The Sheik's Beautiful Intruder (The Friendship Series) (16 page)

When she felt the prodding down lower, she didn’t even hesitate, moving her body to welcome him into hers.  She sighed with happiness as he filled her up, making her feel things she couldn’t believe were possible. 

There was only a slight pain before he filled her up and she cringed ever so slightly.  “Are you okay?” Nazar asked, holding himself still, waiting until she was ready for him to move again.

She thought about it for a moment and realized that she was more than okay.  “I’m great,” she sighed and lifted her arms to wrap around his neck instead of gripping his shoulders. 

He chuckled, the sound reverberating through her deep and sexy.  “Yes, you are,” he replied right back.  With that, he gathered her into his arms, holding her close as he moved back and forth, creating the movements that would take both of them beyond the present.  “Ah, Nicole, you’re so…” he couldn’t finish that sentence because she was already climaxing, falling over that magical cliff once more and screaming out his name.  It was so sexy that Nazar couldn’t hold back his own response and it swamped him almost as forcefully, bringing him over the cliff to his orgasm as well. 

As soon as he could breathe and see straight, Nazar moved over, pulling her against him as they both worked to catch their breath. 

“I don’t think that’s going to help me tomorrow with my muscles,” she finally said, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do next. 

His deep chuckle made her feel safe and secure once again.  “I can think of several ways to distract you from any kind of pain you might feel come morning.”  And with that, he bent down and nibbled on her collar bone.  “Besides, you’ve pushed me away too often over the past week.  I’m finding that I haven’t had enough of you.” 

Nikki laughed, feeling light and free for the first time in so long!  When he moved from her neck to her lips, she wasn’t shy about reciprocating even while his hands moved higher up on her body.  Nikki was in full agreement with his assessment. 

The next three days were absolute bliss for Nikki.  She’d accepted Nazar into her bed, and with that came her heart.  She’d tried so hard to avoid falling in love with him, but he was just too…extraordinary.  She loved talking with him, being with him, laughing with him and, especially, making love with him.  He was busy during the day, but he still took time to ride with her every morning.  And Nikki knew she was getting better, flushed under the admiration in his eyes when she showed him her riding skills. 

But there were still long periods during the day when she didn’t have much to do.  The day after their long, passionate night together, she almost felt abandoned.  Until a woman showed up and offered to teach her to speak Arabic.  Nikki didn’t think she’d have much use for the language once Nazar deemed the mysterious “situation” safe enough for her to leave, but she didn’t have much else to do.  So she spent several hours every day learning Arabic.  She spent an hour in the afternoon riding Nella and was surprised to find that her legs were much stronger.  The horseback riding lessons had strengthened other muscles in her legs.  She also discovered a gym complete with all the latest workout equipment and took advantage of that by running on a treadmill and using the weight machines to strengthen her legs even more. 

But the nights!  Oh, the nights when Nazar joined her for dinner were magical.  She dressed in pretty sun dresses or slinky slacks and low cut, enticing sweaters, her fingers shaking as she pulled on whatever outfit she’d chosen for the night.  The anticipation of seeing Nazar for dinner, knowing he would take her into his arms afterwards and make love to her for the better part of the night, made the whole day seem slow, while the nights flew by much too quickly. 

By the third day, she almost hesitated to ask about Brianna and his project.  She didn’t want to leave the palace.  She didn’t want to never see Nazar again.  She was completely, madly in love with the man.  And no matter how many times she reminded herself that she would be leaving here when this “situation” was resolved, she felt almost sick to her stomach at the idea of not seeing Nazar again.  She didn’t want to think about the morning she woke up without him kissing her, or chuckling over her fatigue because he’d kept her up most of the night making love to her. 

The day was coming.  She knew it would be a horrible day and she tried to brace herself for that moment.  But every time she was in his company, she fell a little bit more in love with him. 

Chapter 9

Nikki looked up, feeling a bizarre sense that something was wrong.  “Where’s Nazar?” she asked, trying to hide the strange tension that had suddenly gripped her.  The men who were a constant shadow to her now immediately lifted their microphones and asked the question to the mysterious person at the other end of that transmission. 

She’d just finished her breakfast coffee, her mind trying to sort through the odd feeling.  She couldn’t define it, couldn’t narrow the strangeness down to something rational.  She simply knew that something just wasn’t….right.  And that feeling was centered on Nazar.  “Is he in danger?” she asked her body guards, her worried eyes looking up at them, begging them for confirmation that he was safe and not in any danger. 

Was she being silly?  She’d been with Nazar for seven days now, had been in his bed for the past four nights.  So why was she thinking that there was a danger to him that she couldn’t define, had no reason to think existed and she just felt in her stomach? 

She had no idea, but she wasn’t going to wait around for someone to tell her that Nazar had been hurt. 

The man finished listening and nodded his head. “His Highness is in his office, in meetings,” the shorter of the two explained. 

Standing up, she already recognized the look on the body guard’s face.  He thought she was being silly.  “Mico, I respect your abilities and your instincts,” she said as a way to butter him up as well as being perfectly honest.  “So if you don’t feel that something is wrong, I’ll just walk back to my rooms and study.  I won’t even go to the ring for another riding lesson simply because Nazar doesn’t have time to go with me today.  He mentioned that earlier and I’ll respect his request that I not leave the palace this morning.”  She let those words sink in.  “So what do you think?  Do you feel it as well?  Is there something wrong?  Some danger that you’re not telling me about?” 

She stood there, watching his eyes and saw his reaction.  Something inside of her started trembling.  And this wasn’t the trembling she normally felt when she knew she was going to see Nazar.  This was a bad trembling.  A feeling that he was going to be hurt.  And there was no way she was going to allow him to be hurt now that she’d found him. 

It was one thing to have to walk away from him when this affair ended.  She knew that was coming.  That alone would be a wrenching pain that would live with her for the rest of her life.  But the idea of someone hurting Nazar, of him not being on this earth, of him not being in the news so that, on those cold, lonely nights when she needed to connect with him, she could pull up the news and find out what he was doing, what new project he was building.  No, she wouldn’t let that happen. 

Watching Mico carefully, she knew the instant he was going to tell her the truth and her shoulders almost sagged with relief.  Almost – but not quite because she still had that odd sensation that Nazar was in danger.

“Take me to him.  Please?” she asked, knowing that security in the palace had changed since her break-in.  Things were tighter. Nazar was inaccessible unless she had been cleared before heading to his office.  The only unencumbered access she had to Nazar was when he joined her for dinner in the evenings. 

Of course, she could do something to irritate Nazar, something which her body guards would report to him and have him come running.  But she didn’t want to do that to him this time.  She was trying very hard to respect the palace rules, to be considerate of his schedule and not rile him in any way.  It had made the past couple of days rather tedious, she’d admit.  But it also gave him peace of mind.  Soon enough, she would be back in her lonely apartment and she wouldn’t have any anticipation of seeing him again. 

Mico raised his radio, speaking into it for a moment, then listening for another long moment.  Nikki stood there, acting as if she were fine, like she wasn’t about to run down the long hallway, break into Nazar’s office just to get a look at him and see for herself that he was okay. 

Mico lowered his radio and bowed slightly.  “He’s fine.  He is meeting with three gentlemen from Vorezh, Russia.  They are discussing oil issues.” 

Nikki nodded her head, accepting that what he’d said was fine.  She walked away, trying to put the odd feeling out of her mind and focus on figuring out what to do with herself until tonight.  But the feeling simply wouldn’t go away.  In fact, the more she moved away from the administrative area where Nazar worked during the day, the stronger that feeling grew. 

She walked back to her rooms, closing the door behind her and started pacing the large room.  It was a beautiful room, filled with priceless antiques, beautiful silks and more technology than she knew what to do with.  But none of this soothed her soul like Nazar could as soon as he took her into his arms. 

She just needed to see him!  Just peek at him for a brief moment.  She couldn’t get rid of this nagging sensation that something was wrong.  Seriously wrong. 

While Nikki paced, she bit the tip of her thumb, trying to come up with a plan of action.  Just sitting back wasn’t like her.  It wasn’t in her nature.  She needed to do something, to see Nazar and make sure he was okay. 

Not that she had any illusions of taking out a dangerous criminal if she actually saw one.  In fact, she probably wouldn’t recognize one on the street.  She wasn’t sure what a criminal would look like, but she was fairly certain that they didn’t wear a sign that said “Danger” on their chest or forehead.  She probably passed criminals all the time while walking around Washington, D.C., but they might just look like normal people. 

She had to smile at the opening she’d just given herself for the perfect political joke.  Walking on the streets of Washington, D.C…criminals….she shook her head and focused on the real problem.  What was she going to do?  How was she going to get a peek at Nazar just to give herself piece of mind? 

Nikki paced back and forth, her mind reeling from this inability to take action.  She was looking out at the courtyard, watching the birds fly over the trees and float away when something occurred to her.  She remembered reading a romance novel a long time ago where the guy in charge had a secret chamber where his harem, or maybe it was one of his wives, had a place where she could watch her husband in the throne room. 

She had absolutely no idea if there was such a place in this palace, but it looked old enough.  What were the odds of the security team not finding that tunnel? Surely leaving it open would be a major security breach, wouldn’t it? 

Well, she’d gotten into the palace, hadn’t she?

She considered that idea to have come from the little red devil on her left shoulder, while the white angel on her right side pointed out, “And look where that got you!”  Both had very good points.

Nikki smiled, thinking of the previous night and how gentle and passionate, how demanding Nazar had been with her.  She knew that Nazar was the ultimate lover and a small part of her even thought that he was the man who was specially made for her.  It seemed as if he knew what she wanted, even before she knew she wanted it.  He could almost read her mind, driving her crazy with desire, only to bring her such complete and utter pleasure that she now knew what bliss was like.  And just lying in his arms while he slept, she felt as if her world was complete.  It didn’t take jewels or fancy cars.  Just Nazar’s arms or the way he kissed her awake to say goodbye before he left her each morning. 

No. There was no way she was going to pace here in this gilded cage while there was a possibility that her man was in danger.  Something was wrong and she wasn’t going to ignore this feeling any longer. 

She walked around the perimeter of the courtyard, wondering if this had been part of the harem at some point.  It certainly looked elaborate enough for a harem quarters.  But what did she know?  She grew up sharing a bedroom that was smaller than some people’s closets.  She and Brianna had snuck in flashlights to read at night because their curfew and lights out was so early each evening. 

She and Brianna had eventually snuck out each night, refusing to be tied to rules that they didn’t agree with.  So it simply wasn’t in her nature to obey.  Unless she wanted to, she thought with a smile as she remembered the previous night.  Nazar was very exciting when he gave her orders.  Of course, those orders she enjoyed following because they were so stimulating in the end. 

She ran her fingers along the concrete, stepped into her closet and looked along the walls and ceilings.  Nothing. 

When she stepped out of the room, Mico and a new guy stood there, watching her with those expressionless eyes.  “I’m just going to explore the palace.  Would you like to come with me?”

They didn’t even nod their heads, just turned their muscular bodies in the direction she started walking.  After an hour of dead ends, boring rooms, elaborately decorated hallways and more parlors or sitting rooms than she cared to count, she couldn’t believe what she’d found.  A secret passageway!  When she turned back to Mico, she saw the surprise in his face as well.  “Let’s just go see where this one leads, shall we?” she asked and stepped into the dark, musty tunnel before they could stop her. 

The tunnel didn’t lead anywhere except down into the cellar.  When she looked back, she noticed Mico and the new guy’s faces which were smug.  “Okay.  So this was a dead end,” she said.  Literally, she thought.  There was just a cement wall.  And the cement wasn’t century’s old, so it had to have been put up recently.  Possibly not with Nazar’s administration, but at some point in the past twenty or thirty years.