The door was locked.
Sadiq's lopsided grin now turned positively feral. The little cat was playing him. His hands reached into his pocket for his trusty pocket knife. It had been a while since he had last resorted to picking locks, but it was a skill which, once acquired, was not easily forgotten. The latch clicked open a second later and the dark silhouette of the prince slipped in. His men had been watching the Littles' household long enough to note everything about them. And that included the exact location of Catherine Little's room. The dark played lovingly over his silhouette, shrouding him in its embrace and all but vanishing him from sight should anyone be up to spot his trespass, but not a soul stirred, none but a restless one lying impatiently in wait for her lover to come to her.
His sure steps led him upstairs and past the rooms that did not belong to Catherine Little to pause before the one that did. This door opened without hindrance, but the darkness that seeped out from within did nothing to alleviate his need to feast his eyes on her. Two more steps took him through the door, and the careful turn of the knob allowed him to slide the door noiselessly closed. The lock clicked into place a moment later.
"I need to see you," he whispered into the dark.
A light flickered instantly in response before it flashed on. Cat's bedside lamp illuminated the room, casting shadows to dance over the walls as Sadiq moved involuntarily towards the bed, pulled once again by the inexplicable magnetic attraction between them. Cat laid there, sprawled across the bed, waiting for him.
She glanced down at her Hello Kitty night t-shirt then up at the swarthy man that breathed out sexily and felt instantly disadvantaged. She was supposed to lure him on with sex appeal and not shroud herself with an innocence she was far from feeling. She scooted back on her bed a bit and patted the side next to her.
Sadiq eyed the double bed doubtfully. It appeared to barely contain his lithe little kitten on it, would it take his six-foot frame as well? Sadiq stepped out of his shoes and reached up to swiftly undo his buttons before shrugging out of his shirt and jacket together. He stepped out of his pants and underwear next. The socks followed shortly after, then he slid n between the sheets beside her.
Cat stared with rapt attention at the man disrobing in her bedroom. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever contemplated such a scenario unfolding right here in her room. Not that she had ever considered the naked form of a man with any interest before meeting Sadiq, yet now she seemed incapable of considering anything else but that. Sadiq was clearly born to be one day naked in her bed. She swarmed in on him instantly, closing the distance between them and wrapping him in her embrace to rest her head on his chest.
They laid there like that for the moment, each enjoying the sensations of the other's embrace. Cat rubbed her cheek against the soft hair on his chest. Sadiq was all male, all over—chiselled and honed to perfection. But it was his beautiful face that kept drawing back her drifting gaze, and while her eyes seemed bent on fixating upon his shrewd green eyes, the rest of her was happy to continue the restless exploration of her body.
"I was your first," murmured Sadiq, thinking back to that one night they had shared together lost to passion. "Why did you let it happen?"
It had quietly bothered him on the sly that he had taken her virginity that night. It was not that he was averse to bedding virgins, but he had never been attracted to innocence before. Yet despite her untried state, she hadn't come across as a virgin but a steaming hot vixen. Even now she writhed against him in open invitation, robbing him of his senses with each sensuous brush of her body against his. Passion had long since blurred the lines of reason where his delectable little kitten was concerned. Catherine Little seemed to have an inexplicable sexual hold on him. She had it right when she suggested they simply give in to the urge. Flush it out of their system so they could finally move on.
"Does it matter?" shrugged Cat indifferently, her eyes having fallen away from his to settle on the soft curve to his lips. "I wanted you and you wanted me." She shrugged again, and the worn neckline of her nightie slid off a delectable shoulder. "I still want you," she added softly a moment later. But it was not her words that arrested his attention but the wealth of emotions behind it. His hand reflexively tightened its clasp in her hair before he reluctantly released their silken strands to drift down over her scalp and on to her bare shoulder. The rush of feelings then was electric and left them both gasping.
"I want you too," murmured Sadiq, almost absently. He was oddly enough feeling a little out of his depths with her, which was strange considering she was the younger, and the more naïve because of it. He lifted his jade green eyes and peered into her blue depths, which had taken on a jade green shade of their own under the yellow glow of her bedside lamp. His grip tightened on her shoulder before moving to drift lazily down her slender frame to curve over a buttock, then his fingers clenched, digging into the softness there until she cried out in shock and pain. His nostrils flared, and his gaze grew feral then as he scented her intense reaction to him.
"Catherine?" he called out hoarsely and Cat reached out for him blindly. Their lips met and meshed on a harsh intake of breath, then breathing itself grew no longer important as they allowed reason to fall back and passion to reign.
Sadiq lifted his hands lower still until they edged the ends of her nightshirt then slid beneath. His movements urgent and hurried, not at all like his usual suave self. His lips moved over hers as if parched from the desert sun and she was his only source of water. He drank greedily from her, bent only on his own needs, his own desires, but Cat was as selfish in ruthlessly tearing his lips back to hers from their ceaseless wanderings. She fused hers to his and revelled in the raw current of attraction that fed through to their very souls. Then they wrenched apart to stare at each other anew, fear now reigning over mere passion. Cat panted up at him, completely unaware when the tables had turned to find herself flat on her back and under him. The passion they shared together was explosive and it left the atmosphere charged for more, but now they were both terrified of its power and its hold over them.
"Umm..." Cat started to clear her throat as she awkwardly searched for what she needed to say.
"It's late," volunteered Sadiq, his own voice unrecognisable in its huskiness.
"Yes," she murmured softly.
They stared at each other, both unwilling to have this end and not ready to have it proceed any further either.
"Perhaps, we should sleep on it," suggested the prince.
Cat sighed with gratitude. She was unwilling to release her hold on him, but doubted the wisdom for doing anything more. She was not usually this slow, to recognise that Sadiq Al Fayyad was an incredibly dangerous man. Only not in the usual sense, at least where she was concerned. He already had way too much power over her, this unhealthy obsession, this craving to be near him, and then the child she carried for him. But what she had just experienced in his hands put all of that in the shadows. He could very well own her on the strength of their attraction alone. Suddenly, Cat was unwilling to take this a step further. She could not relinquish her freedom to this man, or any, for anything. Yet she couldn't seem to stay apart from him either. Even now, she allowed him to reposition their bodies with Cat resting on her side and Sadiq spooning up behind her. She felt every inch of him pressed up against her and couldn't help pressing back herself.
"Shh," he hissed into her ear, more in reprimand than any intention to soothe her restlessness away. His grip tightened about her hips, pressing her up closer against him as he continued to murmur soothingly in her ear, urging her to sleep.
Sadiq was dumbfounded by the hot piece of ass he could not seem to get enough of. It became crystal clear in his eyes over that one heated kiss they shared that Catherine Little was his. His and only his. She was made for him. Made for his touch. Made to carry his child. And every moment he spent rocking against her in his arms only solidified that fact. There was no way he was leaving her be; there was no way he was parting from her again. Cat was his. But there was no way he was giving in to her demands of him without first taking his nikah with her. His movement against her grew urgent and her own against him frantic. Each sought their release from the other, but none was willing to take it all a step further.
Sadiq thrust forwards, rubbing himself up against her core, his grip on her hip tight. He was determined to take his pleasure off her but equally as determined to leave her wanting, and it was against that that she struggled.
"Please!" She pleaded. But Sadiq was not called the Sadist for nothing.
"What? What is it you want?" he whispered tauntingly. "Is it this?" His hands left her hips to slide up beneath her shirt until his long fingers wrapped knowingly about taut nipples. He tugged at them rudely, eliciting muffled cries of pain. Already her body was oversensitive towards him, but he appeared bent on turning her out of her mind with torment.
"P...please?" she whispered again, hoarsely.
But Sadiq shook his head mockingly, "I think you know what I want in return, Catherine Little."
She trembled beneath his knowing touch. Instinctively, she did know what he wanted. It was all there in the possessive nature of his touch, in every stroke of his hands across her skin. She shook her head. His grip on her breasts tightened painfully and Cat bit her lower lip to stifle the cry of pain that he cruelly elicited.
"I think you want it too, Catherine Little," he added spitefully, his lips a hot burn against her ear and she trembled even more beneath his touch, torn between wanting him badly and wanting what was fast becoming an illusion of freedom. "You want an 'us'. You feel this unnatural burn between us. You are powerless to resist its pull as I."
Cat shook her head frantically. "No..." she gasped out, and his cruel fingers tugged at her nipples again. Cat waited for the wave of pleasure mingled with pain to recede before she panted out helplessly, "It's just sex. Nothing more. One more time will take care of it."
His laugh was soft and mockingly cruel. "It is just sex, Catherine Little. But I think we both know there is nothing ordinary about this burn between us. Allah has clearly sent you to me."
At that, Cat frowned, her finger uselessly trying to pick his away from her sensitive breasts, but they only arrested there to knead soothingly while retaining their threatening hold on her.
"Al... I don't believe in your god or any other," spat out Cat, knowing that might turn him off as it seemed to do her mother.
"Ah, but Allah seems to believe in you, my little Catherine, to place you so becomingly right in my hands," he jeered softly then clenched those hands. Cat writhed in his grasp, her ass crack brushing against his length. Pressing against him both in a bid to satisfy a pressing ache and in an effort to silence the words coming out of his mouth.
His hold on her tightened and Sadiq moved to resume his thrusts against her as he buried his open mouth against the curve of her neck. Cat reached down between her legs unable to resist her driving need any more. Needs he was bent on denying her. His hands immediately left her tits to dive down after her searching fingers, they wrapped about her fingers and held her away from herself. "The only person who can pleasure you is me," he breathed into her ear. "I also reserve the right to deny you." His hips continued to rock into hers.
Cat hissed, an unexpected vitriol of abuse leaving her lips. His chuckle in response only irked her even more.
"You are so beautiful, Catherine Little. So very very beautiful." He freed a hand then to slide it up her sweat-slicked body to cup her cheek, and leaned over her then to take her lips hungrily. Cat returned the assault on her senses with one of her own and they moaned in mutual frustration.
"Alright," he gasped, tearing his lips away. "You win this time," he grumbled, unable to deny her fiery passion and his own any longer. "We will fuck this last time and when I take you next it will be as my bride."
His grip released its hold on her hand then and moved lower to clasp her thigh. Pulling it apart to better position himself behind her. He slid in without resistance. Her moist heat welcoming in its embrace, drawing out a hiss of pleasure of his own as he slid right in to her core. They both sighed their relief before tensing at the irresistible cluster fuck of sensations that flooded them with an undeniable craving. With an explosive curse, he flexed back to strike back in, giving in to the lure that was Cat with a frantic flurry of action that bordered on desperation.
Cat stuffed a hand in her mouth, unable to contain cries of pleasure that were escaping her lips.
"Give me your lips," he demanded, unable to use his strength to draw her to him with both hands already occupied, one placed back on her hip and the other clutching her breast for a better grip as he continued to pull her into his thrusts.
Cat arched into his hands, twisting back searchingly for his aching lips. Their lips meshed and clung, muffling their cries of pleasure while eliciting even more. His thrusts shifted then to a languid pace that started a slow, sweet burn of desire right at her very core. The hot pant of their mingled breaths and muffled moans reached a crescendo before the pleasure they chased erupted in a wave of sweet contentment about them.
Sadiq withdrew from her then and pulled her up against him. She lay there, blissful in the aftermath of what had to have been even better than what she had experienced in his arms before.
"You were right," she muttered out finally, when her breathing returned somewhat to normal. "Once would never have been enough. We should never have done it that first time."
Sadiq merely shrugged beneath her. "That first time had been out of our hands. This was inevitable."
Cat narrowed her eyes, then lifted her head to stare down at him. "That may be, but I am not yours and never will be." She met his gaze unflinchingly, but he appeared not at all affected by her words. Instead he reached down for her hand and lifted it up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss across it. "You can only be mine Catherine Little and you have a little over three months to get used to it."
She wrenched her hand back. Now that she had been sexually appeased, reason started to prevail once again, and this time it was clamouring danger bells all around Sadiq. Cat pushed against his chest and rose up to her knees, her hands reaching up automatically to tug her Hello Kitty nightdress back down over her nakedness, but not before Sadiq ran his appreciative eye possessively over her. Cat gritted her teeth, "I'll never be yours; not in three months and not after."
Sadiq sat up too, his face dark with anger and he drew it in to a hair's breadth of hers. He studied the stubbornness to her chin and the glare of anger in her eyes, then he spoke, his words soft, belying the anger he was clearly feeling. "In my homeland, you would have been married to me on the spot for my temerity of even glancing your way. We would have been stoned alive for the sexual act itself; it is forbidden out of wedlock. Your increasing belly would have your family hang their heads down in shame and more often than not you would have been murdered by your own father for the shame you have brought your family."
Cat laughed shortly at that. "You did not gain your prowess in bed Sadiq by marrying every woman you ever slept with. Save that tale for the gullible. You don't conform to the laws you impose on others in your land. You are above all that petty nonsense. But, that aside, I will state the obvious—we are not in your homeland. Here you would be jailed for having sex with me. Impregnating me would have no further consequence beyond the courts expecting you to pay for your end of its upkeep. My father would love me no matter what I chose to do. Even if he were to barge in on us now, he would be disappointed, but he would still love me unconditionally." She breathed out softly. "You would do better to remember that the next time you think to threaten me with marriage."
Sadiq met her furious gaze with one of his own then pulled away from her to place his feet on the floor. "You need to learn the place of a woman."
Cat merely shook her head. "Wherever that place is, it's not going to be at your feet."
He shoved away from the bed then to aggressively pace towards her window before doubling swiftly back. There was no room to pace in her bedroom and the confined space only served to agitate him further. He paced back and forth twice more before giving up. But the pinpricks of her heated gaze against his back had him turning swiftly to face her. She was back to where she started, inflamed by the sight of him. The muscles in his flanks clenched immediately in reaction. He did not usually respond this way. He never responded this way. Not after such animosity. Not after such aggressive sex. And never with a woman who clearly hates him. Yet the sight of her all worked up over the sight of him had him instantly inflamed for more. He reached for her even as she scrambled off the bed to reach for him. They met two steps away from the bed, his heated body colliding with hers in frantic need.
Cat reached for his head to clench her fingers in his hair and pull him down for a voluptuous kiss. Sadiq slid his hands down her back, over her flanks, and up beneath her nightshirt, pushing the clinging fabric back up over her tits so that he could feel all of her against all of him. Their lips parted for a hurried breath and then the dived in for each other again, this time with his hands clenched tight over her buttocks and her limbs wrapped about his lean frame. He entered her drenched core in a single thrust and then took the two steps necessary to tip them back onto the bed. The frantic pistoning of his hips instantly followed driven by crazed lust and blinding anger at her continued denial to commit to him.
Cat wrenched their lips apart to draw in a ragged breath before she hauled him back to her for another battering of the senses.
"You are... mine," gritted Sadiq. "I want you... to say it." He breathed out between drugging kisses as his hips continued to mindlessly hammer into her, seeking out a well of pleasure only she was capable of filling. "Tell me... you belong... to me."
"I... belong... to... me." Cat returned unhesitatingly between rough kisses. His groan was audible and quickly muffled by more kisses. But this time their frantic chase for the pinnacle of pleasure was drawn out by the need to feast and sample the wares. Cat pushed Sadiq onto his back to rise above him and take him in deep, riding him hard to the very inch of his life. She stared down at his flushed form and took in the narrowed-eyed look of his passion-drawn face. He was even more startlingly beautiful than before. There was nothing she wouldn't give to own him every bit as much as he wanted to own her. But sadly enough, she was not for sale, at least not for the long term. And neither was he.
It was close to dawn before the prince finally pulled away from her, shaking with fatigue. He wavered unsteadily, moving to fall beside her in satisfaction but instead caught himself. His expression lax from release suddenly tensing up into a frown.
"You will yield to me." Sadiq murmured stubbornly, staring down at Cat's barely conscious frame.
She sighed heavily, her breathing slowing to its normal pace, then turned to face the prince, her expression equally unyielding. "I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth, Sadiq. But I would happily fuck you into next week."
His fists tightened reflexively, but Cat held her ground. And so, it was a stormy prince who left her room a moment later, never to be heard of again.