Sheikh's Purchased Princess (7 page)

He ran his large hands from her shoulders down over her breasts, to the curve of her hips and back again. When he stopped to cup her breasts in his hands, she moaned softly, closing her eyes at the pleasure of it. She had never thought of her breasts as sensitive before, but now as he dragged his calloused fingertips over the sensitive sides and pinched her nipples gently until they formed taut peaks, she realized how wrong she’d been.

“Such a beautiful woman, and right now, you are all mine, aren't you?”

“Yes, yes,” she murmured, and as a reward, his hands slid down her flat stomach. He traced sweet patterns over her thighs, and when she felt him move upwards toward her most secret flesh, she opened her legs instinctively. She could the hardness of his arousal pressed against her rear, and without thinking of what she was doing, she shifted, making him groan.

“Well, if that's what you want to do, I suppose I should show you what I can do as well…”

When he slid an exploratory finger down her slit, she blushed to feel herself already so wet and wanting. Adnan seemed to enjoy her response, however, repeating the motion until she was whimpering with need.

“I need more than that,” she whispered, blushing at her own words, and he kissed the side of her neck.

“I promise, you will get everything you need,” he whispered.

One gentle finger probed at her entrance as the other circled higher. When she felt a calloused fingertip graze her clit, she might have jumped away at the shock of it if he hadn't been nuzzling her, telling her softly how beautiful she was, how much he wanted her.

One arm looped around her waist, holding her still and keeping her calm, as his other hand slid gently down her slit. She could feel him gathering the liquid of her arousal at her entrance, and then bringing it up to her clit, smoothing the way for a rougher touch.

“Tell me if this is something you don't want,” he whispered in her ear. “There are so many ways to do this, and oh, Emily, I want to do them all with you…”

She couldn't imagine not wanting this touch, this slick, tight need as he started to work her sensitive flesh. She could feel every muscle in her body straining against the desire that was binding it up tighter and tighter. She started to squirm, but there was only so far she could go with his arm wrapped around her bare waist. Instead, she dug her fingernails into his muscular forearm because she needed something, anything that she could hang on to while the pleasure was pulsing through her.

“Come for me, little beauty,” he whispered. “I want you to have this…”

His fingers were relentless, but it was more than that. It was being seated on him, surrounded by him, held by him. He was the man she had been looking for her entire life, and right now, all she wanted was to explode in his embrace.

“Reach for it,” Adnan murmured. “I'll give it to you.”

She could feel her body rising up on a pleasure that she had never felt before. This was higher and harder and faster than anything she had ever experienced. At the last moment, it occurred to her to be afraid, but then it was too late. The pleasure was pushing her through everything else, and as her muscles all tightened hard, it exploded through her. She shrieked with the sensations pushing through her; she felt as if she were being thrown into the sun itself.

Her pleasure was so intense, she wondered if she had passed out for a moment. The next thing she knew, she was lying limply over Adnan's strong body, his powerful arms still holding her in place.

“Adnan,” she tried, but her voice was so hoarse she had to try again. “Adnan…that was…I have never felt anything like that before.”

His chuckle was warm and sensuous in her ear.

“Good. I am glad I was your first.”

“But…” she hesitated for a moment. Her mind felt like a whirling galaxy of planets, stars, and comets. “But it wasn't really my first time, was it? You paid for…”

“It was
a
first time. It was our first time,” he said firmly, kissing her on the forehead. “That is what I wish, and after all, I am the one who rules here.”

A part of her wanted to fight him on that, but for some reason, his bald declaration only sent a deep pulse of satisfaction and warmth through her. She settled against him, and she might have dozed off if she hadn't noticed the red marks on his arms.

“Oh god, I think I made you bleed!”

Lazily, he lifted his arm to inspect it as Emily bit her lip.

“It was a near thing,” he said with a slight smile on his face. “If you had pressed a little harder, if I had pleased you perhaps just a little bit better, you might have.”

She wasn't sure what to make of that, but then he kissed her ear.

“I wouldn't mind pleasing you a little better next time,” he whispered, sending those shivers of pleasure through her body again, and at the shocked look on her face, he only laughed.

“I have a great deal to teach you, little beauty.”

Emily was so tired that, instead of her showering, Adnan brought a cloth and a basin of warm water from the bathroom. As she drowsed, he swiped the fabric along her limbs, cleaning her gently and with care. When he came to the area between her thighs, he had to stop himself from groaning at how willingly she parted them for him.

He wondered again if he had done the right thing, but when he returned to bed and she snuggled closer to him, he wasn't sure if he cared. Now she fell into a deeper sleep, one that seemed, at least to him, more peaceful than when he’d come to bed.

When Adnan thought of her thrashing and her anguished cries, something deep and cold woke up in him. It told him that he could kill the men who had done this to her without a second thought.

Something about this girl drew him like no other. In the short time that they had known each other, he had become viciously protective of her. He wanted her pleasure more than he wanted his own.

Adnan wondered if he should worry about it, whether he was losing his edge. He shook the thought off, because the operation the next day had no room for such doubts.

He knew in his heart that Emily belonged to no one but herself, but in the dimness of the room they shared, he could pretend. He could pretend that she belonged to him and only to him, and that in this place, he could heal her, take away all that pain and replace it with pleasure.

“I will protect you,” he murmured softly to her, and he wondered if somewhere, in her dreams, she heard him and was comforted.

Chapter Seven

The next morning, Emily awoke to find the bed empty and Adnan getting dressed. Sleepy and content, she simply watched him, but then a flash of something dark caught her eye.

“Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?” she blurted out, the shock clear in her voice.

To her, it seemed as if Adnan flinched before he turned back to her.

“I had hoped to be gone before you awakened,” he said, and she frowned at him.

“That's not an answer,” she said. “Where the hell are you going that you need a bulletproof vest?”

“This is none of your concern,” he began, but she looked up at him, indignant.

“That's not something that you get to tell me,” she retorted. “Not after…not after all that.”

“You will be taken care of,” he said, and for some reason, her blood boiled over at the idea that that was what he was worried about. “I have made arrangements…”

“I don't care about that,” Emily burst out.

She was out of bed, and throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. She knew that if he wanted to, he could simply uncoil her from him as if she were a limpet, but at the moment, she could only cling tightly to him. A part of her wondered if this was Stockholm syndrome, but she didn't care. The panic she felt about Adnan possibly going into danger was real, and it took her breath away.

“I don't care about that,” she repeated. “I don't want you to get hurt.”

He stiffened when she came to him, but then he relaxed, holding her gently in his arms. There was something different about him today, but she couldn't really understand what.

“I was born in Nahr,” he said conversationally. “I have lived all over the world, but Nahr is my home, my heart. I like to call myself a very modern man, but there are some times when I feel that tradition is best.”

“What do you mean?” she asked. Emily realized with a strange horror that she was startlingly close to tears. She palmed them away and glanced up at him. The look on his face was unexpectedly soft.

“When a man of Nahr goes into battle, whether he is a foot soldier or a sheikh, it is his duty to say farewell to his wife. This is an old tradition, one that goes back hundreds of years. There is no ceremony, though, no passing of household authority, nothing like that. People have done it different ways over the years, but the point is the same. The husband tells his wife that he will be away for a little while, and the wife merely says ‘hurry home.’”

Emily blinked up at him.

“That's it?” she asked. “Even when he's going out to battle?”

“Yes. Even when the campaign might carry him hundreds of miles from home. Even when they know that it might be years before he returns. She tells him to hurry home, she smiles, and he leaves.”

Emily shook her head dubiously.

“I don't understand…”

“I have always thought that it was very important. They are not hiding from the truth of what is going on. Many of those husbands never returned at all. Many of them died in foreign lands, died trying to return to a home that would always be looking for them. But for as long as they could be, they were at home. They shared the life that they lived with their wives, and both parties understood that this was a part of the life they had chosen together.”

He paused. Emily wondered what he was struggling with.

“Will you say farewell to me like that?”

She didn't understand why he was asking this of her. She didn't understand what was happening, where he was going, what was going on. However, he had asked her, and she knew that she would never deny him this.

When he pressed her back to stand on her own two feet, she was steady. For a moment, she felt dizzy at the long history of Nahr wives who had stood where she had, who had looked at the men they loved and realized that they might never see their beloved faces again. Somehow, she was able to draw her strength from theirs. She stood straight and tall, looking up at Adnan. In that moment, she thought that he had never looked so handsome.

He finished dressing, his hands sure and steady on his clothing. In the end, he looked like a rich man in good clothes; she never would have guessed at the bulletproof vest or the gun holstered under his jacket.

“Well, little beauty, it has come about that I must be away for some little while.”

Emily took a deep breath, looking up at him. She tried to put everything she couldn't say into her eyes, but when she spoke, her words were calm and sure.

“Hurry home, then. I'll miss you while you're gone.”

The smile he gave her was brief but real, and he pulled her closer, kissing her gently on the top of her head.

“Thank you,” he murmured, and then he was gone.

In the wake of his departure, Emily sat back on the bed. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around his pillow, hugging it close. It still smelled like him, and for a moment, tears almost overcame her.

Why am I doing this?
Emily wondered.
Why am I so heartbroken over a man who literally bought me?

No matter what way she came at it, there was no reason for her to be so attached to her attacker, unless it was the fear of being given to someone much worse. However, no matter which way she came at it, it wasn't just self-centered. She knew that there was something inside her, something that cried out for him.

She could understand it, she thought, the ritual of saying goodbye as if they would of course see each other again in a few hours. At the very least, it had prevented her from breaking down like she almost had.

Emily wiped her tears away furiously.

I should be glad he's gone,
she thought mutinously, but she couldn't hold it up for very long. Instead, as she looked through the barred windows, she saw the sun rising, bathing the town outside with a strangely benevolent golden light.

Keep him safe,
she prayed. She didn't know who she was praying to, but in the end, she decided that it didn't matter as long as he stayed safe.

***

In his car on the way to the Razorback's stronghold, Adnan found it beyond difficult to keep his head where it needed to be. No matter what, his thoughts turned to Emily and her clear gray eyes, looking up at him as if terrified.

I will come back to you,
he swore silently.
Nothing will keep me from you.

Roja frowned at him.

“If you cannot stay focused, we should not do this at all,” he growled. He was dressed up as a bodyguard, and his duty was solely to protect Adnan in this raid. He triple checked the gun at his side, one of many that he kept on himself at all times.

“My focus is just fine,” Adnan said shortly, but then he likely gave the lie to that statement when he hesitated. “The woman in the hotel room…If I do not return, or even if I do not return right away…find out who she is and get her home.”

Roja snorted. “Do it yourself if you are so worried. Get your mind off her.”

Adnan knew that his friend was right. Going into a situation as fraught as this one with his mind elsewhere would be dangerous not only for himself but for everyone around him. Still, he could not stop himself from thinking one last time of Emily. Her sorrow, her passion, the sweetness of her mouth and the heat of her desire.

Soon,
he promised, and then the car stopped.

Chapter Eight

Emily fell asleep at some point. She hadn't stayed in bed. It felt too lonely to be in the place where he had given her such pleasure, too frightening to be there alone as the shadows shortened then lengthened again as morning moved into afternoon.

Instead, she moved to the living room, trying to read and failing utterly. She knew she should eat, but the moment she thought about food, her belly rebelled. Instead, Emily curled up on the couch, her fingers wishing that she had her guitar in front of her. At least if she could make music, she would have some company in the quiet room.