The Royal House Of Karedes Collection Books 1-12. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ questioning his motives. Even perhaps a little presumptuous—almost as if she was expecting him to try to enter her room?

      And aren’t you? taunted that rogue voice in her head which kept stirring up uncomfortable thoughts and feelings no matter how hard she tried to quell it. Hadn’t she thought of little else other than the way his lips had felt as he had pushed her down onto the back seat of the car and… and…

      Cheeks stinging, she finished tying back her hair before going over to the door in question to check whether or not there was a key. And why did she register no surprise whatsoever to discover that there wasn’t one?

      Her hands were trembling as she heard a tap at the door and there was Zahra, waiting to lead her down to dinner.

      ‘I thought I’d come and get you myself,’ she said kindly. ‘Rather than send one of the servants.’

      And as Eleni followed her down the sweeping staircase she made up her mind that if the sheikh came to her in the night, she would simply tell him no. Because although he was a man—and a highly virile man at his peak—she knew deep down that he would never take her by force.

      But Kaliq seemed preoccupied throughout the meal, his brow furrowed deep by a frown. He kept getting called out by Zahra to take telephone calls, leaving Eleni sitting there rather self-consciously on her own while a stream of servants glided through offering her golden dishes of titbits she had no appetite for.

      She was just wondering whether she could slip away unnoticed when he returned, his eyes narrowing as she sat there with a half-eaten pear in front of her—as if he had only just noticed her for the first time. He sat down opposite her, and sighed.

      ‘I have been a bad host tonight, lizard—forgive me.’

      ‘It is not the sheikh’s place to seek the forgiveness of one of his subjects,’ answered Eleni dutifully, hoping that a little protocol might emphasise all the differences between them.

      ‘How very prim and proper you sound this evening,’ he murmured sardonically. ‘Few would guess that you had been lying in my arms just a few hours earlier—with your body craving more of my touch!’

      ‘Highness!’ Eleni whispered, appalled—but he shrugged his shoulders.

      ‘Highness, what?’ he mocked. ‘Highness, don’t tell the truth? Don’t you like the truth, Eleni? Or are you trying to pretend that if I hadn’t called a halt to your sweet submissiveness, then I should have taken your virginity in the back of my limousine?’

      Once again, her cheeks were on fire, but so too—more worryingly—was her body. A strange aching had made her breasts feel so heavy—just like that peculiar sensation she’d first experienced in the scented bathwater at Kaliq’s palace. This was desire, Eleni realised—and the sheikh was such a proficient lover that he could manufacture it by words which were not even sweet or admiring!

      ‘No?’ he continued ruthlessly. ‘Nothing to say?’

      She could sense the unknown and potent danger in the air. His eyes were challenging and his body language was suddenly tense and Eleni recognised that if she allowed this conversation to continue, then it might end up in the place she most wanted yet most feared to be. In his arms.

      ‘I am very tired after the journey and I would ask the sheikh if I may be excused,’ said Eleni stiffly.

      There was a pause as Kaliq’s eyes narrowed. Excessively formal, he thought. And how insolent of her to ask to be excused before her royal host had left the room. But mightn’t it be easier to have her stripped naked and waiting for him?

      ‘Then don’t let me stop you,’ he drawled. ‘In fact, I have business I need to deal with.’ His black eyes glittered with anticipation. ‘Think you can find your way back upstairs?’

      ‘Of course,’ said Eleni, the heavy chair scraping back as she stood up, her heart beating fast beneath her breast. Remind him why you’re here—and remind yourself in the process before you get carried away with this rich and privileged life of his. ‘And when will we see the horse?’

      ‘Tomorrow. There is a polo match at a nearby ground—you might as well see him in action before you exercise your judgement.’

      ‘I shall look forward to that.’ Eleni curtseyed. ‘Good… goodnight, Highness.’

      His lips curved into a sardonic smile as he heard her tremulous hesitation. She was innocent, yes—but she had a natural intelligence which surely would not deny the chemistry which existed between them. Did she really think that she would lie alone tonight? That he would allow that to happen?

      ‘Goodnight, Eleni.’

      Her mouth dry with nameless fear, Eleni went upstairs to her room—trying to tell herself that of course she wasn’t surprised or disappointed that the sheikh had let her go so easily. For hadn’t his words unsettled her? The way he had described her response to him in the back of the car—why, it had made her feel ashamed and yet full of desire, all at the same time!

      But it was with a sense of urgency that she undressed quickly—her hair still ribboned as she turned off all the lights and then slipped between the sheets.

      Through the filmy curtains was a silver scythe curve of moon and she could see the occasional pinprick of a star—but they looked like pale imitations of the bright stars in the Calistan heavens, and suddenly Eleni felt very alone.

      She tried to keep awake, to be on her guard in case the arrogant prince tried to enter her bedroom uninvited. And she should have been too excited and nervous to sleep after everything that had happened—the drive, the flight, the fact that she, Eleni Lakis, was in England! But one way or another it had been an exhausting day and the bed was unbelievably comfortable so that she couldn’t seem to stop eyelids which felt as if they had been weighted by lead, from shutting out the world.

      It seemed like only seconds later that Eleni awoke to the sensation of the bed dipping and her eyes snapped open in alarm. For a moment then it had almost felt as if someone was… getting into bed beside her!

      Her eyes adjusting to the half-light from the stars outside, she turned her head and there… there… lying next to her as if he had every right to be there and clearly naked as the day he had first entered the world of men—was the Sheikh Kaliq Al’Farisi!

      She sat bolt upright in bed, her fingertips flying to her throat, feeling the pulse fluttering wildly beneath. ‘By the desert storm,’ she breathed. ‘What do you think you’re doing here?’

      He gave a soft laugh as he reached his hand up to twist a silken braid of hair around his fingers. ‘Innocent you might be, my beauty—but I don’t really think you need me to give you an answer to that, do you, Eleni?’

      Afterwards, she told herself that she might have screamed—had he not pulled her down against his bare flesh. And the sensations which powered over her were so intense that she closed her eyes and prayed that she would be strong in the path of such temptation.

      ‘Highness, please!’ she protested.

      ‘Please, what? Please this …?’

      Almost lazily, he drifted his lips to hers and kissed her, feeling her tremble beneath his touch.

      ‘H-Highness!’ СКАЧАТЬ