She shook her head and repeated her request. “Bed.”
“Very well,” he chuckled. “I’ll join you shortly.”
She knew that he expected her to come to his bed, but when she heard the water of the shower start, she made a decision to sleep in her own bed that night.
Alone.
Liyah was already falling for Asad, and she had no intention of playing games with him, no matter what Amira had said. The only option left to her was to close off her emotions. When the arrangement ended, and she prayed that it would end soon, they would both go their separate ways.
She woke in the middle of the night with his lips trailing down her spine and her legs spread as he slowly slipped a finger inside her. Even in her sleep, she was wet in anticipation. Moaning into the pillow, she tried to turn over so she could kiss him, but he kept her pressed on her belly as his lips moved lower and lower, his tongue leaving behind a trail of wet heat. Only when he reached the apex of her legs did he lift her hips and slide his tongue over her.
“Oh, God,” she cried into the pillow. “Asad. What are you doing?”
“You were not in my bed,” he hissed in disapproval. “Naked, yes, but not in my bed. Why?” His tongue slid over her again, and she couldn’t believe he expected her to answer. When she only whimpered in response, he flicked his thumb hard over her clit, and her hips jumped at the mixture of pain and pleasure.
“I was so tired,” she gasped. “I didn’t think.”
“You shouldn’t have to think. Your body is mine, and it should be in my bed so I can listen to your cries of pleasure all night long.” His touch turned gentle again, but she didn’t like the soft feathery sensations.
She wanted him hard and fast.
Impatient, she shoved her hips back, and he chuckled. “You should not be rewarded, but I cannot resist you. Not when you’re so tantalizing in the moonlight, like a nymph beckoning me to my sweetest pleasure.”
Almost without warning, he moved, driving into her so hard that she almost dove headfirst into the headboard. A scream of pleasure ripped from her throat, but he gave her no time to adjust.
She reveled in every single second of it.
Her legs were so shaky that she almost collapsed in the bed, but he held her upright, and it was all she could do to bury her face in the pillow so she wouldn’t wake the rest of the palace. It only took minutes before her orgasm shook her so hard that she thought she might break apart, and his own orgasm rode in the wake of hers.
Collapsing next to her, he drew her tenderly into his arms and kissed her. “Did you like that?” he murmured in her ear. “I find that I sometimes have no control over myself, but I would never hurt you.”
A slow smile curved over her face as she cuddled with him, but in the haze that followed her orgasm, Amira’s warning haunted her.
She needed to take control of the situation.
“You mean, did I like having you wake me with your tongue?” she asked as she trailed a finger down his naked chest. He hissed at her sudden change in attitude. “Did I like it when you buried that tongue inside me with all the promises of what your cock would do to me? Has done to me?”
“Liyah,” he groaned. “When did you get so naughty?”
Leaning up, she licked his ear. “Did I like it when you fucked me face-first into the pillow, so hard and fast that I thought I might die from pleasure? Did I like it when you filled me and stretched me?”
“Careful, or you’ll have it again,” he warned her. His cock stirred beneath her, and she straddled him, rubbing him against the juices of their combined orgasm.
“I don’t know, Asad. Maybe we should try it again, just to be sure.”
With a grunt, he seized her hips and thrust himself up inside her again, and while it was hard and fast, it was hardly quick. By the time it was over, she was too tired, too sated to deal with her emotions, and there were no more tender words as he passed out next to her.
12
Asad woke the next morning to find a note, hastily written by Liyah. She was planning on spending the whole day perusing the family’s personal collection of books. He thought briefly about interrupting her and dragging her back to bed, but he remembered what had happened the last time he’d interrupted her in the library, and that was when she had still been encased in her wallflower shell.
Recalling the images of last night, he felt his gut tighten. He’d been furious when she wasn’t in his bed, but he’d only meant to play. He hadn’t meant to get that rough with her, and he certainly hadn’t expected her to react as she did.
The whole thing reeked of desperation, as if she was using him to drive something away.
Immediately, he discarded the notion. Liyah was inexperienced when it came to sex, and she’d never use it as a distraction.
His phone beeped, and he pulled it out to check it.