Zafir shook his head. ‘None of that matters. What matters is here and now.’
He rested his arms on the armrests of her chair and just looked at her. Her thighs were bracketing his chest...she could feel the tiny abrasions of his chest hair against the delicate skin of her inner thighs. Between her legs she was so damp and hot it was embarrassing.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he said simply.
Kat wanted to duck her head, avoid that blistering gaze, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t speak.
Zafir bent forward and touched his mouth to hers.
Kat closed her eyes and a helpless sound of need flowed from her mouth to his as the kiss hardened and deepened. It was too late for sanity. She couldn’t resist this. This was what she wanted and needed to make all of the questions and doubts and insecurities fade away. When Zafir touched her she couldn’t think of anything else. And she didn’t want to.
On every level he’d defeated her. Kat’s whole body arched towards his, her arms finding and twining their way around his neck as his kiss got deeper and darker, and so explicit that it sent electric shocks all the way through her core, against which Zafir’s taut belly provided a delicious friction.
His hands were on her thighs, lifting them up to hook around his hips. Kat didn’t have time to think about how she looked, or how the lack of her limb felt. Zafir was too all-consuming.
One hand was on her back now, finding the top of the zip at her neck. He tugged it down and she felt air touch her bare skin as the dress slackened around her breasts. Zafir took his mouth off hers to pull back. They were both breathing harshly.
Without taking his eyes off hers, he pulled her dress forward and down, easing it off her shoulders and down her arms until she was naked from the waist up. The design of the dress had precluded the need for a bra.
Then he looked down at her.
She saw the way his eyes grew even darker, and colour slashed across his cheeks as he took in her bare breasts.
He said something guttural in Arabic. And then he brought his hands to her flesh, cupping her and squeezing. Her nipples were hard, stinging points, and when Zafir passed a thumb over each of them she almost cried out, they were so sensitive.
He looked at her and said raggedly, ‘I’ve dreamt of this. Of you...’
He put one hand on her back, encouraging her to arch towards his mouth. He cupped her breast with his other hand, and then surrounded first one nipple and then the other in hot sucking heat. Kat’s hands were buried in his hair, clinging on for dear life as he stoked her arousal to painful levels.
It was as if a wire was directly connecting Zafir’s mouth on her breasts to her core. The deliciously wicked combination of his rough tongue and teeth on her sensitive flesh pushed her right over an edge she didn’t see coming, and she found herself shuddering in his arms as an orgasm gripped her and threw her high, before letting her float back down to earth.
She stiffened and pulled back in mortification, her cheeks burning. Her body had just betrayed her spectacularly. She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry... I—’
He stopped her with a finger to her mouth. He looked wild. ‘Don’t you dare apologise. If I don’t get inside you soon, Kat, I’m in danger of disgracing myself in a way that only used to happen when I was a boy and unable to control my body.’
Her eyes widened as comprehension sank in. ‘You mean you—’
‘Yes,’ he said succinctly. And then, ‘Where’s the bedroom?’
All semblance of civility was gone now. And it was the sexiest thing Kat had ever seen.
‘Behind you.’
With effortless strength, Zafir stood and scooped Kat up against his chest. Her arms went around his neck as he kicked open the bedroom door and brought her into the dimly lit room.
The gathering storm clouds outside went unnoticed as Zafir lowered Kat to the bed. So did the jagged fork of lightning and the first drops of heavy rain.
A part of Kat couldn’t believe this was happening, and she needed a moment to assimilate everything and analyse the consequences. And yet, in spite of this knowledge, she couldn’t bring herself to utter a word as she lay back and watched Zafir strip off the rest of his clothes with all the natural-born confidence of a spectacularly beautiful, sexually virile man.
Kat’s eyes widened as she took in a sight she’d thought she’d never see again. A very aroused Zafir. Her greedy gaze avidly took in his whole bod
y, noting that his muscles seemed even harder than before. His body bigger. And yet he was leaner. As if he’d shed some softer layer. Maybe becoming a King had done that to him.
‘You, Kat,’ he said gutturally. ‘I want to see you too.’
He started to tug at her dress, pulling it down over her hips and off completely. Now she only wore her plain white panties, and she felt embarrassed. She’d always made an effort before, aware that Zafir had once liked wispy concoctions of lingerie—usually sent to her by him. But as he came down beside her on the bed now, his eyes gleamed with a hunger that turned any doubts to dust.
His hand smoothed over her chest and belly, which contracted with need. When his hand reached her underwear and his fingers slid underneath to explore she put a hand down instinctively. He looked at her. Once again she bit her lip. Unsure. As if she hadn’t ever lain with this man before. As if he hadn’t just seen her fall apart after barely touching her.