warmth.
She let herself sink into it. The kiss deepened. He kissed every part of her lips. Nadim lingered on the corners of her mouth. He licked her bottom lip. Every time she opened her eyes, she found him looking at her, studying her as if he’d never seen her before. Or as if she was the only one he wanted to look at for the rest of his life.
“You’ll get cold.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, tracing a path along her collarbone with one of his fingertips. “Let me take you to bed.”
She let him.
They padded across the plush carpeting outside the bathroom, holding hands all the way to the four-poster bed that dominated the sleeping area. Nadim slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her close. She’d spent so long working, so long holding it together, that she hadn’t known how much she needed this—needed someone to surround her. To hold her up. Aisha threaded her hands behind his neck and kissed him again, her body waking back up from the lazy heat of the bath.
“Now it’s my turn.”
A question flared in his eyes.
Aisha reached for the hem of his shirt and dragged her fingers across his skin while she lifted it over his head, exposing the hard muscles of his abs. He spent time on those, she knew. Early mornings in the gym, and she didn’t care what else, only that he sucked in a breath when she touched him. It made those muscles even more defined. Nadim shoved his pants down, along with his boxers, and stood in front of her, completely naked. His eyes shone with desire, and when his skin met hers, when he gathered her in again, she thought she’d die from how good he smelled—like a lazy day in the sun, turning into a night with a hint of spice.
Nadim shifted his weight—shifted her—and Aisha found herself stretching out face down on the bed, a pillow gathered under her head. The bed dipped next to her under Nadim’s weight, and then...
He put his palms on her shoulders, skimming them over her skin until the exact moment when she needed him to increase the pressure. Aisha didn’t have to say a word. He worked her shoulders, then down her back, and...lower.
Nadim stroked between her thighs, still massaging her. Desire flickered along the length of her skin. She heated up everywhere he touched, and he touched her everywhere. Her calves. Her ankles. Her thighs. He massaged the bottoms of her feet, one after the other, taking his time. She melted into the pillow. She became one with the bed.
And then his lips met her ankle.
A playful, lingering kiss started things off, but then he worked his way back up toward the apex of her thighs. Slowly. So, so slowly. So slowly that she came awake with it, the moments blending together until he kissed the very top of her thigh, the crease of her leg, and she cried out.
Nadim met her cry with his mouth on her folds, licking into the slick wetness that waited for him. Her thighs trembled with the effort of keeping them together—or was it the effort of keeping them apart? She wanted more of him, and he knew it. Nadim drove her into a winding orgasm that had her writhing back against the bed, clutching the comforter.
“Please,” she begged into the dark, her eyes squeezed shut as the pleasure made her arch over the covers. “Take me.”
But even crying out like that couldn’t make him hurry. He’d mastered the art of waiting, and he used it now. It was impressive, how long he could take—kissing every inch of her exposed skin. Nadim crawled between her legs, the head of his cock brushing against her. Teasing. Torturing. But he seemed not to notice. He lingered on her breasts, swirling his tongue around her nipples and bringing them to peaks so sensitive she ached down to her core with it. Only when he’d nibbled his way up her neck, along her jaw, and held her gaze in his, eliciting a sound from her that could only be begging, did he enter her. He took her with that same unbelievable slowness, letting her feel every inch. Aisha felt a strange sense of...holiness, almost. Like something sacred was happening between them. She was a goddess, and he worshipped her. They’d gone outside the bounds of Earth and into another plane. She might never come back again.
She’d been a