Prince Hafiz's Only Vice

“Ssh.” She silenced him by pressing her fingers against his parted lips. “Please.”

He covered her hand with his and placed soft kisses in the heart of her palm. “I don’t want you to leave,” he said against her skin.

“Then, come away with me!” She impulsively tangled her fingers with his and pulled him away from the door. His torn expression shamed her. She drew back and let go of his hand. “I’m sorry. That was wrong.”

He moved swiftly and crushed her against him. “I can’t leave Rudaynah,” he whispered, his breath ruffling her hair. “And you can’t stay. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. I’m only half alive when you are not around.”

He didn’t want to give her up, but he had the strength to do it when she wanted to ignore the inevitable. Hafiz would flourish without her while she wilted into a slow death. “In time, you’ll forget all about me.”

He tightened their embrace. “How can you say that?”

“You will,” she predicted with a sigh. It happened to her before, and nothing she did would stop it from happening again. “You need to leave.” Now, before it became impossible. Before she threw herself at his feet and begged him to stay.

“Yes.” He gradually relaxed his hold but didn’t let go. “This was already a risk.”

She looked up into his face. The scent of the desert night clung to his warm skin. The steady and strong beat of his heart pounded under her hand. The passion he felt for her shone in his eyes. This was how she wanted to remember him. “Goodbye, Hafiz.”

He lowered his face and gently brushed his mouth against hers. Like Lacey, he kept his eyes open, needing to commit this last kiss to memory. The unshed tears in her eyes blurred his image. Lacey’s lips clung to his. The craving to deepen the kiss radiated between them. She felt his need to carry her away and the struggle to leave her behind.

“I have to go,” he murmured against her mouth.

“I know.” The world tilted as he withdrew, and his arms dropped away from her. She felt exposed and weak. A single tear spilled down her cheek. “I wish...” She stopped and bit her lip.

“You wish what?” When she didn’t answer, he grabbed her upper arms with his large hands. “Tell me,” he pleaded, his fingers biting into her flesh.

“No.” She shook her head. She had to be strong and ignore her wants. For both of them. “I wish you...happiness.”

Hafiz shook her slightly until tendrils of her hair fell in front of her face. “That was not what you were going to say. Don’t end this on a lie,” he ordered, agony threading his voice. “Don’t leave me with a half-spoken wish, so that I will go mad trying to figure out what you wanted to say.”

Lacey looked away. She’d ruined the moment, all because she couldn’t let him go. “I can’t.”

“Tell me what you wish,” he said against her ear, teasing her willpower with his husky voice full of promise. “I will make it come true if it’s in my power.”

“I wish we...” She swallowed. Damn her weakness! “I wish we had at least one more night.”

She saw the gleam in Hafiz’s bronze eyes. Her request unleashed something dark and primitive inside him. He wanted to claim her, possess her so completely that she would never forget him. As if she could.

“I can grant you that wish,” he promised as his features sharpened with lust. “Tonight.”

“No.” Lacey shook her head. They had to stop now. If she went to bed with him tonight, she would do everything in her power to keep him there. “We can’t. You are an engaged man. The sultan has warned you—”

“This is my wish, too.” He gathered her close and lifted her in his arms before he strode to the bedroom. “Don’t deny me one more night.”

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_8caaa581-d5c2-545b-8bb5-40d266ccbfd1)

LACEY CLUNG TO HAFIZ as they entered her bedroom. The bedside lamp offered a faint glow in the large room, casting shadows on the unmade bed. Hafiz barely broke his stride when he kicked the door shut.

She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t rushing to the bed. Lacey felt the urgency pulsating between them. This was the last time they would be together. They had to get a lifetime into one night.

The unfairness of it all hit Lacey, and she tried to push it away. She didn’t want to focus on that. She wasn’t going to waste her last moments with Hafiz on something she couldn’t control.

The only thing she could do was make one beautiful and lasting memory. Have something that could ease the pain when she thought about the love she lost.

Hafiz stood by the edge of the bed, and Lacey knelt on the mattress before him. She pressed her hands against his cheeks and looked deep into his eyes.

She bit the inside of her lip to prevent from speaking when she saw Hafiz’s sadness. It wasn’t like him to show it, but the emotion was too strong; he couldn’t contain it. Lacey closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest. She wanted to ease his pain. Take it away from him.

She was hurting, too. It hurt knowing that after tonight she wouldn’t see him, and she couldn’t touch him. She wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near him.

Her shaky breath echoed in the room.

“Lacey?” Hafiz’s voice was tender as he smoothed his hand against the crown of her head.

She tilted her face up and sought his mouth. She poured everything she felt into the kiss. She held nothing back. The pain and the anger. The love and the unfulfilled dreams.

The heat between them wasn’t a slow burn. It flared hot and wild. Lacey sensed the dangerous power behind it, but this time she didn’t care. In the past they danced around it, knowing it could rage out of control. This time she welcomed it. Encouraged it.

Hafiz bunched her caftan in his fists. She knew it was a silent warning. He needed to leash his sexual hunger, or it could become destructive.

She didn’t think that was possible. There was nothing left to destroy. She wanted to climb the heights with Hafiz and disregard the possibility of plunging into the depths.