Desert Orchid: The Desert Princes: Book 1 by CC MacKenzie Read Free Book Online

moment if he’d misjudged her? But then the tip of her pink tongue flicked over her full bottom lip and he shrugged the thought away. Oh no, Charisse knew exactly what he was doing to him with those big innocent eyes.
    She had the face of a seraph.
    And the heart of a harlot.
    Temptation whispered in his ear that she might be a harlot, but now she was his harlot. And Khalid decided to help himself to the offer of those trembling lips.
    First his teeth tugged gently on the full bottom lip in a way that had her gasp into his mouth. Lord, she was so soft and tasted so fucking sweet. His libido roared like a formula one racing car on the starting line as blood surged into his erection so fast he shuddered with the pleasure pain of it. For the first time, he thanked God he’d given up alcohol. Then his mouth took hers. He plundered, in a crushing, passionate and bruising kiss that had her moan deep in her throat. And at last he gathered that silvery waterfall of scented hair in his hand to tip back her head to get the angle just right. His hand skimmed down her back, past a tiny waist, to that tight little bottom, jerking her against the hard evidence of his need.
    He never took his eyes off her stunning face as she shivered in his arms, shaking uncontrollably in reaction. Slim arms wound tentatively around his neck. Little tease. Someone had taught her well how to act the artless ingénue. He bet there wasn't a man alive who wouldn't be turned on by this innocent performance. And all the while her eyes were tightly closed as she pressed her soft body against his in a way that told him she’d completely surrendered. Dear heaven he was trembling, too. Alarm bells pealed loud and long in his brain. The need to taste her was like a drug. But needs were dangerous things because needs led to addiction. And addiction led to the destruction of the soul and of the body and of the mind.
    A little thrill of panicked excitement whipped through Charisse.
    His mouth, hungry and hard, devoured hers. His big hands bruised, branded. This was not the gentle, soft kiss, or the murmur of whispered promises by the man of her dreams. This was something dangerous, something dark, and something she simply could not defy.
    Charisse felt her blood heat, sizzle under her skin as his hands, rough, impatient, ran from her shoulders down to her hips and back again. There was an urgency, almost a ferocity, about the way his mouth took hers. She tasted dark needs, and a complete lack of self-discipline. And a little voice told her to be very, very careful. She ignored it, straining her body against the hardness of his, willing, impatient and ready to go wherever he took her.
    Then her body shivered once, a violent whip of the senses, as needs, long dormant, rose to take her up and over a ragged peak.
    He heard her smothered cry, swallowed it, tasted the sweetness of her. And by God she was so addictive as her fingernails clung onto his shoulders digging deep with a desperation that thrilled him. Khalid knew it was crazy, they'd just met, but he wanted her now, here, on the floor. Dragging his mouth from hers, he watched her through narrowed eyes as he tried to catch his breath. His mouth had gone bone dry and his heart was making a desperate bid to escape through his ribs.
    On a vicious curse, he shoved her back to stare into her eyes. Huge. Her skin was flushed with arousal as the pulse in her neck fluttered erratically. Her soft mouth was trembling, swollen, from his. And he found it so erotic he cursed, yanked her back to devour that willing mouth again. And again he heard her smothered cry against his mouth and he caught her hair, slippery in his hand, pulling her head back. His mouth plundered hers, and even as she trembled and cried out again he could do nothing to stop.
    Then she went stiff in his arms.
    Her short little breaths panting into his mouth.
    And reason finally battled through insanity.
    No one was that good an actress.
    She was