Society Weddings by Sharon Kendrick, Kate Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

tightly closed eyes, and it hit him like a body-blow just what was happening.
    He tried to stop himself, but it was too late for that—far too late. He felt the slow shuddering of an orgasm so deep and intense and earth-shattering that he thought he might die at that very moment, and be happy to die that way.
    For a moment the world lost meaning as it shifted out of focus, and then reality began to creep back, like the first faint sun after the winter freeze.
    He stifled a groan, and when he had stilled he withdrew from her as gently as he could. But he did not need to see the scarlet flowering which had spread over the clothes and divan like new blossom. He had guessed for himself.
    He caught her against his bare chest. But she was stiff and unmoving in his arms as the words caught in his throat like dust and his heart pounded with something very close to pain.
    ‘You were a virgin,’ he said flatly.

CHAPTER FIVE
    J ENNA didn’t answer for a moment, but when she opened her eyes it was to surprise an expression of something approaching sorrow in his own. Moving out of his embrace, she reached for the huge towel which lay beside the bed and cuddled it over her protectively, though its warmth did little to take the edge off her feeling of naked exposure and her teeth began to chatter violently.
    ‘ Weren’t you, Jenna?’ he demanded again, but this time his voice was gentler. ‘A virgin?’
    ‘Y-yes,’ she stumbled.
    ‘You lied to me,’ he said, but it was less an accusation and more as though he was trying to work out some kind of insoluble calculation.
    She bit down on her lip. ‘Yes, again.’
    There was a heartbeat of a pause. ‘But I don’t understand.’ His voice sounded dazed. ‘I don’t understand why.’
    It was the closest she had ever heard to Rashid admitting confusion. She opened her eyes and wished that she hadn’t, for he was lying on his side, leaning on his elbow with his chin resting on his hand. And, although his eyes burned into her with their jet-dark question, he seemed thoroughly unself-conscious in his nakedness.
    His body was burnished gold by the sunlight which filtered in through the shutters, as if he had been moulded from some precious metal. It was a very, very beautiful body, thought Jenna.
    But it had not brought her pleasure, she reminded herself achingly—and now it never would.
    ‘Why, Jenna?’ he persisted, and his eyes narrowed as he saw the sudden tremble of her lips. He who had never failed a woman had failed this one!
    She shook her head. ‘I can’t,’ she whispered. ‘I’m not having this conversation now. Not here. Like this.’ Beneath the towel she felt more vulnerable still, worried that he might touch her again—and even more stupidly worried that he would not. How had this unthinkable situation come about? ‘I’d l-like to get dressed, please.’
    He narrowed his eyes, and then nodded. ‘Go and get dressed, then,’ he said quietly. ‘But I’m not going anywhere.’
    She edged him a pleading look as she moved off the bed with as much dignity as she could muster.
    But he ignored her silent request. He obviously had no intention of moving. True to his word, he continued to lie there, as lazily indolent as a cat who had just sampled a particularly large saucer of cream. Couldn’t he just do the decent thing, and go—and leave her with this terrible sense of regret?
    She grabbed her underwear and her silky Quador clothes and, feeling his dark eyes still on her body, moved towards the bathroom, where she defiantly turned the key in the door very loudly.
    She showered for a long time, washing every last musky trace of his masculine scent from her body, and then she slipped on the robes, which were coloured palest blue, and went back into the room, expecting—no, hoping—that he would be gone.
    But he had not gone. Of course he hadn’t.
    Some time during her shower he had put his own robes back on, and now he was sprawled, silent and watchful, on one