The Royals Collection. Rebecca Winters

you crying?’

      She shook her head, and wondered how he could tell.

      ‘Come here!’ he growled.

      Afterwards, Hannah had no clue whether she stepped into him or whether he pulled her into his arms. All she knew was that it felt gloriously right to be there. His dark, hot eyes made her feel light-headed but she couldn’t look away as he brushed the strands of wet hair away from her face. She couldn’t take her eyes off him.

      Kamel watched through eyes narrowed against the sun as the sparkling defiance faded from her blue eyes. He saw the hot glaze of desire drift in, and heard the husky little catch as she drew in a shuddering sigh and reached for his hand—not to pull it away, but to hold it there.

      Kamel felt a rise of unfamiliar emotion as he looked down at her, and his fingers tightened around the slim ones that were entwined within his. He felt her shiver and frowned.

      ‘You’re cold.’

      She shook her head. Turning her face into his palm, she felt anything but cold—she was burning from the inside out. She let out a gasp as Kamel dragged her into his body; the hard imprint of his erection against the softness of her belly drew another gasp, this one fractured. Her hands slid around the nape of his neck into his dark hair.

      ‘Can I be of—?’

      Kamel swore and cut across Rafiq’s enquiry. ‘No, we are fine. That will be all.’

      The man bowed and melted away.

      ‘You have a beautiful mouth,’ she said, staring dreamily at the sculpted outline.

      Kamel’s face was a rigid mask of driven need as he brought his beautiful mouth crashing hungrily down on her soft, parted lips. Hannah’s mind blanked as she went limp in his arms, giving herself over completely to the hungry, sensual onslaught of his deep, draining kisses. It felt as though he would drink her dry and she didn’t mind one bit. She wanted it.

      They were both breathing like sprinters crossing the line when he lifted his head. ‘I can’t get enough of you,’ he confessed huskily.

      ‘You make it sound like a bad thing,’ she whispered.

      He stroked her face, pulling her in even closer, feeling her breathing become more ragged as he let her feel how much he wanted her. ‘Does that feel bad?’ he asked.

      ‘Oh, God, Kamel!’ It was agony to be this close and yet not close enough, not nearly close enough. ‘I feel...you’re...’ Her moan was lost inside his mouth.

      It wasn’t until they reached the edge of the pool and she saw her shirt floating on the water that Hannah realised that she was naked from the waist up.

      How did that happen? She didn’t spend long wondering. Consumed by an elemental hunger that allowed no room for thought, just feeling—layer and layer of hot feeling!—she plastered her aching, swollen breasts up hard against his chest and wound her legs tight around his waist, almost lifting herself clear of the water as she probed Kamel’s mouth with her tongue, drawing a deep groan from his throat.

      ‘Just hold on...let me...’ He unwound her hands from around his neck, breaking the tenacious grip as he pushed her away from him.

      ‘No...!’ She opened her eyes and collided head-on with the heat in his.

      Evading the hands that grabbed for him, Kamel spanned her waist with his hands and lifted her out of the water onto the edge of the pool. A moment later he was beside her, pulling her to her feet.

      He lifted her into his arms and began to stride off—not in the direction of the villa, but the grassy area where a tree-lined stream ran through the sloping manicured lawn towards the deep forested area that bordered three sides of the property.

      ‘We can’t here...someone will see,’ she protested half-heartedly.

      ‘This is a paparazzi-free zone, I promise.’

      ‘I wasn’t thinking of intruders. People work here.’

      She admired his confidence, and because he was kissing her like a starving man she allowed herself to be convinced by it. The simple truth was that she couldn’t have stopped even if she had wanted to. And she didn’t.

      The grass he laid her on was soft against the bare skin of her back; the sun shining through the leafy canopy above left a dappled pattern on her skin. She lay breathing hard, one arm curved above her head, and anticipation made her stomach muscles quiver as he knelt beside her.

      He bent forward, his body curving over hers, every muscle in his body pulled taut as he allowed the image to imprint on his retinas. It was one he knew would stay with him. The hectic flush of arousal on her cheeks, the wanton invitation that curled her soft full lips upwards—she was sinful temptation personified and it would take a stronger man than he was to resist.

      Kamel had no intention of resisting; he just wanted to claim what was his, driven by primitive instincts as old as man.

      He could feel her eyes on him as he slid the saturated skirt down her hips. His actions were made clumsy by the urgency that burned in his blood and the thin threads of lace on the tiny pants snapped as he tried to free her of the bondage.

      Stripped of everything, her body was smooth and pale—so perfect that he couldn’t breathe. He touched her breasts, running his thumbs across the tight peaks before he cupped them in his big hands.

      Hannah closed her eyes, focusing everything on the sensation as he ran his hands over the smooth curve of her stomach, feeling the light calluses on his palms.

      She raised her arms, reaching out towards him.

      Eyes blazing with a need that made him shake, he knelt astride her, then, holding her eyes, he parted her thighs. Her skin was cool to the touch but inside she was hot. He closed his eyes and thrust in deeply, not holding back as he felt her hotness, her wetness close around him.

      He ran a hand down her smooth thigh. ‘Hold me now.’

      Her long legs wrapped around him, locking around his waist to hold him as they pushed together towards a release that left them both breathless.

      As Hannah gasped her way to cogent thought one surfaced, rising above the others, swirling in her pleasure-soaked brain. For that, she would do anything.

      Even share him?

      Everything in her said that was wrong. Self-disgust curled in the pit of her stomach.

      But what was the alternative? Could there be room for compromise?

      ‘I understand that there will be women.’ The truth hurt, but she had to be grown up about this. ‘I suppose I should not have reacted. If you—’

      ‘Do not say it.’ The cool command cut across her hesitant voice. ‘I do not need your blessing to sleep with other women.’

      She sucked in a taut breath. ‘I know you don’t need my permission,’ she admitted unhappily.

      He lifted his head from her breast, struggling against outrage even though a short time ago he would have welcomed her adult attitude. ‘Only you could say something like that at a time like this. I am not thinking about other women every second of the day. I am thinking of you. And right now I am thinking of doing this again in bed. Would you prefer to talk or make a baby?’

      ‘But I thought you wanted—’

      ‘How could I know what I want when you insist on telling me? Come with me and I will tell you what I want.’

      ‘That’s a plan,’ she agreed faintly.

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      IT WAS ON the second night of their honeymoon that the telephone rang in the middle of the night. Kamel shifted her off his dead arm and reached for the phone with the other.