Eleni knew that she was in much too far not to tell him—and wouldn’t it be dishonest to herself if she didn’t go through with it? To do what—to curtsey to her sheikh as if nothing had happened—to put it all from her mind and carry on as before? Letting him strip her bare and make love to her as if she had no feelings to hurt? How could she?
‘Did you enjoy letting me play-act at being your hostess tonight?’ she queried shakily. ‘Or did you simply enjoy the risk that it involved—because risk is your whole reason for living, isn’t it, Kaliq? It’s the reason you went ahead and told Zakari I was your lover—even though there was no real need to. He’ll never meet me again after tonight—we both know that. But maybe you were hoping for some kind of reaction? Your brother’s envy that you should have been openly flaunting your affair with a servant—or his disapproval, perhaps?’
‘That is enough!’ he gritted furiously.
But Eleni couldn’t stop the words which were tumbling out—because hadn’t this aspect of his character troubled her for as long as they had been intimate? ‘It’s almost as if you want to bring discord into your life where none exists,’ she whispered. ‘As if that will make up for the fact that you’ve never forgiven yourself for Zafir’s disappearance—’
‘I said, that is enough!’ he raged, catching her arms between the tight grip of his hands and pushing his face close to hers, his black eyes spitting angry fire. ‘Understand?’
But Eleni wasn’t afraid. She had lived with a man far more intimidating than this one and, stupidly, she just happened to love this one. She loved him so much that, even though she knew there was no future for them, she owed it to Kaliq to tell him a few home truths which nobody else had ever had the courage to tell him, and perhaps never would.
‘No, it is not enough,’ she returned, and as she saw the sheer amazement on his face that she had dared to contradict him her heart began to soften. For Kaliq was a product of his own upbringing and how could she blame him for being autocratic and demanding when that was exactly how he’d been taught to behave? In an instant, all her anger and her bitterness fled and her voice lowered with gentle compassion as she sought to make him understand.
‘When are you going to accept that Zafir’s disappearance was not your fault, my darling?’ she questioned quietly. ‘Sometimes things happen in life and there is nothing you can do to prevent them. And unless you can accept that—then you are just going to carry on pushing life to the very limits until you take one risk too far, and perhaps end it prematurely.’ She had to focus very hard to stop her voice from catching. ‘Is that what you want, Kaliq?’
For a minute he stared at her, almost marvelling at her courage and clarity of thought until he reminded himself of the unforgivable insolence of her words and all the still-raw wounds they had opened.
He drew himself up and asserted every imperious inch of regal authority—wanting to lash out at her. To make her hurt just as she had hurt him. ‘I think you forget yourself!’ he bit out furiously. ‘I do not discuss such matters with one of my servants. It is not your place to dictate to your sheikh, nor to dare suggest how I should or should not behave. Do you think that a girl from a desert shack knows better than her royal master?’
Eleni gasped as the cruel barbs of his words stung against her skin like tiny arrows. His face was dark with rage, his merciless dismissal of her flooding over her like a black tide.
‘It is not your opinion nor affection that I want,’ he continued. ‘Never forget that! In fact, there is only one thing I want from you, Eleni Lakis, and we both know what that is!’
And with a low kind of roar, he bent and picked her up—so unexpectedly that it took her completely off guard, for what woman would have anticipated him wanting sex after such a tirade against her? He carried her effortlessly towards her bedroom—kicking the door open with his foot.
IN KALIQ’S arms Eleni trembled as he carried her towards the bed, biting her lip to quell her tears because fierce pride determined that he would not see her cry. He would not! All that courage she had mustered up to tell him the truth and yet all he was doing was ignoring it as he placed her down and… and…
‘Kaliq—’
‘Not now!’ he bit out, but he could not seem to rid himself of the memory of her words, which still echoed round and round in his head as he stared down at her—at her green eyes so wide and bright.
Trying not to react to the candid scrutiny of his gaze, Eleni shuddered with a terrible kind of longing as he stood towering over her. Wanting him and trying not to want him. And then he bent to tip her chin up with the tips of his fingers as he stared down into her face, his eyes splinteringly cold—his mouth as hard as stone.
‘Kaliq,’ she breathed again. The word sounded miraculously calm—it was both statement and entreaty—for surely he would sense the utter uselessness in prolonging this agony?
His heart thundered with rage but his anger was tempered by the silky warmth of her sweet flesh and he slid down onto the bed beside her, pulling her up against his aroused body. ‘I will forgive you your impertinence just this once, lizard—but you will never speak to your sheikh in such a way again, do you understand?’ he whispered against her. ‘Now come here and kiss me instead!’
Eleni could have wept. So much for delivering a few home truths. Everything she had said to him he’d just brushed away dismissively as if it didn’t matter.
Because it didn’t matter—not to him. And she didn’t matter, either. Her thoughts or opinions were of no consequence—hadn’t he just told her that himself? No matter that she wore the sheikh’s fine clothes or was lent his priceless jewellery—she would never be anything more than the humble stable girl he had plucked from obscurity. A willing bed-partner to be taken when and wherever it pleased him.
But she still had her pride. Eleni swallowed. Was she prepared to let the man she loved go on taking and taking from her, until she had nothing left to give and was an empty shell of a woman—heartbroken and ready to be discarded?
Like hell she was! On horseback she was as fearless as any man—and she would dig deep for some of that fearlessness now. She met his eyes with a steady gaze, concentrating on keeping her body stiff and unresponsive, even though his hands were now cupping her breasts and making them ache with familiar desire. ‘Kaliq—’
‘Not now!’ he husked as, with a small, angry moan, he drove his mouth down onto the erect bud of her nipple, sucking at it and teasing it through the slippery silk of the robe she wore. And as his mouth worked such sweet magic he was tangling his hands in her hair—coiling the thick strands around his scarred wrists as if they were silken ropes. ‘Not now, my sweet Eleni!’ he groaned against her.
Hot desire flowed from him into her and inside Eleni’s heart began to melt like a candle left out in the midday sun. But somehow she fought against it. Resisting the power of his lips, she stayed still and unmoving in his arms—fighting desire and this hopeless swell of love for him. Because this was far more important than mere desire.
Deep down, she knew that their affair was over—so how on earth could she have empty, angry sex with him now? Wouldn’t that just cheapen everything they had shared? If all she was to have of
