Free Sheikh's Command by Sophia Lynn

shook it off. However, when she thought of it, she realized that beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was absolutely the right word. She felt the way she did before she brought her bow down to the strings, when the light shone on her, and all the rustling of the audience had fallen into an expectant hush.
    It was too much to say. She had been a musician all her life, and words were not always her friends. Instead, in the circle of Makeen's arms, she turned to face him. His face was dark in the dim light, but it was easy enough to reach up and to trace his lips with the pads of her fingers. Instinctively, his soft tongue came out to lap at her sensitive fingers, making Olivia shiver with desire.
    “All my life, I thought I knew desire,” she said softly. “I wanted to play my violin, I wanted to perform for an audience of thousands, I wanted to make my living doing what I loved best. This … this is different.”
    “How so?”
    “I want this more.”
    Her words were naked in the darkness. Olivia wasn't sure that she could have said them in the light. They were too different from what she had believed for years, too far from who she used to be to be understood. But, as she was beginning to learn, she was turning into someone new, like warm clay in Makeen's hands, and though a part of her was terrified, more of her wanted it.
    She could feel a shiver go through Makeen's body at her soft words. In that moment, Olivia knew that if she had any doubts about what was going to happen tonight, she should stop him. She knew that she could. She could say a word and send him away.
    She didn't.
    Instead, she trembled as he bent his dark head down to hers, one hand coming up to tangle in her dark hair. He held her still as he kissed her, but there was something restrained about the way he did it. The tenderness and care in his kiss was so powerful that it made a lump form in her throat. No one had ever kissed her like this, so sweetly and tenderly.
    There was a red-hot current of passion underneath the tenderness, however, that rose up for both of them. He could feel it the same way that she could, and when she pressed more firmly against him, he groaned.
    “I have never felt this for another woman,” he said. “You drive me wild. You make me want things that I should not want …”
    In that moment, Olivia had never felt freer. She felt as if she could simply push away from the earth and spin into the sky. The only things that kept her grounded were his arms around her and her complete and consuming need for him.
    “Want me,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Want me tonight …”
    “Always,” he said, and he kissed her again.
    That overwhelming tenderness was still there, but now its dark twin of desire was present as well, rising up and making them cling to each other as if there was nothing else in the world. She could feel herself warming to him with just this tender touch. She could feel his manhood rise up to press against her.
    With no warning at all, he lifted her off her feet, carrying her like a bride to the enormous white bed. Makeen laid her down on it, and then his hands went to the buttons at the front of her dress. Instead of unbuttoning her clothes, he took two great fistfuls of fabric in his hands and yanked, the light cloth ripping apart like tissue.
    Olivia had not understood how erotic the sensation and sound of tearing fabric could be, nor the sudden feeling of being entirely exposed. Suddenly, in the dim room, she was lying in front of the man she wanted like she wanted to breathe, bare except for her lacy bra and panties.
    “You have no idea how beautiful you are,” he whispered, sitting back on his heels to look at her. “Your skin is the softest I have ever felt. You look as if you were made just for me.”
    In that moment, Olivia felt as if he were right, as if every part of her was made for Makeen, and that her twenty-four years without him had starved her. Now her body cried for him, and the only thing