The Royal Collection. Rebecca Winters

fierce. So caring. That was... I have no words for it. Why have you never been with anyone? Why do you deny yourself?” She took a shuddering breath. “Tarek, what did he do to you?”

       CHAPTER TEN

      HE SHOOK HIS HEAD. “We don’t need to speak of it. Not now.”

      She nodded slowly, keeping her hand on his arm. She didn’t speak for a moment, her eyes downcast. Then she looked back up at him. “You’ve really never been with a woman before?”

      “No.”

      “Have you... What...what have you done with...other people...?”

      “No one. Nothing. I cannot remember the last time I was touched at all before you.” And suddenly the weight of her fingertips on his arm was like a brick. So heavy it was nearly unbearable.

      “You were very good,” she said. “You should know that.”

      Never in his memory had anyone said something to him out of interest of sparing his feelings. But he wondered now if that was the case. “There is no need for you to lie. In fact, it is best if you don’t. I need to learn how to please you.”

      “You did. I’m not lying to you. Trust me, I wouldn’t. I was not a... You know I was with my husband. He was the only one. But...I say that to tell you I understand how important communication is. Especially in the bedroom.”

      “I imagine he did not need instruction.”

      “No,” she said, looking down. “He didn’t. Though, in some ways, he did. Anytime you’re with someone new you must learn them. All bodies are not the same. Being with you is different.”

      “And does it please you?”

      “Yes,” she said, meeting his eyes, leaving off any sarcastic asides.

      “If I had known...if I had known what it would be like, I never could have resisted you the day that you touched me.”

      A smile curved her lips. “Really?”

      “Yes, really. I am a terrible liar. If I suffer from anything, it might be too much honesty.”

      “I’ve noticed that. I find it quite refreshing.”

      “Why is that?”

      The smile inverted, a slight crease appearing between her brows. “I’m not sure. Maybe because I have spent very much of my life around careful people. I’ve spent much of my life being careful and suffering consequences when I wasn’t. I quite like that you aren’t.”

      “I suppose carefulness might be a valuable skill to cultivate.”

      “If I teach you, you have to promise never to use it on me.”

      “An odd request.”

      “Maybe I’m odd.” She tilted her head to the side, something about the motion making his heart feel slightly overlarge for his chest.

      “I think of the two of us, I am the strange one.”

      “Possibly.” She lay back on the bed, temptation personified. He could easily get lost in her. Make love to her until they both fell asleep.

       And what will happen when sleep comes?

      Ice replaced the blood flowing through his veins.

      “It is time, I think, for you to go back to your room,” he said.

      “What? I just thought...”

      “For many reasons, not the least of which being that I have yet to solve the sleepwalking-with-weapons issue, I think it would be best if we kept to our separate quarters.”

      She nodded slowly. “I anticipated that we would have separate rooms in general, but I thought perhaps tonight...”

      “There is the issue of the sword.”

      “Perhaps chuck it out into the hall?” she asked, one brow raised.

      “I could, but then what else might I get hold of? I’m very resourceful.”

      She raised her other brow. “Are you? I feel as if I’ve just benefited from some of that resourcefulness.”

      That cool top layer of hers was back in place. It was because he’d hurt her in some way, and he could sense that. But he couldn’t fathom what he might do to fix it. Not when her fingers on his arm were crushing him now. Not when he needed space. Not just from her, but beyond these walls. Out in the desert.

      But failing that, he just needed to be alone. He needed time to process. Time to rebuild. He couldn’t do that with her here.

      “Please do not take this personally,” he said. “Please don’t be hurt.”

      She shook her head slowly, removing her touch from him. “It doesn’t work that way, Tarek.”

      “Why not?” Not even he was that obtuse when it came to interacting with people. Still, it seemed unfair.

      “You can’t call a bullet back after it’s been fired. I would think that’s something a warrior would understand.”

      “But I didn’t mean to fire at you.”

      She put her hand on his cheek. “You know that doesn’t matter, either.”

      “It is for your safety.”

      She tilted her head to the side. “I’m sure it is. Good night, Tarek.”

      She slipped from his bed, taking her wedding gown from the floor and slipping it back on, holding the front closed, not bothering to collect anything else. Not her bangles, not her veil, not her belt.

      She had entered the chamber a bride, and she was leaving a wife. An unhappy wife.

      But he had to set limits, even now. It was best she learned. When it came to sharing his body, he had determined to give. Because he could do nothing else, in truth. But there were other things that must remain off-limits.

      He had whittled the focus of his soul down to a sleek, streamlined arrow, with all of the excess shaved away. He could not go back. He would not.

      Yes, his body he could afford to share. But never his soul. He could never, ever expose her to everything he’d been through. Never share the creation of his scars.

      She was far too lovely for him to ever present her with something so ugly.

      Difficult, when the ugliness was written all over his body.

      And one more reason to stay out of her bed tonight.

      * * *

      Olivia was playing petulant games, and she knew they would come to nothing with Tarek. Removing herself from her first husband’s bed for a certain length of time when she’d found him irritating had typically resulted in the desired apology. Because Marcus didn’t want to be without sex, he would say whatever he needed to in order to restore harmony in that area. Tarek, of course, wouldn’t understand. She was attempting to manipulate a man who was impossible to manipulate. Not because he was so strong, but because he simply didn’t understand subterfuge.

      She felt wretched.

      But he had torn her open on their wedding night, laid her bare in more ways than just the physical. The way he had looked at her... As though she was special, as though she was the only one. Her heart seized tight. It was because she was the only one. The only woman to ever touch him. The only woman to ever kiss him, to have him inside her body.

      It forced more unfavorable comparisons between him and her first husband.

      Marcus had been skilled. He had been with countless women before she’d come into his life. For him seduction had been about knowing exactly where to touch, exactly how.

      He’d