ask you but—’
Raja laughed and rested a silencing forefinger against her parted lips. ‘No, do not ask me that question, habibi. I would be mortally offended. One wife has always been sufficient for the men in my family and the thought of more than one of you is actually quite unnerving.’
‘Unnerving? How?’ Ruby demanded and just at that moment her fractious insides clenched and went to war with her dignity again. Forced to hurry off to the nearest cloakroom, Ruby was so embarrassed by her digestive weakness that her eyes flooded with tears. Her mood was not improved when Raja’s sisters insisted on waiting outside the door for her to ensure that she was all right, for she would rather have suffered the sickness without a concerned audience close by.
When the emergency was over, she was ushered into the building that acted as Raja’s secluded home within the rambling fortress. He had his own staff, one of whom showed her up a flight of stairs to a superbly decorated bedroom suite. It was a relief to slip off her shoes there and lie down on top of the bed. A drink reputed to soothe a troubled stomach was brought to her and a little while after that as her tension eased and she relaxed she began feeling fine and eventually and surprisingly rather hungry.
A pair of Saluki hounds trotting at his heels, Raja walked in to study her from the foot of the bed. Hermione had accompanied them and the little dog jumped up at the side of the bed to nuzzle her cold nose against Ruby’s hand, the Salukis following to make her acquaintance. ‘Oh, they’re beautiful, Raja!’ Ruby exclaimed, leaning out of bed to pat their silky heads. ‘Do they belong to you?’
‘Yes. Hermione seems to like them well enough. How are you feeling?’ Raja asked
‘Great now, believe it or not,’ she told him with a hesitant smile. ‘I’m going to have a shower and then I’d like something to eat. I’m sorry about all the fuss.’
‘Are you sure that you’re feeling well enough to get up?’
Ruby slid easily off the bed and scolded Hermione for trying to jump up on it. She could not help noticing that Raja’s dogs, who had retreated to sit by the door, seemed to be very well trained. ‘Very sure.’
‘I’ll order a meal.’
‘Haven’t you eaten either?’
‘I wanted to see how you were first.’
Ruby checked out the dressing room in search of her wrap and found the closets and drawers were already packed with unfamiliar clothes in her sizes. ‘That’s some new wardrobe you’ve bought me!’ she called to Raja.
‘It won’t matter what you wear. You will still outshine every outfit,’ Raja responded huskily.
Ruby was surprised by that tribute. A flowing blue negligee set draped over one arm, she emerged from the dressing room to study him, the colour of awareness lighting up her face. Having discarded his traditional robe, he was in the act of changing into designer jeans and a shirt. The fluid grace and strength of that muscular physique of his still had enough impact to take her breath away. It didn’t matter how much exposure she had to Raja al-Somari, he still had the power to trip her heartbeat inside her and make her mouth run dry with excitement.
‘Shower,’ she reminded herself a little awkwardly.
The bathroom was as palatial as the bedroom and the invigorating beat of the water from multi-jets restored her energy levels. She wondered how Raja had tolerated the weak water flow of the old-fashioned shower in their suite of rooms in Ashur. Since her arrival in Najar she had come to realise that he was accustomed to a lifestyle in which every possible modern convenience and luxury was available to ensure the last word in comfort. She admired him for not having uttered a single complaint while he was forced to stay in the palace in Ashur.
When she returned to the bedroom Raja was talking on the phone in Arabic. He glanced up and then stilled to stare, lustrous dark eyes flaming gold at the sight of her. A wealth of blonde hair falling round her lovely face, her slim shapely figure framed by the flowing blue nightwear, she was a picture. With an abstracted final word he concluded his call and pushed the phone into his pocket.
As she met that intense appraisal Ruby’s face flushed, her nipples tightening into prominence while a melting sensation of warmth pulsed between her thighs. As he crossed the room, his eyes holding her gaze with a stormy sensuality that filled her with yearning, she was welded to the spot.
Without a word, Raja pushed the tumble of silky blonde hair back from her cheekbone and lowered his head to trace the seam of her closed mouth with his tongue and then pry her lips apart. Fingers stroking her slender neck, he plundered her mouth with a hungry ferocity that blew Ruby away. Staggered by the passion he made no attempt to contain, she angled her head back, snatching in a ragged breath as she looked up at him through her lashes and collided with the smouldering urgency in his stunning eyes. Her tummy flipped. One kiss and she felt as if he had switched a light on inside her, bathing her in warmth and dazzling brilliance.
‘I am already so hot and ready for you,’ Raja breathed thickly.
Ruby trembled, insanely aware of the surging dampness and the ache at the heart of her body. She was so wound up she couldn’t make her throat produce a recognisable sound. But it was also one of those moments when she knew not a shred of doubt about what she wanted to happen next. Her hands lifted of their own volition to unbutton his shirt.
A wolfish smile tilted Raja’s handsome mouth. He bent his head to kiss her again with lingering eroticism. ‘I will make it so good for you, aziz,’ he husked in a tone of anticipation that slivered through her like a depth charge of promise.
And the breath rattled in Ruby’s tight throat and her knees went weak because she had every faith in his ability to deliver on that score. He would drive her out of her mind with pleasure and she was way past the stage where she could deny either of them what they both needed. She wasn’t quite sure when wanting had become a much more demanding need and self-denial an impossible challenge. Mesmerised by Raja’s raw sensuality, she stretched up to touch his face with delicate fingertips, tracing those slashing angular cheekbones, and those beautiful sculpted lips. She gasped beneath that carnal mouth as it captured hers with delicious masculine savagery. Suddenly, as if her caress had unlocked his self-control to free his elemental passion, he trailed off the peignoir with impatient hands and pushed her back on the bed. Throwing off his shirt, he came down beside her bare-chested.
Breathing shallowly, the level of his hunger for her unhidden, Raja stared down at her. ‘I don’t know how I’ve kept my hands off you for so long. It was pure torment.’
As she pushed up on her elbows, feeling marvellously irresistible, Ruby’s eyes brightened and she stretched closer to unzip his jeans. The bulge of his arousal made that exercise a challenge and she laughed when he had to help her and then stopped laughing altogether when he drew her hand down to the long, hard length of his erection in an expression of need that was a huge turn-on for her.
She bent her head and took him in her mouth, silky blonde hair brushing his hair-roughened thighs. Watching her, Raja groaned with intense pleasure, knotting his hands in her hair and then finally pulling away at the peak and surprising her.
‘Raja … ?’
‘I want to come inside you,’ he told her raggedly. ‘And once isn’t going to be enough …’
Shivering in reaction to the coiled-tight ache of need in her, Ruby let him move her. Her body was eager and ready, charged by a hunger so strong it made her tremble. He filled her with a single thrust, sinking into her with a power and energy that almost made her pass out with pleasure. She cried out as he lifted her legs onto his shoulders and rose over her to plunge down into her honeyed sheath again and again. Uncontrollable excitement gripped her as he drove her slowly, surely to a delirious climax. At the apex of delight she came apart under him, writhing and sobbing with mindless satisfaction as the wild spasms of pleasure ripped through her in wave after wave. Afterwards he cradled her close, murmuring in his own language, stroking her cheek with caressing fingers while his lustrous eyes studied