Sheikh's Possession (8 page)

When the hour grew late, Berry thought,
all right, surely now …
But instead, he got up, stretched, and walked her almost sedately to her room.

"Thank you for a great day," she said, because after all, it had been. Her body might have been twisted into knots, and her head might have been swimming with desire, but the day had been wonderful, one of the best she had spent in a long, long time.

"I am glad you enjoyed it," he said, and if he was aware of her disappointment, he made no mention of it at all. Instead, he leaned in to give her a sweet, almost chaste kiss on the cheek. Then he drew back, and what she heard him whisper in her ear made her freeze.

"Did you think I would really leave you like this, beautiful woman?"

"I …"

"I want you," he whispered. "I want every part of you, and some part of me urges me to simply take you on the ground here and now."

The image of them rolling like wild animals on the ground, biting and clawing at each other, licking and desperate, made her blush, but she wanted it, oh she wanted every bit of it.

"I am going to give you some time," he said, "and I want you to think of your response very carefully. Go into your room. Close the door. Think for half an hour. If you do not want what comes next, lock the door and I will go away. It is that simple."

She tried to speak, but her throat was simply too dry. She had to swallow twice before she could make herself understood. "What … what if I do not lock the door?"

"Then you will have lost your last chance to say no to what comes after," he said.

This time, when he kissed her, there was a slow burn to it, and she could feel the deep well of heat underneath everything he did. It called to a deeper fire inside her, one that had been burning all day, stoked by his gentle touches and sweet words.

"Choose wisely," he said, and then he was gone.

***

In the luxurious confines of her room, Berry wondered what she should do. She knew what she wanted to do, but a part of her wondered if it was truly wise. Today had punctuated the differences between them very clearly. She was a simple girl from the United States. He came from generations of wealth and nobility. She had only known him for a short time, and most of the time she had known him, they were fighting.

And yet …

No one had ever set her on fire the way that he had. No one had ever come close. There was nothing in her that did not want his touch, his mouth, his hands. The only thing that she feared was the consequence of what would come after.

Before her time was up, she went to lock the door. Berry's hand was actually on the latch, but somehow, she could not make herself turn it. She could not force herself to bar the door to someone that she wanted that much, that she craved with every bit of her being.

In the end, she left the door unlatched. She went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. She had thought that she would be pale, but instead there was a rosiness in her cheeks, and her lips were red from where she had bitten them. She sat down on the edge of the bed and waited.

Half an hour later, to the second, she would later think, the door opened. Suddenly, the energy in the room changed, and a part of her realized that all of the obfuscating civility that Rasul wore like a cloak was gone.

The well-considered charmer was gone, and in his place was a man who exuded control, who would no longer be denied. Another woman would have been afraid, but in this moment, Berry was only excited.

She stood up from the bed, and he watched her, a slight smile on his face.

"You didn't bar the door," he said softly, and perhaps there was a bit of amusement on his face at a woman who had been so very careless.

"I didn't want to." Berry meant for the words to come out defiantly, but there was something smooth and almost vulnerable about them. She hadn't wanted to. In the end, the urge to have him touch her was simply too strong.

"Some might call that foolish," he observed.

"Maybe," she said, regaining some of her composure. "All I know is that what I want is standing before me, and yet, he still will not come near …"

The sound that Rasul made was nearly a growl, and she realized that there was no turning back now.

Berry froze as he stalked towards her. She knew that she should stop him. She knew what happened when they touched each other, because once they started, they would not stop. It was like they couldn't stop.

"You're in my blood," he growled, his voice low and terrifying. "No matter what I do, I cannot stop thinking about you …"

She swallowed hard, because it was the same with her. No matter where she went or what she did, he was always there, in the back of her mind.

"At night, I can still feel your touch," she confessed. "Sometimes, I lie awake and think that you have been kissing me, touching me." She wondered if she saw his eyes soften a little.

"It is the same with me," he said.

Now Rasul was only separated from her by a few feet of space. Instead of closing it, however, he reached for her instead. His hand stroked down her cheek, running light fingertips over her ear, her neck. He twined his fingers through the soft wisps of hair that fell over her ears, and then he reached behind her.

It took her a moment to realize what he was doing. She felt him pick up her braid, rolling the elastic holding it down and flicking it away. Then she felt his fingers, clever and smooth, gliding through her hair, smoothing the braid out into soft waves as she closed her eyes. Her body remembered the pleasure that he had given her, and it was already crying for his touch. She clenched her fists helplessly, because she knew if she relaxed for a moment, she would simply be in his arms.

"If you do not want this, I will go," he said. "I'll leave, and I swear, I will never touch you again …"

"That's not what I want," she whispered, and she felt the shudder go through his body as clearly as if it had gone through hers.

"If you tell me yes, I will take you," he said, his voice as rough as a midwinter sea. "I will lay you down, and I will take what I want from you while giving you as much pleasure as I can. Once you tell me that I can, I will not stop, do you understand?"

"Yes," she whispered. She could feel the pull of him, like gravity, like some dark natural force that could not be denied. If she was honest with herself, she never wanted to deny him, not this, not anything.

His hands cradled her face, making her look up at him. He was a tall man, powerful and fast. Many women in her place would have been afraid, if not of his body, then of the raging passion that she could see there now.

"Well?" he asked.

"I want you," she whispered. "I want you more than I have ever wanted anything, Please … take me …"

She could see the moment when the desire ignited in his eyes. She could see now that there was no going back, and she leaped forward at the same moment that he reached for her. The force of their kiss was an almost bruising clash of mouth and teeth, but she knew that he felt that pleasure and that pain just as she did. They were two hearts that beat to the same rhythm, and tonight, at least, they would not be separated.

His hands tangled in her hair, knotting his fingers through the smooth strands and holding her still as he kissed her. She couldn't get enough of touching him, her hands frantically pulling his shirt from where it was tucked into his trousers so she could touch his flanks, his belly, his muscular back.

"I want you," she panted. "God above, I want you so much, Rasul …"

His groan was all the answer she got, and then somehow, he had borne her gently to the floor. On her back, she looked up with wide eyes as his rose above her, stripping away her clothes with only a few short movements. His body called to her, making her want to mark him as hers somehow. There was something deeply primal about the way they moved together. She didn't care if he was bruising her, she didn't care if she was leaving marks on him. All that mattered was getting as close to him as she could, feeling the way he moved over her and making him feel how hot he was making her.

Their frantic kisses stalled only so he could strip off his own clothes, and now they were writhing naked together, pressing their bodies as close as they could get because anything else was unbearable.

"Beautiful, beautiful woman," Rasul crooned. "All I want, all I have ever wanted …"

When she nipped at his lip, he groaned with need, fisting his hand in her hair to hold her still. That small bit of restraint drove her wild, and she bit him again, harder this time. When he drew back, she snapped her teeth at him, making him grin.

"You think you're so tough?" he growled. "Well, let's see how tough you really are …"

She gasped out loud when he flipped her over onto her stomach, pinning her down by sheer superior weight. She started to try to lever herself up, but Rasul held her down with one hand pressed against her back. Then she felt his soft, wet mouth lapping at the nape of her neck, and suddenly, she had much less interest in trying to get up. Instead, she lay still as one hand ruffled through her hair, the other holding her in place. He never stopped tracing maddeningly light kisses along her shoulders, the bumps of her spine, the curve of her flank. His touch was so light, but it stopped just short of being ticklish. Instead, it made her squirm, the pleasure laced throughout her body inching up with every pass of his mouth.

Slowly, he worked his way down to the curve above her rear, and by then, she had no interest in struggling at all. Instead, she lay flat on the floor, her hands curling and uncurling as he layered sensation over sensation on her skin. He kissed the back of her thigh before moving down to the sensitive skin behind her knee. His skilled hands rubbed the firm muscles of her calves and the arches of her feet, making her aware of those parts of herself in a way that she never had been before.

When she turned her head to look at him, she found him watching her, a slight smile on his face.

"Give up," he advised her. "I'm going to do exactly what I like with you, and you are going to want all of it."

Something about the command in his words made her melt. Suddenly, all of the fight had gone out of her, and all she wanted was to give in to him. She moaned a little as he lifted her up to her knees, resting her weight on her forearms. For a moment, she thought he meant to take her right then and there, but instead, his hand slid between her thighs, probing her gently. He found her wet and ready for him, but it wasn't enough, not for Rasul.

She moaned as he slid his fingers inside her, rocking her back and forth with a firm stroke that only made the fire inside her roar higher. When his fingers were thoroughly wet with her arousal, he slid them forward to stroke against her clit, pinching that sensitive spot gently between two fingers before stroking more firmly.

There was nothing she could do but submit to the pleasure. She started to shake as the feelings inside her grew stronger, and then she was shouting as she spiraled into a pleasure that was completely beyond her control. Her entire frame tensed hard as the fire coursed through her. His fingers stayed firmly on her sensitive flesh, forcing her climax to stretch out as long as it could. When the pleasure finally subsided, she would have fallen to the ground in a boneless tumble if it weren't for his hands holding her up.

She whimpered as she felt him take his place behind her. There was something purely animalistic about it. There was nothing controlling them now but instinct. For a moment, she could feel the heat of his cock pressed against her warm, wet flesh, and then he plunged into her with a single, certain motion. They cried out together at how perfect the feeling was, and then he was moving, plunging into her with long strokes that filled her completely.

She braced her arms against the carpet, leaning back as he pressed forward. In that moment, she needed nothing more than to be utterly filled with him. When the heat started to rise in her again, she followed it, concentrating on how good it felt and how this man pushed her higher and higher still.

"Oh, oh God, please …" she cried, and somehow, he understood. He thrust into her harder, and with a deep growl, he bent forward to slide his fingers against her clit again. That touch was what she needed to feel her climax building again. She felt as if she were a rope stretched thin, and that any moment, she would break entirely.

“I want you to come,” he growled in her ear. “I want you to feel so good that you can't help it, no matter what I am doing, no matter how tender you are from coming again so soon …"

His harsh words only made the pleasure in her roar up higher. She threw her head back, giving her body over to the intense heat between them. She was buffeted by sensations, thrown back and forth, but they kept growing more and more intense.

Finally, just when she was convinced that it wouldn't happen again, her body lit up like a fireworks display. She dug her fingers into the floor beneath her as she arched her back. She knew that he could feel her pleasure the same way that she felt his a moment after. They both froze, their cries echoing in the room. She felt him thrust into her one last time, that frisson of pleasure driving her own climax just that much further.

When she finally came back to herself, she was panting, held up only by the last strength in her body and his hands. Slowly, Rasul lowered her to one side, coming to lie behind her. The only sound was their breathing. There were words that were meant to go into this silence, ones that trembled on her lips, but she couldn't say them.

"Are you all right?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Of course I am," she said. "This feels …"

Right, Perfect. Like I love you …

"Amazing," she finished lamely. If he could tell that there was something she was holding back, he didn't say. Instead, he let her relax into him, lulling her with a gentle hand stroking over her hair and her shoulder.

Finally, just when she was beginning to get stiff from lying on the floor, he climbed to his feet and helped her to hers.

"Come on," he said, and a part of her wondered if there was already some distance between them. Still, his hands were gentle as he pulled her into the enormous shower with him, the water falling from above like rain. She stood perfectly still as the warm water fell down around her, relishing the way his hands soaped her body gently and worked the shampoo into her hair.