The Return of the Sheikh (11 page)

“Tonight you should refer to me as Adan.” He took a step back and studied the crimson cocktail dress she’d chosen instead of the black one Zain had requested she wear all those weeks ago. “Red certainly becomes you.”

She smoothed a hand over the skirt. “I worried it might be overkill.”

“Your beauty has almost killed some of our elder statesmen. You’ll know who they are as they are holding their ribs where their wives have landed elbows throughout the evening.”

She couldn’t hold back a laugh over that image. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I am only being observant.” He nodded toward Zain. “My brother the king has certainly noticed. He has watched your every move all night, and he’s presently staring at us, the fires of hell in his eyes.”

Madison turned her attention to Zain and confirmed he had one heck of a glare leveled on them. “He’s too involved with his admirers to care about me.”

“He cannot give them his proper attention when you are all that he sees.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“That is the truth.” He leaned close to her ear. “Right now he believes I am propositioning you, and if he knew that for certain, he would come over here and wrap his hands around my throat.”

She couldn’t believe he would even think that about Zain, let alone voice it. “He wouldn’t do that. He’s your brother.”

Adan straightened and smiled. “He is a man obsessed with a woman. I have no idea what you have done to bewitch him, but your spell has effectively created a monster. I have never known Zain to be so possessive. Perhaps he is caught in a web of love and he has no idea how to free himself.”

A web of lust, maybe, but Madison didn’t buy the love theory. Anxious to end the troubling conversation, she opted for a topic change. “The wedding was nice, although I didn’t understand one word of the vows.” She also didn’t understand how a bride could have looked so sad on her wedding day.

“You did not miss much,” Adan said. “It was a merger. The culmination of a business arrangement born out of obligation. An obligation I will eventually face. But since I have no direct claim to the throne, I intend to enjoy my freedom until I am at least forty. Regrettably, Zain is not as fortunate. He will be expected to marry a suitable bride as soon as possible.”

Madison didn’t need to be reminded of that, nor did she need to encourage more discussion about Zain by commenting on the antiquated tradition. “Speaking of the bride and groom, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“They have retired to the marriage bed,” Adan said as he snatched a glass of fruity punch from the roving waiter’s tray. “And by now Rafiq has confirmed that his bride is not a virgin. Of course, he will not care as long as she spreads her legs in an effort to produce the mandatory heir.”

She frowned. “That’s rather crass, and how do you know for sure she isn’t a virgin?”

“Because another Mehdi brother had her first.”

Surely not… “Zain?”

Adan downed the rest of his drink and set the glass on the nearby side table. “Yours truly.”

Madison did well to hide her shock. “You slept with your brother’s wife?”

“Future wife,” he said. “And I did not instigate it. I had recently arrived home from the academy to celebrate my seventeenth birthday at a friend’s house. Rima came by after having argued with her true love. She was looking for consolation wherever she could find it. I happened to be searching for a willing woman to give me my first experience. I tried to refuse but, alas, I succumbed to her charms. It was, as they say, the perfect storm.”

A perfect mess, in Madison’s opinion. “And Rafiq never wondered where she’d gone after they argued?”

He sent her a practiced smirk. “I said she argued with her true love. I did not say she argued with Rafiq.”

She had somehow become embroiled in a reallive Arabian soap opera. “Then who is it?” Reconsidering the question, she raised her hands, palms forward. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

When Madison noticed one young woman standing on tiptoe and whispering in Zain’s ear, she’d seen enough. Her feet hurt and her heart ached. She only wanted to crawl into bed and throw the covers over her head. That probably wouldn’t stop the images of the king taking another willing woman into his bed.

She set her glass next to Adan’s and smiled. “Since the crowd seems to be dwindling, I’m going to head to my quarters now. It’s been nice talking to you.” And very, very interesting.

He lifted her hand for a kiss. “Should you require a man’s undivided attention, I am on the second floor in the room at the end of the hall.”

She tugged her hand away and patted his cheek. “You, Adan, are too charming for your own good, and I’m really much too old for you.”

“As was Rima.”

She wasn’t going to jump into that sorry situation again. “Good night.”

Without waiting for Adan’s reply, she hurried through the expansive ballroom and bore down on the double doors that led into one of the many courtyards. Since the building was separate from the palace proper, she found the surroundings seriously confusing, particularly when only dimly lit by random lights alongside the various pathways. Deeb had accompanied her to the reception, but he had long since left, and now she was on her own. That shouldn’t present a major problem. She had a master’s in political science, a good sense of direction and she’d always excelled at geography. Give her a map and she could find her way anywhere. Too bad she didn’t have a map of the jumbled of walkways.

Madison chose the most direct path and immediately arrived at an intersection. She couldn’t remember whether to go right or left and wished she’d paid more attention on her way there. She could see the looming palace, but had no clue how to get there. Maybe she should flip a coin—heads, right; tails, left. Maybe she would end up in Yemen if she took a wrong turn.

Luckily she heard approaching footsteps behind her and pivoted around, expecting to see a security guard who could show her the way. She wasn’t prepared to see Zain walking toward her instead.

She refused to do this, her prime motivation for taking off down the hedge-lined brick path to her immediate right. At the moment, she didn’t care if she wound up seeking shelter in a caretaker’s cottage, as long as she could escape before she did something totally foolish, like taking the pretty prince down into the hedges and having her wicked way with him.

“Madison, wait.”

She didn’t dare look back. “No.”

“You cannot continue.”

“Yes, I can. Watch me.”

“You are about to hit a dead end.”

No sooner than he’d said it, Madison did it—almost ran smack dab into a brick tower with a nice little water feature set off to the side of a small bench.

She had no choice but to face the music, or in this case, the monarch. “Go back to your guests, Zain,” she said when she turned around.

He loosened his tie and collar. “The guests have all departed.”

She folded her arms beneath her breasts. “You couldn’t entice even one of those nubile young creatures into your bedroom?”

He slipped the single button on his coat. “They did not hold my interest.”

If he made one more move to undress, she would have to resort to hedge-diving. “I’m sorry to hear that. Now if you would kindly point me in the right direction, I’ll be on my way.”

When he stalked forward, she retreated, once again finding herself backed against a wall. “I am not letting you leave until you understand that being without you is killing me,” he said.

“You seemed quite alive to me tonight.”

“Those women meant nothing to me.” He braced one hand above her head and used the other to slip the wide strap down her shoulder. “Seeing you in this dress made matters worse, as did watching you with Adan. Had he touched you again, I would have crossed the room and wrapped my hands around his neck.”

She almost laughed when she recalled Adan had said those exact words. “You can’t go around beating up any boy who pays attention to me while I’m here. And I won’t be here much longer.”

“Precisely,” he said before he leaned down and kissed her bare shoulder. “Our time together is limited and I do not wish to waste more than we already have.”

“What happened to me coming to you?” Better still, what was happening to her determination to resist him?

“My patience is in tatters. We have been playing the avoidance game long enough. It’s time to release our pride and admit that we need to be together. I
need
to be with you.”

And heaven help her, she needed to be with him as much as she needed air, which seemed to leave her when he streamed his hand over the curve of her hip.

If he wanted to finish this once and for all, then they would finish it, even if it meant going out in a blaze of glory. “If you need me that much, stop talking and kiss me.”

He did, with enough power to light up the country. Before Madison knew it, Zain had her bodice pulled down, his mouth on her breast and his hand between her legs. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized she should tell him to stop and take it to the bedroom before they went any further. But she was too weak with wanting and too far gone to halt the madness.

And madness it was when he pushed her panties down and did the same with his slacks before he wrapped her legs around his hips and drove into her. His intense thrusts blew her mind and propelled her to the edge of orgasmic bliss. That one-time foreign sound began to form in her throat, only to be halted when Zain planted his palm over her mouth.

At that point, she heard the nearby voices, saw movement between the break of the trees. Knowing that could get caught only heightened the dangerous pleasure, and brought about a climax that shook her to the core. She could tell Zain had been affected, too, by the way he tensed and released a guttural groan in her ear, followed by that same single harsh Arabic word.

The sound of their ragged breathing seemed to echo throughout the area, and Madison hoped the passing party had moved out of earshot. Zain loosened his hold, allowing her legs to slide down where she fortunately found her footing. She still felt as if she were on shaky emotional ground.

For that reason, she had to get away from him. “We need to return to our respective rooms before Deeb sends out a posse and they catch you with your pants down.”

He planted both palms on the wall and rested his forehead against hers, his eyes tightly closed. “When I think about you leaving me, even only for a moment, it sickens me.”

She could relate to that. “We knew my leaving was inevitable, Zain. The more time we spend together, the harder it will be to say goodbye.” At least for her.

He raised his head, some unidentifiable emotion in his eyes. “Stay with me tonight, Madison. All night. I want to wake in the morning to find you beside me.”

And that seemed like a recipe for disaster when it came to her heart. “But—”

His soft kiss quelled her protest. “I am begging you to stay.”

*

Madison had stayed with Zain that night, and every night for the past week. They had grown so close, and she had become so lost in him, she’d begun to believe she didn’t know where he ended and she began. And that frightened her, but not enough to stop sleeping in his bed, and waking up every morning to his wonderful face. This morning was no exception.

When a ribbon of light streamed through a break in the heavy curtains covering the window, Madison rolled to her side, bent her elbow and supported her cheek with her palm. She took a few moments to capture a good, long look at the beautiful sleeping prince. The prince who would become king in two days.

His dark lashes fanned out beneath his closed eyes and his gorgeous mouth twitched slightly, as if he might smile. The navy satin sheet rode low on his hips, exposing the crease of his pelvic bone and the stream of hair below his navel. Her face heated when she remembered following that path last night with her lips, causing Zain to squirm when she kept right on going.

She realized she was only a shell of her former self—the woman who had repressed her sexual nature for fear of losing control. Lately, losing control had been preferable when it came to making love with Zain, in many ways, and in many different places—in the study at noon, in the shower several times, in the tunnel leading to the lower-level grounds and on the veranda after midnight, even knowing extra guards had been posted at the corners of the building on all levels. Yet some of the most memorable times came when they took walks in the garden, holding hands and stealing innocent kisses. And the long talks had meant the world to her, conversations about politics and policy and sometimes their pasts. Zain had even reluctantly admitted he harbored some guilt over not having the opportunity to say goodbye to his father, and that made her ache for him.

But the one defining moment in their relationship happened two mornings ago, when she’d awakened alone in his bed, with an orchid on her pillow and a note that read, “You make my days, and my nights, worthwhile.”

She’d realized she loved him then. Loved him more than she ever thought possible. Yet none of that mattered. In forty-eight brief hours, he would enter a new era as the king, signaling the end of theirs.

But she still had today—an important day for Zain—so she shook off the downhearted thoughts and kissed his bare shoulder. When he didn’t respond, she pressed another kiss on his unshaven jaw, then propped her chin on his chest. “Time to get up, Your Sexiness.”

His eyes drifted open and his lips curled into a smile. She would store that smile in the memory bank to get her through the lonely days to come. “I am up,” he said in his sexy morning voice.

Madison caught his drift and lifted the sheet. Yes, he had definitely arisen to the occasion, as usual. “I’ll rephrase that,” she said as she dropped the covers back into place. “You need to get out of bed, get dressed and get ready to address your subjects. On that note, I don’t know why you won’t give my speech suggestions even a little bit of considera—”

He rudely interrupted her light lecture when he flipped her onto her back and rubbed against her. As far as bedside manners went, she couldn’t complain. “My royal staff yearns for your attention,” he said as he buried his face in her neck.