in triumph as he joined her in the paroxysm.
* * *
Angelique was a little stunned by what she’d just experienced. Not just the ferocity of Kasim’s lovemaking. She’d been so aroused, she had craved that intensity, but there’d been a loss of self in that joining. He had been the only thing important to her. It left her scrambling to recover her sense of autonomy, while he made it impossible by rolling back into her and running proprietary hands over her still-tingling skin.
The condom was gone along with his urgency. Now he was the tender man whose touch was soothing and reassuring. He almost lulled her back into thinking everything about him was safe, but it wasn’t. He imperiled the very heart of her.
She put up an instinctive hand against his chest, resisting his effort to pull her into a sprawl across his sweat-damp body.
“What’s wrong?” He picked up her hand and lightly bit her fingertip, then kissed the same spot. “I can’t make promises about Berlin, but I will try. Good enough?”
He sounded languid and satisfied while she was completely dismantled.
“Is it because we might be found out?” She had been trying to think how they could continue on the sly, but couldn’t see a way, not unless he wanted to go broke buying private flats. He hadn’t seemed particularly worried about exposure anyway. “Would it be complicated for you with Hasna if something wound up in the press?”
He snorted. “I don’t consult my sister on how I conduct my private life.”
There. That was the issue. He resented her sister. She stiffened and tried to pull away.
“That was a cheap shot,” he allowed, arms clamping like a straitjacket around her. “I take it back.”
“No!” She turned her face away. “You don’t get to kiss me into forgetting you said it.”
He sighed against her cheek.
“I’m spoiled,” he stated without compunction. “Never second fiddle to anyone except my father and that is a finite situation, not that I wish his life away. I only mean that I am his heir and aside from him, I am autonomous.”
“Yet I’m supposed to be content as a second fiddle in your life.”
A long pause that was so loaded, she had to glance warily at him, fearful she’d truly angered him.
Maybe she hadn’t angered him, but she’d scored a point. She could see echoes of his mood earlier when he’d talked about his mother’s brutal treatment of his father’s second wife and his half brother.
“I have meetings all next week,” he said in a cool tone. “Roundtable discussions with a dozen of our region’s most powerful leaders. You must have an idea of our political and economic landscape? The stakes are always high. I go so my father won’t or he’ll send us back to the Stone Age. The conference could easily go into next weekend. That is the only reason I am avoiding saying yes to Berlin.”
“Fine.” Now she felt like she’d pressured a concession of sorts from him, but it was a hollow victory. “It was just a thought.”
“What are you doing there?” His tone wasn’t patronizing, but she read his question as an attempt to mollify her and move past their conflict.
“A fashion awards night.” She glossed over it. “There’s a white tie and champagne thing after. I’m presenting so I can’t skip it. You’d probably find it boring anyway.”
“Do you do a lot of these things? Who do you usually go with?”
She would not kid herself that he sounded jealous.
“Colleagues. Sometimes one of my brothers. Honestly, it’s fine. I’m supposed to be at a thing tonight and—” She’d forgotten to cancel, she realized. She had decided not to go once she realized Trella would be in town, but had paid the plate fee because it was a charity she liked to support. It wasn’t a big deal that she was a no-show. She shouldn’t be experiencing this stab of guilt.
All part of Kasim’s magnifying effect on her emotions, she supposed. She frowned, aware of a cloud of traitorousness blanketing her too, along with a niggling desire to rebel. She put it all down to letting him extract that surrender to his seduction at the expense of thinking of—
She scrambled out of his arms to sit up. Trella.
“What—?” Kasim made a noise.
She kicked away the covers as she scooted off the bed. “I have to check in with Trella.”
“Why?”
“I just do,” she muttered and quickly shrugged into his robe, tying it tight then leaving to scour the lounge for her cell phone.
* * *
Angelique had put down the agitation in her belly to the sound of an invisible clock ticking down on her time with Kasim and all the things that she was doing that were out of character: engaging in an affair, leaving her sister, shunning work responsibilities.
But there was that other plane of awareness that her sister occupied in her unconscious…
Kasim came into the lounge, pants pulled on, but wearing nothing else, blanking her mind. Lord, he was beautiful, moving with economy, sculpted muscles rippling under smooth, swarthy skin. For a moment she forgot to breathe, she was so captivated.
He prowled to where the food had been received and abandoned on the dining table an hour ago. They had been too busy with each other when it arrived to do more than set it aside and get back to bed.
He opened the wicker basket and said, “We should eat before this is stone cold.”
When he glanced at her, he caught her ogling. A light smirk touched his gorgeous mouth. He hooked his thumbs in his waistband, so sexy her mouth watered.
“Unless you’re hungry for something else?”
She swallowed and ignored the fact her blood turned to lava. It was better that he wouldn’t be in Berlin. He had way too much power over her as it was.
“I could eat.” She hid her reaction by gathering their still-full wineglasses and bringing them across to the table under his watchful eye.
“Your sister?” he prompted.
“Fine.” She bit her lip, flashing him an uncertain look. “She told me not to hurry back.”
Take advantage of flying under the radar as long as you can, Trella had texted, but Angelique was still aware of her sister in that peripheral way. Trella wasn’t frightened precisely, but she was disturbed.
They had used their authentication codes, though. She knew it was definitely Trella telling her to stay in London, coming across like an adolescent pushing for independence, insisting she was completely fine.
Angelique hadn’t tried a video call, too embarrassed at how much she would betray, especially wearing Kasim’s robe.
“So you’ll stay the weekend.” Kasim looped his arm around
