Sheikh's Possession (11 page)

He had thought about this course of action long and hard though, and he knew that if he did not at least try, he would never forgive himself. The truth was that he was not simply doing this for himself. He was also doing it for the beautiful wide-eyed woman who had laid in his arms. She was still in there somewhere, buried under what felt like concrete layers of hurt and pain.

He had to find a way to get through to her, but she certainly was not going to make it easy. He was prepared for that. At least, he thought he was prepared for that.

For the rest of the day, she sat in stony silence. No matter what he did, she would not look at him. When he entered a room, she tried to leave. If he wouldn't let her leave, she would simply glower up at him, her eyes brilliant emerald fire.

That night, as she resolutely closed her bedroom door behind her and locked it, he sat on the couch in the living room, head in his hands.

He didn't know how much of this he could take. It was one thing bringing her here, but dealing with her fury and her recriminations was physically painful. Rasul knew with some pain that his chances for success were likely very low.

All he knew though was that he had to try.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Sunsets were lengthy affairs in Alamun. From the screened porch of the manor, Berry watched the sun descend into the desert, the sky growing darker and richer. When the sky overhead was a deep indigo and purple, and the sun a mere streak of orange against the clouds, Rasul came out of the house to stand behind her. It occurred to her that she was exhausted. For the first time in what felt like a small eternity, her rage ebbed to where she could speak to Rasul again, even if the pain was an undercurrent that fouled everything in her.

"It is beautiful," she said softly, not turning her head. She knew where he was. She could feel him as if there was a magnetic pull between them. She thought that this attraction would always be there, no matter what happened or how much space came between them.

"Not as beautiful as you," he said.

Rasul came to stand behind her, making the skin at the back of her neck stand on end. He didn't touch her, and she couldn't tell if she was disappointed or grateful.

"I don't know what to think," she said, her eyes focused out over the desert. "Not about you, but more so, not about myself. Who am I, to have the feelings that I do? They're so powerful … they frighten me."

His sigh was as soft as a puff of west wind. "You don't have to think," he said. "Not tonight. You are powerful, strong, and clever, but here, you do not have to be anything except happy. That's what I want you to have."

After a moment, she tilted her head back, resting it against his gentle hand. He stroked her hair for a moment before sending his quick fingers to undo her braid. In a moment, her hair was loose and flowing down to her shoulders. Berry closed her eyes as he ran his fingers through the length before coming up to stroke the tension out of her temples.

"I want …" Berry bit her lip. What she wanted was impossible. She told herself that. She told herself over and over again that the decadent Sheikh of Alamun could never be the man that she wanted him to be, the one she wanted to walk beside her through her life. The thought contrasted with his actions, and suddenly, it was simply too much. She couldn't stand to turn questions that had no answers over and over again in her head. Her exhaustion rolled over her like a tide, and when it was gone, it left behind the rawness of her desire, like an exposed sea bed.

"Berry? Are you all right?"

She laughed a little as she stood, turning to face him. Her white dress fell in soft folds down around her ankles, but she knew how sheer it was. He could see the shadows of her curves through the fine fabric, and for a moment, his dark eyes flickered down her body. He was a sensuous man, and the fact that he was drawn to her made her heart beat faster.

"I am," she said. "Right now … right now, I want you to touch me."

He looked momentarily eager, but she held up a hand, stopping him. "But this will change nothing. You are still who you are. I am still who I am. Nothing will change. Only … I want to touch you."

He hesitated, and for one moment, she thought that he would refuse. A moment of pain crossed his handsome face, but then he nodded. "I understand."

Those words were all she needed. In another heartbeat, she was in his arms, and his mouth descended on hers as if he was starved for her. In his arms, she could feel the beginning of the pleasure that had always lived between them spark pure fire. In that moment, she knew that there would never be another man who made her feel like he did. There would never be someone who could make her feel as if her soul had been set on fire.

Their kiss was slow, but there was a passion to it that made her warm from the inside out. His strong hands ran up her back before sweeping down again to cup her rear, squeezing gently. When she lifted one leg at the knee to run it along his, she felt the tremor run through his frame. He was as affected as she was, and it thrilled her to know it.

She could hear the first cries of the oasis's night birds as he scooped her up in his arms. She thought he was going to take her to the bedroom, but instead, he lay her down on the tall swinging nest in the corner of porch, her legs dangling down over the edge. Before she could ask what he was doing, he flipped a switch and the chain supporting the swing shortened drawing her up higher until her legs were swinging free of the ground. She started to ask what he was doing when he came to stand between her legs.

"Do you like this?" he said, pushing the swing just slightly.

"It's like being in zero gravity," Berry murmured, looking up at him. "Like a single touch could move me wherever it wanted me …"

He chuckled. "That's the idea," he said, and he reached for the hem of her dress. She thought that he meant to remove it entirely, but he only skimmed it up to her waist, revealing the long length of her tanned legs and the wispy lacy panties that covered up her most secret flesh. He bent down to run his mouth over the soft skin of her thighs, sending tremors of desire through her body. Without thinking of what she was doing, she reached down to tangle her fingers into his hair, tugging gently, always asking for more.

Though she could feel that his need was as intense as hers, he took his time, nibbling at her thighs and at the sharp bones of her hips before he even started to press a gentle palm against her mound. With a soft groan, she started grinding up against him, growing increasingly desperate for the pleasure that she knew he could bring her. She had never known a man like him before. She knew she never would again.

Only when she was whimpering with need did he pull her panties down, throwing them somewhere behind him. Now she was entirely bare to his fingers, his hands, and his mouth. When he bent down to lap at her soft, warm flesh, she nearly levitated off of the swing. Berry's slight motions made the swing rock, and she could feel her mind spin at all of the powerful sensations that were blazing through her body.

Rasul refused to hurry. He took his time, first lapping at her slit, and then dipping two fingers into her warmth. Her hips pressed up towards him desperately, but he refused to give her the climax that he knew he could give her. Instead he teased her, bringing her right up to the very edge of climax before pulling away. She didn't know how much time had passed, and she didn't know how long she had been clenching her fists in his hair, but she was a desperate thing when he finally stood.

"Please, Rasul!" she cried. "Please, please, I need you …"

For a moment, as he looked down on her, she wondered if this was some kind of revenge. Would he simply bring her to the point of climax to walk away?

"I need you," he responded.

With no more warning than that, his dark hand fisted in her dress. With two sharp, focused moments, he tore it open, and left her lying in the shreds of what had once been a dress. He reached behind her to unhook her bra, throwing it wherever he had thrown her panties, and now she lay naked for him like some kind of offering. The sun had set fully, and the soft light of the porch made her skin glow silvery. For a moment, they were frozen, as if they were part of some kind of historic tableau, a tale that had been told a thousand times.

With a growl that was barely human, he fell upon her, his hands everywhere. The roughness of his clothing against her bare skin only made Berry more excited, and she threw her arms around him, hooking her legs around his hips in the need to have him closer.

"Take me, take me, take me," she chanted in his ear, and this time, the tremor that ran through his body turned into a full-scale shudder.

He stood to strip away his clothes, and now he rose above her like some ancient sheikh come to claim his prize. She had time to look at the darkness of his shape above her, the heaviness of his arousal, and then he fell upon her like a wolf on a doe. His hands wrapped around her hips, dragging her to the edge of the swing as he stood, feet planted with his hips angled to meet her.

He can't be thinking …

He was. Rasul's hands landed on the chains that attached the swing to the central chain that reached up to the ceiling. With a single motion of his hands, he could drag her forward and push her away as he chose. With one hand on a chain, the other reached down to urge her legs apart, running a finger along her wet slit. He toyed with her clit for a moment, but then he pulled away again. She would have whimpered with need, but then the blunt head of his bare cock was pressed against her entrance.

"Do you want me?" he asked hoarsely. "Do you want me, Berry?"

"I do, please!" she cried out, and with a single motion, he entered her. She felt his full length pressing inside her, and he didn't stop until they were joined as completely as they could be. She gasped, making him pause.

"Berry? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am, just please … please don't stop!"

His chuckle was dark and full of masculine satisfaction. "I have absolutely no intention of doing so," he said, and he started to move.

Keeping his hips almost perfectly still, he reached up to grasp the chains holding the swing. With a gentle nudge, he set the swing into motion, and even the slight movements made her cry out with pleasure. She was utterly weightless but supported by the swing. It was directing the motion of her body and how it met Rasul's, and the delicious sensation of being utterly helpless in the face of it made her groan with pleasure.

The pleasure that had been burning low in her belly flared up as if he had thrown gasoline on it, and in a matter of moments, she could feel herself start to shake. She couldn't believe that she was drawing up to a climax so fast, but neither could she stop it. She reached for him desperately, and letting go of the chain, he came down over her, gathering her up in his arms.

"Come," he said softly in her ear. "Give me that pleasure that you have promised me …"

She flung her arms around him, and almost as if by his command, her body seemed to tear itself apart with pleasure. The sensations started low in her belly before expanding out to sweep over the rest of her, shaking her to pieces as she wailed her pleasure to the empty desert.

He shook over her, and Berry knew that somehow, Rasul was feeling her pleasure as if it were his own. Her climax drove him over the edge, and as she started to come down off of the power of her arousal, his motions sped up until he was pounding into her, the swing's motions fast and jerky as he pushed into her over and over again.

When he found his own climax, his shout echoed through the night, and she could feel the heat of his release flood her. She clung to him, wanting to wring every bit of pleasure from the way their bodies were together, from the electricity that existed between them.

When he stopped shaking, he fell down on top of her, his weight a pleasure all on its own. She knew that she should get up, but this intimacy, one that was just as potent as what they had just done together, was hard to resist.

"Please …"

She thought that it was just her imagination at first. The word was small, almost broken, and it could not have come from the proud man who had sparred with her from the first moment that they had met. Berry shifted slightly so that they could lie side by side on the swing. The porch was dark, but it was still possible to make out the expression on his face.

"Rasul?"

"I need you," he said softly. "I am not sure that I have ever said those words to another person before. I need you, and by God, if you must go, then I will allow it, because above all I want your happiness, but I am telling you now that if you stay, I will give you the best I can, every day for the rest of my life. I will only love you more with every day that passes, and I will make you my queen."

Suddenly, Berry felt as if her throat was too tight. She could feel tears stinging at the back of her eyes, and she was terribly afraid that if she said what was truly in her heart, she would simply break. "Rasul, it is not that easy …"

"It can be," he said insistently. "If you will simply … be with me, if you are simply by my side, then everything is details. Everything else can work itself out. I swear to you, Berry. You are the one light in my life, and the thought of losing you tears my heart out of my chest."

She took a deep breath, and she made herself stand up. Deliberately, Berry found her clothes. She couldn't look at Rasul while she said what came next.

"You don't have to lie any longer," she said, her voice small. "I was part of your bargain with Farnsworth. My … company in return for your favor. Don't lie and tell me that I'm wrong, or that I am mistaken."

He stood up from the swing, standing before her. He paid no mind to being utterly naked, and he stood before her without fear or regret.

"No. Farnsworth gave me … an excuse and a lever, I suppose, but it was never about using you, Berry, I swear to that. If anything, I used Farnsworth. I let him believe whatever he wanted to believe so that I could spend some time with you."