The Desert Prince / The Playboy's Proposition: The Desert Prince / The Playboy's Proposition. Jennifer Lewis

tryst was having the very opposite effect.

      A flare of anger—mixed inexorably with pure lust—flashed through him.

      How did this woman have so much power over him?

      Almost as if she heard his unspoken question, Celia angled one of her long legs over his, and deftly flipped their positions until she was on top.

      Triumph flared in her eyes as she took him deep.

      Salim moaned as pleasure cascaded through him. He’d always adored her sexual confidence—which they’d found and nurtured together—and the way she loved to take charge.

      Her nipples hovered over him in the dim light, darker and fuller than he remembered, tempting his thumbs to strum their peaks. Celia sighed as he stroked her breasts, and she moved in a hypnotic rhythm, like a belly dancer, drawing him deeper and deeper.

      She was taking him into a world where none of his senses functioned properly. A strange yet familiar place where his nerves were alive and tingling with pleasure so intense it felt like pain.

      Celia bent and kissed him on the mouth, bold and beautiful, claiming him.

      He kissed back, unable to stop himself. Lust and mischief soon had them clawing and nipping at each other. He was tempted to suck hard enough to brand her with the mark of his desire.

      But he didn’t. He was a gentleman, even in this moment of unbearable and delicious torture.

      With a movement faster than her own, he grabbed hold of her thighs and maneuvered them both into a sitting position. Legs wrapped around each other, they sat face to face, with him still buried deep—and active—inside her.

      She laughed. He’d picked one of the familiar positions from ancient India they’d studied and enjoyed all those years ago.

      “It’s a classic,” he murmured, enjoying the face-to-face contact the position allowed. He kissed her on the mouth hard, then pulled back.

      “It always slows things right down, doesn’t it?” She looked at him through narrowed eyes. Her tongue flicked over her lips, tantalizing.

      “Sometimes it’s good to slow things down.”

      “When you’re about to lose control?”

      “I never lose control,” he growled.

      “Now that’s an outright lie.” Celia leaned forward, and brushed his chest with the aroused tips of her nipples.

      “Okay,” he rasped. “Only sometimes.”

      “Like when you’re with me.” She brushed her thumb over the curve of his mouth, daring him to argue.

      “When I’m with you,” he echoed. He seized her, flipping them again until he was on top, and sinking deeper into her hot and enticing depths.

      Celia let out a long, shivering sigh and clutched him close.

      Her muscles contracted around him when her climax seized her. In an instant he lost control.

      He let out a tortured groan and clutched her to him while sensation rocked him like an earthquake. Colors and patterns burst in front of his eyes, and he clung to Celia as his whole world shook and shuddered and threatened to crumble.

      He didn’t want to let Celia go.

      And that in itself was a big problem.

      * * *

      If Celia could stay right here, in Salim’s warm, strong arms, she’d be fine. She was sure of it.

      She could hear the sea outside the window, waves lapping against the soft white sand. The tide going in, or out, whichever it was, just as it did every day and night since the beginning of time.

      If only she could stop the clock and hold them both here in this magical place where nothing else mattered but that they were together. But already, prying fingers of light crept around the blinds, ready to tug her back into real life.

      She sat up with a start. Was it seven o’clock yet? She’d pledged to call Kira every day at 7:00 a.m. Salalah time, which was four in the afternoon in Connecticut, soon after Kira got home from daycare.

      Salim stirred and his eyes opened a crack. His dark gaze sent a lightning bolt of guilt to her core.

      She still hadn’t told him.

      And now she’d slept with him.

      “I’ve got to go.” She slid to the side of the bed, afraid he’d stretch out a muscled arm and pull her back into his embrace.

      Salim lay sprawled on the pillows, broad chest bared, his seductive trail of black hair leading beneath the white sheet that barely covered his hips. “So soon? I think you should sleep in today. I’ll talk to the boss.” His mouth tilted into a sly smile.

      A curl of fresh, hot desire unfolded in Celia’s stomach. Which only deepened her sense of guilt. How could she do this to Kira, let alone Salim? Did she have no self-control at all?

      Apparently not, at least as far as Salim was concerned.

      She tugged her gaze from his dark, sleepy eyes and tousled hair and cleared her throat. “I wish I could, but I have a meeting at the job site. I don’t want to mess up other people’s plans.”

      “You’re very devoted to your work.” His low, seductive voice seemed to suggest that was a bad thing. He shifted onto his side, giving her an eyeful of his sculpted chest and hard biceps.

      “Isn’t that why you hired me?”

      Something glittered in his dark eyes. “Not really.”

      Celia’s belly tightened. Had he truly brought her here because he wanted … her?

      He wouldn’t have done that if he knew she’d concealed his own daughter from him.

      Adrenaline propelled her from the bed. “I’ve got to get moving.” She bit her lip at the sight of her crumpled blue finery. “I’m going to look pretty silly sprinting across the hotel complex in this.”

      “I’ll call and have some of your clothes brought here.” Salim stretched again, bronzed muscle pressing against the soft mattress.

      “Are you crazy? Then everyone will know.”

      He shrugged. Maybe he did this sort of thing all the time.

      Celia drew in a long, fortifying breath. “No thanks, I’ll take my chances. It’s still early. I’ll sneak around past the tennis courts.”

      Salim laughed. “You have no need to ‘sneak.’ You’re not married, and neither am I. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”

      She gulped. “I’m sure that’s true in an ideal world, but in this one I still need to be able to give instructions to the landscapers without them all falling around laughing because they’re picturing me in bed with the boss.”

      He tilted his head back and surveyed her through narrowed eyes. “It’s a pretty picture.”

      Her nipples stung with unwelcome arousal. In fact, her whole body still hummed with the memory of his touch. She needed to get out of here … now.

      She shrugged into the blue dress and stepped into the sequined slippers.

      “Come, kiss me before you go.” He lay stretched on the bed like a sultan, sheets wound around his sturdy thighs. Celia’s stomach flip-flopped.

      She climbed onto the bed and leaned down to brush her lips to his. Salim captured her in his arms and claimed her mouth with a forceful kiss.

      Desire surged through Celia, powerful and invincible. Her skin heated and her limbs trembled with arousal as she kissed him back. A low groan rose from Salim’s chest, calling to a dark, sensual part of her that only he’d ever awakened.

      Then the thought of Kira—possibly waiting by the phone—cracked