The Sheikh's Marriage Bargain - Leslie North Page 0,20

When they reached twenty and had officially greeted each guest, Zayid caught a glint of strain in Laila’s eyes. He swept her neatly out onto a balcony, darting between people who wanted to talk more. The cool night air settled around his shoulders, but the shiver that ran through him wasn’t because of the cold.

“You’ve been outstanding,” he told Laila, putting his hand on the small of her back and drawing her close. “This evening has been a pleasure.”

“For me, too,” Laila said. “Staying close to you for more than an hour has been a fun change of pace.”

“Fun, yes,” said Zayid. “A kind of delightful torture.”

“Torture?” Laila’s laugh rang out over the garden beneath them. “My feet are a little sore from my shoes, but I wouldn’t call it torture.”

“No, the torture has been having to look at other people all evening instead of you.”

A smile stole over her face, and in the warm glow from the ballroom, color splashed across her cheeks. “That must’ve been so awful for you.” She trailed a finger down the sleeve of his tuxedo. “What do you think we’ll have to do to make it better?”

Fire blazed along the core of him. “We could get out of here, for one.” He turned her gently in the other direction. “There’s a staircase leading down to the ground floor. If we skirt the edge of the garden, we can sneak back to my apartment without anyone seeing.”

“But what would we do there?” Laila’s teasing had him feeling flushed and reckless.

“Come and see. I don’t have the words to describe it.” He took her hand and led her down the staircase at the side of the balcony, her dress swishing on the stone steps.

“Zayid, won’t they notice we’re gone?”

“I don’t care if they do.” He’d done his duty for the evening, and now the want inside of him threatened to swallow him whole. “I’m taking a few minutes with my wife.”

His security team moved with featherlight steps around them as they went. Zayid felt them as they crossed the garden and again as he punched in the code on the outer door. A quick dash down the hall, and they reached his apartment door.

The two of them twirled inside, a dance of fancy clothes and heat, and then Zayid let himself loose.

He kissed Laila fast and hard, his hands on either side of her flawless face, tasting champagne on her lips and heat on her tongue. Laila groaned against his mouth.

“Please, Zayid.” Her urgency cut through the hot need that enveloped his mind. “Take this dress off me.”

His vision went sharp and clear, and he spun Laila around. The zipper opened, exposing her tanned skin, and the gown dropped away. Zayid found himself entranced with her shoulder blades. He kissed around the ridges and unhooked her bra. Laila turned toward him, and the world stopped. His breath halted in his lungs. Gorgeous. She stepped between his feet and let him run his fingers down her spine as she arched to give him a view of the most beautiful breasts he’d ever seen.

“Don’t make me wait,” she said. “Here. I’ll help you.”

She stripped him of his clothes as efficiently as he’d gotten rid of her dress. The first press of her perfectly nude body against his was like a firework against the night sky. It lit up all his nerves in a blinding flash.

“Let me take you to bed,” he murmured against her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare.”

He met Laila’s green eyes and found a bright seriousness there. He was already hard, ready for her, and her breasts pressed against his chest with every breath she took. “Don’t you dare make me wait.”

So he didn’t. He lifted her in his arms, spreading her legs so that he could step between them, hands bracing her as he pressed her back against the wall. She rocked her hips, finding him, angling down. She was already wet, and her body pulled him in like he was meant to be there. Zayid tried to hold each moment in his closed fists. Remember this, he thought wildly as she sank down on his length until she’d taken him completely. Laila tipped her head back against the wall, her perfect hairdo crushed against the wallpaper, and rolled her hips.

“Yes,” he said, his voice coming from a deep, animal part of himself he hardly recognized. “Yes.”

She moved against him, a beam of moonlight cutting across her face from the window, and he savored the sensation of