The Desert King's Captive Bride by Annie West

Author:Annie West [West, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2017-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

HUSEYN TURNED THE TAP to full, letting the cold water pound him, hard and needle-sharp. Yet each tiny stab from each streaming shower jet only made him more aware of his body than before, not less. The needling discomfort was nothing to the disgust channelling through his gut, leaving a gaping hollow where his self-respect used to reside.

He sluiced water from his face then propped his palm against the tiled wall, leaning hard as his body sagged.

He shook his head, still horrified at what he’d done. Taken Ghizlan—beautiful, defiant, wary Ghizlan—with the finesse of a rutting ram.

Even when he’d realised she was a virgin, had he stopped? Had he pulled back and made her first time easier?

Huseyn’s eyes squeezed shut at the memory of how he’d been unable to restrain himself, so lost in thrall to her glorious body and the drugging hunger that overrode his brain and left his libido in control of his body.

The dazed shock in her beautiful eyes had shot an arrow straight to his conscience. He’d known he had to pull away, but for the first time ever, intending and doing had been two separate things. He hadn’t been able to do more than begin to apologise, because he’d been overtaken by the most intense, all-consuming climax of his life.

He dragged a hand over his face, almost surprised to feel familiar features. He felt as if he was no longer the man he’d been. What he’d done—hurting Ghizlan—went against every code of honour. His pride revolted.

He’d brushed off her jibes about him taking unwilling women, about him possibly hurting lovers because of his size, because of course it was nonsense. Aware of his greater bulk, Huseyn always held back, ensuring his lover’s pleasure and never letting go completely. Now, unbelievably, he’d done as she’d accused and he didn’t know what to do with himself. His skin was too tight and his conscience too big.

Wrenching off the taps, he reached for a towel and began to dry himself.

He couldn’t have expected her to be a virgin at her age. Surely not. And she’d spent years in the West, supposedly studying, but, he’d assumed, partying and living a life of idle pleasure.

How could she have been a virgin?

How could a woman who looked like that have reached her mid-twenties and not—?

He was making excuses. As soon as he’d discovered she was a virgin he’d had a duty to withdraw, to soothe and ease her into sex.

Instead he’d succumbed to selfishness. Absorbed in the rapture of Ghizlan’s capitulation, he hadn’t been able to put the brakes on. He’d lost himself in mere seconds.

There’d been a heady elation in taking his wife’s untried body. In the sudden, overwhelming knowledge that he was her first and only lover. It had shattered his control even as he’d ordered himself to stop.

No wonder he hadn’t been able to face her afterwards. He could imagine the reproach in those dark velvet eyes. For once her estimation of him had been right. And for the first time in his life he’d run, unable to look her in the face while guilt devoured him.

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