IT WAS getting late. Almost too late to bother going anywhere now. Yet Evie stood staring out at London's twinkling night skyline without any outward signs of irritation. After all, there was nothing particularly unusual in her lover keeping her waiting like this; he did it all the time -duty being the altar at which he worshipped, usually at the expense of everything else in his life. And that included his woman. Beautiful though she might be, special though he might insist she was to him, Evie knew she would always have to take second place to what was really important in his life. So, like some priceless piece of life-size porcelain draped in sensual blood-red silk, she stood there in front of the drawing-room window in his very luxurious penthouse apartment-and waited. She waited for her man as she had been waiting for the last forty-five minutes now, calmly, patiently. Or so it might seem, for it wasn't in her nature to show what she was really feeling-a habit drummed into her by a very strict upbringing. But only fools took that calmness at its serene-faced value. Sheikh Raschid Al Kadah was nobody's fool, but he wasn't here to note the tell-tale signs to Evie's real mood. And the one person who was attempting to keep her company rarely lifted his eyes high enough to read those signs. He stood by the white marble fireplace with his hands quietly folded across his robed front and his tongue wisely silent, all attempts at polite conversation abandoned long ago, when apologetically late had become unforgivably late. He caught her taking a quick glance at her slender gold wristwatch, though. 'I am certain he cannot be many more minutes, Miss Delahaye,' Asim assured her with that quietly soothing diplomatic voice of his. 'Some things are, I am afraid, unavoidable, and a telephone call from his revered father is most definitely one of those things.' Or a call from New York, Paris or Rome, Evie silently tagged on. The Al Kadah business interests were far-flung and varied. The fact that Raschid, as his father's only son, now shouldered the burden for most of those interests since the old man's minor heart attack last year meant that Evie was seeing less and less of Raschid-her position in the pecking order being as low as it was. A sigh whispered from her. The kind of sigh she would normally only allow herself when she was sure she was alone. But tonight was different. Tonight she was fretting over a very worrying problem of her own, and she could have done without the added aggravation of a long wait like this when she had, in truth, had to force herself into coming here at all tonight. Because she knew that Raschid was not going to like what she had to tell him. In fact, she could positively say that he was going to hate it. Oh, hell, Evie thought heavily, and was just in the process of lifting a decidedly shaky hand to cover the throbbing ache that was taking place behind her eyes when a door at the far end of the room suddenly opened. The raised hand paused then snapped downwards to form a small fist at her side, her body tensing fractionally as she felt the full stinging impact of Raschid's sharp golden gaze lancing into her slender spine. A taut silence prevailed as Sheikh Raschid Al Kadah paused in the doorway to his own sumptuous cream and gold living room while sharp shrewd eyes quickly assessed the mood of the room's two occupants. The arrow-straight set of Evie's spine was, to him, eloquent, his servant's clear relief at his arrival profound. Grimacing slightly in acknowledgement of both, Raschid dismissed the other man with a silent gesture of his head. But the look in Asim's dark eyes spoke volumes as he walked towards him. 'You are in deep trouble, Sheikh,' those wise old eyes told him. 'The lady is not happy.' Asim left them alone with a rather sardonic bow of respect. Which left only Evie, who was taking her time in turning to face him -a message in itself that he completely misread because he was expecting to see anger, so anger was what he saw in the slow, stiff movement of her body. Yet, despite her expected irritation and his own weary mood after having just had to endure one of the worst telephone conversations of his entire life with his father, despite the lateness of the hour, and everything else that seemed to be conspiring against him in an effort to turn his complicated life into absolute turmoil-despite all of that, when their eyes actually met down the length of the beautiful white and gold room there was a single sweet moment when everything came to a delicious standstill for both of them. Evie because she was being assailed by that hot, tight burst of sexual awakening that was always her first response to this man.
Chapter 1 Two exclusively by him
'Ah,' he drawled. 'In one of those moods, are we?' Stepping further
into the room, he closed the door. 'What would you like me to do?' he enquired, ever so politely. 'Grovel at your beautiful feet?'
Which was his own unique brand of sarcasm, Evie made rueful note.
Quite deliberately she took the words at their face value.
'Right now, I would much rather you feed me,' she replied. 'I haven't eaten since breakfast this morning, and it is now...' she paused to glance
at her watch '... almost nine o'clock.'
'So, you do want me to grovel,' he assumed from all of that, not in the least bit fooled by her cold manner.
What he wasn't seeing was the anxiety lurking behind the coldness-
thank goodness-because now that she actually had him here in the
flesh Evie had cravenly decided she needed time before she said what she had to say to him.
So her barely perceptible shrug sent one of his sleekly defined black
silk brows arching, and in two very economical and outwardly innocent gestures war between them was declared. It was not a new aspect of their relationship. In fact the whole foundation of it had been built on a
refusal on both parts to pander to the arrogance of the other. Evie
refused to pander to his god-like ego and Raschid refused to pander to her ice-princess image.
'I have responsibilities,' he clipped out.
'Really?' Evie drawled.
His eyes began to spark. 'My time is not always my own to do with as I please.'
'So it didn't please you to keep me waiting for almost an hour?' Her turn to use sarcasm, his to respond-or not-depending on his mood.
What he chose to do was to begin walking towards her with the sleek soft tread of a predator ruthlessly stalking its prey. Her nerve-ends began to tighten, sending out electric signals to all parts of her body as she
watched him grow in height, in power, in skin-flaying mastery the closer he came to her.
The man was sheer poetry in motion. So lean and lithe and dark and deliciously dangerous that, by the time he came to a stop mere inches
away from her, the breath had completely seized in her chest, and tiny
tight tingles of a very familiar excitement were beginning to shimmer through her blood.
And this, Evie told herself helplessly, was why she could not bear to consider the prospect of giving up this man.
He touched parts of her no other living being had ever touched.
Liquid gold eyes held iced blue in challenge. A hand with long, lean brown fingers that knew how to be cruel if the moment presented itself
came up to take hold of her tilted chin.
'Word of warning,' Raschid murmured softly. 'I am in no mood for temperament tonight. So be wise, my darling, and drop the disgruntled
act.'
'But I am disgruntled.' Evie immediately defied the warning. 'You treat
me like a lackey and I don't like it.'
'Because I arrive late once in a while?'
'You arrive late more often than you arrive early,' she grimly pointed out.
To her annoyance, his mouth twitched, an unexpected dash of wicked
amusement entering the battle. 'And aren't you ecstatic that I am such a latecomer, hmm?' he countered lazily.
It took her a few moments, but when his meaning did manage to sink in Evie sighed, wrenching her chin from his grasp as a wave of pink ran into her cheeks. 'We weren't talking about your sexual prowess!' she admonished.
'Ah,' he sighed. 'That is a great shame.'
'Raschid!' Evie flashed him a look of irritation. 'I'm not-!'
In the mood for this, she had been going to snap at him-but he silenced her with a kiss, his arms snaking around her body and crushing her against him while his arrogant mouth took burning possession of hers.
But the real crime here was that she didn't attempt to make a protest
-didn't even pretend to struggle but simply dived right in there with him. She couldn't stop herself. For Raschid tapped a hunger inside her
that had not abated in two long years of being fed exclusively by him.
Two years involved in a relationship that had kept their two families pulsing in the background in simmering disapproval, and had kept the world's tabloids waiting with bated breath to see which one of them would eventually end it.
Because it had to end some time, everyone knew that. The heir to a wealthy sheikhdom was expected to marry one of his own one day.
While Evie had already blotted her copybook once by turning her back
on a marquis to be where she was now. But the pressure was still on for her to do the right thing and marry into her own class-outdated,
outmoded and in danger of extinction though that class might be.
But it was the undisputed knowledge that the end was as inevitable as night following day that helped keep their relationship this hot and this fevered.
'So, do we eat or do we continue to fight?' Raschid murmured as his kiss-warmed mouth lifted away from hers.
For 'fight' read 'love', Evie ruefully translated, and knew without a single doubt which one she wanted tonight.
Needed, she thought tragically-oh, how she needed him tonight!
She needed his strength, his dark and driving sensuality. She needed to soak herself in him, drown herself in him-die in him. For this one
night she needed to pretend that nothing was different between them. Be the woman he knew and loved so that he could be the man she loved so desperately.
For he was truly all man, this Arabian lover of hers. A man who could
make love with just his eyes-as he was doing to her right now. Teasing, knowing, lazily seducing, and so indolently aware of his power over her senses that he didn't need to read the darkened look in her eyes to know
how much she wanted him.
'Are you wearing anything at all underneath this?' she asked, playing for time by stroking her palms along the lean, tight contours she could
feel beneath the smooth white tunic.
'Why don't you open it and take a look?' he invited, and began nibbling at the corner of her mouth in encouragement while his fingers
played tantalisingly with the thin straps that were holding up her dress.
'And have the world and his wife witness your strip show?' she mocked, referring to the fact that they were standing in front of a sheet
of well-lit glass through which anyone with reasonable eyesight from Battersea to Westminster would be able to see what they were doing.
His solution to that was to reach over her shoulder. A moment later
heavy gold silk brocaded curtains came swishing across the glass, smoothly closing down her options so she had nothing left but a straight choice between demanding he feed her stomach or feed her desire.
Evie would have had to be really stupid not to know what his preference was since it was pushing so prominently against the tingling
wall of her stomach, but she also knew he was going to leave the final choice to her. He knew she was angry with him for keeping her waiting.
He knew that if he tried to make love to her now without her say-so she
was likely to start spitting all kinds of accusations at him about the way he used her.
He also knew that, starving for food or not, in the end she would not
be able to resist his seduction. For her own body was also showing the signs of a craving it had never been able to suppress in his vicinity.
'You are so arrogant,' she complained in a last-ditch attempt to hold on to some pride.
He just grinned, all flashing white teeth and pure male confidence
Chapter 1 Two exclusively by him
20/03/2023
Chapter 2 Eat what was on
20/03/2023
Chapter 3 I don't exist
20/03/2023
Chapter 4 No matter what the god
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Chapter 5 By a million ravenous worms
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Chapter 6 For a moment
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Chapter 7 Not enjoy himself
20/03/2023
Chapter 8 He shook his head
20/03/2023
Chapter 9 He insisted
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Chapter 10 Disappointed
20/03/2023
Chapter 11 Brother's wedding
20/03/2023
Chapter 12 Voiced sinceridad
20/03/2023
Chapter 13 You lie down a while
20/03/2023
Chapter 14 Were the intruder here
21/03/2023
Chapter 15 She demand
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Chapter 16 Who are you
21/03/2023
Chapter 17 In the name of that love
21/03/2023
Chapter 18 T forgive himself
21/03/2023
Chapter 19 With you
21/03/2023
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