The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable-Girl (12 page)

Afterwards he lay back against the heap of pillows, staring rather dazedly up at the ceiling—knowing that he should now go back to his own suite and yet strangely reluctant to do so. She was snuggling up to him, wrapping her warm body around his, and he was usually irritated by such cloying familiarity once the sexual act had been completed. But with Eleni he felt no such irritation.

Was that because he was safe from ambition with her? That such a lowly lover as her would simply be grateful for whatever he gave her and would not dare to make the demands of the majority of her sex?

He would just close his eyes for a moment and then he would go back to his suite….

Beside him, Eleni lay listening to his steady breathing as he slipped into sleep, while the facts of what had just happened began to sink into her glowing body. Truly, she was no longer a girl—she had been made into a woman by her sheikh.

Carefully, she turned her head to look at him. His dark hair was tousled and as he slept his harsh features were relaxed. How bizarre to think that the Prince of Calista lay naked beside her. That his body had been intimately joined with hers—just as she had seen the stallions rutting the mares in the stable.

But this was different. Horses did not have emotions that felt as if a great big bit of mountain had just fallen down on top of you. She bit her lip. And what did this extraordinary night mean? Were they to become lovers, or would Kaliq simply cast her off in the morning and pretend that nothing had happened?

So troubled were Eleni’s thoughts that she should not have slept, but she did sleep—a fact she only discovered by being woken by the soft touch of a fingertip over each of her eyelids.

Her eyes fluttered open to find that the early morning sun was creeping in through the muslin drapes and that Kaliq was looking down at her. Anxiously, she searched his face for a sign of what last night had meant to him. Did he still respect her? Consider her to be a worthy lover? But the ebony eyes were as hard as chips of bright ebony and his sensual lips gave nothing away, except—she thought, with the beginnings of experience—a sense that they would like to kiss her again.

‘So what did you think of your sexual awakening, lizard?’

She felt the colour stealing into her cheeks. What was she expected to say? ‘It was very…agreeable.’

‘Agreeable?’ He laughed softly, thinking how ironic it was that his little stable girl should give him such a cool response—he, who had been praised to the heavens by society beauties the world over. ‘Agreeable enough to want to do it again?’ he mocked as he touched the outline of her lips with his finger.

His flesh contained the scent of something sultry and soapy—something that Eleni knew was connected to her and she felt the colour flaming to her cheeks once more. And there was no place to hide in the cruel light of day. ‘Highness…Kaliq…I…’

Kaliq frowned. Last night, in the passion and heat of the moment, he had overlooked the fact that she was not just inexperienced physically—but emotionally, too. And this morning he needed to make the situation clear to her—because he could not afford for her to misread it.

‘Before we continue, there is something I must tell you, Eleni,’ he said softly, tilting her chin upwards so that she was forced to look at him. ‘You know that sex is always different for a woman?’

She stared at him in confusion.

‘Some women do not have the same capacity as a man to enjoy the act—or so I believe,’ he added truthfully, ‘since no woman in my bed has ever experienced anything but pleasure.’ He ignored her wince of pain—but he had merely been stating a fact. Was she foolishly allowing herself the fantasy of thinking that he had never known any other lover than her?

‘Nature has designed a man and a woman differently,’ he continued firmly. ‘For men sex is simply the natural spilling of their seed, but for women it is merely the trigger—and deep down they are searching for a mate to father their children. That is what makes women start attaching emotion to the act.’

‘E-emotion?’ Eleni felt as if he was insulting her—she just wasn’t quite sure how, or why? ‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

He steeled himself against the naked pain in her face. ‘I mean that women sometimes convince themselves that they’re falling in love with a man once they’ve had sex with him—because it seems to make the act more respectable in their eyes.’

For a moment, Eleni didn’t react until the full impact of his words hit her. Of all the cold-hearted and cruel men she could have picked as her lover—then Kaliq must be the very worst. She tried to tell herself that she could have resisted him. Should have resisted him—but she knew that was a lie. She could have no more resisted the sheikh than a man crawling in the desert for three days could have resisted a cool, clear flagon of fresh water. She had had no control over her reaction to him—physically, at least.

But she saw now that she needed to protect herself as much as possible against the inevitable pain which would follow if she did not heed his words. If she were foolish enough to fall in love with a man who would toss her aside in an instant if he needed to.

No, she would learn everything she could from her royal lover—would study sexual techniques in the same way that she had learned about horses. She would become an expert lover in his bed…and when the affair was concluded, she would leave the arrogant and dismissive sheikh aching for her.

‘I agree completely, Kaliq,’ she agreed imperturbably.

His eyes narrowed. ‘You do?’

‘But of course. And you need have no concerns about me. For why would I waste my time falling in love with a man with whom there was no earthly possibility of a future?’

This should have been the perfect answer—but to Kaliq’s fury, it made him feel utterly indignant. Why, she had accepted her fate without shedding even a single tear! Did she think that she would find him easy to forget? Well, she would soon learn how wrong she had been.

Kaliq moved his hand beneath the sheet. ‘I am bored with talking,’ he growled as he guided her fingers to his aching flesh. ‘Come here and kiss me.’

And even as Eleni obeyed—the pleasure happening all over again as he thrust into her—she remained glad that she had sounded both proud and independent. But if this was victory—then it must have been the most short-lived in the history of the world. Because after he had made love to her with an almost ruthless efficiency which left her gasping, he got out of bed—seeming to enjoy her blushes as he paraded his magnificent nakedness against the stark backdrop of the snowy room.

‘We will leave for the polo match after lunch,’ he said.

Eleni pulled the sheet up to her chin and nodded. ‘Yes, Kaliq.’

Pausing in the act of knotting the belt of his robe, he flicked her an impenetrable look. ‘Just two things,’ he drawled. ‘When you prepare for bed tonight, don’t braid your hair like a governess—I wish to see it spread loose over my pillow.’

Her fingers playing with one of the ribbons, Eleni looked at him, unable to deny the small spring of hope in her heart. ‘And the other?’

His smile was cruel. ‘Make sure you don’t ever call me Kaliq in public.’

CHAPTER TEN

‘COFFEE, Eleni?’

Eleni sat down at the breakfast table as Zahra held up a heavy silver pot, wondering if her face or her demeanour gave the sheikh’s assistant any hint of what had happened last night.

Or was this a house with no secrets—the interconnecting door of her bedroom giving the game away to all? Did the servants realise that, under cover of darkness, Prince Kaliq had crept into the bed of his stable girl and taken her virginity in the most heart-breakingly beautiful way possible? Why, maybe Zahra herself had gone through a similar initiation ceremony.

Eleni’s cheeks flamed and she felt her heart give a painful lurch. Please let that not be the case, she prayed silently. ‘I’d love some coffee,’ she said quietly.

Zahra upended some inky brew into a tiny golden coffee cup and pushed it across the table. ‘The sheikh has asked me to tell you that someone will be over after breakfast. You can be measured up and a selection of outfits sent over within the hour. Something for you to wear to the polo match.’ Zahra smiled. ‘It’ll be fun—believe me.’

But Eleni was still smarting from Kaliq’s command that she never call him by his given name in public. And while she knew that his words made sense, it didn’t stop them hurting—but at least it helped her come to a decision. He had set out his rules very firmly—so why should she not have rules of her own? Why should she dress up to be something she wasn’t? Masquerading as a cute western mannequin until Kaliq tired of her and it was time to put her back into the cupboard?

And besides—she already felt displaced enough in this English home of the sheikh’s. Surely if she started dressing like a westerner then she would end up feeling completely alienated?

‘Please thank the sheikh for his generous offer,’ she said stiffly. ‘But also tell him that I cannot accept it. There is no reason why I should not go to the polo match dressed in traditional gown. I am there to assess a horse and not to impress others.’

Zahra gave her an uneasy smile as she offered a basket of warm bread. ‘I’ll tell him,’ she said. ‘But I can tell you now, Eleni—he won’t like it.’

Eleni shrugged. No, she could imagine that Kaliq was a man who never liked being disobeyed in anything. ‘Where is the sheikh this morning?’ asked Eleni, telling herself that Zahra’s slightly ominous words were not going to frighten her.

‘He’s in his office.’ Zahra hesitated for a moment. ‘Do you need to speak to him?’

Too quickly, Eleni shook her head. ‘No. I have no wish to disturb him.’

She needed to get out into the fresh air. To cool down her overheated body and blow her disquiet away, and after coffee she went out to explore the grounds—discovering a small wood carpeted with blue flowers shaped like bells.

Her mood kept veering wildly between dreamy recollections of what had happened to her last night. Of her first initiation into the act of love with a man who could not have been a more perfect lover. Except that there was no love involved, she reminded herself bitterly. No feeling at all, it seemed. The sheikh had made that very clear indeed—illustrated by the way he had described sex in such a mechanical and unfeeling way! Did he not care how cruel and cold he had been to a woman who had welcomed him into her body during that blissful night?

She picked one of the blue flowers and held it to her nose, inhaling its sweet scent. Of course he didn’t. She was his servant, wasn’t she? His stable girl—nothing more than that. And she never would be.

Just before they left for the polo match, Eleni showered and changed into silk tunic and trousers and Kaliq’s eyes narrowed when he walked into the room and saw her.

So she had ignored his instructions, he thought grimly. He had been looking forward to seeing that superb, tight bottom encased in a clinging pair of jodhpurs. Or a sleek and fitted dress.

‘You will stand out by a mile, dressed like that,’ he offered drily. ‘And yet Zahra tells me you turned down the clothes which were offered to you.’

‘Indeed I did.’

‘Stubborn, obstinate Eleni,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘And why did you do that?’

‘Because I would rather be true to myself than pretend to be something I’m not, Highness,’ she replied as she bobbed him a curtsey.

He glanced at her—cursing the folds of silk which concealed her slender body from his eyes. How dared she have the temerity to disobey his wishes and cover herself up?

‘No coy look for your prince this morning?’ he mocked. ‘No murmured thanks for the treasures he brought to your bedchamber last night which made you gasp aloud with such joy?’

Eleni kept her face expressionless, even though inside her heart was racing so fast that she felt dizzy. ‘But you told me not to be familiar with you in public, Highness,’ she protested.

He glanced around. ‘And you can see for yourself that the room is empty!’

Her smile was serene. ‘Far better to get into practice of maintaining normal protocol, Highness—that way no embarrassing mistakes can be made.’

To his fury, Kaliq felt himself taken unawares by this impudent minx of a girl. How dared she answer him back—in a way which managed to be both insubordinate and yet smoothly diplomatic? Almost as if she had the upper hand! Why, he should show her who was boss…and…and…

Beneath his robes, he could feel himself growing hard and was just about to lock the door and take her into his arms until he realised such an action would throw his whole timetable out.

‘Let’s go!’ he growled.

She followed him outside to where sat a low and gleaming car as scarlet and as bright as a sunset and Eleni looked at it suspiciously.

‘Come on,’ said Kaliq impatiently.

‘What sort of machine is this?’

‘It’s a Maserati and it goes like a rocket.’

‘But, Highness, I have no desire to travel in a rocket—’

‘Just get in, will you?’ he snapped.

What could she do but obey him?

‘Hey,’ said Kaliq softly as he roared off down the drive in a spray of gravel, relenting slightly as he saw her knuckles whiten in her lap. ‘Just relax, little lizard.’

‘How can I relax when you drive so fast?’ she demanded hoarsely.

‘Is that a criticism?’

‘It’s an observation.’

‘You can go pretty fast yourself on a horse—I’ve seen you.’

‘A horse is different—at least then I have some element of control.’

‘You don’t trust my driving, Eleni—is that it?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘Oh?’ He shot the one-word question at her.

Fear and all the conflicting emotions of the preceding night had loosened her tongue. Eleni shrugged. ‘You have a reputation for being…’

‘For being what?’ he demanded.

‘Nothing.’

‘Tell me!’

Eleni wriggled in her seat. All the rules had been turned upside down—maybe if she offended him badly enough with the truth then he would have her shipped straight back to Calista and she would be liberated from the dangerous excitement of his company. ‘Reckless,’ she said reluctantly.

His mouth hardened. He knew that—for it was no secret. And on one level Kaliq had always revelled in his daredevil, playboy image. As a teenager, he had embraced risk and clung to it like an old friend. Adrenalin was his lifeblood—as was pushing life to its very limits. It had been his way of coping with a world made dark by the disappearance of his brother—and his guilt at the part he had played in it.