Sheikh's Stand In Read Online Free PDF

I," agreed Mikal, offering her the plate.
    There were no chairs, so the two of them sat on the floor with their backs to the balcony wall, sharing the delicious morsels of food between them.
    "This is perfect," Viviana said with pleasure. "I didn't even know that I needed food …"
    "Well, if Charlotte's been going nonstop since dawn, you probably have as well. I did want to say that you're pretty amazing yourself. You've been working just as hard as Charlotte and Aladdin, and I know you've been keeping your sister sane."
    "Oh, I know she would do the same for me," Viviana said around a mouthful of what she thought must be a savory-sweet jam rolled around a cube of sweet cheese and prosciutto. She swallowed, and then she turned to Mikal.
    "So that kiss …"
    "What about it?" he asked, eyes as innocent as a lamb's.
    "Oh, don't play innocent with me," she retorted. "I just want to know a little more about it. Were you just feeling a trifle prankish? Did you want to see what kissing the prom queen felt like? Did you want to see if you could throw me off?"
    He looked as if he was taking her question seriously. Mikal thought for a moment, and then he shrugged. "A little of all of that, perhaps, but more than that … I wanted to kiss you. There's something about you that just … pulls me in. Ever since I laid eyes on you after you arrived at the palace, I can't make my head work when you're around. I've wanted to give you a real kiss since the rehearsals started."
    She thought for a moment about that. "So that's what you think is a real kiss?" she said finally, a daring grin on her face.
    Mikal's expression turned dark as he grinned as sharply as a wolf. "That's what I would call a real kiss in front of my parents and two hundred people," he said. "A real kiss up here, where there's no one to see … that might be something quite different."
    "Oh really …" Viviana pushed the half-finished plate of food aside. She had an idea how things were going to go, and the last thing she wanted was to get food, no matter how delicious, on her beautiful wedding clothes.
    "Why don't you show me what a real kiss looks like, then?"
    She only had a moment to be stunned at how fast Mikal moved. Where had this speed been when he was a teenager? He moved to a kneeling position in front of her, and with one hand on her cheek, he kissed her.
    From the very first moment, she was taken by the passion of the kiss, the skilled way he built the heat inside her with the brush of his mouth on hers, the hot velvet touch of his tongue against the corners of her lips. She gave herself up to the kiss, throwing her arms around him and taking just as much as she was giving.
    The spark that she had felt between them fanned into a bonfire, and she knew that if she didn't stop him, she would end up being taken right here, above a crowd of more than a thousand people.
    Right now, she couldn't understand why that might be a bad idea. The heat inside her had built up to where she couldn't remember the last time that she was this aroused. She could feel the heat of his body through her clothes, she could feel the strength in his body, and she knew in that moment that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
    "You feel so amazing," she whispered. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do this over the last few days, how much I've wanted you …"
    "I might have had some idea," Mikal admitted. "I caught you watching me, and … well … that got me thinking."
    Viviana slid down onto her back, gazing up at Mikal with half-lidded eyes.
    "Why don't you tell me all about your thoughts?" she murmured, reaching up to run an indolent finger along his cheek.
    Mikal laughed. He lay down on his side next to her, running his hand down the length of her body. There was an assurance and confidence to his motions that made her purr. She wondered if that was how he drove.
    "I imagined how it might be to lie you down, and to touch you, to make you start to squirm just a little bit as I