Modern Romance July 2018 Books 1-4 Collection. Sharon Kendrick
she had vowed to try to make this marriage work, hadn’t she? To give it her best shot—and she wouldn’t be able to do that if she behaved like a chambermaid. She could only succeed in her role as his desert Queen if she adopted a new confidence—if she started believing in herself and her ability to make this work, as she had done so many times before.
Sucking in a deep breath, she lifted the diamond coronet and the golden veil from her head and carefully set them down on a nearby table and began to walk towards him. Each step felt as if it were covering an infinite amount of space during a short journey which seemed to take for ever. And then she was standing before him, her eyes fixed firmly on his, praying that he would be the master of what happened next because, although she was trying like mad to believe in herself, she didn’t think she was up to seducing the Sheikh in such intimidating surroundings.
‘Not quite all,’ she admitted in a rush. ‘I feel nervous about the night ahead even though I have no right to. I mean, it’s not like I’m a virgin any more, and—’
He silenced her, not with his kiss but with a forefinger placed over her lips. ‘You have every right to feel nervous,’ he said gravely. ‘For although you are no longer a virgin, you are still relatively inexperienced and today must have been very difficult for you in many ways.’
She nodded, warmed enough by his consideration to confide her biggest fear. ‘It was pretty daunting,’ she confessed. ‘And it wasn’t helped by wondering where Tamsyn had got to.’
‘Or Xan Constantinides,’ he offered drily. ‘He left the ballroom soon after her. Didn’t you see them go?’
‘No, I didn’t.’ Hannah bit her lip. ‘Isn’t he supposed to be a terrible womaniser?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Do you think she’s okay?’
‘I’m sure she’s physically safe, if that’s what you mean—though it’s probably inadvisable to sleep with Xan Constantinides unless she’s prepared to get her heart broken.’
‘That’s the last thing she needs right now!’ said Hannah urgently. ‘Kulal, we’ve got to find her!’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘What do you want me to do—spend my wedding night ordering my guards to extricate Constantinides from her clutches?’
‘Or her from his!’ she declared loyally.
Kulal frowned. ‘Tamsyn is an adult, Hannah—just like you. I’m sure you were the exemplary big sister to her when you were growing up, but don’t you think it’s time you cut the apron strings?’
She’d thought that plenty of times, but habit was one of the hardest things to break. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea if she starts associating with people who are way out of her league,’ she said, meeting the sudden mockery in Kulal’s eyes.
‘Like you did, you mean?’
She was trying to think of a suitable response when suddenly the Sheikh seemed to lose patience with the conversation because he picked her up.
‘What are you doing?’
‘What do you think I’m doing? I’m taking you to bed. I’ve had enough talking, particularly about your sister.’
He began to carry her towards a beautiful carved arch at the far end of the room and Hannah kicked her legs a little like a toddler learning to swim.
‘Please put me down, Kulal. I’m much too heavy.’
‘You weigh nothing,’ he said, carelessly discounting her protest. ‘Nothing at all.’
And perhaps he decided that kisses were better than words—for kisses took you down one path and words another. Perhaps he was bored with talking altogether, for he set her down beside the biggest bed she’d ever seen and pulled her into his arms.
‘SO,’ SAID KULAL, his voice unsteady. ‘Time to seduce my new wife. But first, I need to get you out of this infernal wedding dress.’
Hannah’s heart was hammering as the Sheikh turned her round to begin unhooking her decorative gown. It seemed to take him ages, but that might have had something to do with the fact that he kept brushing his mouth over each inch of newly exposed flesh, so that by the time he had laid her trembling and naked beneath the embroidered bedcover, all her nerves had dissolved beneath a feeling of mounting anticipation. Just enjoy this, she told herself fiercely as he pulled the ceremonial robes from his darkly muscular body and slid naked into bed beside her. Because this is your wedding night and it will lay the foundations of your whole life together.
‘I’ve never had sex with a pregnant woman before,’ he murmured as he grazed his mouth over hers.
Brushing the back of her hand across her forehead, Hannah mimed relief. ‘Thank goodness for that.’
He paused, lifting his head away from hers so that their gazes collided. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, Hannah.’
‘I’m tough,’ she said truthfully, though she was talking physically, not emotionally. Because when he looked at her in that seeking way, she felt almost boneless with a deep longing which was alien to her. But surely she was permitted to experience it on her wedding night... Surely just this once she could hint at all the passion lying deep inside her, waiting to be unlocked. ‘Just hold me, Kulal.’ Her voice trembled a little. ‘Touch me.’
His features hardened as he stared at her and she wondered if she’d sounded needy. But suddenly, his mouth was on hers and he was kissing her with a hunger which seemed to echo her own and she felt a great whoosh of excitement flooding through her. And although Hannah wasn’t—in Kulal’s own words—very experienced, somehow that didn’t seem to matter. Not to her and not to him. Not now, when she was his wife. When she was at liberty to touch him without inhibition. And why be shy when his baby was in her belly? Wasn’t their flesh combined in more than one way?
‘Oh,’ she said breathlessly as he began to drift his fingertips over her skin.
‘Your breasts are magnificent,’ he said throatily.
‘You don’t think they’re too...big?’
He gave a strangled kind of laugh. ‘What kind of a question is that?’
Now wasn’t the time to admit that the fashion magazines which Tamsyn had always passed on to her to read had always made Hannah feel like an over-curvy freak. Not when he was bending his head to suck hotly on each aroused nipple. She shivered as his fingertips skated over the curve of her belly, lingering there for just a moment. She waited for him to say something about the baby, but he didn’t and she told herself it was stupid to feel disappointed. To think that if this were a normal honeymoon, then he might have mentioned the unborn life within her.
But why think about the things he wasn’t saying when his seeking fingers were delving in between her parted thighs and beginning to stroke her. He was tantalising her as he rubbed his fingers against her slick, wet heat until she moved restlessly—her hunger beginning to mount.
She knew she couldn’t just lie there passively. During her solitary nights last week on the other side of the palace, she’d furtively read a book on sexual satisfaction within marriage, which she planned to put to good use. But when she summoned up the courage to slide her palm over the enormous erection which was nudging hard against her belly, Kulal dragged his mouth away from hers and gave a decisive shake of his head, before moving her hand away.
‘No,’ he said sternly.
‘Why not?’
‘Because I’m too close to coming and I want to do that when I’m inside you.’ His voice was almost gentle as she sank her hot face into the sanctuary of his neck. ‘And I don’t really think that now is the time