words that fell like barbs from his lips.
‘If this is how you make amends, then I’m all for it.’
She stiffened, her heart clenching with hurt despite the knowledge that she’d brought his response on herself. Opening her eyes, she met fierce, hazel ones. ‘You could at least wait until I’m dressed before you hurl the insults,’ she breathed.
‘Insults? I thought you were all for speaking freely and honestly? I in turn meant what I just said. Give me another taste of your body and you can consider your apology accepted and your slate wiped clean,’ he said. ‘That is if that was what you really came here for?’ A cynical smile touched his lips, but it was replaced a moment later by male appreciation as he transferred his gaze from her face to her body, then back again.
She lowered her gaze, unable to withstand the challenge and suspicion in his eyes. Her insides clenched in shame at how utterly she’d let herself down since stepping foot in Dar-Aman.
‘It was...but my gesture was finite.’ She started to move away, but he caught her arm and held her still.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘Back to my room, of course.’
One finger caught her beneath her chin and compelled her gaze to his. Hunger, wilder than before, blazed in his eyes. ‘I told you I intended to have my fill. I’ve barely started, Allegra. You’re going nowhere until I’m done with you.’
The shameless part of her that craved what he offered melted with a swiftness that robbed her of breath. She scrambled to gather a semblance of thought as his head lowered dangerously towards hers. ‘I have no intention of being your plaything, Rahim. I’ll leave that to the women in your harem.’
He looked surprised for a moment before a low laugh spilled from his lips. ‘I stopped having playthings the moment I hit puberty, habibi.’
The absence of denial of his harem set a different blaze in her belly that made her squirm to get away from him. ‘Whatever. I’m still leaving in the morning.’
‘And I have no intention of stopping you,’ he parried with arrogant ease, as if she was one of the many ornaments in his palace to be taken or left at his whim. ‘But there are many hours between now and morning and I intend to fill them all.’
Allegra told herself she should be thankful that Rahim had proved her right in one aspect—he was a playboy who bedded and discarded women as frequently as he changed his regal clothes. She told herself she ought to have more self-respect, leave while the absurd feelings of hurt and bewildering anger weren’t choking her.
But then his hand slid down her belly to the place that still throbbed hard and mercilessly from his possession. A weak, helpless moan escaped her before she could kill it.
Even to her own ears, the sound of surrender was enough to halt her in her tracks.
She would never see Rahim Al-Hadi again. He was the very epitome of a no-strings-attached one-night stand. Hell, by this time tomorrow, he’d have forgotten she existed.
Why couldn’t she do the same? Use him as he was using her?
Because that’s not who you are...
‘Stay with me, Allegra,’ he demanded harshly.
Allegra’s disturbing thoughts melted as his fingers curled, expertly teasing her heated flesh. She tried to shake her head but he only increased his exquisite torture. Her body, having had a taste of what pleasures were in store for it, completely betrayed her, undulating to his command as bliss overtook her.
‘Stay with me,’ he demanded again his tone gentler. His head dipped and he caught her nipple in his mouth. His tongue swirled around the bud before he pulled it deep into his mouth.
With a deep groan, Allegra gasped, ‘Yes.’
At some point, he carried her from the fireplace, up the stairs to his bed. In between intoxicating bouts of lovemaking, Allegra took in the view from her lofty position, her senses drowning in the wonder of floating on a bed of dreams.
But dream turned into nightmare somewhere around dawn when she jerked awake, the ephemeral thoughts that had been niggling at the edge of her brain finally sending her on a frantic search. Hands shaking, she located the condom. The ripped condom which she hadn’t thought twice about when she’d grasped Rahim in a particularly heated moment but which her subconscious must have documented.
Waves of ice drenching her, she slid from her bed and stood with her heart thudding dully. Thoughts of the possible consequences slammed through her mind, each worse case more frightening than the last. She took deep, steady breaths, forcing herself not to panic. She was on the pill, one with high levels of success. And that last, lust-inflamed move, she concluded, face flaming hotter, had been right before their final release. Her fears abated slightly as she confirmed that her pill dosage was right on track.
It had to be.
She was nowhere near equipped to assume the huge responsibility of caring for a child.
Her track record was woefully lacking to even begin to contemplate motherhood.
And really, would the odds be so cruelly stacked against her for seeking one moment of passion?
But it hadn’t been just the once...
Rahim had stayed true to his word. His hunger hadn’t abated until the first streaks of an orange sunrise tinged grey skies. Her body ached in places thoroughly alien to her and, with each breath, she felt the residual power of his possession.
Allegra knew that if it hadn’t been for her subconscious nudging her to acknowledge her folly, she would be as dead to the world as Rahim was now. Her breath caught anew as she stared down at him.
In sleep, he was a little less overpowering, but every bit as magnificent. With the sheets tangled around his waist and one arm thrown over his head, his incredible body was on display, reminding her just how hungry she’d been in turn. How hungry she still was. The force of that need had her taking a step back. When her back touched the cold railing, she suppressed a gasp.
She was naked in the bedchamber of a man she hadn’t met this time yesterday. A man who was only supposed to have been a means to an end. An end she’d failed woefully at achieving.
Far from the woman she’d taken pride in believing herself to be once she’d acknowledged her basic flaws, Allegra felt the humiliating burn of deep shame and she hurried silently down the stairs to the lower floor of Rahim’s chamber. Each stealthy breath she took hammered home her spectacular failure.
Ruthlessly she locked her thoughts down to be dealt with when she was far away from Dar-Aman. It was either that or lose her mind along with everything she’d thrown under the bus of her weakness. Slipping her wrinkled negligee over her head, she crossed to where Rahim had dropped her wrap earlier. As she straightened, her gaze fell on the Fabergé box.
Don’t fail me, ragazza mia.
Her grandfather’s words resonated loudly in her head, as if he stood next to her. Hopeless tears filled her eyes. She plugged the sob that threatened with her fist and took a step back from the cabinet.
She couldn’t.
