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  Her hips lifted but he held them down and he drank from her as her thighs tensed and her soft sighs turned to desperate moans.

  Aubrey was lost, her fingers knotted in his hair, half dragging him off for it was so intense, and half pushing him in for more of the ecstasy he gave.

  And wholly succumbing to his lips.

  Aubrey had no breath in her and she dragged air in as his head rose from between her thighs.

  She moved up to her elbows, trying to find her voice as he reached for protection.

  ‘Khalid...’ Her hand moved to his to halt him, but the feel of him on her fingers shot arrows of desire again to her groin and she closed her hand around him, just to stroke him, just to feel him.

  He let out a primal, earthy groan at the light touch of her fingers and he resisted closing his hand over hers, for tonight he did not want rough.

  She knelt up now, exploring him properly, stroking him, feeling him, feeling both sick and excited at the thought of him being inside her. ‘I haven’t done this, Khalid...’ she said in a trembling voice, both worried about his reaction but also quivering with need.

  ‘Shh,’ he said, because he did not need her to play games. Khalid already wanted tender tonight. But then he looked from her inexpert hand to her eyes, and his heart was stripped bare when he saw that she did not lie.

  A thousand questions exploded in his mind, and while he should possibly seek explanation, the truth was Khalid needed no answers now, his only need was for her.

  He forgot about protection, he forgot Western rules, for in Al-Zahan they did not apply. In the harem he had discarded, there was no barrier to dull pleasure and tonight they might well have been beneath the stars on a sultry desert night as he kissed her tense mouth until it was loose, sensual and his.

  And Aubrey, who had expected confrontation or accusations as she admitted her truth, understood that she did not know this man, even as, honest now and naked, they drew closer to bliss.

  He kissed her until she was lying down again, only this time he was atop her, and he came up on his forearms as his tongue turned her molten.

  Her hands held his shoulders and felt they were solid, hard and strong, and though she sensed his power, the fear of him being inside her had gone.

  Until he almost was.

  ‘It’s going to hurt,’ she anticipated as he held his thick base and ran the head over her slick, hot opening.

  ‘A minute of pain,’ he said.

  His deep voice next to her ear made her shiver and when he first nudged in, Aubrey wanted to thrash but his body pinned her, and she knew she could not take a full minute of this.

  ‘Soon,’ Khalid said into the shell of her ear, ‘I give you pleasure.’

  But first she had to live through that minute. It was a pain she wanted, a moment she hadn’t known she needed, but as he squeezed in, her hips pulled back and he smothered her scream with his mouth.

  If she had not been lying down, Aubrey would have fainted.

  For Khalid it was an immeasurable bliss to sear into her tight, wet space, and he had to fight with himself not to move. His body was ripped with both tension and a tug of affection, for he wanted her soothed, and he wanted her willing, so he held back from the desire to thrust and he kissed her back.

  Her eyes were tightly shut as the hurt receded and Khalid pulled back, and then it returned as he pushed in. But it brought with the pain a new thick feeling of pleasure and Aubrey moaned.

  He pulled almost out and then stabbed his heat in again and delivered more pleasure as the hurt receded in diminishing degrees as he moved within her.

  She held his shoulders, pressing her fingers in and arching into him, and Khalid could not hold back any longer.

  He was up on his forearms and moving so deep within her, spreading heat as she encased him. Her eyes opened and met his and her mouth reached up to kiss him and he let her, but then he removed his mouth for he could not hold back and Aubrey felt the change as he took her fast and hard.

  ‘Kha-leed...’ The word separated, the world separated, as he drove her to the edge, and when Aubrey came, when she stiffened and pulsed, when she made a cat-like cry, it finished Khalid and with a breathless shout he gave in to his own release.

  She felt the rush of him and then he met her eyes and delivered slow, lingering thrusts as they both twitched in the last throes of pleasure.

  He did not ask if it had hurt, for he had swallowed her scream.

  Neither did he ask if her first time had been pleasurable for there was no question that it had been.

  They kissed as if they had lain in this bed for far more than one night and between kisses he said things in Arabic that should never have been said.

  ‘I want you in the morning. I want you in my desert bed. Already I am wanting you again.’

  Aubrey bathed in his words, in his voice, in his touch, and when he rolled from her, he took her with him, and she curled into his arms.

  And Khalid held her there, the rest of the world forgotten.

  His country could have fallen and he would have cared not.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  KHALID AWOKE LONG before dawn.

  He had slept for an hour at best.

  Just one stolen hour before thoughts had invaded and reality impinged, and immediately on waking Khalid knew he had gone too far. There was a very good reason that he chose more worldly partners. It didn’t always work, of course, for they would fall in love and hope things might change, but he had the consolation of having said from the start, and had shown in his manner, that sex was all it was.

  Last night he had crossed a line with Aubrey.

  Had she told him earlier of her inexperience, he would never have brought her up here. He was more annoyed with himself than her. At his own assumptions. And at his lack of control.

  Nothing could ever come of them and it was time to make that exceptionally clear.

  ‘Aubrey?’

  She woke to the deep sound of her name being called.

  ‘You have to leave soon for your flight.’

  She was twined into him, her leg over his, her face on his chest, and she lay there for a moment wondering about the questions that were surely to come. Except Khalid was not holding her and neither did he have any questions; instead, he told her how things would be. ‘My driver will, of course, take you, so you have time for a shower.’

  Had she not lain naked and wrapped around him, he might just as well have been the front desk, calling and reminding her of the time.

  ‘Is that it?’ Aubrey said as she removed herself from him and sat up in the bed. Khalid lay there, the arm closest to her behind his head, and he did not meet her eyes. ‘The niceties are over?’

  ‘I apologise,’ Khalid rather sarcastically responded. ‘Would you like me to have breakfast sent up?’

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Aubrey said. She flounced to the shower and Khalid saw the blood on the sheets and, yes, he was angry.

  Khalid was angry with himself, furious at his lapse and that he had brought the ways of home to this world, for he was well aware that he had not used protection. For a while last night it hadn’t mattered, he had thought of her in his desert bed where the problems of this world did not apply.

  Except Khalid had rejected the harem and though last night he had been tempted, he did not want that for Aubrey. He would speak to her when she came out about the morning-after pill. It was not a conversation he had ever expected to have, for Khalid always took care.

  Aware that he hadn’t last night, Khalid decided to show care in the only way he knew and reached for the money clip beside the bed. He went to remove some notes but then stuffed the lot, diamond and all, into her purse.

  And she saw...

  Aubrey hadn’t lingered in the shower and now stood, wrapped in a towel, as he sullied everything beautiful about
last night.

  ‘I really wish you hadn’t done that...’ she said in a shaken voice, and watched his naked back and shoulders tense as he realised she was there.

  It didn’t soften his stance, though. ‘And I really wish that you hadn’t pretended you knew what you were doing when you came up here last night.’

  ‘Oh, so you’d have preferred a hook-up?’

  ‘Yes,’ Khalid said, for they were far less complicated. ‘Tell me, Aubrey, are you on the Pill?’ She didn’t answer, which Khalid took as a no. ‘There is a pill you can take—’

  ‘I do know,’ she snarled. ‘It’s fine, I am on the Pill.’

  ‘Why?’ Khalid said, feeling trapped and confused, rare for him, because everything he had assumed about Aubrey had been wrong, and everything he now felt about her was wrong by his country’s standards. ‘What are you on the Pill for, or is that another of your lies?’

  She could have told him it helped for performing, but the truth was she was as regular as a Swiss watch and instead she told him the truth. ‘Because my mom made sure I was on it.’ Aubrey could feel salty tears at the back of her throat because, while she loved her mom, that she turned a blind eye to where the money came from hurt very much.

  And so did the warning in his next words—‘Aubrey, you do not want to be pregnant by me.’

  ‘You should have thought of that before.’

  ‘I wasn’t exactly thinking,’ Khalid snapped, but then reminded himself that she could not possibly understand the folly of last night. His father had more bastards than Khalid could keep count of and certainly his father did not keep count of them. The children born from the harem were nothing to a prince or a king, and having seen first-hand the hurt it caused, Khalid did not want that for Aubrey. ‘Had I been thinking then we wouldn’t be in this mess.’

  ‘Mess?’ Aubrey checked, and he let out a mirthless laugh.

  She couldn’t believe the change in him. Last night he had been passionate, thoughtful and kind. Now it felt as if she were looking at a complete stranger and she just wanted to get away. ‘I’ll get my things.’

  ‘Please do.’

  She brushed past him and in the bathroom quickly dressed, not in the black dress but in the denim skirt and loose top she had changed out of at the airport, and she pulled on her sandals.

  Back to the old Aubrey, she thought as she looked in the mirror.

  But not quite, for last night had taught her a lot. And so, before she left, Aubrey took the money from her purse and the diamond clip too, and placed them on the bedside table.

  ‘Take the money.’ Khalid said. ‘I can afford it.’

  ‘You can’t afford me, Khalid.’ And she told him a truth. ‘I refuse for last night to have made me a whore.’ Aubrey tossed her purse over her shoulder and headed to the door, but before she left she said one more thing. ‘I knew that you thought I was,’ she admitted. ‘When you asked about me and Jobe.’

  ‘Then why act so hurt now when I do the right thing and pay you?’

  ‘I’m not acting. I’m hurt because I honestly thought that last night was something more. I wasn’t expecting for ever, but I wasn’t expecting to be paid for my services either. I’ll tell you something, Khalid—the working women I know take time off for their own sex lives. They’re allowed a bit of romance too. God knows, they deserve it.’

  * * *

  Aubrey took the elevator and then walked briskly through the foyer.

  It was empty in comparison to last night, but there were a few people milling around.

  She passed the restaurant where they had dined—now preparing for breakfast. Past the bar where Brandy and friends had sung for Jobe, but it was all closed now.

  She paused for just a second, standing on the very spot they had first kissed, at the very place she had made her decision to go to his suite, and willed herself to regret her choice.

  But she did not.

  Up until this morning the time spent with Khalid had been the very best moments of her life.

  Aubrey stepped out into the cold morning air. It was a beautiful day in New York City, yet it felt as if her heart had been cut out by his cold indifference. She had no idea how to get to the underground, but right now she just needed to put as much distance as she could between herself and Khalid.

  ‘Aubrey!’

  Khalid’s shout was one of relief when he caught sight of her.

  He had regretted his attitude even before the door had closed and he had hurriedly dressed, grabbing his phone to summon his driver should she already be gone.

  Then he’d caught sight of her and the relief he felt sounded in his voice.

  She stiffened but did not turn; instead, she walked on briskly and he ran to catch up, catching her arm, as he again called her name and then added. ‘Don’t go like this.’

  ‘You want smiles?’ Aubrey shouted, and then she gave him one. The biggest, showiest smile that she could fake, and as she shrugged off his arm Aubrey blew him a kiss. ‘Is that better?’ She would cry later but right now she fought for pride.

  ‘Aubrey,’ he said. ‘I apologise.’

  His voice wasn’t humble, his apology was bold and clear and deep, and something inside told her this was rare.

  It was.

  Khalid never, ever truly apologised. And it wasn’t all due to his status. He ensured that he was never close enough to anyone that he might hurt.

  But he had hurt her.

  ‘Can we talk?’ he asked.

  ‘No,’ Aubrey said, though she wanted to, she truly wanted to understand how in the space of a couple of hours—hours spent lying with each other and not apart—so much had changed. ‘I’ve a flight to catch.’

  ‘My driver—’

  ‘The same driver that you offered me last night?’ Aubrey sneered. ‘Thanks, but I think I’ll make my own way.’

  But then she looked at Khalid. Really looked at the man who stood in front of her.

  Yesterday he had been utterly groomed but now he stood in hastily pulled-on clothes. His white shirt was crumpled and barely done up and while he wore dress shoes, this morning they came with no socks.

  He looked as dishevelled as she felt.

  And he would not simply let her go. ‘Aubrey, I will sort out another flight, this minute, just don’t walk away. There is something I have to explain.’

  After a moment she nodded, because that was what hope did.

  Stupid, blind hope.

  And so, instead of slapping his cheek and waving down a cab, just to get away, Aubrey let him take her arm and guide her across the street and towards the park. He bought coffee for them and on the way they sat on the bench, looking at the early morning joggers and the start of another New York day.

  Aubrey assumed she was about to be told he had a wife, or perhaps given another reminder to take her Pill.

  Her assumptions didn’t come close to the truth.

  ‘Last night should not have happened for many reasons. The main one being that I am royal.’

  The bench didn’t disappear from beneath her, but she held onto it with one hand just in case. ‘Royal?’

  ‘I am the Crown Prince of Al-Zahan.’

  And she loathed that she couldn’t nod with understanding but instead had to ask, ‘What does that even mean?’

  He had been told what it meant from a gilded cradle, and now he said it out loud on a park bench. ‘I will be King.’

  She watched a runner glide by as surely as that tiny kernel of hope slipped away. ‘Do you want to be?’ she asked, but her voice was on autopilot, the question more a statement.

  Until he answered.

  ‘Want is the only luxury denied to me.’

  Aubrey swallowed on an empty throat.

  ‘Needs can be met,’ Khalid said, then turned and looked at her. ‘And I hoped that you wou
ld suffice.’

  Aubrey sucked in a breath because the words that he said sounded like an insult but his voice was laced with rawness and there was tenderness in his eyes. ‘I didn’t suffice?’

  ‘No, for you made me want more.’

  Aubrey suppressed a cry of frustration, for she didn’t understand. She wanted to stamp her sandaled feet on the ground for he made no sense.

  Yet deep down she understood.

  She looked at the fresh new leaves that caught in the morning breeze and the tiny buds beside them, and she looked at a pinkish sky that hadn’t yet learnt how to be blue.

  But was burning itself to be.

  There was still want.

  ‘Last night was something more,’ Khalid admitted. ‘I wanted you, no matter the profession I thought you were in, but I was reckless too.’

  ‘We both were,’ Aubrey said, ‘but it’s fine, like I said, I’m covered.’ She tried to lighten things a touch. ‘I shan’t create a scandal.’

  ‘It would be more than a scandal, it would be unprecedented.’

  Aubrey frowned, not understanding what he meant.

  ‘Things are very different where I am from,’ Khalid said. ‘I go back there this evening. I doubt I shall be back in the States for a very long time.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I am assuming more duties at home,’ Khalid said. ‘My choice. There are things that need to be done, and I have fought hard to do them.’

  ‘Like the hotel?’

  ‘Yes.’ Khalid nodded. ‘It is a very rich country but the wealth stays too much in the palace, and it needs to trickle down. The hotel helps with that, it provides work and new openings. I cannot change much more from here, though I still hope to come back now and then.’

  Aubrey swallowed, and her heart started thumping, not quite sure herself if his returning to America might include her, but then Khalid spoke on.

  ‘One of the conditions of my assuming a more prominent role is that I marry and produce heirs. An amulet is being selected and the goldsmith will soon appear on the dome at the palace...’ Khalid knew she could not understand that and he chose not to explain it. He could not look over as he spoke. ‘I am expected to take a suitable wife.’