Page 48 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

In the next second he had thrust into her, in one devastating movement, stealing her breath and her soul. She gasped and put her hands on his hips, momentarily resisting his body. He was big. She felt so stretched. It bordered on being painful.

Ari stopped and said, ‘Maddi...?’

She knew instinctively that the pain would only be alleviated if she moved—and she did. Ari sank in deeper. He moved slowly at first, out and then in, letting their bodies get used to one another, sliding and slick. He gathered pace and Maddi no longer felt any discomfort. Only a need formore.

And then he was there, hitting the spot that finally gave her some relief, and the building tension was spiralling out of control, too fast for Maddi to hold on. She couldn’t stop the fall, nor the onslaught of another wave of pleasure so intense that she cried out, over and over again, hands clasping Ari’s shoulders, legs wrapping around his hips as if that might contain it somehow.

Ari’s own movements became more frenzied, and eventually he stilled as the storm went through him too. She could feel it in her body and could only absorb it, too spent to do anything else.

Ari extricated himself from Maddi’s embrace—exquisite torture—and lay back on the bed beside her. Her eyes were closed, lashes long on her cheeks. Dark hair was spread around her head. Her body was still flushed. It was the most erotic sight he’d ever seen.

What had just happened had been the most profound experience. He tried to deny it—but he struggled to remember a time when a woman had turned him on so much that the entire world might have fallen away and he wouldn’t have noticed or cared.

In a bid to try and make his brain start functioning again, he got out of the bed and went over to his French doors, opening them silently and stepping out onto the terrace. It was completely private here. The night air—cool and fresh—made his skin prickle. He sucked in the salty tang of the sea air.

He heard a noise behind him and turned around to see Maddi stir. She came up on one elbow, looking sexily dishevelled and very well loved.

He moved back to the doorway and she saw him. He watched how her gaze travelled down and widened on the part of his anatomy already responding again. As if he hadn’t just died a small death.

But he wasn’t going to indulge again now, much as he might like to. The woman who had turned his world upside down from the moment he’d laid eyes on her and assumed she was someone else, was still hiding secrets.

Maddi felt ridiculously shy, considering what had just happened. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. It was too huge, too seismic.

Ari was standing by the door that led outside to the terrace. The cool night breeze traced over Maddi’s skin, making it pucker. He was naked. And it was hard not to be distracted by that amazingly powerful body. She couldn’t imagine standing naked in front of him like that, but he was completely unashamed.

Then he came towards the bed and held out a hand. ‘Come on.’

Maddi let him pull her up from the bed, a little bemused. Her head was still feeling fuzzy after an overload of pleasure.

He led her into the bathroom and leant into the shower, turning it on. Steam soon filled the space. Ari stepped in and pulled her with him. The powerful spray covered them both and Ari put her in front of him. He poured some soap into his hands before running them all over her body. She was glad she was facing away from him, because she hadn’t expected this.

She didn’t know what she’d expected, because she hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it wasn’t this...this tender, post-coital ablution.

He massaged shampoo into her hair and worked his hands over her scalp, long fingers moving slowly and rhythmically. She wanted to lean back against him and slide to the floor at his feet. But then he rinsed the soap from her body and her hair and turned off the shower. The heat and steam dissipated. Ari wrapped a large towel around Maddi’s shoulders. Then he got another towel and handed it to her for her hair.

They hadn’t spoken a word.

He rubbed himself dry briskly and Maddi wrapped up her long hair in a towel, turban-like, and secured the other towel under her arms, tying it in a knot.

Ari went into the bedroom, and when Maddi followed him he was pulling on a pair of loose sweats. They hung low on his hips.

He looked at her across the room, and then he said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?’

CHAPTER NINE

ARIFOLDEDHISarms across his chest. Partly because he was afraid that he’d reach out and twitch that towel from around Maddi’s body and take her back to bed. Her legs were long and shapely, and he had a sudden vivid flashback to how she’d wrapped them around his waist and he’d sunk so deep into her—

He gritted his jaw tight.

His question hung in the air between them. He could see the colour leach from her face. How her eyes widened.

Very faintly, she said, ‘I thought you wouldn’t notice.’

When Ari thought of how he’d felt every single ripple of her body against his, and how explosive it had been, it made him irrationally irritable.

‘How old are you?’

‘Twenty-three.’