Sheikh’s Fiancée (10 page)

“Are you actually embarrassed?” Alice laughed. “I didn’t know dark-skinned people could blush.”

Karim’s eyebrows shot up. “A lesser man might say that’s racist.”

“Yes, but you aren’t a lesser man. And for the record, I think pulling the racist card all the time is bullshit.” Grinning, Alice tugged his hand toward her and pressed a quick kiss to his knuckles.

Karim only laughed. “I agree.”

Their food arrived, and Alice and Karim dug into huge plates of blini – thin, Russian-style pancakes smeared with butter – that were absolutely divine. There were also platters of baked potatoes with caviar, smoked fish, and foie gras, all of which were delicious.

“Holy cow,” Alice said as she sampled the vodka, which the waiter served to them in a carafe on ice. It was a little grassy with just a hint of spice, and went down so smooth she couldn’t believe it. “This is the best vodka I’ve ever had!’’

“It’s Bison Polish vodka,” Karim told her, sampling his own glass. “A personal favorite of mine.”

“Yeah, well, that must have been some bison if they made vodka out of it.”

Karim burst out laughing. “It’s not actually made from bison.”

“I know, I’m just joking.” But Alice grinned.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you this relaxed before,” Karim noted as they finished the last of their meal. “Are you finally getting used to the idea that we’re married?”

Alice shrugged. “I guess I am,” she said, spearing a berry with her fork – the waiter had brought by huge bowls of them for dessert, served with a dollop of sweet heavy cream. “I’ve had enough time to adjust by now.”

“Does it usually take you such a long time to adjust?” Karim asked. “With men, I mean.”

Alice popped the berry in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully as she thought about how best to answer. “To be honest, it’s been a few years since I even dated a man long enough to need time to adjust.”

“A few years?” Karim’s eyebrows rose. “Surely a woman as beautiful as yourself wouldn’t go without a man for so long.”

Alice grinned a little sheepishly. “I didn’t say that I was celibate,” she said, lowering her voice a little. “Just that I wasn’t in any relationships.”

“Oh.” Karim was taken aback. “So you slept around.”

“I don’t know that I would say that.” Alice’s cheeks colored, and the tips of her ears burned with embarrassment. “Every man I’ve been with has been a potential prospect. But none of them really made it past the first date, and after a while I’d been without sex for too long to resist going a round with some of them. A girl’s gotta do something when she’s desperate for sex, and someone like me certainly doesn’t pay for it.”

Karim wrinkled his nose. “I would hope not,” he said, and then he eyed her curiously. “I wonder how it is that you knew on the first date that these men were unsuitable. In my experience it usually takes more than one to get a feel for any individual. Why did you not want to give them more time?”

Alice bit her lip, uncomfortable with the question. “I guess you could say I have trust issues.”

“Such as?”

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. “A couple of years ago, before my glorified one-night stands started, I met a guy named Jason Trevayne. He was a stockbroker on Wall Street, came from a wealthy family, incredibly handsome and intelligent, and little orphan me fell for him, hard. He didn’t know at first that I was a foster kid, and to him I was a beautiful, intelligent fashionista, perfect for a guy like him.

“We dated for about a year, and eventually he learned about my past, but we still seemed to like each other enough that it didn’t matter, so I moved in with him. By year two, I was expecting him to propose any day. And by year three, I’d put my foot down and outright called him out when he took me out for our anniversary and gave me a necklace instead of an engagement ring.

“When I asked him why he hasn’t proposed to me yet, he told me that he thought I knew, that he understood our little arrangement, and that we were together because of his money and because he needed a beard.” Bitterness filled with Alice’s voice. “Apparently he’d been sleeping around the entire time, and I was so stupid and desperate I’d had no clue. I’m amazed I never caught HIV or any other disease.”

“A beard?” Karim blinked. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Alice laughed. “If only I could be so innocent,” she said, and then she threw back the rest of her vodka. The ice clinked in the glass as she set it back down on the chair. “A beard is basically when a gay guy takes a wife or a girlfriend, to make him look like he’s a ‘real man’ while he continues to fuck other guys. Basically just to keep up appearances if you’re not comfortable coming out.”

Karim’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You were in a relationship with a homosexual the entire time? And he never told you?”

Alice shook her head. “Apparently he thought I would just figure it out, or that we had some kind of unspoken agreement or something. Honestly he’s full of shit – I think he just said that to himself to justify using me the entire time. He was always taking me to social events and office parties and things like that – as a broker he worked in a male-dominated environment, so I guess it made him feel better to have a woman on his arm. I guess he didn’t think about the fact that he’d basically wasted three years of my life that I would never get back.”

“What a selfish bastard.” Karim’s amber eyes darkened with anger, and the hand that was sitting on the tablecloth clenched into a fist. “I can’t believe he would use you like that for his own gain and then pretend you were supposed to know exactly what he was doing the entire time. I’m certain I can find someone in New York who owes me a favor to make his life very uncomfortable.”

Alice laughed, her ire gone. “As sweet as that is, Karim, I’m not after vengeance at this point in my life. I just want nothing to do with Jason anymore. I’ve moved on.”

“If you’d truly moved on,” Karim said softly, “you wouldn’t have been so afraid to go on second dates with men.”

“I wasn’t
afraid
of going on second dates,” Alice insisted.

“Oh really?” Karim folded his arms. “Then what would you call it? An allergy?”

Alice scowled. “Smartass.” But she bit her lip as she considered how to explain it to him. “It wasn’t that I thought those men would hurt me… it was just that I didn’t trust my own judgment anymore. I was afraid of ending up in another relationship where I thought a man loved me and he didn’t, or even worse, that I would be stuck in a situation where he loved me but I didn’t love him. I don’t want to put anyone through the heartbreak that Jason dealt me. It’s just not right.”

“Oh, Alice.” Karim kissed my hand again, his face softening. “You are a better woman than you know.”

Warmth spread from the center of Alice’s chest and out through her body, making her toes curl and her fingers tingle. The praise in Karim’s voice and eyes made her feel good. “I’m just trying to be a decent human being.”

“Well, you’re more than decent,” Karim said, laying her hand against his cheek. “You’re perfect.”

Chapter Ten

Karim’s words rang in her Alice’s ears as they made their way, arm in arm, up Rue Godot de Mauroy toward the Hotel du Triangle d’Or, where they were staying. She was pleasantly full from her meal, and content to walk on Karim’s arm, but the words rolled in her mind like a pebble beneath her bed sheet, irritating and yet somehow out of reach. She knew she was far from perfect, but there was no point in arguing the point with Karim, and she wasn’t really certain why his praise bothered her so much.

Maybe it’s because you don’t feel like you deserve it.

Alice pressed her lips together. The way that Karim looked at her every day, with deepening affection, made her feel a little guilty about the fact that she was still holding out on her one-year deadline for the end of this marriage. Sure, it was silly to expect her to change her mind so soon, after only two weeks, and yet Karim seemed to dote on her, giving her his undivided attention and affection, and it made her wonder whether or not she was playing just as hard as he was. Was he giving more than she was? Was he going to fall in love before she did, or worse, would he come to love her while she didn’t return his feelings?

She didn’t want that to happen, not ever. And yet she also didn’t want it to end up the other way around where she loved him and he didn’t return her feelings. God, but she was just such a mess as far as he was concerned.

Sheridan would tell her that she needed to let it go and just trust him. Which was a little funny considering Sheridan’s own dating habits before she met Kahlid, but she’d changed, and so could Alice, in her opinion. But it was hard, so very hard.

“You’re tense,” Karim murmured as they entered their hotel suite. He took her jacket, then hung it up on the coat rack just inside the spacious living room. “Why don’t you go lie on the bed, and I’ll give you a massage?”

Warmth and anticipation rushed through Alice’s veins, and she smiled despite her nerves. “That sounds good.”

She wandered into the bedroom, which, like the living room, was done in shades of purple and white, and kicked off her heels before settling onto the deep purple duvet. Her skirt and blouse floated to the floor next, and when she was left only in her lacy white bra and underwear, she stretched out onto the duvet on her belly, stretching her arms and legs wide as she sighed. Stressing out about what-ifs wasn’t going to do her any good. Right now she needed to live in the moment, and at the moment she was on her honeymoon with her husband. So she need to act like it,and have a good time.

The sounds of Karim tinkering around the bathroom reached her ears, but she didn’t turn around, instead pressing her cheek into the mattress and closing her eyes. A few moments later, the mattress dipped underneath his weight, and she heard the thud of a bottle being placed on the bedside table.

“Well, you look relaxed already,” Karim teased as he unhooked her bra. “Maybe you don’t need the massage after all.” He slicked oil across Alice’s bare back.

“Oh, I could definitely use one,” Alice began, and then she moaned as Karim dug his knuckles into her middle back, hitting a sore spot. He dragged his knuckles all the way down her back, then around the muscles that covered her hip bones, bleeding waves of tension from her back.

“Jesus Christ that feels amazing,” she groaned.

“Good,” he whispered, dropping a kiss just below her ear, and she shivered, a different kind of sensation filling her now. He continued to massage her, working his way from her shoulders and down her back until she was a boneless heap, all the tension gone from her muscles so that she was so relaxed she didn’t think she could move if she tried. But then his big hands moved over the curves of her ass, tugging down her panties, and he squeezed and kneaded the rounded muscles, his strong fingers digging in deep.

“Ohhh,” she moaned, squirming beneath him. “I didn’t know you could be sore there.”

“You can be sore almost anywhere,” Karim said, his voice low and dark. He feathered his lips over the curve of her ass, then tugged her panties down to her knees and spread her legs wide. Heat flashed through her as she felt his breath on her pussy, but he didn’t touch her there – instead he kneaded the backs of her thighs with his fingers, and she nearly came off the bed.

“Jesus Christ!” she cried out, squirming beneath him as hysterical giggles threatened to overtake her. “That tickles!”

“It’s just the tension,” he soothed, pinning her down with one hand while he continued to massage her right hamstring with the other. “It will wear off soon, and it won’t feel ticklish anymore.  Now stop squirming.”

Alice held her breath and tried to do as he asked, but it was hard. Eventually, though, the tension eased away, just as he’d said, along with the ticklish sensation, and now she only felt the sore spots as he dug his fingers into the muscle. Sighing, she relaxed into the mattress again, allowing him to work his way down her hamstrings and calves, pulling off her panties as he reached her ankles. Somehow, he even found tender spots there, and he
definitely
found some in her foot – his knuckles felt like heaven when they pressed into her arches.

“Somebody should be paying you for this,” she moaned.

“Oh, believe me, I’ll be exacting my payment from you soon,” Karim said with a dark chuckle.

An erotic thrill went through her at his choice of words. Alice opened her mouth to ask him just what kind of payment he wanted, but then he began kissing his way up her right leg, and words escaped her. Tendrils of heat started unfurling in her center, spreading out through her nerves as his hot moist lips trailed up the back of her thigh and around the underside of her cheek. Her pussy throbbed as he spread her legs wide again, pushing her up onto her knees, and she gasped when he flicked his tongue against her folds.

“You taste good, Alice,” he whispered against her skin.

Alice moaned as he gave her pussy a long, slow lick, dragging his tongue across her folds. He licked her again, and again, and on the fourth lick he found her clit. She cried out in pleasure, and he did it again, then replaced his tongue with his hand, slipping his thumb inside her while massaging her clit with two fingers.

“Yes,” Alice moaned, rocking her hips into his hand. “Don’t stop.” She rubbed herself shamelessly against him. God, if he just kept doing that, she was going to come…

“I think it’s time for my payment now,” he said, his voice dark and husky as he withdrew from her. Alice whimpered at his absence, and then she gasped as he fisted one hand in her hair and dug the other one into the side of her hip. His thick cock surged inside her, and she cried out as an orgasm hit her instantly, catapulting her into mindless bliss.

As she rode out the waves, Karim began to pound into her, slamming his hips into her ass again and again as he filled her with his cock. Alice gripped the headboard hard as she absorbed the shockwaves of the impact, and though the sensation of him tugging on her scalp was painful, he still felt good inside her, and the pleasure and the pain mingled together created an erotic experience. She would have liked to have been able to see his face, and yet there was something exciting about knowing that he was behind her, feeling his hands in her hair and his cock slamming into her, and yet being unable to see him.