Sheikh's Command by Sophia Lynn Read Free Book Online Page B

how vital they felt in each other's arms, how warm he was, how good he felt as he kissed her like she had never been kissed.
    When he finally stood up again, her mouth felt bruised, and everything seemed too bright, as if simply his kissing alone had dazed her.
    “Makeen …”
    “Do not,” he said with a shudder, “call my name like that again unless you are prepared to answer for the consequences of your actions. Right now, you should get in the shower and wash up. I'll have breakfast going by the time you are done.”
    “But …”
    “Are you taking my orders or not, woman? Go.”
    She laughed a little at his words, shaking her head. After a moment of deliberation, she wrapped the sheet around her body and padded to the bathroom. She could feel his eyes on her the entire way, and when she closed the door behind her, she sighed.
    Things are never simple, she thought to herself, but as she stepped under the hot water, Olivia found herself smiling a little.
    It's so much better when they're not …
    ***
    When she climbed out of the shower and dragged a soft blue dress over her head, she poked her head into the hallway and realized that she could smell something delicious. Olivia followed her nose down the hallway and was rewarded with the sight of Makeen, shirtless in nothing more than a pair of jeans, tending a skillet over the stove. She hopped up on one of the kitchen stools, setting her chin in her hand as she watched him.
    “That feels like something you should have ordered me to do,” she observed, and Makeen shot her a dry look.
    “How much cooking have you done?”
    “Some. I can fry eggs and make toast, at least.”
    “I took a cooking class for a few months. I like being able to eat things that aren't charred.”
    She tilted her head as he plated up an omelet, setting it to join another that was already plated on the counter.
    “Cooking—isn't that a slightly strange pastime for a member of the royal family?”
    He shrugged, bringing the plates to the kitchen island. “My father and mother both believed that there was nothing to be gained by spoiling me. I should at least know how to do work even if I would never have to do it for a living. I was taught that learning keeps you humble and makes you a better person.”
    “They sound very wise,” Olivia said, biting her lip. “I noticed that you used the past tense.”
    “They are both dead. They went within a week of each other. My father died in a plane crash, and my mother … sickened after. It was a great tragedy for the country.”
    “And for you?”
    He paused, and she wondered if she had gone too far. She held her breath, but then he shrugged.
    “It is a wound that heals slowly, but I do not think it will ever be entirely gone. I go months without thinking about them, and then suddenly I wonder what my father would have done, or what my mother would have said. It is, as they say, a process.”
    Without thinking of what she was doing, she reached out to touch his hand. There was nothing sexual about it, nothing flirtatious. All she wanted to do was to offer him some of the sympathy that she felt. He looked up, surprised at her touch, but the look he flashed her was grateful.
    “It is not always at the forefront of my mind. I have grieved, and I have moved on.”
    “You do them great credit,” she said, and he sighed.
    “I hope so. And you? Do your parents know that you are here?”
    She flinched at that. Instead of answering right away, she looked down at the plate of food in front of her.
    “Ah … Have I asked something that I should not have asked?”
    “No … that is, no. Not really. It is only that my parents … are not the most attentive people. They are very single-minded, and well … Yes, they know I am here, and approval is not something I worry about, because approval has never been a thing that they have given me.”
    The look on Makeen's face was stormy, and she rushed to cover. “It's not important, we are just … very