Sweet Obsession by Theodora Koulouris Page A

would make me upset. So how am I to find out?
    Billal popped into my mind. I was sure that he knew what was happening. Maybe if I try hard enough, he will tell me what the secret is. I had no other choice. Tomorrow when Nidal leaves for his lessons, I will send for Billal.
    I tossed and turned all night in my cold and lonely bed. I cried and called out Nidal’s name, but no one answered. This was going to be a long night. Finally, at some point into the night, I drifted off to sleep, and it seemed like a million hours had passed when I opened my eyes and saw Nidal’s silhouette by the window. It was a moonless night. The room was dark, but I saw my lover looking out the window into the black night. I held my breath, not wanting to let on that I had awakened. I watched him for a while, and I heard him sigh a few times. Something was deeply troubling him, and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with me. It must be the meeting. Something terrible was going to happen. I trembled as that realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was desperate for answers, and I knew Nidal would say nothing to me, which made me even more desperate to get answers from Billal.
    Finally, Nidal came to bed. I braced myself as I waited hungrily for Nidal to take me into his arms. But my prince lay quietly next to me and did not make a move to come closer to me. This was the first time something like this had ever happened. I did not know how to handle this, so I reached out to him and wiggled closer to his body.
    He responded immediately by squeezing me tight into his embrace. “I thought you were sleeping, and I did not want to wake you.” He sighed deeply. “I miss you.” His arms squeezed me even tighter. “I barely heard a word in the meeting. I kept thinking of you, Loula.”
    My arms went around his waist. At this moment, I could not be angry anymore with him. I missed him too much. I found his warm lips and kissed him hungrily as my tears came without warning. I knew he was tired and needed to sleep, but I could not stop. I needed him at this moment, and my body was begging for him to touch me. To be loved by this man is all I would ever need in this lifetime .
    As I trembled in his arms, I knew without a doubt that, for me, there was no life without him. He was the very air that I breathed. I was sure of this.
    As Nidal took me to heights of passion, he kept asking me to tell him if I loved him. “Tell me now, Loula!” he demanded passionately, even though all night I told him over and over again how much I loved him.
    He still insisted I say it one more time. He held himself back, withholding his pleasures from me and knowing full well that, by doing so, I was tortured to the point of no return.
    “Tell me, Loula,” he begged. “Do you love me?” he asked again.
    He stood still as if to punish me. I let out a scream of passion, and I told him wildly that I loved him so much. Only then did he share what he so selfishly withheld from me. He took me to his place of heaven, a place only I had gone, a place where no other woman had ever visited. There, I melted and exploded into a million pieces of liquid fire. Whoever said sex was a sin was a big fat liar!
    I woke up in the morning with Nidal’s touch. His hands were roaming again. And I smiled, thinking that, if we keep this up, we would never get anything done.
    “Nidal, how did you wake up? I thought you would sleep all day. You did not get any sleep last night.”
    But Nidal was never one to admit how tired he might be. He only smiled and said without a care in the world, “I slept enough, I feel great, and I’m late for my lessons.” He kissed my nose, flipped the covers back, and jumped out of bed.
    His tall, lean, and tanned body drove me crazy as I watched him get dressed. He turned his back on me and reached for his clothes. He knew I was watching, and he took pleasure in torturing me as he said, “You like?”
    I ignored him, and he slowly turned around, revealing his