The Life She Left Behind Read Free Page B

against him almost more than he could handle. He gritted his teeth and tried to call on all of his focus. Focus, single-mindedness, he was renowned for those things. Trained up to be a leader, a man with the power to rule a nation.
    And yet, with her, he found he did not have the control of a king. He barely had the control of a teenage boy faced with a naked woman for the first time.
    She parted her thighs and he settled between them. He paused for a moment and looked down at her face. Her eyes were on him, open, as he had commanded. She put her hands on his face and stroked him lightly. A shudder moved through him, and he realized that he was not the one in control.
    Not in the least.
    â€œPlease,” she whispered against his lips.
    He pressed against the entrance of her body, easing in slowly. Her face tensed, a small sound of pain, deep in her throat, stopping him short.
    She shook her head. “It’s okay.” She slid her hands down to his buttocks and urged him on.
    Being inside her, fully inside her, was more than he had fantasized about. It went beyond any experience, real or imagined.
    She moved against him, meeting his thrusts, pressing kisses to his neck, pushing him higher, faster. But he needed to ensure that she found her pleasure. He had to. Somehow that directive pierced through the fog of his arousal.
    He wrapped his fingers around her thigh and draped his over hers, opening her to him. Then he placed his other hand at her breast, teasing her nipple, drawing it tighter. A short sound of pleasure escaped her lips and he continued on, teasing her, tormenting her. Teasing and tormenting himself.
    Then she froze beneath him, arching into him, her internal muscles tightening around him as she embraced her orgasm.
    He released his control, his blood roaring in his ears as he ran toward the wave that had been ebbing toward him from the moment he set eyes on Angelina in the ballroom. It overwhelmed him, swallowing him, his mind blank as he emptied himself into her body, his limbs shaking, his heart raging.
    Afterward he lay with her. Replete. More so than he had ever been in his life.
    And then he did something he had never done with a lover. He pulled her into his arms and fell asleep.
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    When he woke up, it was light outside. And the bed was cold. He rolled over and put his hand where Angelina should have been. Empty.
    He sat up and looked around the room. His clothes were on the floor. Folded. And Angelina’s clothes were gone. Everything of hers was gone.
    He pulled his pants on quickly and buckled his belt, shrugging his shirt on, buttoning it as he walked down the corridors of the palace.
    Some people might have felt embarrassed doing the walk of shame through a palace. But he didn’t do embarrassment. He didn’t do uncertainty, either.
    And last night had left him very certain of the fact that Angelina belonged with him.
    He stopped a member of the household staff who was walking quickly through the corridor. “Do you know where Angelina Carpenter is?”
    The woman gave him a hard look. “Princess Carlotta’s nanny?”
    He supposed he deserved the look. As he was across the palace from where he was meant to be staying, half dressed, his hair likely standing on end. The sheikh looking for the nanny.
    He did not care. “Yes.”
    â€œI believe she left this morning. Princess Carlotta wanted her son to go back to Italy as soon as possible and Angelina naturally accompanied him.”
    â€œGrazi,” he said through his teeth.
    The woman nodded and turned away. Taj’s stomach tightened. Angelina had left. She had left him. She was gone. Again.
    He knew where to find her now, of course. He could go after her. He wanted to.
    Taj tightened his hand into a fist, gritting his teeth, ignoring the stabbing pain in his chest. He would not be made a fool of. Not again.
    He’d had her. He’d had her virginity. And now he would go on. He would not go