She felt the immediate kick of recognition and struggled to contain it.
“Why are we here?” She was lost in the intensity of his gaze, her whole body shifting with the strength of how he made her feel.
His black eyes moved from her eyes to her mouth, then back to her eyes. He let go of her quickly, as if only just realising he was holding her to his body. He sent her a smile that almost seemed apologetic, and then gestured with his hand that she should precede him.
A small frown tugged at her lips as the mystery deepened. After taking only a dozen or so steps, he stopped walking. “Here.”
“Where?” She asked, exasperation beginning to creep into her now. She had no sense of why he’d brought her with him, and only a feeling that he was being intentionally vague.
“This is the spot,” he moved towards one of the enormous trunks, and gestured to the empty space. Well, not quite empty. There was a sapling between the two trees. Eventually, it would grow to thicken out the hedge.
She knew what he meant. He was referring to the tree he’d lopped for no reason except a desire to test his strength against such a formidable opponent.
“Why have you brought me here?”
He linked his hand with hers and lifted it to his lips. His eyes were a magnetic force, drawing her focus. “Because, habibi, I needed to show you something.”
At her arched brow, he continued.
“I destroyed this tree. I cut it to the ground. Only the other day, I came back here for the first time in many long years. And look what has happened! From a seed of these trees, another has taken its place. Where once there was nothing, there is now hope. Where I had destroyed something, it is not completely ruined forever.”
She frowned, trying to grasp the point he was making.
His laugh was almost embarrassed. Except if there was one emotion Sally couldn’t imagine the powerful Sheikh feeling it was embarrassment.
“Sally,” he spoke quietly, his expression almost fierce for its powerful seriousness. “I love you.”
She froze. Her whole body, including her heart, and her blood, and her brain, seemed to stop conducting any activity. She was a lifeless object, incapable of anything.
“I think I loved you the first moment I saw you. You were so very scared, and yet so brave for it. I admired that strength of character, and then I admired your beauty. And I never stopped.”
Nothing. She couldn’t speak. She was absolutely mute.
“I told myself that I couldn’t love you. It would only complicate what was a straight-up political marriage. I felt, at the time, that we would both fare better if we kept our distance.”
Sally shook her head. “You’re wrong. You don’t love me.”
His smile was confident again. “I was wrong not to admit it to myself. Where you have been fearless, I have been a coward.”
“You? A coward?” She was trembling from the shock of the situation.
“I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you. When you stood before Kaman and me, so obviously terrified but with your chin pointed and your shoulders squared. You were the picture of defiance, and I loved that about you. When you stared at the Allani mountains and your face lit up, I loved you for how you loved our people. You have been gracious, proud, and incredibly resilient. You fascinate me and you empower me. When I am around you, I want to be the kind of man you are proud of. Just you.”
“Khalid,” she whispered, still not sure if she was understanding. Had she fallen asleep? Was it a dream?
He lifted her hand back to his mouth and kissed it again. “But the night we made love for the first time, I loved you with an intensity that could have cut me in half. I ran from that love. I forced myself to keep it deep within me. When you told me you were falling in love with me, it felt like we were travelling a disastrous path. One of us had to be strong enough for both of us. I chose to be that person. I thought that our marriage would succeed if we kept it … business-like.”
“Business-like?” Despite his words, she felt her indignant hackles rising. “We had just made love! There was nothing business-like about what we were.”
“No.” He nodded, his smile distracting her. “But after Kaman kidnapped you, I realised that I didn’t want to love you. Not if it meant I might lose you, and feel that again.” He shook his head slowly. “And so I kept you at a distance, until I couldn’t. Until I couldn’t not be with you. Until I couldn’t not touch you and see you and laugh with you. I love you, Saaliyah, and finally I have realised that the only thing I have left to fear is not being able to say that to you whenever I want. I love you. I love being with you, I love you.”
Sally dipped her head forward, resting her forehead against his chest. “I don’t … I don’t know what to say. Last night you were …”
“I was a bastard,” he groaned. “I worried I’d ruined everything. That you no longer loved me, and I thought that I could get you to admit it, and everything would be okay. But I ruined it even more. Then somewhere in the night, I thought of this tree. I thought of the way nature has a way of putting hope where there is none. Of filling in the gaps with barely a seed. And I realised that I might have come close to ruining our marriage with my stupid arrogance and misguided intentions, but still I hope. I stand here filled with all of the hope in my heart, Saaliyah, that you will hear my words and know their truth. You are my princess, in every way. A woman I love, and a woman I am not certain I will ever deserve.”
Her sob was a muffled sound against his chest. She shook her head from side to side as blissful happiness and relief began to penetrate the protective shielding she’d been erecting around her heart.
“I’m sure this isn’t real.”
“It is real,” his voice was throaty. “It is the most real I have ever felt. With you, I am no longer a Sheikh. I am a man. And I hope it will be this way between us forever. To me, you are my wife, and if you let me, I plan to love you for the rest of my days.”
“If we weren’t already married, that would have been the most romantic proposal,” she said on a shaky laugh.
“We are already married, but from today, we become husband and wife – true partners in every way.”
Her smile, when she lifted her face to his, was dazzling, and her eyes shone with the happiness of unshed tears. “Then my answer is a resounding yes.”
Epilogue
The sun cresting over the mountains was spectacular. Perhaps even more so from this, the other side of the range.
“This is it.” She lifted her gaze to Khalid’s face. Even now, almost a year to the day after their wedding, he still had the ability to take her breath away. Particularly like this. Wild, rugged and a man of the elements. Dressed in his usual regal attire – a cream robe with golden detail – he was still somehow feral and untamed. His long hair loose and lifting in the gentle breeze, his stubble rough and untamed.
“I know it doesn’t look like much,” she continued, somewhat self-conscious suddenly. “But it’s where I grew up.”
He angled his face to hers, his eyes unreadable. Even to Sally, who knew and understood everything there was about this powerful man.
“And for this reason alone, it has value to me. I want to see it.”
She squeezed his hand, her happiness a force that was impossible to contain. She smiled up at him and began to walk to the modest house. “My memories are fragmented. Like strange shards of a broken mirror. I can see little details. My mother used to love geraniums. She kept window boxes full of them, and pots, too. They were always overflowing with red flowers.”
She stopped walking so that she could collect a piece of blue pottery. “Except this one.” Her smile was distracted. “This was part of a pot. And the flowers in this one were pink. I used to pick them and arrange them in a small vase.”
She shook her head, and took another step towards her past. “My bedroom was down there.” She pointed to the far end of the house. “And Tasha’s was beside it.”
They tou
red the house extensively, and though she suspected he was humouring her, Khalid made every effort to show genuine interest. He enquired after details, and nodded sagely when she recounted stories from her youth.
“Leaving must have been hard for you,” he surmised, as they walked out of the house, and through the back garden.
“Yes. Though at eight years old, I don’t know if I grasped the permanence of our departure.”
“And when you did?” He prompted softly.
She had been miserable. “I had Abigail by then,” she answered. “She helped me understand. She helped me see the bright side in my new life.”
“Ah, yes. Abigail.” He was teasing. There was nothing he liked so much as teasing his wife, particularly on the subject of her curmudgeon of a governess. “That was … fortunate.”
She playfully slapped him in the chest. “You know you love her.”
“Almost, but not quite, as much as I love you.” He kissed the tip of her nose, unleashing a kaleidoscope of butterflies inside of her.
“You’re just saying that because I saved this country of yours from another generation of civil war.”
“This country of ours,” he corrected with an indulgent tone. “And you’re right.”
“That you only love me because I’m valuable politically?”
“Yes,” he winked at her.
“You are impossibly arrogant at times, you know.”
“Am I?” His smile was laced with smugness. “I think my arrogance is appropriate. I have managed to find myself, for a wife, the most kind, gentle, loving woman in the world. And she just happens to be very beautiful and sexy as well.”
Sally rolled her eyes, but her heart was melting. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
“We’ll see.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her close to his side. “Did you see that Kaman and Tashana have asked to return to see you?”
Sally nodded slowly. “Yes, I got the email too.”
“What did you think?”
Sally blinked, and shook her head. Though a year had passed, she still found she couldn’t quite forgive her cousin’s actions. “I don’t know,” she said frankly. “Is there a statute of limitations on how long you can be pissed off at the people who drugged you then kidnapped you in the boot of the car?”
He groaned, his temper spiking in pained memory of what had transpired. “Don’t remind me. I have literally just accepted his millionth apology. I can’t quite bring myself to remember how you were treated.”
She shrugged. “Let me think about it. I know there’s a part of me that would like to see Tasha, but it’s still a small part. It’s enough for me to know she’s happy in her own life.”
“And so much the better that her life is far, far away from you,” he agreed.
They walked a little further, to the edge of the garden. It had been abandoned long before, and it was overgrown now. Weeds weaved their way through the beds, and long-forgotten borders crumbled underfoot.
“It’s a little like my own personal Pompeii,” she murmured, shaking her head at the decline of the home.
“Yes. How would you like to give it a renaissance, then?”
“What do you mean?”
He stopped walking and looked at her intently. “We need a sanctuary. I am sick of having to share you with the adoring public, and palace servants. We need somewhere we can go and be truly alone. With your permission, I would like to have this restored.”
Her mouth dropped open, and not being certain of her feelings, he continued quickly. “You can oversee the renovations. It will be sympathetic to the original home. The home you remember. I do not intend significant changes. Simply to make it liveable and comfortable once more.”
“Oh, Khal. There must be better places …”
“The best places in the world are the ones that make your eyes light up like this.” His gaze was so intense on her face she felt as though he were touching her. “I can’t think of anywhere else I would rather escape to with you than here.”
“But it’s on the other side of the mountains,” she teased. “You’d be on my turf.”
“And very happily so. It is you who made this ceasefire possible, habibi. Without your braveness of spirit, our two people would still be at war. Instead, you have brought peace.”
“Let’s hope it proves to be lasting,” she said under her breath.
“Nine months without a single incident bodes well. But there are never guarantees. We will face what the future holds together.”
“Yes. And when it all gets too much we’ll come here to chill.”
“To chill?” He queried, his brows knitted. “There are times, every now and again, when you remind me forcefully of how British you are.”
“I like to keep you on your toes.”
He nodded. “In that case, I shall continue to be surprised by you.”
“Oh?” She laced her fingers through his and slowly pulled them forwards. “I think the best surprise is yet to come.” She placed his hand on her stomach, and watched as the moment of realisation began to roll across his features. Surprise. Confusion. Doubt. Delight and finally joy.
He lifted his other hand to her still flat stomach and let out a rumble of pleasure. “You are pregnant!”
“Yes,” she nodded quickly, biting down on her bottom lip. “Pregnant and rather thrilled about it.”
“Oh, Saaliyah, I cannot believe it.”
“Really?” She enquired a little shakily. “We’ve certainly been giving this baby every chance to come into our family.”
“Our family.” His eyes widened at the most perfect description he’d ever heard. They were a family. Somehow, through a twist of fate and a design of the stars, he had married a woman who had brought peace to his kingdom, passion to his heart, and contentment to his soul.
THE END
The Sultan’s Virgin Bride
Excerpt
“The sight of the butterfly was beautiful to behold.
Far too beautiful to relinquish and risk that it might not
return to him.
With an eye on his prize, he lowered the jar,
And smiled as the butterfly batted its wings against the glass sides.
It was trapped, but his. Always his.”
- From a Talinese Children’s Story.
Chapter One
“You don’t have to marry him, little one. This choice is entirely yours to make.”
Eleanor looked up at her father, her gold-flecked eyes glinting with determination in her heart shaped face. “Yes, I do. There are three hundred people waiting to see Sultan Aki Katabi take his wife. This dress cost more than most people make in a year. Of course I have to marry him.”
Nasir reached out and took his youngest daughter’s hand in his. “Ellie, you are doing this for me. Because you think I care more for my country than for my child. It is not so.”
She shook her head, her already over-burdened heart swelling at his gently spoken words. Her father. Her hero. Time had been kind to him, but life had not. In his sixties, he was tall and wiry, strong of opinion but soft of voice. Dressed in traditional Talinese robes, he looked mysterious and regal. “I know that being exiled from Talina has been a great sadness for you,” she murmured sympathetically.
“Yes,” he muttered, unable to keep his eyes on his child. “The shame was immense.”
“But no longer.” She moved into his line of sight, her smile genuine. “Today, you are back in Talina, and in less than an hour, you will be the father-in-law to its ruler.”
“Bah.” He wiped a shaking hand over his eyes. Eyes that were so like Eleanor’s she sometimes felt as though she were looking into a mirror. Like hers, Nasir’s were rimmed in thick, dark curling lashes. They were almond-like in shape, and wide set. “You know I do not care for the rule of the country.” The unspoken conclusion to that statement hung between them. If he had cared for the rule, he would have challenged for the throne when he was being called
on to do so. But Nasir wanted to rule as much as Eleanor wanted to be anywhere more than three feet off the ground. That was, not at all.
“But to not be able to return to your birth place… I know that has worn away at you, Papa.”
He grimaced. “That is my burden to bear. And not yours. Nor your sister’s.”
“No.” She brushed her lips against his forehead, standing on tiptoe to do so. “It is not my burden to remove, it is my honor.”
He sighed. “You are determined to marry him then?”
Eleanor thought of Sultan Aki Kitabi and felt her heart begin to race beneath the generous swell of her cleavage. When he’d first made contact with Nasir to suggest the union, Eleanor had been offended and mortified. How could she, Eleanor Rami, born and raised in upstate New York, be sold into marriage? It offended every feminist bone in her body.
Until she’d met her prospective husband.
With one look, every objection had seemed to instantly shatter inside of her.
Aki had walked into their home as though he owned it. Confident, physically dominant, with a natural sense of authority that had made her tremble in awe. He was tall, broad shouldered, with skin a golden brown, like toffee in the sunshine. His eyes were grey, his face symmetrical, and his hair was dark and gleaming. There was a wildness about him, too. Though he had dressed in a sedate charcoal suit, nothing could tame the feral, animalistic quality he resonated. With six members in his entourage, Eleanor had only been able to look at Aki.
Still. She was no shrinking violet, and she knew enough about unhappy marriages thanks to her sister Michelle’s experience to know better. Surely shackling herself to someone she didn’t know was a recipe for disaster. No matter how gorgeous he was to look at, Eleanor would need more.
But then, Aki had begun to speak. And his words had been so eloquent, his voice so seductive, his accent thick and mysterious like the sands that washed over the desert lands of his country; his hands had been so strong and captivating as he’d gestured to emphasise his reasoning, that Eleanor had found herself almost completely struck mute by the time he left.
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