The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable-Girl (11 page)

‘I do not wish to reject the values of my country,’ she said fiercely—and the subject was temporarily forgotten as Zahra opened the door and showed her into a room of breathtaking simplicity.

Everything was white—snowy white like the peaks of winter mountains. There were white walls and a thick white carpet which sank beneath her feet like quicksand. Muslin drapes like drifts of clouds hung from a large four-poster bed covered in dazzling white linen and beautiful embroidered white curtains framed a picture-perfect view from the huge windows.

‘This is your room.’ Zahra smiled.

Eleni smiled back, her heart suddenly light. He really does treat his staff well, she thought as she peered through an open door to see a pristine white bathroom of majestic proportions. As she turned to speak to Zahra she saw another door which she hadn’t previously noticed.

‘And where does that one lead to?’ she questioned innocently.

‘That one?’ Zahra’s face remained impassive. ‘Oh, that door connects you to the suite of the sheikh.’

CHAPTER NINE

ELENI was in a terrible dilemma as she dressed for dinner, defiantly picking out the most traditional outfit from the batch she had brought with her from the sheikh’s palace in Calista. And all the time, a single question buzzed round and round in her head like a fly mesmerised by a candle flame.

Had the prince deliberately put her into a suite with a door which connected to his—and was he planning to use it?

But surely it would be impertinent to ask him—as if she was questioning his motives. Even perhaps a little presumptuous—almost as if she was expecting him to try to enter her room?

And aren’t you? taunted that rogue voice in her head which kept stirring up uncomfortable thoughts and feelings no matter how hard she tried to quell it. Hadn’t she thought of little else other than the way his lips had felt as he had pushed her down onto the back seat of the car and…and…

Cheeks stinging, she finished tying back her hair before going over to the door in question to check whether or not there was a key. And why did she register no surprise whatsoever to discover that there wasn’t one?

Her hands were trembling as she heard a tap at the door and there was Zahra, waiting to lead her down to dinner.

‘I thought I’d come and get you myself,’ she said kindly. ‘Rather than send one of the servants.’

And as Eleni followed her down the sweeping staircase she made up her mind that if the sheikh came to her in the night, she would simply tell him no. Because although he was a man—and a highly virile man at his peak—she knew deep down that he would never take her by force.

But Kaliq seemed preoccupied throughout the meal, his brow furrowed deep by a frown. He kept getting called out by Zahra to take telephone calls, leaving Eleni sitting there rather self-consciously on her own while a stream of servants glided through offering her golden dishes of titbits she had no appetite for.

She was just wondering whether she could slip away unnoticed when he returned, his eyes narrowing as she sat there with a half-eaten pear in front of her—as if he had only just noticed her for the first time. He sat down opposite her, and sighed.

‘I have been a bad host tonight, lizard—forgive me.’

‘It is not the sheikh’s place to seek the forgiveness of one of his subjects,’ answered Eleni dutifully, hoping that a little protocol might emphasise all the differences between them.

‘How very prim and proper you sound this evening,’ he murmured sardonically. ‘Few would guess that you had been lying in my arms just a few hours earlier—with your body craving more of my touch!’

‘Highness!’ Eleni whispered, appalled—but he shrugged his shoulders.

‘Highness, what?’ he mocked. ‘Highness, don’t tell the truth? Don’t you like the truth, Eleni? Or are you trying to pretend that if I hadn’t called a halt to your sweet submissiveness, then I should have taken your virginity in the back of my limousine?’

Once again, her cheeks were on fire, but so too—more worryingly—was her body. A strange aching had made her breasts feel so heavy—just like that peculiar sensation she’d first experienced in the scented bathwater at Kaliq’s palace. This was desire, Eleni realised—and the sheikh was such a proficient lover that he could manufacture it by words which were not even sweet or admiring!

‘No?’ he continued ruthlessly. ‘Nothing to say?’

She could sense the unknown and potent danger in the air. His eyes were challenging and his body language was suddenly tense and Eleni recognised that if she allowed this conversation to continue, then it might end up in the place she most wanted yet most feared to be. In his arms.

‘I am very tired after the journey and I would ask the sheikh if I may be excused,’ said Eleni stiffly.

There was a pause as Kaliq’s eyes narrowed. Excessively formal, he thought. And how insolent of her to ask to be excused before her royal host had left the room. But mightn’t it be easier to have her stripped naked and waiting for him?

‘Then don’t let me stop you,’ he drawled. ‘In fact, I have business I need to deal with.’ His black eyes glittered with anticipation. ‘Think you can find your way back upstairs?’

‘Of course,’ said Eleni, the heavy chair scraping back as she stood up, her heart beating fast beneath her breast. Remind him why you’re here—and remind yourself in the process before you get carried away with this rich and privileged life of his. ‘And when will we see the horse?’

‘Tomorrow. There is a polo match at a nearby ground—you might as well see him in action before you exercise your judgement.’

‘I shall look forward to that.’ Eleni curtseyed. ‘Good…goodnight, Highness.’

His lips curved into a sardonic smile as he heard her tremulous hesitation. She was innocent, yes—but she had a natural intelligence which surely would not deny the chemistry which existed between them. Did she really think that she would lie alone tonight? That he would allow that to happen?

‘Goodnight, Eleni.’

Her mouth dry with nameless fear, Eleni went upstairs to her room—trying to tell herself that of course she wasn’t surprised or disappointed that the sheikh had let her go so easily. For hadn’t his words unsettled her? The way he had described her response to him in the back of the car—why, it had made her feel ashamed and yet full of desire, all at the same time!

But it was with a sense of urgency that she undressed quickly—her hair still ribboned as she turned off all the lights and then slipped between the sheets.

Through the filmy curtains was a silver scythe curve of moon and she could see the occasional pinprick of a star—but they looked like pale imitations of the bright stars in the Calistan heavens, and suddenly Eleni felt very alone.

She tried to keep awake, to be on her guard in case the arrogant prince tried to enter her bedroom uninvited. And she should have been too excited and nervous to sleep after everything that had happened—the drive, the flight, the fact that she, Eleni Lakis, was in England! But one way or another it had been an exhausting day and the bed was unbelievably comfortable so that she couldn’t seem to stop eyelids which felt as if they had been weighted by lead, from shutting out the world.

It seemed like only seconds later that Eleni awoke to the sensation of the bed dipping and her eyes snapped open in alarm. For a moment then it had almost felt as if someone was…getting into bed beside her!

Her eyes adjusting to the half-light from the stars outside, she turned her head and there…there…lying next to her as if he had every right to be there and clearly naked as the day he had first entered the world of men—was the Sheikh Kaliq Al’Farisi!

She sat bolt upright in bed, her fingertips flying to her throat, feeling the pulse fluttering wildly beneath. ‘By the desert storm,’ she breathed. ‘What do you think you’re doing here?’

He gave a soft laugh as he reached his hand up to twist a silken braid of hair around his fingers. ‘Innocent you might be, my beauty—but I don’t really think you need me to give you an answer to that, do you, Eleni?’

Afterwards, she told herself that she might have screamed—had he not pulled her down against his bare flesh. And the sensations which powered over her were so intense that she closed her eyes and prayed that she would be strong in the path of such temptation.

‘Highness, please!’ she protested.

‘Please, what? Please this…?’

Almost lazily, he drifted his lips to hers and kissed her, feeling her tremble beneath his touch.

‘H-Highness!’ she stumbled, weakly.

Kaliq levered himself up to look down into her face, his expression stern—his eyes glittering fiercely in the half-light as they raked over her with proprietorial hunger.

‘Now listen to me while I tell you this and listen well. For tonight I am not your Highness, Eleni,’ he said. ‘Tonight I am just Kaliq. In this bed at least, we are equals. Do you understand that?’

And a little bit of Eleni’s heart turned over as she heard the simple appeal in his words—the sense that tonight he just wanted to be treated as a man and not a prince. Could she deny him a gift so simple—or was that just wishful thinking on her part?

She wanted to ask him how he thought that she could ever call him by his Christian name—but by then the sheikh’s hand had moved beneath the sheet and had taken her breast. It seemed that he, at least, had no problem with familiarity. Eleni closed her eyes, trying to fight the great wave of pleasure which whispered through her as he cupped the small globe and teased its tip into throbbing life.

‘H-Highness!’ she gasped.

‘Kaliq!’ he reminded her.

‘K-Kaliq!’ Vaguely, she thought how odd it was to utter the name of her sheikh—and yet how delicious it felt on her lips. Nearly as delicious as the sweet caress of his fingers.

‘Yes, Eleni, what is it?’

‘I…I…’ She shook her braided hair distractedly against the pillow as he worked some kind of magic with his touch. ‘I don’t remember.’

In the semi-darkness, he smiled as he continued to stroke her. ‘That’s good. Just feel. Just enjoy what I’m doing to you. Tell me, do you like it when I do that, Eleni?’

‘Oh! Oh. Oh!’

‘I think we must judge from your response that you do,’ he murmured drily. ‘Shall we try something else?’

Carelessly, he let his fingertips trail to dip into her belly button and let them stay there—waiting instinctively until she circled her hips in restless but silent entreaty. And then slowly—more slowly than he had ever moved in his life—he moved his hand lower still until he had delved deep into her honeyed sweetness—and was taken aback by how fresh and how ready she was for him. ‘And what about here—do you like me touching you here, too?’

As she bucked beneath his fingers Eleni honestly thought she was going to faint with pleasure—that was if she allowed herself to give into it, and not focus on the fact that this was the sheikh. Or just what he was doing to her. ‘But surely that is wrong?’ she breathed as he moved luxuriantly against her heated flesh.

Kaliq swallowed, strangely moved by her combination of innocence and enthusiasm. ‘How can it be wrong when it is what a man and a woman were designed for?’ he questioned huskily.

Eleni felt as if she were drowning in unbelievable sweetness—far sweeter than anything she had ever known. She knew the basics of sex—of course she did—so why was the sheikh not joining with her as she expected him to?

Why was he moving his fingers deliciously between her legs like that—making her feel as if control was slipping away? As if a place of undreamed-of delight were beckoning to her and she were sliding towards it. Eleni began to tremble and tears began to blur her eyes as waves of ecstasy began to shudder through her.

‘K-Kaliq!’ she gasped.

He almost lit the lamp to watch her very first orgasm but he did not want to destroy the mood. As it was, the half-light caught her joy and illuminated the tear which trickled slowly down over her cheek and he lowered his head to lick it away.

‘Do not cry,’ he said softly and then, inexplicably, he felt a sudden lurching of his heart. ‘Are you sad that I took your purity away?’

Eleni shook her head, and laid it on his chest, where she could feel the beat of his lifeblood as it pulsed through him. ‘How could I be sad about something which was so beautiful?’ she whispered, her voice still dazed. ‘Why, to feel that way seems scarcely human.’

‘That is why some say the act of love is divine,’ he murmured. ‘Now come here, and I will show you more beauty still.’

Moving over her, he stroked a few wisps of tangled curls away from her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck, looking up at him with utter trust. What a straightforward lover she was proving to be, he thought—as honest and as fearless as she was in the saddle!

His lips grazed over hers—at first almost lazily—as if he were coaxing from them another trembling response. And then the kiss deepened and became more intense—and suddenly he could wait no longer.

Parting her firm thighs, he thrust into her with one long stroke as he heard her stifle the cry as her innocence was taken from her for ever. How hot and tight she felt. Kaliq moaned. He could have spilled his seed into her right there and then—and why not? For it was the right of the sheikh to take his pleasure where he found it.

Yet strangely he found himself wanting this eager, unexpected beauty to have the time of her life. To gasp her pleasure once more beneath the onslaught of his sexual prowess. So he held back. He tantalised her with the thrust of his body and then retreated, over and over again until the body of his no-longer-a-virgin began to adjust and to acclimatise to the new sensations which were sweeping over her. How quickly she learnt, he thought in admiration as he sensed her pleasure building once more.

‘Kaliq!’ she whispered.

In the darkness, he smiled. And how quickly she had adjusted to the familiar use of his name, too! ‘What is it, my green-eyed lovely?’

‘It’s…it’s…Oh! That thing…that thing…it’s going to happen all over again!’

‘Your orgasm,’ he purred—but this time as she convulsed around his aching flesh he joined her, letting go completely, losing himself in a sea of delight, his body juddering as it was racked with spasms which seemed to go on and on, leaving him completely dry and gasping.