Liyah smiled. “She definitely was. She tended to see the best in people and dismiss their flaws.” Expelling a long breath, she admitted, “I also don’t think she ever stopped loving my father.”

And because of that love, Hena Amari had built Gene Chatsfield up in her head to be a man very different than the one he was in reality.

“While that love may have been misplaced, your mother’s love for you was not. You were undoubtedly the most important person in her life.”

“She sacrificed so much for me and she never once threw it back in my face.”

“A truly astonishing woman.”

“Yes, she was.”

“I think, perhaps, her daughter is a great deal like her.”

Liyah wasn’t sure how true that was, but if she could share her mother’s strength and willingness to sacrifice for others, she would count herself very blessed.

“You have already shown how deep your well of integrity goes,” Sayed remarked.

“How so?”

“Many women would have tried to capitalize on what happened last night. You’ve done nothing but try to help me mitigate any possible negative consequences.”

Liyah couldn’t believe how much better she felt about everything that had happened since her mother’s death after talking with Sayed. “Thank you.”

“No thanks needed. We all need a friend now and again.”

“Do you have friends? People you can trust enough to talk to?”

“I have my parents and Yusuf. Perhaps Bilal will become one now that he will be back in Zeena Sahra.”

“That is a short list.” Even with his cousin added to it.

“Trust for a man in my position cannot be offered on a whim.”

She could well imagine. Last night would not have helped with that, either. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“Last night.”

“I am not.” He shrugged. “I should be, but I enjoyed it too much to allow for genuine regret.”

He sounded like he thought that was a terrible weakness.

“You’re awfully hard on yourself.”

“My father says I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders.”

“Not carry?”

“No. He insists I do not need to carry the burden of responsibility that I do, but one day soon, I will rule in his place when I was never meant to do so. For his sake and that of my brother, I can offer nothing less than everything to my country.”

A brother’s death in childhood would have been devastating to any child, but for Sayed and the way it changed the course of his life? Even more so.

Looking into eyes filled with gravity to match his declarations, Liyah felt a twinge of emotion she refused to call love. “Maybe you are a little awe-inspiring, anyway.”

“I am glad you think so.” He grinned, the expression so unguarded it took her breath away.

CHAPTER TEN

“SO GENE CHATSFIELD was your mother’s lover?” Sayed asked, sounding pretty sure of her answer.

“Yes.”

“I imagine he has reasons for his distrustful attitude,” Sayed said mildly.

She still frowned. “But I wasn’t lying to him.”

“You and I know that, but he did not.”

Sayed’s belief in her honesty helped soothe the sting of her father’s blatant rejection and hurtful accusations.

“He didn’t even remember what she looked like,” Liyah said, still unable to grasp that particular reality.

How could he have forgotten such a special, wonderful woman?

“It sounds like he was in a bad place in his life when they met,” Sayed said, as if reading Liyah’s thoughts.

“That doesn’t excuse him seducing an innocent young woman and then forgetting about her as if she never mattered.”

“Many errors in judgment cannot be excused, but that does not mean they can never be forgiven.”

“So, you’re going to forgive Tahira?”

“Eventually,” he said, shocking Liyah. “But probably not until everything her defection has caused has been dealt with, and in a way that is not to the detriment of my people.”

“Wow, you really are some kind of amazing.” Though she had no doubt he meant his caveat for forgiveness one hundred percent.

He looked pleased by her declaration. “I have very good parents.”

“I think your basic core has a lot to do with it, as well.”

Sayed shrugged. “Perhaps, but even in that I must acknowledge the gift of good DNA.”

She reached out and touched his face. She simply couldn’t help herself.

He stilled, making no move to dislodge her hand. “What?”

“I just wanted to reassure myself you’re real.”

“I am flesh and blood like the next man.”

“Emir.”

“With you, I prefer to be a man only.”

“Is that possible?” Her heart responded to the man, but her head reminded her that the emir was way out of her league.

“Right now, in this moment, it is.”

Neither broke eye contact as the attendant cleared their dinner detritus from the table.

“Did you know there is a small bedroom in the back of the plane?” he asked when the attendant had moved away. “It is a necessary luxury for those times when travel and sleep schedules do not coincide.”

Goose bumps were traveling up her arm from the circling of his thumb against her palm. “Um, that’s nice?”

“Would you like to see it?”

Liyah was being propositioned. She wasn’t sure who was more shocked when she accepted.

Herself, or Sayed.

* * *

Sayed led Aaliyah into the sleeping quarters. Although it was as superbly appointed as the rest of the plane, the bed was only a double size.

He would not allow the cramped quarters to prevent him from his current objective: giving Aaliyah an experience worthy of the gift of her innocence.

No matter how mind-bogglingly good the sex had been the night before, they’d both been under the influence of alcohol. And he hadn’t known she was a virgin.

He’d entered her body completely unaware of the gift she bestowed. Without proper care many virgins experienced a great deal of pain their first time.

It was only by grace and benevolent genetics that Aaliyah had not.

The knowledge he was her only lover resonated in the most primal part of Sayed’s psyche.

And he wanted more.

Desire riding him harder than a runaway camel in the desert, he reached for her the moment the door shut behind them. Sayed pulled Aaliyah flush with his body and into a kiss. Over half a foot shorter than him, she should not fit so perfectly, but she did.

Like their two bodies had been made just for this connection.

He demanded a response from her and she gave it, her passion a match for his, though expressed differently. Her lips melted under his, parting almost instantly. Without a second thought, he accepted the alluring, silent invitation.

Surprised and a little worried that it was every bit as stunning as the night before, he rubbed his tongue along hers.

She tasted so sweet, familiar in a way that should not be possible after only one night together.

Her hands came up and then his egal and keffiyeh were being tugged off in one motion and tossed away.

Amused despite the desire raging through his body, he broke the kiss. “You do not want the emir?”

Emerald eyes trapped his with the emotion glowing in them. “Sayed, when we are like this, I will always want the man.”

“No one wants only the man.” Not since the day he became emir, not merely second son and sheikh.

“I do,” she vowed, her musical voice vibrating with sincerity. “I did last night.”

“No matter what we might wish, I never stop being the emir.” It was a warning for him as much as her.

His future had been written in the stars the day his brother was killed. Sayed was not just a figurehead.

He had no choices about walking away from his responsibilities. There was no one to take his place and he loved his people too much to let them down.

She shook her head, looking up at him, her beautiful oval features set in serious lines. “You’re right and you’re wrong at the same time. Because right now, you are Sayed. Yes, you are emir, but that is not all you are.”

He wished he could agree, but honesty forced him to shake his head in disagreement, even as his hands smoothed down her body, seeking the hem of her top.

“What do you call Melech Falah?” She shivered as he tugged her blouse out of her waistband.

“Father.”

She rubbed her cheek against his affectionately. “So, he is not only a king, but he is your dad, too?”

“Yes, but his duty comes first.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked, shifting her lower body against his.

Did she expect him to focus on conversation right now?

She laid her hands against his chest, one landing unerringly over his heart. “You don’t think it would have been better for Zeena Sahra’s sense of country unity and its international consequence for their prince to be educated and raised within its borders?”

“My safety was necessary.” There was no sentimentality in that.

“Oh, yes, absolutely, but your dad sent you away. The king would have just increased your security. How often did he and your mother come to visit you in the U.S.?”

“Several times a year.” Though Sayed had only been allowed home a few times in all the years he attended school in the States.

They’d spent the summers together in Europe with his aunt and young cousins, their exact location kept from any but his father’s closest advisers.

“Tell me again, your father was never more or less than melech.”

“He was and is my father,” Sayed said, never having denied it, but also understanding she had a point in what she said.

“And right now? You are my man, rohi. Even if it is only for the next hour, I won’t give up a second of that and I won’t let you, either.”

“I am supposed to be the experienced one here, but you are seducing me utterly.” He could not acknowledge the my soul.

No doubt she had heard it from her mother and did not realize the deeper connotations the endearment carried between lovers. Those implications were all too fitting between them, though he would probably never have the freedom to acknowledge.

But their souls fit, just like the rest of them.

“I like that.” She pushed his outer robe off his shoulders. “Because everything about you makes me want you more.”

He did nothing to stop the gold-trimmed black fabric from pooling at their feet.

She went directly for his suit jacket, taking time to lay it over a chair in the corner. “I may be repressed, but you dress like a monk.”

“I do not think monks wear Armani.” And she did not seem very repressed right now.

“Maybe not.” She grinned up at him cheekily. “I’d rather you weren’t wearing it right now, either.”

Delighted by her, he laughed. “Your wish is my pleasure to grant.”

He finished undressing, not minding in the least that she seemed intent on helping him.

When he was totally naked, his swollen sex jutting out from his body, he let her look her fill. He’d noticed how much she enjoyed it the night before. And having her gaze on him with such innocent hunger turned him on like nothing else.

She didn’t even wait for him to suggest she join him in his nudity before she started stripping, too.

Primal masculine satisfaction coursed through him and he grinned, even as his body reacted to every inch of honey skin she revealed.

“What?” his undeniably proactive lover asked as she laid her oh-so-conservative skirt on the chair with his clothes.

“It is me, not the alcohol.”

“What?” she asked, her expression confused as she unbuttoned her simple white blouse.

“Repressed Aaliyah has abandoned you for the present.”

Her hands stilled, the blouse gaping to reveal the luscious curves of breasts in another very feminine bra while a blush climbed her throat and up into her face. Yet she didn’t pull the open edges together.

“I feel free with you, like I can do anything and it’s okay.” She sounded astounded by that reality, but not unhappy.

He was delighted. “Exactly. Me. Not the alcohol.” He made her lose her inhibitions, no whiskey needed.

Her gaze sharpened in comprehension and she smiled. “Evidence would be in your favor.”

“I am aware.”

“Your arrogance is showing again.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Her smile made his heart pause in its beats.

He shook his head. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

“I think I have a clue, rohi.” She gave a significant glance downward.

Laughing, he bent and swept her into his arms, pulling her scantily clad body flush to his.

He had never had so much fun with a lover.

She gasped, then threw her head back and hooted, the sound of amusement so sweet it sent shivers through him.

“You sure you don’t make a habit of this?” she asked, still giggling. “It’s just that it feels like a habit.”

“Only with you.”

He arranged her on the bed, having pulled the bedding back much to her apparent amusement.

“You find this funny?” Arousal was his predominant emotion at the moment, his sex so hard it was already leaking preejaculate.

“This? As in making love? No. But seriously, it’s like you’re a professional at the suave lover thing.”

“At least you didn’t compare me to a musical genre again.”

“I couldn’t have been too drunk if I was able to come up with metaphors.”

“Or only a very inebriated woman would make such a comparison.”

“There is that.” She winked at him. “I stand by it, though.”

“Tonight, you are not under any influence but me.”

“I’ll tell you a secret,” she whispered against his ear as he settled next to her, leaning down with the intent to kiss her again.

“Yes?”

“You’re a lot more intoxicating than that stuff I was drinking last night.”

“And I will not leave you with a hangover.”

“Just muscles sore in all the right places.”

“I knew it.” He sat up.

She grabbed his arm, like she thought he was going to leave. “What?”

“I did hurt you last night.”

“What? No. Maybe a little, but isn’t it always like that the first time?”

“Oh, no, it can be much worse. We were very lucky your body’s barrier was not too stubborn.” If it had been he might have noticed it, though.

All he’d felt was how tight she was, how good her silky, wet heat felt around his shaft.

“I wouldn’t know about anyone else, I only know that last night was the most amazing experience of my life.”

“Then the bar is high.”

“For what?”

He worked on the remaining buttons of her blouse. “To make this time truly memorable and worthy of your first experience with a lover.”

“Why?” she asked as she tugged on his arm.

Unable to deny her, he leaned down and took the kiss he’d meant to a moment ago. Her lips were soft under his, but she wasn’t passive by any stretch, her mouth mobile and enticing.

He finished undoing her buttons and pulled her blouse from her body, lifting her to sit up so he could get it off completely. Feeling like he was opening a truly stunning gift, he took the opportunity to dispense with her bra, as well.

He loved the way her entire body shivered as her nipples were exposed to the air. She’d done the same the night before and he’d found it incredibly arousing. He still did.

Soft sounds came from her as he laid her back on the bed, this time coming down beside her fully. Naked skin slid against naked skin, building the intensity between them.

His hand resting possessively on her belly, he remembered her question and broke the explosive kiss. “Because that is what you deserve.”

“Huh?” Unfocused green eyes looked up at him. “What?”

“Why I am committed to making this time better than last night.”

“Oh, that’s sweet,” she said on a hitching breath as he began to caress her. “But unnecessary, not to mention unlikely.”

“You think so?”

“Last night was pretty special.”

“Tonight will blow your mind.”

“You’re kind of competitive, huh?”

He shrugged. He wasn’t competitive so much as he always won. He was emir; he had to be the best at everything he chose to do.

It wasn’t just built into his position; it was in his DNA.

“Can I touch you?” she asked, her voice husky with need.

“Of course.”

She licked her lips. “Anywhere?”

“Yes.” The word ended on a hiss as her small hand curled around his sex.

She made a hum of approval as her grip moved up and down the column of hard flesh, driving his arousal higher and higher.

“Do not stop,” he instructed her as he began his own explorations.

He intended to drive her to the point of madness with desire.

Long pleasurable minutes later, he realized that every moan of pleasure he pulled from her, every restless movement of her body, drove him closer to the edge of losing his own control.

He’d never found it so hard to hold back, not even the first time he’d lain with a woman.

But Aaliyah Amari was some kind of sensual sorceress, every sexy whimper a powerful spell on his body.

Even when he pressed her legs apart and put his mouth on her, his own body reacted like she was touching him.

She cried out, tried to pull away. “No. That’s...I don’t think...”

He lifted his head. “Do not think, habibti. Feel.”

He tasted her, the sweet tang of her arousal exploding on his tongue as the scent of almonds mixed with musk created a heady perfume around him.

Each woman had her own unique scent, but he had never found one so alluring.

He pushed his tongue inside her and pulled it out again, kissing her in ultimate intimacy.

She mewled, but when he shifted his head so he could flick her clitoris before circling it with the tip of his tongue, she screamed. Long and loudly.

Her responsiveness was addictive and he went back again and again for more of her taste, more of her reactions, using his tongue to lave and then caress with his consciously hardened tip. He added a finger to her passage, reveling in the slick wetness he found there.

She moved against him, her sounds growing more and more desperate, her muscles contracting and relaxing until she went rigid and came. Her thighs locked on either side of his head.

He did not mind at all. He had no intention of moving.

He softened the caress of his tongue, though, pulling his finger from inside her, drawing out her pleasure but not to the point of discomfort.

She went rigid once more and then completely boneless, her legs flopping down to leave her completely open to him.

It was time for the next step: rebuilding her sexual need until she was whimpering for release.

And that was exactly what Sayed did, touching his habibti all over with hands first, but then his mouth—using teeth and tongue to bring her back to the edge of exploding.

However, by the time he rolled on the condom he had to be careful not to come from his own touch, and that never happened to him.

He wished they didn’t need the barrier. Making love with nothing between them had been one of the most profound experiences of his life, even if he’d thought it a dream at the time.

Perhaps it was better this way.

Sheathed to prevent the further sharing of his seed with her body and perhaps keep back some part of his soul from hers, he turned her onto her side and angled his body behind her.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, her voice heavy with passion. “I need, Sayed.”

“And I will give you what you need.” He pressed into her from behind, the position allowing him to touch her at will.

One arm tucked under her neck so he could reach her breasts, he reached down with his other hand to touch her clitoris as he began to move.

She gasped out sexy demands even as she moved her pelvis with instinctive rhythm.

This time they came together, their shouts mixing in a sexual song he could easily become seriously addicted to.

The thought was so disturbing, he did not let himself sink into afterglow. He took hold of the condom and carefully pulled out of her, but could not make himself move away completely.

She made a distinctly unhappy sound.

“Shh...” He kissed her sweaty brow, the affectionate gesture too natural to be comfortable for a man who knew his time with his love would be measured in days not years. “I need to take care of the condom.”

He made his way to the efficiency-size en suite on unsteady legs.

The mirror showed him a face he’d never seen before, one with eyes far too soft with vulnerability.

He was emir. Not merely a man.

Not a man at all who could afford to crave a woman like he’d learned to hunger for Aaliyah after such a short time.

He needed to find himself and put this other man away. Sayed owed it to his people and to the brother who had died before getting the chance to lead them.

Sayed should have been working strategy the whole plane ride, but he’d spent hours talking with Liyah and then making love.

He had to put distance between them, or he wasn’t going to be able to do what he needed to when the pregnancy test came back negative.

Let her go.

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The Chatsfield Collection Books 1-8

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