Modern Romance June 2019 Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      ‘But my grandmother, Azra, and your father hadn’t even met when she met Stam and fell for him,’ Zoe whispered.

      ‘My father still felt it was an insult and it rankled. Go to sleep,’ Raj urged. ‘This will be another long day but, after the palace visit, we are off the official schedule for the rest of our stay.’

      And Zoe thought tiredly of how anxious she had been about having to make any public appearances when she’d first arrived in Maraban and of how inexplicably Raj’s presence by her side, or even in the same room, soothed her apprehensions. Somehow, he made her feel safe, protected, as if nothing bad could happen while he was around. It was so silly to endow him with that much importance, she conceded ruefully, and then she slept.

      What they had was a relationship, Raj recognised with considerable unease. It had become one the minute he married her and intimacy had only deepened the ties and made it more complex. Truly it had been naïve of him not to foresee that development, given the level of attraction they shared Zoe had said it was ‘just’ sex. Could he believe that, accept that? Was she really sophisticated enough to make that distinction? And could they keep it at that casual level? And in time go their separate ways without regret? It would be like a very long one-night stand, he reasoned while even his brain told him that that was a foolish misconception. He didn’t want to treat Zoe the same way he treated his occasional lovers, being distant, keeping it impersonal, always hiding his true self. He felt much more comfortable with Zoe. He wanted to make her happy. For the first time ever with a woman, he would just go with the flow...

      * * *

      Zoe wakened in the morning in Raj’s arms. ‘Hey, your only body temperature seems to be hot as the fires of hell,’ she complained, striving to slide away to cool off.

      Raj pulled her back to him with ease and the thrust of his arousal against her stomach made her eyes widen. She looked up at him, all bronzed and in need of a shave, with blue black curls, and he was to die for and there was no denying that she was willing. ‘Oh...’ she said in entirely another voice.

      ‘If it would be uncomfortable for you...?’ he husked, hitching a perfect ebony brow in enquiry.

      It probably would be a little bit, she acknowledged, but there was a hungry tingle of awareness heating up between her thighs that made her hips shift with longing. ‘No, it wouldn’t be,’ she lied shamelessly. ‘But I need to clean my teeth.’

      ‘No, you don’t...you smell like strawberries and woman,’ Raj framed thickly, cupping her cheekbones and devouring her mouth as though his life depended on it.

      And that was that for Zoe, her heart thumping fit to burst from her chest as her body ratcheted up the scale of arousal as though it had been doing it all her life. When he kissed her, he set her on fire, when he touched her, exploring her urgently sensitive nipples and the tender flesh between her thighs with those long skilful fingers of his, the fire began to blaze out of control and she was turning and twisting, downright writhing with tormented pleasure. By the time he hooked one of her legs over his hips and plunged into her, Zoe was surging towards a climax at an unstoppable pace and the raw, hot excitement of that passionate invasion sent her flying with a choked gasp into the horizon.

      ‘Let’s see if you can do that again,’ Raj growled as she thrashed under him and he surged into her afresh in a timely change of pace, aiming for long and slow rather than fast and furious.

      And she caught her breath again and barely with a quivery little inhale, blonde hair lying in a mad tangle around her head as he rose over and looked down at her, black starlit eyes intent and riveting, her body still singing and pulsing from his last onslaught. His rhythm was sensual, calculated, letting the erotic tension build again and inexorably she shifted from melting to craving. His passion compelled her, and her hands slid over his back, rejoicing in the hard, smooth strength of him as rippling waves began to clench at her pelvis. A wildness took hold of her and she wrapped her legs round him and that final thrust made her soar in an excess of pleasure to the heights again.

      Afterwards, he brushed her hair off her damp face and kissed her. ‘I hate to hurry you when I’ve made you late in the first place, but we have to be out of here in an hour if you want to see the palace before we have to face the official welcome...’

      ‘An hour?’ she gasped incredulously.

      ‘I’ll call your maid and get out of here,’ Raj told her helpfully. ‘Am I allowed to say that you make a great friend with benefits?’

      Was that what she was? Zoe thought about that in the shower and pulled a face. It sounded a lot bolder and a lot more laid-back than she believed she was, but who was to say she couldn’t change? Wasn’t that what her stay in Maraban was aimed at? Finding out who she really was without her sisters and her grandfather wrapping her in cotton wool and watching over her all the time? She was in a brave new world, she reminded herself, and aspects of it were likely to be unfamiliar and scary. Or sobering, she conceded ruefully, because her gut instinct was that she didn’t want to be a friend with benefits for any man...even Raj.

      Her maid had apparently accompanied her from the palace and already had an outfit laid out for her when she reappeared from the bathroom. Zoe cast an eye over the pale green tailored dress and decided it would do very well. At her request her hair was braided, which was cooler in the heat, and when she descended the stairs dead on time, she was smiling, thinking that a maid with hairstyling skills was an invaluable asset and a luxury she had better not become too accustomed to having. It was all temporary, she reminded herself, like a winning prize ticket that took her off on an extravagant holiday. Raj was, also, simply a temporary presence in her life. Maybe that was what made the ‘friends with benefits’ concept meaningless and possibly a little slutty. She winced at that self-judgement.

      ‘You can’t wear those shoes trekking round an old building!’ Raj exclaimed, engaged in staring at her feet in what appeared to be disbelief.

      Zoe sent him a dirty look. ‘I’m crazy about shoes, but I’ll bring a pair of flats and change into these later,’ she conceded reluctantly. ‘But don’t you get the idea that you have the right to tell me what I should and shouldn’t wear... I’m not having that!’

      An unholy grin slashed Raj’s often serious features as he awaited her reappearance.

      * * *

      The one-time home of the former Banian royal family was huge and sprawling and, although the building had been carefully conserved, it was not used for any purpose other than to house a small museum on the history of Bania and provide the public with the chance to tour Princess Azra’s former apartments.

      ‘I wish she hadn’t died before I was born.’ Zoe sighed, studying old black and white photos of a youthful blonde in local dress. ‘Grandad showed me pictures of her. He totally adored her, you know,’ she told Raj cheerfully. ‘He cast off my father for refusing to do a degree in business and come and work for him. My grandmother told him he was doing the wrong thing and that he should let my dad make his own path but Grandad was too proud and stubborn to listen.’

      ‘It is a challenge for one generation to understand what drives the next. It was years before I could appreciate that in demanding that I marry a woman he chose my father was only asking me to do what he had done himself.’

      ‘But you were in love with someone else,’ Zoe reminded him. ‘You couldn’t possibly have married another woman and made a success of it. You would’ve been full of bitterness and resentment.’

      ‘My father believes СКАЧАТЬ