Sheikh's Blackmailed Love (10 page)

She laughed suddenly.

“Um, I guess it loses some of its effect from being on someone wearing a grubby T-shirt and khaki shorts,” she said ruefully.

“Then you should take them off.”

Dario’s words were as calm as still water, but there was a thrum of desire underneath them that made her heart beat faster.

“Should I?” she asked softly.

“Yes.”

Biting her lip, she removed her shirt and her shorts, and after a moment, she removed her underwear as well. It felt like such a short time ago when she had not wanted to reveal her body to this man, when she had been so embarrassed by her skin that she wanted to shut her eyes when they made love. This was the power of what he had given to her. Now she stood in front of him, her hands at her sides, and she watched the hunger build in her lover.

“Those gems are less beautiful by far than you are,” he murmured. “But let us see what they can do for you.”

He reached into the briefcase now, pulling out necklaces, bracelets, armlets,
and more. He told her about an armband that had been given to an ancestress after the conquest of her own town, before she had been brought to Jabal. He mentioned that one ring had been offered as tribute all the way from Greece.

There was something absurdly sensual about the sensation of being draped in so much wealth and so much history. The contrast between the cold jewelry and his warm hands sent bright sparks of desire throughout her entire body.

He finished by placing a long rope of slightly irregular pink pearls around her waist, the cool round spheres cool against the sensitive skin of her navel.

“Come here.”

He brought her to stand in front of the mirror, his hands on her bare shoulders. It should have looked ridiculous. She should have looked like a child who had got into her mother’s jewelry box.

Instead, the gold and gems gleamed against her tanned skin. A long belt with gold beads showered over her hips, while long necklaces of carnelian and sapphires cascaded down over her small breasts. She looked infinitely precious, like the priestess of some ancient religious come to bless her people.

“You’re so beautiful, and so precious,” he murmured, kissing her on the top of her head. “I was thinking as I drove into Jabal, and… I thought that perhaps if I did this, you would believe me.”

She laughed because it was easier than tearing up. She had been praised for her cleverness and her hard work before, but never had someone simply told her how precious she was simply for being herself before.

“I look like a princess,” she whispered, and his smile had a slightly darker edge.

“You look like tribute,” he said, leaning down to kiss the tip of her ear. She shivered as he started to nibble the sensitive skin there, and that shiver turned to a full-fledged moan as he drew on her earlobe with gentle pressure.

“Tribute? As if my people were conquered, and they sent me to you to appease Jabal’s great and terrible hunger?”

“Hmm. More like you were the treasure I went to war for. I came and I demanded the best of what they had, and that was you.”

It should have been ludicrous. She was a scholarship student who had eaten more ramen than she cared to think about when she was in school. She had been in the desert cataloging pot shards and spindle weights for months. Instead, in the dark, and clothed only in the gems of empires, it felt real.

“I look at you, and all sense goes out of my head,” he whispered, trailing kisses down her neck. The weight of the jewelry on her body kept her movements slow and deliberate. There was something dreamlike about what they were doing, how he was kissing her and touching her. When he lifted her in his arms with a chiming of gold, she clung to him.

“Will you be kind to me?” she asked. It could have been one more addition to their play, the speech of a captured princess to her captor. Instead, there was truth there, a plea from a girl who had been hurt too much in her own life and did not think she could take much more.

“Always,” he said, and in those words, she thought she could hear his truth as well.

When he lay her down on the enormous bed, he stepped back to strip off his clothing. He came to her as naked as a god from the desert, his eyes intent on his moonlit prize. The bed dipped underneath his weight as he returned to her, and then he began to kiss her, his mouth traveling from the sensitive skin of her shoulders, to the tender sides of her breasts, to the delicate cup of her navel.

Underneath the touch of his skilled hands, Bailey could feel herself coming undone. It was as if there had always been a part of her that was tied into knots. It was tight and hard, but now, as Dario started to kiss her and to touch her, it was working its way loose. It felt as if she could take a deep breath for the first time in her life. She felt as if she could float away on the pleasure; it was only the heavy jewelry that was keeping her on earth.

“Do you have any idea how delicious you are?” he murmured between kisses. “How beautiful, how infinitely precious?”

“You value me too highly,” Bailey whispered, turning away, but he touched a finger to her chin, making her look up at him.

“No, you value yourself too little, precious gem.”

He caught her mouth in a deep kiss then, one that possessed her utterly. There was a moment when she hesitated, unsure if she should let so much of herself become tangled with this man, but then her heart gave itself up.

Yes, she would belong to this man. Yes, she would offer all of herself to him.

He rose over her, his greater weight pinning her to the bed. She could feel his naked skin slide over hers, warming the ancient metal and gems between them. His hard cock was pressed against her thigh, and she could feel her own body respond to him with a deep and warm throbbing that appeared at the well of her being.

“I want you as I have never wanted another woman,” he whispered. “There are places inside me that you have seen that no one else has.”

She started to reply, but then he slipped down her body laying increasingly passionate kisses down her belly and her upper thighs. When he lay between her legs, she parted them willingly, uttering a gasp of shock when he started to lap at her soft skin there. For long, long minutes, he teased her with his lips and his tongue, making her wild with need. When he finally ran his tongue along her slit, she nearly levitated off the bed, and when he did it again, her fingers landed in his hair, tugging and demanding.

He made a pleased sound at her aggression, but he would not be hurried. He made a meal of her, lapping and kissing and nibbling, and all that before he even touched her clit. When he finally opened her with his hands to tongue that sensitive bit of flesh, she cried out, already so desperate for his touch that she didn’t care how she looked or what she sounded like.

“Please, please, Dario, I need you so much…”

His laugh was ragged.

“I could leave you like this,” he teased hoarsely. “I might like to see that. To leave my little gem so desperate and so needy that she needs to use her own hands, showing me exactly what she needs…”

The flush of heat that filled her was deeply erotic. She could imagine giving him a show, even if she was biting her lip with embarrassment as she did so. Her hips bucked at the idea, and with a soft laugh, he bent his head down to her flesh again. It was only a threat this time, but she knew that he would make good on it one day.

Instead, when he started licking her again, there was a deeper purpose now. He was done teasing her. He was done stopping when she was on the edge of her climax and starting again when she was quivering with need. Now he lapped at her flesh hard enough to make the fires inside her flare up high and hot, the deep trembling rooted in her spirit spreading out to all of her.

“Oh God, oh God, Dario…!”

He didn’t spare a word for her. Instead, he redoubled his efforts, and this time there was absolutely no stopping it. Her climax roared through, ripping her open and leaving her shouting with pleasure. Every muscle in her body tensed hard and then released with an explosion of sensation that left her weak and shaking.

She was still murmuring his name when he sat back up, a wide grin on his face. He came to lie down by her side, throwing one dark arm over her belly.

“Good?” he asked, and Bailey smiled at him weakly.

“You have to ask?” she murmured. “So very, very good.”

He laughed at her, and then he leaned down to kiss her mouth. Her eyes widened when she tasted herself on his lips. It was a strangely erotic sensation, and though she thought it would be hours before she could feel that arousal again, she felt herself warm to his touch.

“It is my turn now, perfect gem,” he murmured. “When I make you shout your release to the sky, when I make you tremble like a mare run hard over the desert, I know that in a very short while, you will be making me feel the same…”

She whimpered at his words, draping her arms around his neck. She wanted him to take his pleasure with her. She wanted to feel him shake and climax just as she had. When he did, there were no barriers between them, nothing to separate heart from heart, spirit from spirit.

“I want you,” she whispered. “I want you with me, inside me…”

He groaned at her words, his kisses taking on a deeper need. He was a controlled man, even when he was giving her pleasure, but when he lost himself in her kisses and her body, there was something rawer there, something far more wild.

He turned her on her belly before lifting her hips up. She was suddenly more aware of the jewelry she was wearing: the weight of the necklaces was heavy as they hung down over her wrists, and the bracelets that ran up her arm dug into the bed beneath her. Somehow, the jewelry made her feel more naked, highlighting all the bare skin underneath. Not so long ago, she would have been embarrassed, perhaps even humiliated, but now there was only pleasure in the luxury and in Dario’s own pleasure.

She moaned when he slid a finger inside her humid depths, and then another. With just a nudge of his hand, she started rocking back against him, opening herself for his pleasure. When he thought she was ready enough, he paused to slide a condom on over his cock, and then he was behind her again.

“Please,” she whispered, when she felt the head of his member press against her soft entrance. “Please, I need you…”

If he had thought to tease her, that thought went out of his head. She could hear his soft gasp as her words struck him, feel the tremor of his body. His hands tightened on her hips, and with a groan, he buried himself into her to the hilt.

Her cry was wild and needy, and that only spurred him on. He started to thrust into her, filling her up with each stroke only to pull almost all the way out of her body and push into her again. She braced her arms against the mattress, and instinctively, she found herself pushing back against him, over and over again. Despite the power of her climax earlier, she found that the heat was building up again, rising higher and higher with each stroke.

She concentrated on her own pleasure while working herself back against him, and to her shock, she could feel herself starting to tremble again. It wasn’t enough, however, not really, and she was planning to simply work for his climax when he leaned down to growl in her ear.

“I want you to come when I do,” he said, his voice harsh with command. “Reach down between your legs… touch yourself.”

She moaned, her face flushed with pleasure and embarrassment, but she did as he said. Her fingers slipped clumsily against her own flesh until she found the rhythm, but when she did, her entire body leaned into the sensation.

They matched each other perfectly, his body slamming against hers while she pushed back to meet him. The tension wound tighter, and tighter, and tighter still, until Bailey felt her climax rise up, faster than she would have thought possible.

She cried out, her fingers finally stilling as passion overcame her. Behind her, she was faintly aware that Dario had frozen, his hands clamped on her hips and his body shaking hard.

Their cries twined together, echoing in the still cool air, leaving them both gasping and spent. Slowly, Bailey collapsed on the bed, Dario’s weight bearing them down. He was still inside her, and soft pulses of pleasure continued to run through her frame.

Finally, Dario pulled away, disposing of the condom before lying down by her side.

When they were in the cave, this would be the time when they spoke together, telling each other about their days, or their lives, or even careless things, like their favorite foods or movies. Now, though, a silence fell over them. The pleasure still warm on her flesh, Bailey wondered what was happening even as she drew closer to him.

“I’m sorry I cannot give you more than this,” he said, his voice hollow.

Her dream came back to her, making her flinch.

I love you
, she thought, but there was a grief to it, a final realization that it would never be more than stolen moments in time, nothing more than a string of beautiful memories as he went about the business of being sheikh.

“I understand,” she said instead. “Thank you for tonight.”

“Bailey?”

“This has been amazing,” she whispered. “The most… the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me. But I can’t take any more. I’m not sure I could take it beforehand. This isn’t enough for me, Dario.”

“Darling…”

“After this weekend, we have to stop this,” she said. “After this weekend… it’s time to go back to our real lives.”

She could feel the shock that went through him. It was a grief for him as well, even as he nodded.

“Then we will cherish every moment,” he said softly.

*

The weekend was a strange one, Bailey thought whenever she remembered it. There were moments of deep and profound pleasure between her and her desert lord, but each one was edged with sorrow and loss. One moment, she might laugh, only to feel the end coming directly on the heels of that humor.

When the time came to return to the site, she was torn. Dario would return to Jabal to take care of some business matters, and Majid would drive her back.