted to hurt her and shock her. He’d suggested this arrangement in a way designed to make her believe the absolute worst of him; to believe him a total chauvinist.

  That was his fault.

  Surely he could wind back some of that damage though?

  He caught her wrist and lifted it to his lips. “I have known Leilani for many years. She is the sister of Nilam, one of my most trusted friends and advisors. My … relationship … with her became sexual some time ago, but only when it suited us both.” He moved closer to her, and smiled when she angled her face away in determined anger.

  “Such as last night?”

  Respect for the woman he had known for years led him to suppress the details of their late night assignation. “Last night, I asked to speak to her. That’s all.”

  Evie rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

  “Let us be clear about something. I do not lie. I have no need. When I say I only talked with Leilani, I am being completely honest. I did not sleep with her after having the pleasure of your innocence.”

  She pulled a face. “Don’t. You made it perfectly clear there was no pleasure in that for you.”

  “It was an honour,” he spoke with gravelly depth to his tones. He cupped her cheek. “I was angry with myself. Not you. It’s been so long since I’ve been truly caught unawares. I should have paid better attention. Looking back, your … innocence … was obvious. Yet that you were a virgin didn’t occur to me.” He’d been too damned focussed on his own wants and needs to give much of a care about hers.

  She turned to face him slowly, twisting her whole body on its side to mirror his. “Why would it have? I was married, as you said.” She dropped her eyes to his naked chest.

  “Yes.” A thousand questions probed his tongue but he held them in. He suspected she would not welcome the intrusion into her private life, despite their new level of intimacy. He stroked her hair gently, marveling at the shimmering darkness.

  “It’s not like I haven’t done other stuff,” she said self-consciously. “I’m not a total prude. I’ve been with guys. Just not …”

  He held a hand up imperiously. “I don’t want to think about you having ‘been’ with other men.” The intensity on his expression showed the truth of his words.

  And a sinister thrill of triumph warmed her. That meant something, right?

  Malakhi changed the subject before his imagination could conjure the imagery of Evie being pleasured in other ways by other men. “Could you really leave him?”

  Her expression darkened as she thought of Kalem. Her stomach was in knots. Could she? Had she really thought it possible? “He won’t remember me in a months’ time.”

  “Nor his parents,” Malakhi drawled slowly. “Which makes it all the more imperative that you remain.”

  “Why?” Sadness at everything that Dave and Sabra would miss in his life formed a welling inside of her.

  Fully comprehending that he was going for her jugular, he spoke gently. “Who else will speak to him of them?” He ran his finger over the tip of her nose, te
asing her lips lightly until she shook her head away. He dropped his hand between them.

  Her eyes were enormous as they met his with genuine confusion. “You will.”

  Something flashed in his features; an emotion she didn’t comprehend. “What will I tell him?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand …”

  “I barely knew them. Not as you did.” He sat up in the bed, so that the sheet dropped around his waist. She followed its progress, enjoying the rippling of his tanned muscles even in her overwrought state.

  “She was your sister. And Dave …”

  “Yes, yes. She was my sister, and I had met your brother. I spent time with them when they were here. But you knew them. You dined with them. Cooked for them. Sabra told me once that she never tasted better marisha than the ones you baked.”

  Evie’s laugh was uneven; the memory was bittersweet. “That’s because I made them exactly how she liked them.”

  “They are a difficult delicacy to master.”

  “Speaking from experience?” She couldn’t resist teasing, trying – and failing – to imagine him in an apron, rolling the pastries.

  He grinned. “From eating experience. They are my favourites as well. As children, Sabra and I used to quarrel over who got to have the most.”

  I’ll make them for you. She swallowed the offer. It was over-friendly. God, they were lying in bed together and she was worried about being over-friendly? It was ridiculous, but instinctively she knew that to give too much of herself to this man would be a terrible crime.

  He stood, uncaring of his nakedness.

  “So, Evelyn? Are you to stay?”

  Her expression showed her torment. “Why do you want me to?”

  He brought his hands down onto the bed, pinning her on either side. “Are you asking for reassurance? I will not give it. I want you in my bed, but that is not why you will stay. Nor is it why you should stay. What I offer is not enough for you. So stay for our nephew. He needs you.”

  She swallowed, plunging back into hellish despair yet again. “And if I say I don’t want to be your harem girl du jour?”

  He didn’t smile now. “Our deal stands,” he shrugged finally, pushing off the bed and lifting his robe from the back of the chair. “If you are in Ishala, your place is in my bed.”

  Evie collapsed back against the pillows, her eyes heavy. “I need to think about it.”

  “No, you don’t. We both know what you’ll decide. I’ll have a servant move your things to my apartment.”

  “What?” She sat bolt upright, her eyes showing consternation. “Why can’t I stay here?”

  His laugh sent arrows of awareness shooting through her body.

  “What?” She asked with a shake of her head. “Why is that funny?”

  He sobered, his eyes pinning her with the gravity of his needs. “Ask me again in a week.”

  “What? That’s not an answer.”

  “It will be.” He shook his head, laughing again as he straightened his clothes. “Are you on birth control?”

  Stricken, she shook her head. “No. I mean, why would I be?”

  His eyes glowed with something unusual. “I’ll have a doctor visit you.”

  She nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  He crossed back to the bed, almost as an after-thought. “I have meetings with my parliament today.” He kissed her brusquely on the forehead. “I expect they’ll run into the night. Sleep this afternoon so that you have energy for my return. I will want you.”

  He straightened, and he was so completely the archetypal, alpha-male sex-symbol that she found herself nodding, wide-eyed. How did he get so ripped? She hadn’t seen him exercise. Well, apart from what they’d just done. But he boasted the body of a professional athlete. That couldn’t just be genetics.

  “And Evelyn?”

  “Hmmm?” She dragged her gaze away from his chiseled abs with effort.

  “I was careful with you today. But I meant what I said last night. I am not a gentle lover. It is not my speed.”

  Desire slicked inside of her, heating her from the inside out. Was there something wrong with her that she wanted that? That she wanted him to storm all of her systems as he had the night before?

  “Malakhi?” He was at the door, one hand on the knob. “I meant what I said this morning. I will not share you. Not with Lorelai or any other woman.” His lips twitched in a smile but she wasn’t finished. “If I find out you have another woman in your bed I’ll be gone before you have a chance to make up an excuse.”

  “I don’t lie,” he said with a shake of his head. “If I were to have another woman in my bed, you’d be the first to know about it. And Evie? You’ll go when I say. Not before.”

  * * *

  He woke her with a kiss. His lips dropped to hers, and in her slumberous state, they were a call to action. She responded as her body had been programmed to do: she wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her legs, catching him between her, holding him tight.

  Her eyes blinked open and she smiled slowly, before she could remember that he was basically a ruthless bastard who’d maneuvered her into his bed.

  “You’re wearing clothes. And you’re asleep.”

  She pushed up, dragging a hand through her hair. Her eyes shifted to the golden clock that hung on the wall beside the bed. “It’s almost midnight.”

  His hands on her body were insistent. He pushed at her pajamas – a rather utilitarian pant-suit – until she was almost naked. Her underwear was similarly unexciting: simple black cotton knickers that sat low around the waist. He pulled them off and tossed them across the room.

  When she was naked, he rocked back on his haunches to study her. “Are you ready to be made love to now, as I have dreamed of doing?”

  A shiver ran down her spine. “You didn’t enjoy …”

  The words came out too quickly. She wished she’d had the fortitude to silence them.

  “I enjoyed,” he assured her, his voice husky. “But there is so much for you to learn. So much I want to experience with you.”

  “Such as?”

  His smile was loaded with secrets of the most sensual variety. “Come here.” He stood; she followed.

  “Another time, you will undress me. Tonight, I am impatient to join my body to yours.”

  His powerful hands gripped her hips as he spun her around. He guided her with a hand on her back to a large mirror across the room.

  He moved with the assurance of a man who knew exactly what he wanted. His fingers gripped her wrists and he placed her hands against the glass, at around her hip height, so she had no choice but to bend forward from the waist.

  A small nod of approval signaled that he was happy with that. He came to stand behind her and separated her thighs with demanding insistence.

  His arousal was enormous; she could feel it already – his tip hungrily pressing to her soft femininity. “This is who I am,” he said, and a tingle ran the length of her body, from her curled toes, through her skin, to her nipples and all the way to the back of her neck. “But I don’t want to hurt you. That is not my aim. If you are in pain, you must always, always say.”

  She nodded, her tongue darting out to lick her lips.

  “You might not enjoy sex as I do …”

  “Just shut up and take me,” she snapped, her eyes challenging his in the mirror.

  “That’s the first time in my life I have been told to shut up.”

  She bit down on her first response: that Sabra had thought it often. The stories she’d told, rolling her eyes, laughing at her brother’s domineering ways.

  “I’ll say it again unless you just bloody do this.”

  His fingers gripped her buttocks, digging into the flesh there. He teased her gently, running his hands down her crease, wondering how far she would let him go in their sensual exploration, before thrusting into her without warning. She bucked, hard and he reached a hand up to tangle his fingers in her long hair. He pulled sharply, just enough
to hold her head straight so that she was angled to watch their lovemaking – not so much, he hoped, that she would feel pain.

  She moaned, her eyes fevered in the mirror. A smile curved his lips. She liked it. She liked the desperation he felt as much as he did. He pulled her hair again and she cried out, a moan of desire.

  His other hand held her hips as he continued to drive into her, deep into her muscular tightness, deep into her soul. She was burning up, but he didn’t want her to come just yet. That was too easy. He wanted her to beg and beg and beg for the release that he would eventually offer.

  He was throbbing though, desire coursing through him.

  “Please,” she cried out, dipping her head forward.

  “Soon,” he promised bending forward so he could press his teeth into her shoulder.

  He released his grip on her hair so that he could hold both of her hips and pull her backwards against him as he thrust forward. He moved her until she was calling into the room and then slowed, gently guiding her over the edge. Her body shook with pleasure and he held her still, comforting her, rewarding her.

  Evie slowly began to breathe normally again, but everything was different. The whole world had shifted. Knowing such pleasure existed had forever changed her.

  “Turn around,” he murmured, and from his tone it was impossible for Evie to tell what mood he was in. He lifted her quickly, pressing her back against the cold mirror and driving into her.

  Immediately she felt another orgasm building and he rode the wave with her, thrusting deep and crying out as he exploded with release.

  She held him tight, her legs, arms and core wrapped around him. It was the most intense pleasure she’d ever known. Evie would have sworn, later, that she’d actually seen stars. Her body seemed to be singing and vibrating.

  Gently, he eased her to the ground. “Did I hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “I promise I’ll tell you if … I don’t like … anything.” She dropped her eyes, mortified.

  “Good.” He lifted her chin so that her eyes were level with his. “Why don’t you shower before we eat.”

  “Eat?” She stared at him in surprise. “It’s so late. Aren’t you tired?”