Suddenly, he reared back from her. Stalking to the myriad lamps dotted around the vast space, he turned them all off except the one on their bedside table. He started disrobing as he made his way back to her. By the time he reached the bedside, her husband was gloriously naked and utterly captivating.
Shamelessly, she arched her body and reached up for him. ‘Rahim, I want you.’
‘And I need you. Now, please, ya galbi, before I explode!’
Sliding between her thighs, he kissed his way down her throat to her sensitive breasts. Despite the tension whipping through him, he took his time, moulding and caressing her, until she begged him to stop torturing her. But he merely transferred his attention lower, stopping to plant reverent kisses on her belly before he parted her thighs with a firm demand.
Rahim showed her just how potent a lover he was. By the time he reared up over her, Allegra was near-delirious with ecstasy. But she knew she wasn’t complete.
Not until he truly made her his.
Finally, he surged inside her. His name spilled from her lips in a stifled scream. He exhaled harshly, his mouth searing across hers before he thrust home again.
‘Allegra, my beauty,’ he groaned against her ear as he sent them both higher.
‘Rahim...’
‘Your husband,’ he croaked, the command clear.
‘My husband,’ she obeyed, laying herself wide open to the spiritual sealing of their commitment.
Then she was soaring, her heart already halfway to delivering itself to the man who owned her. That she wanted nothing more than to place it at his feet right then should’ve been the first sign that she was falling in love with Rahim.
But Allegra was too wrapped up in bliss to care. After they fell back to earth, she opened her eyes to a renewed brightness in the tent.
‘I thought you turned the lights down?’ Her voice was a husky slur.
Rahim reached out and turned the glare back down. ‘I had to turn it back up for a moment?’
She stared back at him. ‘Had to?’
He smiled. ‘A short evidence of the marriage’s consummation.’
Allegra felt her face flame as she recalled that part of the traditional ceremony. ‘Oh, God! Our silhouettes against the tent?’
He nodded, laughing at her horror.
‘How many people will be watching?’
He shrugged. ‘No one will confirm it but at least one or two of the elders will be on the mountain to witness our joining. Maybe more.’
As if on cue, another boom sounded, this time much closer to the tent. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Our union has been approved.’
Minutes later, Rahim was still chuckling at her embarrassment. Rising, he filled a platter with the food that had been laid on a low table in the sitting area. After feeding her dates, sun-ripened tomatoes and stuffed vine leaves, he disposed of the dishes, came back to bed and pulled her into his arms.
Settling deeper into the bliss that flowed from her soul, Allegra combed her fingers through his hair, more content than she’d ever been in her life.
‘Your beautiful eyes have lost focus. What’s on your mind, habibi?’ he enquired after a few minutes of peaceful silence.
‘I’ve never believed in fate and destiny. But after everything that’s happened to us...’ Her voice drifted off, her fear that she would reveal too much and drive him away a living thing inside her.
‘And you believe it now?’
‘My grandfather believed in hard work and ambition...or so I thought until recently.’
Rahim leaned back and stared down at her. ‘What are you saying?’