Innocent in the Desert: The Sheikh's Impatient Virgin / The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin / The Desert Lord's Bride

He didn’t react because he didn’t see her. Her glance moved from the tiny waxy-faced figure in the bed, so slight that her arm seemed too fragile to hold all the tubes that protruded from it, to the tall man standing by the window looking blindly out at the city below.

She saw the moisture on his cheeks and empathy so acute it hurt swelled in her chest.

Her heart aching for his grief, she moved towards him, her hand outstretched. ‘I’m so sorry, Karim.’

At the sound of her voice he turned his head. ‘Eva?’

She saw then that it was not grief and pain that shone in his eyes, but joy and relief.

Her hand fell away self-consciously. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude but—’

‘It is working,’ he said, his eyes on the figure in the bed. ‘She’s going to be all right.’

The expression on his face as he looked at his daughter brought a lump to her throat. ‘I’m so glad, Karim,’ she said softly.

‘You’re here?’ he said as if just registering her presence.

Feeling like an intruder, she absently rubbed her fingers across the ring on her left hand and nodded. ‘I just thought I might be able to do something to help, but I can see—’

‘You want to help?’ he said, his voice low and gravelly.

Unable to read his expression as he advanced with panther-like grace towards her, Eva shook her head. ‘It was just a thought.’

He stopped just in front of her. The tension she could feel rolling off him in waves made her senses spin. His deep-set eyes glittered as he looked down at her. ‘You can help.’

‘I …’

He hooked a finger under her chin, growling, ‘Don’t talk.’ And brought his mouth down hard on hers.

Her shocked gasp was lost in his mouth as her lips parted under the sensuous pressure. She had not known a kiss could be like this: raw, possessive, passionate and hungry. Molten heat seared her nerve endings as she melted into him with a sigh and kissed him back, sliding her fingers deep into his hair and groaning at the first stabbing intrusion of his tongue inside her mouth.

When he finally lifted his head they were both breathing hard. ‘Oh!’ She sighed, unpeeling her arms from his neck as he placed her back on her feet.

‘Indeed!’

‘Did that help?’ she whispered, staring at him with starry stunned eyes. She could still taste him in her mouth.

The voice in her head warned she was wildly overreacting to a kiss that had obviously been an outward release of his tension, but she couldn’t help it.

If that was him using her, she couldn’t wait for him to do it again.

‘It hurt.’ Dragging his mouth from hers had been one of the hardest things he had ever done. ‘It hurt to stop …’ he clarified in response to her bewildered expression.

‘Oh!’

He studied her flushed face. ‘You look like a girl who has never been kissed before.’

Never like that, she thought, unable to think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t come out as, Please do it again.

Eva cleared her throat. ‘It was unexpected.’ She wanted him so badly her bones ached with it. The intensity of what she was feeling simultaneously shocked and excited her. ‘Like getting married,’ she observed with a nervous laugh. ‘I was thinking more along the lines of a cup of tea or a sandwich.’

‘You taste better than a sandwich.’

The smouldering heat in his eyes sent a fresh pulse of longing through her body. ‘So do you.’

‘I think it might be a good idea if you went with Tariq now.’

She felt a stab of hurt that fell away as he added, ‘This is not the place or time for us to continue this … conversation.’

The frustrated glow in his eyes was a soothing balm to her ego. ‘You’re staying?’

‘Amira wakes in the night and the nurses struggle to settle her.’ Karim pulled a chair across to his daughter’s bedside and lowered himself into it. ‘Love for a child is something that tears your heart out.’ He slid a sideways glance towards Eva as he added softly, ‘When you have children of your own you will understand.’

Eva blinked at the comment. ‘I hadn’t thought about children.’

His frown made her realise it might have been an idea to censor her response. ‘Well, think about it now, Princess, because I am duty-bound to provide an heir.’

Eva tensed as the word duty sent a chill through her body. She shivered; it sounded so clinical.

‘An heir?’ she echoed.

‘There has been impatience in some quarters. The news I am married will be greeted with a sigh of relief.’

‘You expect me to have your children?’ She looked at him in horror.

A nerve clenched along his jaw. ‘Whose children did you expect to have?’ he asked, seeing the handsome blond academic.

‘No one’s … that is, children are meant to be the result of love, not …’

‘Empty sex?’ he suggested, not quite sure why her reaction made him so angry, but totally sure she was in the wrong. ‘Are you looking for love, Eva?’

She flushed and bit her quivering lip. ‘No, I’m not.’

Liar, he thought, looking at her face and not wanting to stop. ‘Let it stay that way. I don’t want you falling for me,’ he warned. ‘I’m not into needy women.’

He could be very cruel. She wondered about the first wife who had given him the daughter he clearly adored, presumably he had loved her. Maybe he still did?

She lowered her eyes and struggled to lower the emotional temperature.

It hardly boded well—married literally five minutes and they were already fighting. And she had no idea how or why—it had just sort of exploded like the sexual chemistry that had preceded it. ‘Like you said, this isn’t the right time for this conversation.’

Karim scowled. He knew that this was not the right time but all he could see was the horror on her face at the suggestion she have his children. ‘Contrary to your belief, empty sex produces children just as efficiently as true love, which is as well for us.

‘And don’t act as though it would be a hardship, because I just kissed you and you didn’t want me to stop. For some people empty sex is all there is and so far we’ve both been enjoying it with other people. The only change is we start enjoying it with each other.’

Eva went paper white. ‘I don’t want sex with you, empty or otherwise, and if I were you I’d invest in a good self-help book. They probably have an entire chapter on men who have to precede sex with empty!’

Karim gave a thin-lipped smile. ‘You want it so badly you can taste it …’ His voice trailed off as he looked at her and felt need flood through his body. He had never needed a woman before … wanted but not needed.