18
She turned her back to Ephraim and curled into a fetal position when he placed her on the bed after she came for him and collapsed into his arms. He pulled the covers over her naked body and then lay down beside her, breathing hard as his cock throbbed and his balls clenched tight. Already Ephraim could feel himself fall under her spell—a spell that she perhaps did not even know she was casting upon him, perhaps upon them both! He watched her back rise and fall as she took deep breaths, marveled at the way the silk sheets highlighted her womanly curves, shuddered at the scent of her perfume mixing with the aroma of her wet sex. He was hard and ready, and there was nothing to stop him from pulling those covers off her and taking her hard and fast, any way he wanted. He’d done it a thousand times, with a thousand different women. But he held back and waited, his chest heaving as he controlled his arousal and lay there beside her.
Ephraim listened to her breathe, and slowly he matched her breath for breath until he could sense their bodies falling into a subtle rhythm even though they lay side by side with no contact and she still had her back to him.
Ya Allah, I feel an attraction, a pull, a magnetic draw to her, Ephraim thought as he marveled at how this woman was somehow controlling him even though in a way she’d lost control of herself. Her orgasm had been real, intense, wild, and it had almost driven Ephraim himself over the edge. But somehow he’d held himself in check and carried her to the bed, laying her down gently instead of pushing her face into the pillow and pumping into her from behind until he exploded into her depths like he wanted.
Now he felt movement as their breathing stayed in rhythm, and he turned his head to see Jan’s big brown eyes looking at him. She’d turned on her side to face him, and she looked beautiful in the yellow light of the sun that streamed in from behind. The angle of the sun’s rays cast her in a strange golden light, and Ephraim frowned as he was reminded of the shining waters of the Golden Oasis. A chill ran through him when he thought back to what he’d read about Jan, about her research into shared marriages, her belief that humans had evolved as a species who enjoyed multiple sexual partners and formed strong bonds that were more than just one-on-one.
We are all just part of her research, just like she herself is part of her research, he thought. And there is no way to research something like this without immersing yourself into it, without letting yourself go, without giving up control. She knows it. That is why she willingly drank the aruha. And that is why Darius has chosen her. The thought had occurred to him several times before, but it did not really hit home until he looked into her brown eyes, took in the sight of her brown curls lit by the morning sun, the sheets draped over her curves in a way that made him think she might be a goddess in human form, sent down to either save them or destroy them.
“Hi,” she said softly, blinking once and looking down at the bed before holding the eye contact again. She looked shy, almost ashamed. Was it an act? Did she even know if it was an act?
“Hello,” he whispered. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and murmured. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know what I am. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Ephraim took a breath, frowning as he wondered how to play this. Everything about this woman seemed genuine right then—the orgasm, the confusion, the shame, the uncertainty. But at the same time she’d willingly stepped into this situation, hadn’t she? She’d come to London on Darius’s arm, allowed Ephraim to take her, and then collapsed into his arms as she came at his command. Who was playing whom? Who was the seducer and who was being seduced? Who was the researcher and who was the goddamn lab rat? He thought he knew the answer—that all three of them were her lab rats—but he needed to hear her say it. He needed to hear her tell him the truth.
“You are here because you want to be here,” he said. “Yes?”
She took a breath and blinked, and there was that flash of shame. But when she looked into his eyes again the shame was gone, as if by an act of her own will. “Yes,” she said.
“Why?” Ephraim said firmly.
“Because . . . because . . . oh, God, I don’t even know how to explain it. I can’t even begin to understand it myself. It seems mad.”
“That is a good start to understanding it. Yes, it is mad. Go on. Tell me. Tell me everything. Do not worry about whether it makes sense. Just talk. It is just the two of us.” He reached out and touched her brown hair that seemed infused with the gold of sunlight. That chill went through him again as he did it, and he felt her shudder under his careful caress. Would she be honest about why she was here, about what Darius was thinking? Did he even care as he lay here beside her, her scent overwhelming him, just a thin sheet separating her body from his.
“Just the two of us . . .” she whispered, a smile breaking on her pretty round face. “That’s what makes it so mad. It’s not just the two of us!”
Ephraim exhaled slowly as that chill spread to his entire body, somehow warming him to the core. Now he knew Darius had slept with her. He’d suspected it, but to hear her say it was something else. A flash of anger passed through him, and he hated himself for it. Jealousy? Over a woman you have not even slept with yet? Or is it that fire of competition? “No, it is not just the two of us. And it will never be just the two of us. That is what Darius wants, yes? That is how he convinced you to play this game, yes? He offered you the chance of a lifetime to experiment on yourself, to test your own research, to live your own research.” Ephraim paused for a moment as he looked at her expression, which changed for a flash. He needed the full story, even though he suspected he knew. “Something else,” he whispered. “He offered you something else? Wealth? Fame?” She stayed quiet and Ephraim blinked and then his eyes stayed steady. “Marriage? He offered you a chance to be the wife of a Sheikh?”
Her eyes narrowed and her smile tightened. She was quiet for a moment, as if wondering how much to tell him. Then she spoke, and from her tone Ephraim knew she’d decided to tell him everything. “The chance to be the wife of two Sheikhs. The chance to prevent a war. The chance to . . . to be queen.”
The last word came out in a whisper, and Ephraim saw it on her face as the adrenaline surged through his body. He saw everything in her eyes in that moment. He saw her.
Ambition. Strength. Power. But also compassion and a sense of adventure. He could see now why she said she couldn’t understand all the reasons she was doing this: It was because there were many reasons, all of them intertwined, all of them arising from who she was.
“The wife of two Sheikhs, and the queen of two kingdoms,” he said, frowning and narrowing his eyes as he caressed her face and then held on to a fistful of her hair as she winced. “So that is why you came here? To seduce me into giving up my kingdom? A little ambitious, don’t you think? Not to mention ridiculous.”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” Jan whispered through a hesitant smile. “But don’t act like you didn’t guess this was Darius’s idea.”
“I guessed no such thing. I assumed Darius sent you to seduce me and then assassinate me with poison or a dagger to my throat.”
“Now that’s ridiculous,” she whispered, looking down at his naked body and then slowly reaching for his cock. “Why would I kill the man who’s going to make me his queen?”
“Ya Allah,” Ephraim groaned as she stroked his cock with her fingertips, the sensation almost making him come all over the sheets. “Who are you, woman? And why have I not had you tossed out into the street yet?”
“For the same reason you brought me here,” Jan said. “You guessed what Darius is offering. And you’re considering taking him up on that offer.” Slowly she curled her fingers around his swollen mast, and he groaned and stretched his neck as he went so stiff he almost passed out. “You’re considering it very seriously, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”
She was jerking him back and forth as she spoke, and Ephraim’s mind began to spin as a devilish grin broke on his face. He was in it now, he realized. In the goddamn arena. In her goddamn arena!
“Remind me again. What is Darius offering?” he muttered.
“Me,” she whispered, leaning up on her elbow as the sheets fell away once more and the golden light bathed her naked body in a glow that Ephraim swore was not of the earth. “He is offering me.”