Modern Romance July 2018 Books 5-8 Collection. Annie West

never felt closer to another person in her life.

      Then, with a mighty groan, Sayid rolled away to lie on his back beside her. His eyes were closed and he said nothing and Lina didn’t have the strength to object, though she’d much rather he’d stayed where he was.

      Finally, her catapulting heart began to slow and her body floated in a dreamy state between bliss and sleep, despite the unfamiliar throb between her legs.

      She had no idea how long they lay like that. She didn’t have words to describe what they’d shared, and didn’t want to think about what she ought to say, if anything.

      Finally, through a drifting haze, Lina felt Sayid move. Slitting her eyes open she saw him get up and walk towards the bathroom. The subtle lamplight played on the powerful lines of his tall frame, the clench and release of his rounded buttocks. Even after that cataclysmic orgasm he walked like a prince, head up, shoulders back, with the easy grace of an athlete.

      Not as if his world had reeled off its axis and gone spinning out of orbit.

      He took sex in his stride, of course. He was an experienced lover, no doubt used to the overwhelming tide of bliss that left her weak and trembling. Plus, everyone said sex was different for men—they were adept at not getting emotionally involved.

      Slowly, every movement a triumph of will over a body too lethargic to respond easily to her brain’s commands, Lina rolled onto her side, tucking her feet up and her hands beneath her chin.

      Bliss still echoed through her body and befuddled her thoughts. Yet one fact shone clear and ineluctable. She’d been afraid that sex with Sayid would be playing with fire, that it might inflame rather than obliterate her feelings for him. She’d been right. She wasn’t merely playing with fire. She’d stepped right into the inferno and she feared there was no way out.

      Lina let her heavy eyelids close, too exhausted even to panic yet. It was enough to lie here, boneless and sated beyond her imaginings, breathing in the scent of sex and Sayid, feeling the strange, heavy emptiness between her legs where he’d been.

      Wetness spilled over her cheeks and across her nose. Not tears of distress or worry, but of wonder at the sheer beauty of what they’d shared. She’d wipe them away when she found the energy to lift her arm again.

      For now all she could do was wonder how she was going to sever her feelings for Sayid when tonight had only drawn her closer to him. She feared she was falling in love with him.

       CHAPTER NINE

      SAYID LOOKED DOWN at the sleeping woman curled up at the very edge of his broad bed. Her pose was that of a child seeking comfort with her limbs tucked tight against her.

      But there was nothing childlike about her body. Even now, still stunned by the roaring intensity of that powerful orgasm, his gaze roved over her hungrily. He wanted to slide his hand over those hypnotically perfect curves, taste the dark raspberry nipple that peeked at the edge of her folded arm, tangle himself in the precious silk of her hair and lose himself all over again.

      No, there was nothing childlike about Lina’s body. Or about the way she’d wanted him. Another unseen jab to his body, this time lower, as he recalled her declaring she wanted to watch him come. A great shudder tore through him. Sayid had almost lost it when she said that. Only the determination to take her over the edge with him had seen him through.

      Nor had there been anything innocent about the way she’d wrapped herself around him, clinging as if to stop him withdrawing. As if! Nothing on this earth could have prevented him enjoying their union to the full. Even the realisation she was, against all expectation, a virgin.

      A deep breath stretched him but didn’t alleviate the strange tightness banding his ribs. He flexed his hands then clasped them behind his back, away from the temptation to reach out and touch her.

      Why hadn’t she told him?

      He supposed that was what she’d been going to say until he’d stopped her words, too impatient to listen.

      But how could she be so innocent? She was twenty-two. She’d been living in the west for years and he had no doubt western males were no more immune to her beauty and charm than he. In fact he had proof. Look at the way that American had hung on her every word the other night. For that matter, she’d been a magnet for male attention since her teens.

      While overseas, Lina had been free of the strict chaperonage usual in Halarq. Why hadn’t she taken advantage of her freedom?

      Innocent she might have been, but there was no mistaking her for anything other than an incredibly sensual woman, with a profound capacity for pleasure. The fact she hadn’t given in to the natural urges of her body before intrigued him.

      Sayid stifled the heavy tension brewing in his lower body. Clearly he was not going to wake her for more sex, no matter that he was, if possible, even more desperate for her than he’d been an hour ago. She’d been exquisitely responsive but her body’s tightness told its own story. She’d be sore now.

      Yet he moved closer, drawn by a mix of emotions he refused to catalogue. He told himself a simple sense of responsibility topped the list. He’d seduced an innocent—a first for him as he’d scrupulously pursued only experienced women till Lina. He was obliged to care for her.

      Obligation. Was that what he felt?

      She shifted and his belly clenched. Were those dried tears on her cheeks?

      He stood transfixed, struggling to cope with unaccustomed guilt.

      She moved again and he told himself it had been a trick of the light. She was exhausted, that was all, and who could blame her? Even he had been stunned by what they’d shared.

      Yet a baffling tide of emotion rose, confounding him. He needed to do something, fix things. Except nothing could undo what he’d done.

      And, the savage inside him acknowledged, he didn’t want to. A more civilised man would regret stealing her virginity. Sayid couldn’t.

      Hell, no decent man would proposition her the way he had!

      Yet Sayid wouldn’t change a thing. How could he when his craving for Lina was unchanged? In fact it was stronger than before. At least before tonight he hadn’t savoured her fiery passion, hadn’t watched her come apart for him, or drowned his senses in her welcoming body.

      Enough!

      He was hard with a carnal hunger that had barely eased, despite the long, cold shower he’d endured. But he wouldn’t act...not yet.

      Nor could he let her go. He knew his limits and he was far too selfish for that. But he could at least respect her need to rest.

      Sayid bent and picked up the sheet, pulling it up over Lina’s shoulder, covering her nakedness.

      * * *

      Lina didn’t know what woke her. She was cocooned in the most scrumptiously comfortable bed, content as a cat in the sun. She’d never felt so good.

      Lazily she stretched and instantly registered two things. The hint of heaviness inside, up between her thighs, and the fact she wasn’t curled up on a sheet but on a body.

      Her eyes snapped open. In the faint grey pre-dawn light she saw her pillow was a male chest, powerful and with a light covering of black hair. A second later she realised the steady pulse in her ears wasn’t hers, but came from that same chest, where she rested her head.

      ‘Good morning.’ The sound rumbled up from beneath her.

      Lina had thought nothing could match the intimacy of making love with Sayid, but waking with him, feeling the throb of his heart and the ripple of his baritone voice, made her experience again the connection that had dazzled her last night.

      To her consternation, nerves hit. It was one thing allowing him to sweep her into a firestorm