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

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СКАЧАТЬ troubled were Eleni’s thoughts that she should not have slept, but she did sleep—a fact she only discovered by being woken by the soft touch of a fingertip over each of her eyelids.

      Her eyes fluttered open to find that the early morning sun was creeping in through the muslin drapes and that Kaliq was looking down at her. Anxiously, she searched his face for a sign of what last night had meant to him. Did he still respect her? Consider her to be a worthy lover? But the ebony eyes were as hard as chips of bright ebony and his sensual lips gave nothing away, except—she thought, with the beginnings of experience—a sense that they would like to kiss her again.

      ‘So what did you think of your sexual awakening, lizard?’

      She felt the colour stealing into her cheeks. What was she expected to say? ‘It was very… agreeable.’

      ‘Agreeable?’ He laughed softly, thinking how ironic it was that his little stable girl should give him such a cool response—he, who had been praised to the heavens by society beauties the world over. ‘Agreeable enough to want to do it again?’ he mocked as he touched the outline of her lips with his finger.

      His flesh contained the scent of something sultry and soapy—something that Eleni knew was connected to her and she felt the colour flaming to her cheeks once more. And there was no place to hide in the cruel light of day. ‘Highness… Kaliq… I…’

      Kaliq frowned. Last night, in the passion and heat of the moment, he had overlooked the fact that she was not just inexperienced physically—but emotionally, too. And this morning he needed to make the situation clear to her—because he could not afford for her to misread it.

      ‘Before we continue, there is something I must tell you, Eleni,’ he said softly, tilting her chin upwards so that she was forced to look at him. ‘You know that sex is always different for a woman?’

      She stared at him in confusion.

      ‘Some women do not have the same capacity as a man to enjoy the act—or so I believe,’ he added truthfully, ‘since no woman in my bed has ever experienced anything but pleasure.’ He ignored her wince of pain—but he had merely been stating a fact. Was she foolishly allowing herself the fantasy of thinking that he had never known any other lover than her?

      ‘Nature has designed a man and a woman differently,’ he continued firmly. ‘For men sex is simply the natural spilling of their seed, but for women it is merely the trigger—and deep down they are searching for a mate to father their children. That is what makes women start attaching emotion to the act.’

      ‘E-emotion?’ Eleni felt as if he was insulting her—she just wasn’t quite sure how, or why? ‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

      He steeled himself against the naked pain in her face. ‘I mean that women sometimes convince themselves that they’re falling in love with a man once they’ve had sex with him—because it seems to make the act more respectable in their eyes.’

      For a moment, Eleni didn’t react until the full impact of his words hit her. Of all the cold-hearted and cruel men she could have picked as her lover—then Kaliq must be the very worst. She tried to tell herself that she could have resisted him. Should have resisted him—but she knew that was a lie. She could have no more resisted the sheikh than a man crawling in the desert for three days could have resisted a cool, clear flagon of fresh water. She had had no control over her reaction to him—physically, at least.

      But she saw now that she needed to protect herself as much as possible against the inevitable pain which would follow if she did not heed his words. If she were foolish enough to fall in love with a man who would toss her aside in an instant if he needed to.

      No, she would learn everything she could from her royal lover—would study sexual techniques in the same way that she had learned about horses. She would become an expert lover in his bed… and when the affair was concluded, she would leave the arrogant and dismissive sheikh aching for her.

      ‘I agree completely, Kaliq,’ she agreed imperturbably.

      His eyes narrowed. ‘You do?’

      ‘But of course. And you need have no concerns about me. For why would I waste my time falling in love with a man with whom there was no earthly possibility of a future?’

      This should have been the perfect answer—but to Kaliq’s fury, it made him feel utterly indignant. Why, she had accepted her fate without shedding even a single tear! Did she think that she would find him easy to forget? Well, she would soon learn how wrong she had been.

      Kaliq moved his hand beneath the sheet. ‘I am bored with talking,’ he growled as he guided her fingers to his aching flesh. ‘Come here and kiss me.’

      And even as Eleni obeyed—the pleasure happening all over again as he thrust into her—she remained glad that she had sounded both proud and independent. But if this was victory—then it must have been the most short-lived in the history of the world. Because after he had made love to her with an almost ruthless efficiency which left her gasping, he got out of bed—seeming to enjoy her blushes as he paraded his magnificent nakedness against the stark backdrop of the snowy room.

      ‘We will leave for the polo match after lunch,’ he said.

      Eleni pulled the sheet up to her chin and nodded. ‘Yes, Kaliq.’

      Pausing in the act of knotting the belt of his robe, he flicked her an impenetrable look. ‘Just two things,’ he drawled. ‘When you prepare for bed tonight, don’t braid your hair like a governess—I wish to see it spread loose over my pillow.’

      Her fingers playing with one of the ribbons, Eleni looked at him, unable to deny the small spring of hope in her heart. ‘And the other?’

      His smile was cruel. ‘Make sure you don’t ever call me Kaliq in public.’

       CHAPTER TEN

      ‘COFFEE, Eleni?’

      Eleni sat down at the breakfast table as Zahra held up a heavy silver pot, wondering if her face or her demeanour gave the sheikh’s assistant any hint of what had happened last night.

      Or was this a house with no secrets—the interconnecting door of her bedroom giving the game away to all? Did the servants realise that, under cover of darkness, Prince Kaliq had crept into the bed of his stable girl and taken her virginity in the most heartbreakingly beautiful way possible? Why, maybe Zahra herself had gone through a similar initiation ceremony.

      Eleni’s cheeks flamed and she felt her heart give a painful lurch. Please let that not be the case, she prayed silently. ‘I’d love some coffee,’ she said quietly.

      Zahra upended some inky brew into a tiny golden coffee cup and pushed it across the table. ‘The sheikh has asked me to tell you that someone will be over after breakfast. You can be measured up and a selection of outfits sent over within the hour. Something for you to wear to the polo match.’ Zahra smiled. ‘It’ll be fun—believe me.’

      But Eleni was still smarting from Kaliq’s command that she never call him by his given name in public. And while she knew that his words made sense, it didn’t stop them hurting—but at least it helped her come СКАЧАТЬ