17. Hevva looks at candles.
seventeen
Hevva looks at candles.
“ O hhh,” Hevva breathed when Ehmet opened the room next door. “This is unfathomable.”
He grinned at her like a fool and her heart kicked into a gallop.
The bedchamber was filled with candles, at least fifty lit the space. But they did not flicker, not even a hair’s breadth. She tugged on his hand, and he followed, as curiosity led her over to one of the candelabras on the dresser. Hevva held her palm over the flame that still burned hot, it simply did not move.
“This is fantastic.” She squeezed his hand.
He chuckled. “Better than next door?”
Hevva sighed and considered her options. “Do I have to choose?” Her question held more weight than she’d intended. “I think this is beautiful too, in a different sort of way.”
“That’s how I feel...” the king trailed off, earning a curious glance from the countess.
“About?”
He moved in front of her and released her hand, reaching up to cup her cheek. “About you, and ‘Saka.’”
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“Oh.” Her lips twitched on the last one, and that was the only invitation he needed.
Ehmet’s hand slid from Hevva’s cheek to cup the nape of her neck, urging her near. Saka reached up to tangle her fingers in Berim’s hair as she pulled him in, until their mouths angled against one another in a confusing jumble of aliases and need.
Names were forgotten while their hands roamed each other’s bodies. Their lips and tongues held the conversations they were still too terrified to face.
“Please,” she panted into his shoulder as his tongue teased the length of her neck, and his fingers tortured her swollen nipples through the fabric of her gown.
“Please?” he spoke against her skin, nipping gently.
She whimpered, pressing her breasts against him harder, forcing his hands out of the way, seeking more. Hevva needed to be nearer, needed to touch his skin. She began to tug at Ehmet’s shirt, pulling it up and out of his dark trousers. When she gained access, she slipped her hand beneath the linen and pressed her palm against his chest.
He chuckled into the slope of her neck, a deep rumble that sent tremors from her palm to that treacherous place between her legs.
“Please,” she moaned as he squeezed her arse.
“What do we do about this?” Ehmet asked, running his fingertips down the sides of her ribs, and out over the soft flare of her hips. His enormous hands swallowed Hevva’s waist as he pulled her close.
She let out a gasping sort of laugh as he captured her in a kiss once more.
“Do I rip it off?” he growled into her mouth.
“No. Not this one,” she replied with a frown against his skin. Ehmet’s heart thundered beneath her palm. “It’s too new.”
“Turn around then.” The command was punctuated with a peck, and he set to work deftly unfastening the tiny pearl buttons that ran the length of her back.
How Ehmet managed the task with those large fingers of his, she wasn’t certain. Perhaps it was Berim, and he had smaller hands. She couldn’t say she’d noticed any difference though. In no time, he was peeling away the silks from Hevva’s body, sliding the gossamer sleeves down her slender arms, and pushing the concoction off of her hips with a swish .
“This is much better than the first time.” He chuckled to himself as he reached out and rubbed her bottom through her thin silken shift, squeezing her with both of his big palms. “I couldn’t touch you then, only look.”
She yelped and turned around to face him. Hevva considered chastising Ehmet for teasing her about the incident in the solar, but got sidetracked by the pressing need to get that blasted shirt off his beautiful body. “I think I might have to agree. So, so much better.”
She divested him of his top as he kicked off his shoes and turned his attention to her pert breasts. He tweaked first one nipple, then the other, before his hands found other activities, like sliding over the silk of her chemise and down around her hips. The action had her shivering in delight, and a wetness settled between her legs.
Ehmet captured her with a kiss as she ran her fingertips down the planes of his chest, and then, he was walking her backward.
When Hevva’s knees bumped the mattress, he urged her to sit with a tilt of his head and a firm kiss.
She obeyed.
“Pull up your dress.”
Deciding to follow his command, she tugged at the smooth fabric, working it up her thighs, higher and higher, until he could see her if he were to look. But his gaze remained locked on her face. Those shadowy forest eyes called to her, pulling her in. With palms pressed flat on the mattress, she began to rise, her lips seeking him once more.
“No, Hevva. Sit down.”
She sat.
His tongue darted out as he studied her body, roving, taking in every morsel of her. “Do you like when I tell you what to do?”
She nodded, eyes blown wide as her lips parted with a burst of air.
“Say it.” The command accompanied a widened stance.
“Yes.”
“Yes, who? ”
She had to choose. Heat flooded her cheeks as her heart raced, headed for the hills. She had to choose. “Yes, Ehmet.”
He growled a response while tearing at the fastenings of his trousers, making her giddy with need. When his large shaft sprung free and he fisted it in his palm, she thought she might come without a single bit of friction. Then Ehmet began to work himself, and Hevva felt more evidence of her arousal seeping out between her legs.
He saw it too. “You’re so wet for me.”
She hummed her ascent, and looked up at him, silently begging him to do what he would to her. She needed him. Disastrously.
The way he kept pumping his hard length while staring at her, his eyes deep with desire, it was enough to make her scream.
She let out a squeal of frustration when he took another step away from her. What is this torture?
“Spread your legs for me,” he commanded.
She did.
With one fist still working his shaft, he reached down, and dipped the tip of his finger into her, tantalizingly trailing it up and down her lips. She wriggled her bottom on the bed, trying to push into him harder. But he would not have it. When he pulled away, the digit shimmered wet in the light of the candles. Boring into her eyes, he popped his finger into his mouth and sucked it clean.
“Please?” she whimpered.
“Shh.”
She shut her mouth.
Leaving her spread and bare to him, Ehmet dropped to his knees on the rug, no longer staring deeply into her eyes. Hevva could feel the burn of his gaze roving her body. Shoving her shift up over her hips, he lowered his head, and his agile tongue found her slick center.
Ehmet enveloped her with his hot mouth and began to suck as he rolled his tongue over her. She lifted into him, leaning back with her palms pressed into the mattress. Hevva nearly lay down but wanted to watch him. And, he hadn’t told her she could...yet.
Her breath hitched as she flew closer and closer to the sun. And as suddenly as he’d started, Ehmet backed off and blew a soft shiver of air where his tongue had been moments before.
“No,” she cried out. It earned her a low rumbling chuckle that pushed the heat she craved back against her pulsing center. “Please?”
“Please, what?” His lips brushed against her charged skin as he whispered the question.
“Please, Ehmet.”
He shook his head, nuzzling his nose against her in a way that had her bucking toward his face again. With a firm hand pressing her mound, he stilled her movements, and she whined.
“Please, Ehmet, what?” he spoke against her flesh.
“Please, Ehmet, make me come.”
And he did. His hot tongue flicked against her, teasing lightly before lapping her slowly and firmly. Hevva’s arms gave out, and she found herself flat on her back. He hooked her thighs up over his shoulders and continued to devour her, winding her up, making her desperate.
Then Ehmet pulled away.
She popped up on her elbows and pierced him with a silent stare that said, “What the fates do you think you’re doing?”
He blew another steady stream of air over her fiery need and looked up at her. His eyes were black pools of desire. “Stand up.”
She stood before him, knees ready to buckle from the thrill of it all.
“Take off your shift.”
Crossing her arms, she grabbed at her silks and pulled them up and over her head. At the point when she couldn’t see a thing, when her arms were tangled above her head, he surprised her by swirling one of her nipples with his hot tongue.
She shrieked with glee.
He did it again.
Hevva tore her chemise free and tossed it onto the floor. Her eyes dropped down the length of Ehmet, soaking him in. From his wide angular face, jaw shadowed with the day’s growth, down over his marble-sculpted abs to where his erection bobbed at her, a glistening drop of desire waiting atop the head. His trousers were gone. Her eyes sparked, and before he could stop her, her finger darted out to swipe at his tip.
He moaned when she popped her flavored finger into her mouth to lick him off. Ehmet’s hand came up and grabbed her wrist. “I didn’t say you could do that,” he growled, tightening his hold, but not painfully so.
She gave him her most petulant glare.
“Get on the bed.”
Hevva scrambled backward, coming to rest with her head atop the pillows. Loose strands of her former updo sprawled across the silken pillowcases.
“Open.” Ehmet urged apart her closed knees and made himself comfortable between her legs once more. Then he flicked her center with his tongue.
Again, she climbed back up that treacherous peak and stood wavering on the edge. Hevva tipped her hips up, pressing herself against him everywhere, seeking more pressure. His tongue laved against her soft skin, hands coming beneath her to raise her arse off the bed. Then he stopped.
She screamed out in frustration as he blew another torturous stream of cool air against her hot need. But it did not last, and he dipped to meet her center again.
“Come for me,” he spoke against her.
She obeyed.
When Hevva was nothing but a puddle of spent desire Ehmet pushed himself up, supporting his body with one arm as he dropped a kiss to her breasts, her neck, and then her mouth. Her flavor was on him, sweet and salty.
“I want to taste you,” she murmured.
His responding groan was low, sending a new wave of shivers to her core, winding her up again in ways she hadn’t even thought possible.
“Will you take me in your mouth?”
She nodded, hair sliding against the pillows.
In a flurry of movement, he was up over the top of her, straddling her chest with his heavy shaft swaying above her face. Hevva couldn’t help but smirk at Ehmet as she pulsed from the sight of him.
With one hand she cupped his balls, and with the other, she fisted his length and pulled it down toward her. Her tongue shot out, tracing a circle around the underside of his tip. He shuddered against her with a low moan that increased her confidence tenfold.
Hevva popped him into her mouth, exploring the ridge that ran the length of him and the textured underside of his broad head. Another bead of release salted her tongue, and she mumbled a “thank you for the sample,” which set his balls tightening.
“Gods, Hevva. I will not last,” Ehmet bit out as he began to pump into her mouth. She accepted the length of him, allowing him to press his enormous manhood deep into her throat. Hevva hummed through the reflex until it passed, then she squeezed his sack and grabbed onto his arse as she took him in again and again. He was much larger than her former lover Gamil, and any irrelevant men in the interim. She’d certainly never done this with any of them, but Berim— Ehmet made it enjoyable.
He tightened up beneath her, movements growing jerky as his need rose to unfathomable heights. “Please?” he begged, his huge palms pressed against the wall above her as he thrust into her mouth.
She pushed him out long enough to earn a questioning look.
“Come now, Ehmet,” she intoned, before pulling him back in, and bringing him to release.
He saturated her tongue with threads of hot stickiness as he throbbed beneath her touch.
When at last his movements stilled, she gave him another long lick from base to tip. Then she shoved him off her.
Ehmet landed on his bum on the bed, and Hevva pushed up to sit, giggling at the confused look on his face. When his mind flared up again, he growled and lunged, tackling her in a tangle of kisses and wandering hands.
They lay there for a long while, in that unused guest room, waiting for their heartbeats to slow and their thoughts to become coherent again. The candles around them flickered wildly.
“When did that happen?” She pointed at the flames.
He chuckled, pressing a trail of kisses down her neck before he answered, “Quite a while ago. If I’m not focused and in control, the illusion will dissipate.”
“I made you lose focus?”
“More than once.”
She smiled into his kiss.
Eventually, they pulled themselves from the rumpled bed and set about locating clothes to get dressed.
“Hevva.”
She snapped her head to look at him, caught off guard by the seriousness in his tone.
“Ehmet?” She approached.
He took both of her hands in his and stared into her eyes for a long moment. “Marry me, Hevva?”
She dropped her chin as her brows rose. “What?”
“Marry me?”
Her limbs turned to ice as she stood there, blinking.
“Hev—”
“Ehmet, we hardly know each other. And what of love?”
“What of it?” He scoffed. “Causes nothing but trouble in a marriage. What does it matter to you?”
Hevva squinted and cocked her head. The last vestiges of pleasure trickled away. She swallowed, licked her lips, and inhaled as if to speak. Then she pressed her mouth closed and shook her head at him. Nothing but trouble? It’s not that she thought their brief dalliance was the foundation for a successful marriage, she wasn’t a bloody fool. Fates help them, they pretended to be other people for two of their three encounters. That wasn’t a foundation for anything. Still, nothing but trouble?
“What?” He flipped his palms in question.
“Why do you want to marry me?”
He balked, like she’d asked him the most idiotic question in the world. “Because you’re intelligent and witty. You are committed to your duty. You love your people. We’re friends. We get along swimmingly. You’re pretty. You’ll make an acceptable queen.” He shrugged.
An acceptable queen?! She wanted a nice common boy! Not this! Closing her eyes, she took a slow, shaky breath. A torrent of conflicting babble poured through Hevva’s mind, flooding her, drowning her alive. Unable to breathe or form a coherent thought long enough to shape it into a retort, she burst into incredulous laughter, tossed her hands up in defeat, and left the room.
Ehmet did not follow. And if he had, she would have punched him in his stupid face.