He lifted his leonine head from hers. "You kiss well for a novice," he told her, and Zuleika laughed aloud.

"I expect you kiss very well for a lover," she observed.

"You have never been kissed before? How is that possible?" he demanded of her, astounded. Surprised.

"I told you, I am a virgin. I was taught to practice kissing upon a sheet of beaten gold, my lord Amir Khan. This is the first time I have ever been kissed back. It is quite pleasurable."

Now it was he who laughed, and the sound was deep and rich. It sent a delicious shiver down her spine. "A sheet of beaten gold," he said. "Not silver? Or copper? Why gold?"

"I am a princess," she responded simply.

Suddenly his hand was smoothing her soft dark head. "Zuleika of Dariyabar, you are a conundrum I shall enjoy both exploring and solving," he told her. He was shocked by his great desire for her, but he also had the most incredible need to protect her. She was that rarest of women, strong, yet fragile too.

"I can feel your lust against me," she said in a soft voice. "Let me ease it for you, my lord Amir, as I am obviously the cause of your discomfort." Then she slipped from his tender embrace, and fell to her knees before him. She took the ruby-eyed head of his love lance between two fingers of her hand, holding it straight. Then she began to lick its length with slow, deliberate strokes of her tongue. "I shall sup upon your juices," she told him.

He closed his dark eyes. His temples were pounding in rhythm with his heart, and all of his pulses. When she took him into the warm cavern of her mouth, almost swallowing him, suckling strongly upon him, he wanted to scream with the incredible pleasure that she was giving him. He had never permitted a woman this privilege of his body, yet he could not have made her cease even if he wished it.