The Sheik’s Vow (The Billionaire’s Club #13)

Chapter 15

Kaia couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move, but even if she needed to, if someone burst into the bedroom with guns blazing, she’d probably wouldn’t be able to do anything other than just…remain in puddle form. With her head resting on his shoulder and one leg draped over his hard thigh, Kaia felt as if there were no concerns in the word. Ethan was a vague and distant memory. Tara was perfectly safe. She didn’t care how much money she had in her bank account and…and she didn’t want to think about where she would live after leaving Bidar.

This…this was bliss, she thought.

That’s when she noticed the dark, confused eyes staring at them. Kaia lifted her head and watched, her heart skipping a beat.

“What’s wrong?” Riaz asked, his voice sleepy.

“We…uh…have company.”

With her hand resting on his chest, Kaia felt his muscles tense. Riaz was instantly alert and lifting his head up to figure out who was watching them.

He found two sets of fluffy ears. Then two sets of dark, accusatory eyes.

Dibi and Marta were staring at them from the end of the bed, their furry heads just visible over the mattress.

“How long have they been watching?” he asked, letting his head flop back onto the bed, unconcerned about his dogs watching their sexual antics.

“I don’t know,” she whispered, obviously still watching the dogs. “But it feels wrong somehow. Almost like we’re…corrupting innocents!”

He laughed, then let his hand smooth over her back. “I guarantee that they are not innocent.”

“But….why are they looking at us like we’ve done something horrible?”

He lifted his head again, then snapped his fingers. Immediately, the dogs’ heads disappeared.

“I don’t think that will help,” Kaia blurted out, sitting up and pulling the sheet over her nakedness. “I still know that they are there.” Sure enough, when she peered over the end of the bed, the dogs lifted their heads, eyes looking guilty. “It’s like we’ve just had sex in front of the kids!”

He laughed, stroking her naked back. “If you think that Dibi or Marta are innocents, then you’re not monitoring their activities down at the stables.” He leaned over, kissing her bare shoulder. “Marta is a brazen hussy. She’s been flirting with the stable master’s dog every time he comes to the palace.”

“No!” Kaia gasped. “Not Marta!”

“Yes, Marta,” he argued. “She’s in love with the golden retriever. I daresay that we will have puppies very soon, once Marta goes into heat.”

“She’s not fixed?”

He shook his head as he slipped out of bed, then bent down to pick her up. “No. They are great dogs and I didn’t get them neutered when they were younger because I was hoping to breed them.”

“And did you?”

He chuckled as he set her down next to the large, sunken tub. He pressed a few buttons and a waterfall started pouring into the large space from an overhead “rock wall”. The bathroom looked like a rock grotto.

“No.” He chose a bottle, took off the cap and smelled whatever was inside. He must have liked the scent, because he poured some into the quickly rising water. “Plus, there was the issue of her preferring to be by my side. Every time I introduced her to a male, she refused to leave me.” He chuckled as he pulled Kaia back into his arms. “It was like she was confused as to what to do.”

She smiled and lifted her arms. “I know the feeling.”

“Your confusion to intimacy is due to childhood trauma and the continuous false messages that sexual intimacy for a woman is dirty and wrong.”

“That’s definitely true,” she muttered, taking his hand and allowing him to lead her down the steps into the small pool.

“Why is that?” he asked, gently pulling her onto his lap and kissing her bare shoulder.

“Why is what?”

“Why is sex demonized in your old community?”

She shrugged and leaned into him, one arm around his shoulder. It felt so good to be here, to sit in this massive tub and talk with Riaz as if…as if they hadn’t just done the most lascivious things to each other. Is this what normal felt like? Kaia had never experienced normalcy before. Although she didn’t trust that this moment would last, she savored each second with Riaz. She memorized every feeling, every touch and conversation so that, years from now, she could take those memories out and relive them.

“Anything that might be pleasurable is considered bad. If something feels good, like chocolate, sugar, sleeping, relaxing, sex, or dancing…it’s all thought to be the devil tempting a good person away from the church. ”

He looked down at her, his eyes searching hers. “You use the term ‘church’ instead of ‘god’.” He paused, then asked, “Is that deliberate?”

Kaia grimaced, then shrugged. “Yes.”

Riaz soothed his hand over her leg. “Explain, love.”

Dibi and Marta padded into the bathroom, their claws tapping against the floor. They peered over the tub, sniffing the bubbles. Obviously, they didn’t like the scent, so they backed away. Marta moved back to the doorway and spread out on the soft carpeting. Dibi moved over to one of the bath mats.

Kaia smiled at the dogs, but then focused back on his question. “After I left the village, I hid out in a barn.”

“You mentioned that before.”

“Right,” she sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder while her free hand played with the bubbles in the water. “Well, I didn’t know the family that owned the barn, but they seemed so…happy. They prayed before they ate dinner every night.” She lifted her head and offered a sheepish smile. “I watched them from the upper floor of the barn. There was an opening on that level that looked down at the back of their house and there was a window that allowed me to see what a real family did in the evening.”

“What did you see?”

Her finger twirled the bubbles. “They smiled. They laughed and talked. The father didn’t smack his children when the little boy spilled his milk. The daughter got upset about something. I never was able to hear their conversations. But I witnessed her yelling at her mother once.”

“That’s not good.”

Kaia sighed and twisted so that she could look at him. “The important point is that she was allowed to express her feelings. She was angry and she yelled, but her mother didn’t slap her. The mother didn’t tell the father and he didn’t take her into the backyard and beat her with a cane.” She sighed and shifted to another seat, feeling better when the bubbles covered her breasts. “The house didn’t explode into flames, as we’d been taught would happen if we disobeyed.”

“You were taught that your home would explode?” he asked, stunned.

She shrugged. “Fire and brimstone were constant threats. Everything had to be done to serve the church.”

“Back to the church. Not god?”

She moved to the middle of the tub, floating around. “Several years after I’d left the church, Tara and I were in a small city. I don’t remember the name. But she was working at a bookstore and I had a few hours off. It was a Sunday morning. I wanted to go into the church and scream at the members, to tell them how horrible they were and that they should stay away from the misery that the minister talked about. That everything was a lie.”

“And what happened?”

“I listened. The minster talked about the beauty of his religion. He talked about…how God was kind and generous. Their God helped people, comforted them when they were sad.” She blinked back the tears, shaking her head at the memories. “The women weren’t subservient to their husbands and fathers. They wore slacks and heels, pearls and…whatever they wanted!” She closed her eyes.

“And that was surprising?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I was so desperately poor and hungry after leaving my father’s house, but I couldn’t go back. After I got Tara out of that place, things were better. It wasn’t as scary. Then we started to earn a bit of money.” She rolled her eyes. “I used to spend stupid amounts of money on costume jewelry. Every day, I would wear some piece of jewelry.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“Ethan didn’t allow the women to wear any sort of jewelry. ”

“Why not?”

She groaned. “Well, he’d claim that it was because the bible, in one of the versus, talks about how women shouldn’t adorn themselves with pearls or gold.” She shook her head. “But really, it was because Ethan controlled the money. He never allowed anyone to have any. Not even a few dollars. If anyone asked for money, even for medicine, he’d claim that they were being selfish and not praying hard enough. If a child died, then he said the parents and the community didn’t pray hard enough.” She shuddered. “It was his way of keeping all of the money for himself.”

“Zayed’s team is speaking with the FBI financial crimes unit. They are working on obtaining a warrant for Howell’s financial records.”

Kaia gasped and spun around to stare at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. Zayed brought the FBI into the investigation earlier this morning.” He winked at her. “It was what I was going to tell you when you walked into my office earlier. However, your favor distracted me.”

Kaia squealed, then leapt back into his arms. “You’re wonderful!” she told him, wiggling on his lap.

Riaz groaned, his hands sliding up her hips to cup her breasts. “Did you do that on purpose?” he demanded, flicking her nipples, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Kaia.

Her eyes grew unfocused, and she leaned forward, kissing his lips briefly, just as he’d done to her earlier. “I can’t believe you think I’m that devious.”

“You’re a planner, Kaia,” he whispered, then hissed as her teeth scraped against his neck. “Are you going to repeat everything I did to you?”

“That’s the plan,” she quipped, nipping his earlobe, then wiggled on his lap. She could feel his rising erection and knew she was doing everything correctly. Smiling, even though he couldn’t see her, Kaia moved to lightly suck the pounding pulse at the base of his neck. He groaned and pulled her against him.

But before she could do much more, she felt his fingers slide into her heat. There was a bit of tenderness, but once she relaxed her inner muscles, Kaia actually enjoyed his finger sliding in and out of her body.

Leaning back, she let her hands move over his chest, her fingers sliding through the light dusting of hair. She heard his sharp intake of breath and smiled triumphantly. However, before she could claim victory, his thumb joined in the procession against her lower body. The flicking of his thumb against that nub made her gasp. Staring into his eyes, she watched him. Could she? Dare she?

When he flicked that nub again, Kaia couldn’t hold back. Her curiosity had always been her biggest strength and most powerful weakness. He was unprepared for her hands to grip his shaft. Kaia couldn’t stop her smile when he hissed at her touch.

Instantly, she pulled back. “Am I doing it wrong? Am I hurting you?”

He let out a pained laugh. “If you did it any more right, I might just embarrass myself.”

That only encouraged her, and she let her hand slide up, her thumb rubbing against the tip. He seemed to like that and she felt extra pressure against her own bundle of nerves. When her thumb accidentally stroked along the underside of the head of his shaft, he seemed to still, his eyes glazing over. That! That point was the pinnacle of his pleasure, she suddenly realized. Watching him, she stroked him again and again, circling the tip, then moving down over the length of him. Meanwhile, he teased her in return and, unconsciously, she rocked against his thumb, trying to direct his ministrations so that his digit hit her nub exactly in the right place.

“Show me,” he urged, taking her free hand and guiding it to cover his hand. “I need instruction.”

“So do I,” she whispered, feeling her muscles tightened. She guided his thumb to stroke her exactly in the right way. Kaia had never felt this…liberated before.

When Kaia felt his hand covering hers, she nearly exploded against his thumb. But she wanted this to last longer. So she pulled his thumb away, waiting for him to catch up to her. He seemed to understand, but he moved his thumb back in place. Her fingers covered his.

Together, they stroked and gasped as they brought each other closer and closer to bliss.

“I need to be inside you, Kaia!” he groaned, then lifted her out of the water. He set her down on the edge of the sunken pool. With a groan, he slid into her, stroking her from the inside. Kaia grabbed onto his shoulder with one hand, guiding him with her hand on his hip with the other as, together, they climbed that mountain.

Because they were both so turned on, it took only a few strokes before they both groaned with release, shuddering as the pleasure overwhelmed them.

Riaz rested his forehead against hers, their heavy breaths mingling together.

“I want do to that again,” she whispered.

He laughed, then kissed her swollen lips gently. “Give me five minutes.”

Kaia had meant she wanted to do that again…in a few hours. Or maybe a few days! Not five minutes from now. But since he’d mentioned it, Kaia figured that she could be ready again in five minutes…if he continued to look at her like that.

He lifted her back up, still intimately connected, then he lowered them into the pool of warm water.

“This seems like a waste of water for someone who lives in a desert.”

He kissed her shoulder, then nibbled along her neck, soothing both of them in the aftermath of their most recent explosion.

“All the palace water is filtered and reused for other uses. Such as watering the grounds or other grey water purposes.” He kissed her lips. “We don’t waste resources in Bidar.”

“Good to know,” she sighed, then melted against him. She felt him lean back and snuggled closer, getting more comfortable.

“Do that again and we’re not going to make it five minutes,” he growled in warning.

Dibi and Marta sighed their impatience with their humans’ antics. Kaia laughed, but didn’t have the energy to peer at the dogs.

“Did you really leave a bunch of meetings because I interrupted?”

He thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. “I had a higher priority,” he replied, stroking her back. “I still want to marry you, Kaia.” He felt her stiffen, but kept her in his lap. “No pressure. I know that you’re not ready for that, but I wanted to say the words.”

Kaia relaxed again, closing her eyes and letting his hard body and the warm water soothe her. “You know I have to help the people back home.”

He kissed her temple. “I know,” he replied. “But you also need to realize that you don’t have to save everyone in the world, right?”

“Yes,” she laughed sleepily.

“You’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you?” He smiled, even though he knew she couldn’t see his face.

There was a long silence for a moment, then Kaia lifted her head and looked at him. “Do you ever watch those videos posted to social media where someone is filming a person getting hurt? Like the one where a woman was attacked by another woman in a fast food restaurant, surrounded by onlookers?”

“Yes. I also know that the police use those videos to catch the perpetrators.”

She nodded, her fingers sliding up to rest on his shoulders. “Have you ever stopped to wonder why the person kept on filming instead of stepping in to help? Or, at a minimum, call the police for help?”

“Yes. All the time.”

She smiled, but the expression was filled with sadness. “I don’t want to be the person watching something horrible happening while not doing anything to help.”

He sighed and pulled her close again. When he felt her soft breath against his neck, he said, “I understand.”