The Sheikh's Collection. Оливия Гейтс

      “Yes, which frees you to relax and see to your own pleasure. Nonetheless, if you insist on returning early, we shall.”

      This time her smile arrived fully formed. “Where should I change to get this two-day party started?”

      He caught her hands and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “Never change, Piper McAdams. I like you exactly the way you are.”

      She wrested away, much to his disappointment. “I meant ‘change’ as in clothes. I need to put on my swimsuit.”

      He preferred she’d go without any clothes. “You may use the bath downstairs. You’ll find it between my study and the guest room, immediately past the kitchen. Or if you prefer, use the one upstairs adjacent to my bedroom. It’s much larger.”

      “Where are you going to change?”

      “I hadn’t planned on wearing anything at all.” He couldn’t contain his laughter when he noticed her shocked expression. “I’m not serious, so do not look so concerned. My swim trunks are upstairs.”

      She began backing toward the entry. “I’ll use the downstairs bath while you go upstairs. And I’d better not find you naked in that pool when I come back.”

      The word naked put specific parts of his anatomy on high alert. “At one time that might have been the case, but I have turned over a new leaf.”

      She paused at the doors and eyed him suspiciously. “A leaf from the player tree?”

      He supposed he deserved that. “Believe what you will, but there have not been that many women in my life. None since I ended my relationship with Talia.”

      “Ah, yes. The celibacy clause. How’s that working out for you?”

      Not very well at the moment. Not when he knew in a matter of moments he would see her with very little covering her body. Or so he hoped. “I will let you know by day’s end.”

      * * *

      As soon as she returned to the pool, Piper found Adan staring out over the horizon. She couldn’t see his face or eyes, but she sensed his mind was on something else—or someone else, namely his child. Her mind immediately sank into the gutter when she shamelessly studied all the details from his bare, well-defined back to his impressive butt concealed by a pair of navy swim trunks.

      She approached him slowly, overwhelmed by the urge to run her hands over the patently male terrain. Instead, she secured the towel knotted between her breasts. “I’m fairly sure that mountain won’t move no matter how long you stare at it.”

      He turned to her, his expression surprisingly somber. “If only I had that power.”

      Once she moved past the initial shock of seeing his gorgeous bare chest, she found her voice. “Are you worried about Sam?”

      “I’m worried that my position will prevent me from being a good father to him. I’m also concerned that perhaps I would be wrong to ask Talia to give up all claims on him.”

      “No offense, Adan, but I don’t see Talia as the motherly type.”

      “Perhaps so, but isn’t any mother better than no mother at all?”

      “Not really,” she said without thought. “My so-called mother never cared about her daughters. Her own needs took precedence over ours. Luckily for us, my grandmother willingly stepped in and gave us all the love we could ask for, and more. Otherwise I don’t know how we would have turned out.”

      He brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “You have turned out very well. And now if you would kindly remove that towel, we’ll spend the afternoon basking in the Bajul sun.”

      That would be the logical next step—revealing her black bikini that left little to the imagination. A step that required some advance preparation. “Before I do that, you need to know I’m not tall and skinny like Talia. I’m short and I haven’t been blessed with a lean build and—”

      He flipped the knot with one smooth move and the towel immediately fell to the ground. Then he gave her a lingering once-over before raising his gaze back to her eyes. “You have been blessed with a beautiful body, Piper. You have the curves this man desires.”

      He desired her curves? Incredible. “Your physique is the thing fantasies are made of. But the question is, how well do you swim? I have to warn you, I’m pretty darned good at it.”

      And without giving her any warning, he strode to the far end of the pool and executed a perfect dive. He emerged a few moments later, slicked back his hair and smiled. “Now it’s your turn to prove your expertise.”

      If only she could stop gaping at his dimples and get her feet to move. Finally she willed herself to follow his lead by moving to the same spot he had and doing a little diving of her own. After her eyes adjusted, she sought Adan out where he now stood in the shallow end. She remained underwater until she swam immediately in front of him and came up for air. “How’s that?”

      “Perfect,” he said as he put his arms around her. “As are you.”

      She laughed even though she could barely concentrate while being up close and personal. “Not hardly, Your Majesty. I can be stubborn and I do have a little bit of a temper at times. I’m also a picky eater and I speed when I drive—”

      He cut off her laundry list of faults with a kiss. A kiss so hot it rivaled the sun beating down on her shoulders. A down-and-dirty, tongue-dueling kiss that had Piper heating up in unseen places on her person. When he streamed his palms along her rib cage and grazed the side of her breast, she thought she might melt. When he returned his hands to her shoulders, she thought she might groan in protest.

      He studied her eyes with an intensity that stole what was left of her breath. “Before this continues, I need to say something.”

      She needed him to get on with it. “I’m listening.”

      “I want to make love to you, more than anything I have wished for in some time. But you are under no obligation to honor that request.”

      Was he kidding? “If I remember correctly, I went to your hotel room in Chicago with that one goal in mind. Of course, where I wanted to end my celibacy, you were determined to hang on to yours.”

      “Not anymore,” he said. “Not since the day I met you, actually. You are different from any woman I have ever known.”

      “Is that a good thing?”

      “A very good thing.”

      “Then let’s put an end to doing without right here and now.”

      He gave her an unmistakable bad-boy grin. “Take off your suit.”

      “You go first,” she said, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

      “All right.” He quickly removed the trunks and tossed them aside, where they hit the cement deck with a splat. “Your turn.”

      After drawing in a deep breath, she reached back and released the clasp, then untied the bow at her neck. Once she had that accomplished, she threw the top behind her, her bare breasts no longer concealed by the water. “Better?”

      “Yes, but you’re not finished yet.”

      Time to go for broke. Piper shimmied her bottoms down her legs and kicked them away. Right then she didn’t care if they were carried away by the pool pump’s current and ended up in another country. “Are you satisfied now?”

      “Not quite, but I will be,” he said as he pulled her close, took her hand and guided it down his belly and beyond.

      When Adan pressed her palm against his erection, Piper blew out a staggered breath. “I do believe I’ve located an impressive sea creature down below.”

      “Actually, it’s an eel.”

      “Electric?”

      “Highly