Bella and the Merciless Sheikh

This time Bella was completely out of control, her body over whelmed by such crazy levels of excitement that she clung to him and sobbed against his sleek skin. Even as the spasms gradually faded she didn’t let go of him. She couldn’t let go of him. She wanted to hold him forever. In the depths of her passion-soaked brain, she felt as though everything had changed but she couldn’t identify what or why. All she knew was that they’d shared something incredible. She felt sexy, and cared for and special.

The light flooded the opening of the tent and the intense heat shimmered around them, as if the sun was smiling approval. Bella lifted her hand and touched his hair, noticing that it was almost blue-black in colour.

He must have felt her touch because he lifted his head and looked down at her. She noticed that his jaw was the same blue-black as his hair, that his lashes were long and thick and that he had beautiful cheek bones—and she saw that his deep dark eyes were blank of expression.

He was obviously as shell-shocked as she was, Bella thought weakly. Her hair was sticking to her neck; she felt wrung out by the heat and by the whole experience. In all the things that had gone wrong lately, this felt completely right. It was the single most thrilling moment of her life. And suddenly she was desperate for him to just hold her. That was all she wanted. A hug.

Tentatively she placed her hand on his chest, the tips of her fingers tingling as she encountered hard muscle and dark body hair. His body was incredible—all golden skin and tightly defined muscle. Glancing up at him, Bella suddenly realised that she felt shy for the first time in her life.

His eyes held hers and then he gave a brief nod of sat is faction. ‘So you are capable of being submissive,’ he drawled in a flat tone, and Bella blinked because whatever she’d been expecting him to say, it hadn’t been that.

Her bubble of pleasure popped.

Shame slid over her. What had made her think, even for a moment, that they’d shared something special? Was she so desperate for affection that she had to magic it out of nothing?

Slowly she removed her hand from his chest, trying to control her breathing, trying to look casual and not to let him see how much his comment had hurt her.

So was that what this had been about to him? An exercise in male dominance?

She’d thought they’d shared something special and all the time he’d been putting her in her place. And she’d fallen for it, hadn’t she? She’d gone along with the whole tough macho seduction routine without so much as a ‘wait a minute.’

She’d been so desperate she’d begged him.

Bella blinked furiously. Suddenly she felt frighteningly empty, emptier than ever before. ‘I’m not submissive.’ It was a struggle to keep her voice light but she was determined she was going to do it. Determined that he wasn’t going to know. ‘Just lazy. I lay on my back. You had to do all the work.’

He stared down at her for a long, disturbing moment and then rolled away from her and sprang to his feet. everything he did was confident. Sure. Catching her first proper glimpse of his naked body, Bella stared. Wide shoulders, golden skin, long strong legs. She gazed after him hungrily as he prowled to the far side of the tent.

Away from her.

Everyone always walked away from her.

He dressed without once looking in her direction. Which was a good thing, because it meant that she could remove a stray tear without him noticing. The lump in her throat was harder to shift.

The sudden urge to talk to her twin sister almost flattened her. That wasn’t an option, was it? Not only had Olivia been banished to Australia, her sister wouldn’t have wanted to talk to her. They hadn’t spoken since the row. Since that awful night.