The sheikh's chosen wife by Michelle Reid Read Free Book Online

front of her.
    Swallowing on a lump of
tears, Leona turned her face away. 'Yes,' she whispered.
    His sudden grip on her
hand dragged it from her eyes. 'To my face,' he instructed, 'You will tell me
this to my face!'
    Her head whipped up, tear
darkened eyes fixing painfully on burning black. 'Don't—' she pleaded.
    But he was not going to
give in. He was pale and he was hurt and he was furiously angry, I want to hear
you state that you feel no love for me,' he persisted. 'I want you to tell that
wicked lie to my face. And then I want to hear you beg forgiveness when I prove
to you otherwise! Do you understand, Leona?'
    'All right! So, I love
you! Does that make it all okay?' she cried out. ‘I love you but I will not
stay married to you! I will not watch you ruin your life because of me!'
    There—it was out. The
bitter truth. On voicing it, she broke free and reeled away, hurting so much it
was almost impossible to breathe. 'And your life?' he persisted relentlessly.
'What happens to it while you play the sacrificial lamb for mine?'
    'I'll get by,' she said,
trying to walk on legs that were shaking so badly she wasn't sure if she was
going to fall down.
    'You'll marry again?'
    She shuddered and didn't
reply.
    'Take lovers in an
attempt to supplant me?'
    Harsh and cruel though he
sounded, she could hear his anguish, ‘I need no one,' she whispered.
    'Then you mean to spend
the rest of your life watching me produce progeny with this second wife I am to
take?'
    'Oh, dear heaven.' She
swung around. 'What are you trying to do to me?' she choked out tormentedly.
    'Make you see,' he
gritted. 'Make you open your eyes and see what it is you are condemning us both
to.'
    'But I'm not condemning
you to anything! I am giving you my blessing to do what you want with your
life!'
    If she'd offered to give
him a whole harem he could not have been more infuriated. His face became a map
of hard angles. 'Then I will take what I want!' It was a declaration of intent
that propelled him across the space between them. Before Leona knew what was
coming she was locked in his arms and being lifted until their eyes were level.
Startled green irises locked with burning black passion. He gave her one small
second to read their message before he was kissing her furiously. Shocked out
of one kind of torment, she found herself flung into the middle of
another—because once again she had no will to fight. She even released a
protesting groan when her feet found solid ground again and he broke the urgent
kiss.
    Her lips felt hot, and
pulsed with such a telling fullness that she had to lick them to try and cool
them down. His breath left his body on a hiss that brought her eyes flickering
dazedly up to his. Thick dark lashes rested over ebony eyes that were fixed on
the moist pink tip of her tongue. A slither of excitement skittered right down
the front of her. Her breasts grew tight, her abdomen warming at the prospect of
what all of this meant.
    Making love. Feeling him
deep inside her. No excuses, no drawing back this time. She only had to took at
Hassan to know this was it. He was about to stake his claim on what belonged to
him.
    'You will regret this
later,' she warned unsteadily, because she knew how his passions and his
conscience did not always walk in tandem—especially not where she was
concerned.
    'Are you denying me?' he
threw back in a voice that said he was interested in the answer, but only out
of curiosity.
    Well, Leona asked
herself, are you?
    The answer was no, she
was not denying him anything he wanted to take from her tonight. Tomorrow was
another day, another war, another set of agonising conflicts. Reaching up, she
touched a gentle finger to his mouth, drew its shape, softened the tension out
of it, then sighed, went up on tiptoe and gently joined their mouths.
    His hands found the
slender frame of her hips and drew her against him; her hands lifted higher to
link around his neck so her fingers could slide sensually into his silk