The Return of the Sheikh by Kristi Gold Read Free Book Online Page B

Bugatti without test-driving it first.”
    Her eyes went wide. “You’re comparing a woman to a car?”
    “No. I am only saying that sexual compatibility holds great importance in a marriage, or it should. How will you know you are compatible in that regard unless you experience intimacy before you make a commitment?”
    She looked skeptical and borderline angry. “In my opinion, sex shouldn’t carry too much weight. As they say, passion does have a tendency to fade.”
    “You sound as if you speak from experience. Have you been married?”
    “No, but I was in a long-term relationship, and he’s the reason I no longer have my dog.”
    “So you parted because of a canine?”
    She briefly smiled. “We were the cliché. He wanted a house and kids and to live in suburbia, while I wanted a career in the city.”
    “And you have no desire to have a family?”
    An odd and fleeting look of pain crossed her expression. “I have no intention of giving up my career for a man. My mother fell into that trap with my father.”
    Her past obviously was as complex as his. “That wasn’t the life she chose?”
    She downed the rest of the tea. “Oh, she chose it, all right. She gave up a career as a medical researcher to globe-trot with her diplomat husband. I’ve never understood how someone could claim to love someone so much that they’d set their aspirations aside for another person.”
    “Perhaps it all goes back to shared and sustained passion.”
    She released a sarcastic laugh. “Sorry, but I just can’t wrap my mind around that. In fact, I don’t even want to think about passion and my parents in the same sentence.”
    Her skepticism both surprised and intrigued him. “Have you never experienced a strong passion for someone?”
    “As I’ve said, it’s overrated.”
    Apparently she hadn’t been with the right man. A man who could show her the true meaning of desire. He could be that man. He wanted to be that man despite his original intention to drive her away. And so went the last of his wisdom.
    He surveyed her face from forehead to chin and centered on her mouth. “You’ve never been so attuned to someone that when you enter a room, that person is all you see? You’ve never wanted someone so desperately that you would risk everything to have them?”
    She drew in a shaky breath. “Not that I recall.”
    “I cannot imagine you would have voluntarily missed out on all that lovemaking has to offer.”
    Her eyes took on a hazy cast. “What makes you think I have missed out?”
    He traced her lips with a fingertip. “If you had, you wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the existence of phenomenal sex.”
    He expected her to argue the point. He predicted she would back away. He wasn’t prepared when she gripped the back of his neck and brought his mouth to hers.
    All her untapped passion came out in the kiss. He could taste the mint on her tongue, could sense any latent resistance melt when he tightened his hold on her. He had no doubt she could feel how much he wanted her when he streamed his hands to her hips and nudged her completely against him.
    He should halt the insanity before he carried her to his bed, or dispensed with formality and took her down where they now stood. Yet stopping didn’t appear to be an option—until she stopped.
    Madison wrested out of his arms, looking stunned and well kissed and quite perturbed. “What was that?”
    Zain leaned back against the wall and dared to smile. “That was uncontrolled passion. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you didn’t recognize it.”
    She backed up a few steps and tugged at the hem of her blouse. “I tell you what that was. That was a huge mistake on my part. That was too much talk about that darn baby-making mountain.”
    When she spun around and listed to one side, he clasped her arm to prevent her from falling. “Perhaps it was the tea,” he whispered in her ear from behind her.
    “Perhaps I’m just an idiot.” She pulled away again