Chapter 12
It’s a crowded event, but I hardly notice the people around me because all my attention is focused on the beautiful woman by my side.
Madeline is the perfect companion. The perfect hostess. She speaks with the ease of someone well-trained in social gatherings.
Smiling and being kind to her is as easy as breathing, although I’ve noticed that she occasionally seeks my eyes.
That’s the girl the world knows. The obedient, sweet daughter.
Socialite with exquisite manners.
Beautiful but repressed.
I want the other one. The one who shivers when I’m near, with a body that calls to me.
Most of the businessmen, even those with partners by their sides, have monopolized her with pointless conversations for most of the evening. I know that every single one of them desires her in their beds.
However, if Madeline was serious about not accepting the role of a mistress, and I believe she was, they are wasting their time.
Dinner is over, and I don’t intend on staying much longer. Just long enough not to be rude, as my beautiful assistant advised me.
I get distracted for a moment, and when I look back into the hall, she is no longer around. Then I spot her hair amidst the crowd, heading towards the terrace.
I follow her, and when I step outside, she is alone. Leaning on the railing.
“Tired of the noise?”
She turns quickly. “Kamal, do you need me?”
“Define ‘need’.”
She makes an angry expression. “You’re flirting. You said you wouldn’t play with me.”
“I don’t flirt, Madeline. I go after what I want.”
I see her throat move as she swallows hard. “And what you want is me?”
“You know it is.”
“We can’t.”
“Wrong. We shouldn’t. It’s different.”
“In the end, it’s the same.” Her eyes shine in the dark like two jewels.
In the distance, we hear the band starting to play, and I extend my hand to my employee. “Dance with me, Madeline.”
She hesitates for a moment before giving in, and I pull her against me, denying her the chance to change her mind.
The heat spreads quickly from one to the other, like a flame fueled by the friction of our bodies.
I inhale her scent. The woman is addictive. Voice, beauty, fragrance.
“I’m sorry for leaving, but I felt suffocated,” she says as she moves with me to the rhythm of the song.
“Why?”
“I don’t want to be rude, but there’s a point when these types of events wear me out. I’ve been attending them since I was little.”
“You did very well in there.”
“Really?” she asks, smiling.
“Yes.”
“Although, as I suspected, we gave the wrong impression. Some people asked me if we were together.”
I tighten my grip on her lower back, pressing her against me in a way that makes my desire clear. “Did that bother you?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“Are you currently dating someone? Any woman who signed your contract that I should be aware of?”
“No. I only date one woman at a time, Madeline.”
“In that case, I couldn’t care less about what others think. I don’t owe anyone an explanation.”
I step back a bit to look at her. “Do you truly believe that, or do you want to believe it?”
“I’m not sure how to answer. I was raised to be perfect, not to think for myself and never to listen to my desires, because people’s opinions of me were more important than what I wanted.”
“And now?”
“I long to live. To feel, to have fun. But for that to work, I need to ignore other people’s opinions and what they will think of me.”
“It sounds pretty much like what I propose to the women I get involved with. Pleasure and fun.”
“For a limited time,” she says.
“Is that your issue? The thirty-day limit?”
She tries to free herself from my arms, but I don’t allow it.
“We’d better go inside,” she insists. “This conversation doesn’t make any sense.”
“Answer me.”
“What do you want from me?” she asks, ignoring what I said.
“Something that cannot be said out loud without embarrassing you.”
“I’m not fragile.”
“Very well. What I want is to take you to my house tonight and taste every inch of you, Madeline. To explore your body with my mouth and tongue. To part your thighs and lick your pussy until you scream my name and beg for more.”
Her hands tighten around my biceps, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve overwhelmed her or because she’s imagining everything I just described.
“Now tell me, Madeline: is it only the thirty-day limit that keeps us from satisfying our desires?”
I don’t give her time to respond, as I bring my mouth down onto hers. Madeline’s lips, like her, are pure fire.
At first, she keeps them closed, but I need more. I seduce her with my tongue, persuading her to open up for me.
The fragility of her soft female body against my hard one intensifies my arousal, and my tongue claims her mercilessly, devouring her mouth the same way I want to devour her sex.
She surrenders, her hands coming to the nape of my neck, pulling me to her urgently, her body unconsciously writhing against mine.
The woman sets me on fire; a wild desire born out of pure lust assures me that she will be mine.
I guide her in the kiss, and she follows me, delicious and sensual. I tangle my fingers in her hair, keeping her where I want her, feasting on the hot, wet cave that is her mouth, stroking her neck with my thumb, feeling her uncontrollable pulse.
Her nails scratch my neck, marking my flesh, and the raw demonstration of her desire drives me crazy.
Our breaths mingle, bodies burning, pulsating with need.
I lower my lips to her delicate jaw, nibbling on her neck and then kissing her again.
I want everything, to touch every part of her. Lust engulfs me with a foreign intensity.
She is sweet and wild at the same time, which makes me hungrier.
“Let’s get out of here, Madeline.”
“Kamal . . .”
My name comes out as a moan. Pleading.
Does she want me to stop? Does she want me to give her more?
I don’t have time to find out the answer because someone breaks the silence behind us:
“I see you wasted no time in replacing me, Your Excellency.”