Zoe folded her arms, which caused her big breasts to jut out, scowling. “Why?”
He barely glanced at her provocative posture. He stood and reached for his tunic. “Because Blackwell is planning a mass escape for himself and his men.”
Zoe’s eyes widened. “Peter, are you certain?”
“Of course I am certain,” Jovar said. His blue eyes gleamed. “Now he will truly, finally, die.”
24
HE COULD NOThelp himself.
Murad had retraced his steps, compelled. He stared through two palm fronds at the bathing pool. He knew what he was doing was wrong, terribly wrong. Alex was his mistress. He had no right to spy upon her.
Except that he wasn’t really spying, he was merely watching, unbeknownst by her.
He stared at her as she floated in the water. At her long, pale, lovely legs, at her denuded pubis, at her narrow hips and waist, at her full, glistening breasts. At her stunning face. Her red hair, catching the midday sun, was on fire. The glass rubies on the replica of the gold collar Jebal had given her also gleamed. They were almost the same color as her erect nipples.
He wasn’t sure when he had first fallen in love with her. But it was proper for him to adore his mistress, so he had ignored the intensity of his feelings, just as he had ignored the strange longing. Serving her, being with her, protecting her, had been enough. Until recently.
Until Blackwell had come, until he had seen Alex’s passion for the other man.
Murad clenched his fists. He did not want to feel this way. He did not want to be jealous of her love for another man—especially a man he respected and admired. He did not want to look at her with love and lust. He was, after all, half of a man—a eunuch and a slave.
But he did not walk away. He continued to stare at her as she slowly sat up. Her hair, partially wet, curled in tendrils around her face and neck. One strand caught on one of her breasts. Never in his entire life had he seen a woman as beautiful, nor had he ever met a woman so intelligent, forthright, and determined. She was unique. So unique that if it were not so completely impossible, he might believe her a time traveler from the future.
Murad closed his eyes. He was torturing himself, thinking thoughts he had no right to—allowing himself the beginnings of fantasies as illicit, in which Alexandra was not his mistress, but his lover.
“Murad,” she whispered.
Murad jerked, his eyes flying open. Paulina stood behind him. He felt himself flushing hotly.
Paulina looked past Murad, through the two fronds. Then, slowly, she lifted her gaze to Murad’s face. She smiled ever so slightly. Her dark eyes glittered.
Alex’s image remained engraved on Murad’s mind. But he was faced with Paulina, who was staring far too knowingly at him. He coughed to clear his throat, wondering if she knew what he was doing, what he was thinking. “Are you looking for me?” he asked, wetting his lips.
She smiled. “Actually, I was. But what were you doing just now, Murad?” Her dark eyes slitted. “Were you watching your mistress bathe?”
“Of course not,” he snapped tersely.
Paulina laughed softly and stepped closer to him. So close that the embroidered vest she wore—and she wore nothing under it—brushed Murad’s own chest. He, too, was wearing only a vest on the upper half of his body. Her bare arm brushed his naked waist; her palm, his thigh. His gaze shot to her face.
He had noticed her before, of course. She was spectacularly beautiful, somewhat stupid—a perfect plaything for Jebal. But that was as far as his thoughts had gone.
“I think you were lusting after Lilli Zohara,” Paulina said softly.
Murad stiffened, a denial forming on his lips. But he did not succeed in getting the words out. For Paulina reached between his legs, her fingertips instantly finding his penis. And instead of moving away, Murad froze.
She slid her fingers up his length, then back down. “You are the handsomest man I have ever seen,” she murmured, rubbing the tip now. He was stunned, unable to breathe, sweating. “I have been thinking about you.”
Many thoughts flashed through Murad’s mind. He had never made love to a woman before, not out of choice, but because, as a eunuch and a slave, he did not have either the normal inclinations of other men or the opportunities. But now he understood that he could have Paulina. Yet he did not want Paulina, he wanted Alex. He ached with the wanting he felt for his mistress, not just in his loins, but in his soul.
But his blood had never raced as fast or as heatedly. He had never felt such excitement before. Paulina’s fingertips were magical and dexterous on his flesh.
Paulina smiled, slipping to her knees. Murad was almost, but not quite, in a state of disbelief. She pulled him through the slit in his trousers, bent, and flicked her tongue over the bulbous head. Murad gasped.Praise Allah, this was paradise.
Paulina sucked him into her mouth.
Then she sucked him down her throat.
