The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable-Girl (16 page)

And Eleni knew that she was in much too far not to tell him—and wouldn’t it be dishonest to herself if she didn’t go through with it? To do what—to curtsey to her sheikh as if nothing had happened—to put it all from her mind and carry on as before? Letting him strip her bare and make love to her as if she had no feelings to hurt? How could she?

‘Did you enjoy letting me play-act at being your hostess tonight?’ she queried shakily. ‘Or did you simply enjoy the risk that it involved—because risk is your whole reason for living, isn’t it, Kaliq? It’s the reason you went ahead and told Zakari I was your lover—even though there was no real need to. He’ll never meet me again after tonight—we both know that. But maybe you were hoping for some kind of reaction? Your brother’s envy that you should have been openly flaunting your affair with a servant—or his disapproval, perhaps?’

‘That is enough!’ he gritted furiously.

But Eleni couldn’t stop the words which were tumbling out—because hadn’t this aspect of his character troubled her for as long as they had been intimate? ‘It’s almost as if you want to bring discord into your life where none exists,’ she whispered. ‘As if that will make up for the fact that you’ve never forgiven yourself for Zafir’s disappearance—’

‘I said, that is enough!’ he raged, catching her arms between the tight grip of his hands and pushing his face close to hers, his black eyes spitting angry fire. ‘Understand?’

But Eleni wasn’t afraid. She had lived with a man far more intimidating than this one and, stupidly, she just happened to love this one. She loved him so much that, even though she knew there was no future for them, she owed it to Kaliq to tell him a few home truths which nobody else had ever had the courage to tell him, and perhaps never would.

‘No, it is not enough,’ she returned, and as she saw the sheer amazement on his face that she had dared to contradict him her heart began to soften. For Kaliq was a product of his own upbringing and how could she blame him for being autocratic and demanding when that was exactly how he’d been taught to behave? In an instant, all her anger and her bitterness fled and her voice lowered with gentle compassion as she sought to make him understand.

‘When are you going to accept that Zafir’s disappearance was not your fault, my darling?’ she questioned quietly. ‘Sometimes things happen in life and there is nothing you can do to prevent them. And unless you can accept that—then you are just going to carry on pushing life to the very limits until you take one risk too far, and perhaps end it prematurely.’ She had to focus very hard to stop her voice from catching. ‘Is that what you want, Kaliq?’

For a minute he stared at her, almost marvelling at her courage and clarity of thought until he reminded himself of the unforgivable insolence of her words and all the still-raw wounds they had opened.

He drew himself up and asserted every imperious inch of regal authority—wanting to lash out at her. To make her hurt just as she had hurt him. ‘I think you forget yourself!’ he bit out furiously. ‘I do not discuss such matters with one of my servants. It is not your place to dictate to your sheikh, nor to dare suggest how I should or should not behave. Do you think that a girl from a desert shack knows better than her royal master?’

Eleni gasped as the cruel barbs of his words stung against her skin like tiny arrows. His face was dark with rage, his merciless dismissal of her flooding over her like a black tide.

‘It is not your opinion nor affection that I want,’ he continued. ‘Never forget that! In fact, there is only one thing I want from you, Eleni Lakis, and we both know what that is!’

And with a low kind of roar, he bent and picked her up—so unexpectedly that it took her completely off guard, for what woman would have anticipated him wanting sex after such a tirade against her? He carried her effortlessly towards her bedroom—kicking the door open with his foot.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

IN KALIQ’S arms Eleni trembled as he carried her towards the bed, biting her lip to quell her tears because fierce pride determined that he would not see her cry. He would not! All that courage she had mustered up to tell him the truth and yet all he was doing was ignoring it as he placed her down and…and…

‘Kaliq—’

‘Not now!’ he bit out, but he could not seem to rid himself of the memory of her words, which still echoed round and round in his head as he stared down at her—at her green eyes so wide and bright.

Trying not to react to the candid scrutiny of his gaze, Eleni shuddered with a terrible kind of longing as he stood towering over her. Wanting him and trying not to want him. And then he bent to tip her chin up with the tips of his fingers as he stared down into her face, his eyes splinteringly cold—his mouth as hard as stone.

‘Kaliq,’ she breathed again. The word sounded miraculously calm—it was both statement and entreaty—for surely he would sense the utter uselessness in prolonging this agony?

His heart thundered with rage but his anger was tempered by the silky warmth of her sweet flesh and he slid down onto the bed beside her, pulling her up against his aroused body. ‘I will forgive you your impertinence just this once, lizard—but you will never speak to your sheikh in such a way again, do you understand?’ he whispered against her. ‘Now come here and kiss me instead!’

Eleni could have wept. So much for delivering a few home truths. Everything she had said to him he’d just brushed away dismissively as if it didn’t matter.

Because it didn’t matter—not to him. And she didn’t matter, either. Her thoughts or opinions were of no consequence—hadn’t he just told her that himself? No matter that she wore the sheikh’s fine clothes or was lent his priceless jewellery—she would never be anything more than the humble stable girl he had plucked from obscurity. A willing bed-partner to be taken when and wherever it pleased him.

But she still had her pride. Eleni swallowed. Was she prepared to let the man she loved go on taking and taking from her, until she had nothing left to give and was an empty shell of a woman—heartbroken and ready to be discarded?

Like hell she was! On horseback she was as fearless as any man—and she would dig deep for some of that fearlessness now. She met his eyes with a steady gaze, concentrating on keeping her body stiff and unresponsive, even though his hands were now cupping her breasts and making them ache with familiar desire. ‘Kaliq—’

‘Not now!’ he husked as, with a small, angry moan, he drove his mouth down onto the erect bud of her nipple, sucking at it and teasing it through the slippery silk of the robe she wore. And as his mouth worked such sweet magic he was tangling his hands in her hair—coiling the thick strands around his scarred wrists as if they were silken ropes. ‘Not now, my sweet Eleni!’ he groaned against her.

Hot desire flowed from him into her and inside Eleni’s heart began to melt like a candle left out in the midday sun. But somehow she fought against it. Resisting the power of his lips, she stayed still and unmoving in his arms—fighting desire and this hopeless swell of love for him. Because this was far more important than mere desire.

Deep down, she knew that their affair was over—so how on earth could she have empty, angry sex with him now? Wouldn’t that just cheapen everything they had shared? If all she was to have of her sheikh were memories—then let them at least be golden ones and not the bitter remains of their angry row.

Kaliq sensed her resistance and let her go, raising his head from her breast—his black eyes narrowed and watchful as his heart pounded in his chest. ‘Are you trying to make a point, Eleni?’

‘But there is no point, is there, Kaliq?’ she said quietly. ‘Not any more. After all the angry words we’ve just exchanged—is it not best just to let it end here and now?’

His groin wanted to explode. What the hell was she talking about? She wanted him—she always wanted him, just as he always wanted her. More than any other woman he’d ever had, he realised—his pounding heart giving a sudden lurch.

‘You think so?’ he murmured, his lips moving to graze the silken field of skin above her breast, waiting for her arms to wind sinuously around his neck—but they did no such thing even though he felt her tremble beneath his caress.

He began to skate the flat of his hand down over the sleek curves of her hips and then possessively let it rest in between the softness of her thighs, anticipating the broken little moan she always made whenever he touched her there.

But no sound came even though he could hear the instinctive quickening of her breath. He moved to an even more intimate destination and yet, even though there she was soft and honeyed with welcome, she remained as still as if she had been fashioned from a block of ice. His passionate bed-partner had been replaced by a snow queen! Kaliq’s eyes narrowed as he saw the wanton thrust of her breasts against the soft silk of her gown—recognising that her mind and her body were in conflict.

‘Eleni?’ he said softly.

Eleni met his gaze without flinching even though her heart was racing with love and fear. ‘Yes, Kaliq?’

‘You are refusing me?’ he questioned incredulously.

‘I’m tr-trying to,’ she answered honestly, praying that she could keep her tears at bay for just a little longer. ‘Though if you insist on seducing me, we both know that I will be unable to resist you.’

The honesty of her words took Kaliq by surprise—though why should he have been surprised by that? Hadn’t Eleni always been honest with him? More honest than any of his court would ever have dared be—but then sometimes he thought she was more courageous and more daring than the lot of them put together.

And yet she was strong enough to admit that she would be unable to resist him—and, oh, how he was tempted to prove her right. To begin a slow and merciless seduction and have her crying out her orgasm. To feel her tremble with surrender beneath him. But suddenly Kaliq realised that such a victory would be an empty one, which would leave no lasting satisfaction. That he did not want only part of Eleni—the physical part—he wanted her. All of her. The all which she gave to him so generously every time they came together.

An unknown and unexpected pain ripped through him and he clenched his fists as if trying to fight the uncomfortable emotions which were pricking at his skin. Emotions which had begun to wither when his brother’s birth had resulted in the death of their mother and which had died completely when that same brother had disappeared off the face of the earth.

Since then Kaliq had blocked out people as ruthlessly as he had blocked out emotion and now he understood why. Because this was what happened when you allowed someone to get too close—you started to feel things. You opened yourself up to hurt. And life was easier without that hurt.

He pulled away from her, his voice sounding harsh. ‘So now you play the games of the mistress, do you, Eleni? Using sex as a weapon?’

Registering his cruel taunt with disbelief, Eleni watched as he got up from the bed, his critical assessment ringing in her ears. And yet she had pushed him to this, hadn’t she? She had no one to blame but herself for the fact that he was now walking towards the door. And just as he opened it he turned back—his black eyes as flinty and as unreadable as on that first day when he had galloped out of the desert sunset and into her life.

‘How well you have learnt your lesson, my beauty,’ he said softly. And then he was gone.

Eleni stared at the connecting bedroom door as it closed implacably behind him. He didn’t slam it; perhaps it might have made her feel better if he had—a final show of passion rather than a quiet, dispiriting click.

And then reaction set in. Even though she could hear him moving around in the next room, Kaliq was gone. Gone from her life for ever—and a tearing pain made her want to howl aloud, like an animal left wounded in the desert. But she did not dare make a sound—for fear that he might hear her. Because her heart might be broken and her future uncertain—but she would conduct herself with dignity.

For a while she just lay on the bed where he had left her, trying to still her quickened breathing, trying to tell herself that everything was going to be all right—even if she didn’t really believe it. She could hear the tick of the clock, feel the stickiness of the humid air, and Eleni realised that she was as trapped as she had ever been in her father’s house. Alone in a strange room within a strange world—with a long and probably sleepless night ahead of her. And who knew what the morning and the future would bring?

And glancing down at her watch, she saw that only twenty minutes had passed! She felt the tears begin to well up behind her eyelids and she longed to cry, to drum at the walls with the fists of her hands. To let out some of this terrible, tearing pain which was clutching at her heart.

Her breath was tight in her dry throat, the sensation of choking as believable as the one which made her feel as if the walls were closing in on her—and Eleni knew that she had to get out of there, out into the space and fresh air of the gardens. At least there she could give into the tears which were welling up in her eyes without Kaliq having the satisfaction of knowing that he had made her cry. And his security guards would be patrolling the grounds—she would be safe enough.

Pulling on a tunic and trousers, she wrapped a soft cashmere shawl tightly around her shoulders because she was shivering—though more from emotional exhaustion than from cold. And then she slid her feet into a pair of embroidered slippers and crept from the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Listening for a moment but hearing only silence, Eleni slipped down the large and shadowed staircase, leaving by the front door and out into the night.

The sky was thick with clouds which were obscuring the dull light of the moon and the atmosphere felt still and heavy. Glancing upwards, she could see that Kaliq’s light was still on and she saw his shadowy silhouette appear. A fierce pain ripped through her heart and she began to stumble away from the lights as the first drops of rain fell onto her bare head.

And somewhere in the distance, she heard the sound of dogs beginning to bark.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN