Sheikh's Ex-Girlfriend (Khayyam Sheikh Series #1) by Sophia Lynn

and panties.
    “Ella?”
    “Please,” she said softly. “Won't you come in?”
    ***
    Nasim looked as if he had been struck with a hammer on her doorstep. She would have laughed if there hadn't been a large number of butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
    Never taking his eyes off of her, he stepped inside, closing the door, and locking it behind him without looking.
    “Ella … I need to know exactly what you are doing.”
    She felt a stab of disappointment. She looked down at the outfit, blushing hard. It had seemed like such a wonderful idea when she was at the lingerie store, but every day it had hung in her closet, she had felt herself getting shyer and more nervous. All of the confidence she had had disappeared like mist burned away in the sunlight. The feelings she had were still there, but all of the self-assurance she had felt like it was draining away by the moment.
    “If it's not obvious, I think I need to go make a complaint at the lingerie store,” she joked lamely.
    Before she could even get the words quite out of her mouth, Nasim had swept her up in his arms, crushing her to his chest with a strength that was just short of punishing. She could feel the tension vibrating through his body, and she could feel his erection pressed against her hip. There could be no doubt in the world that he wanted her.
    “Stop,” he murmured. “Please. I need to know what is going through that delightful head of yours. You look like the sum of my heavenly rewards come to earth, and I need to know that you are real, that you are here with me. Please tell me what is on your mind.”
    “It doesn't matter what's on my mind,” Ella said honestly. “What matters right now is in my heart, and what is in my heart is a pure need for you. All I want is you, Nasim. I don't want anything between us. I don't want us to pretend to be something that we are not. I have never stopped loving you, do you understand? I have never stopped.”
    “Heaven help me, but neither have I.”
    With nothing more than that, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her through the tiny apartment to her bed. Though the apartment itself was rather Spartan, the bed was a monster, the sole indulgence she had splurged on when she came to Dalal. It was a king-size bed with tall posts at each corner. When he lay her down on the mattress, she sighed with pleasure.
    “I love you,” Nasim said, looking down at her. There was a kind of awe in his eyes that she had never seen before, not in New York, and not after. This was the look of a man who finally understands what he wants and is given it.
    “I love you,” she replied. Even now, reality tried to intrude. A part of her mind wanted to know what that meant, and how it could have any happy end. She pushed it aside. In this moment, she wanted nothing but pleasure and love.
     Nasim stripped to the skin in a matter of seconds, and for a moment, she simply looked at his body. He was powerful, terrifyingly so, but she knew that he would never hurt her. There was nothing but kindness in this man, and the more she knew him, the more that she wanted to know him. Even now, when he was visibly shaking with need for her, he touched her with a sweetness that brought tears to her eyes.
    Kneeling down on the bed next to her, he reached for the small hooks that held the robe closed. Hook by hook, he opened her robe, kissing each bare patch of skin as it was revealed. He refused to be hurried, even when she arched up against his warm mouth.
    “I want you,” she whispered longingly, and he laughed in reply.
    “You're going to have to wait,” he teased. “I feel like I've been waiting for a hundred years. Surely you can wait a little longer.”
    Her laugh turned into a gasp as he spread her robe open. Underneath, her underwear felt like little more than scraps adorning her body, accentuating far more than it hid. He passed a gentle hand from the rise of her breasts, down the leanness of her belly to her thighs, and