by Sophia Lynn
The next time Lia looked up, she realized with some surprise that the curtains had been drawn, the lamp turned on, and the heat was rumbling a little, giving the cabin the feeling of being a ship at sea, sealed off from the rest of the world. She rubbed her aching eyes, blinking back tears of overwork, and she turned in her chair to see Abir reclining on the couch behind her, reading a paperback.
“Abir? What time is it?”
“Little after ten. Are you hungry again? You're about due.”
“Again, what do you—”
She blinked at the plate next to her, which contained a single sad lettuce leaf and some crumbs.
“I made you a burger about five hours ago. You ate it while still looking at the screen.”
Now that he mentioned it, she did remember something of the sort.
“It was good, I think. Thank you.”
Abir laughed, sitting up from the couch and laying his paperback aside.
“You're welcome. I can make you something else if you want. My culinary skills are a little limited, but I could do you up some eggs or maybe a salad?”
Lia shook her head, only now realizing that she had essentially been off in her own little world for around six hours. She stood up from the chair, stretched, stumbled a little, and then Abir was there to support her and to make sure that she didn't stumble.
“I don't know much about the creative process, but I firmly think that some stretching should be in there in the future,” he said, and Lia bit her lip.
“Abir, I'm so sorry...”
“For what?”
“For… for ignoring you all day. You… literally bought me this place, and I can't think of a single way to make it more perfect. There's room here for me to do what I want to do, there's room for the kids, it's gorgeous, and all I do is hole up away from you for the first weekend we've managed in—”
She was aware she was speaking more loudly and faster, and she had no idea where it was going to end up before Abir took her more firmly in his arms, touching a finger to her lips. She looked up at him, and he sighed. He was smiling, but there was something sad to it.
“Lovely woman, that is exactly what I want you to do here. This place is for you. Come here to forget it all, from taking care of three children to that manuscript that you can't figure out.”
“I can, I just need to get the author to – Abir, I want... this is such a big deal. I don't know what to do with it.”
Abir took her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing each fingertip with exquisite gentleness.
“Do exactly what you want, though once again, I think stretching and some proper meal breaks are in order. This place is yours. It's not meant to make you worry or to make you think you are not doing enough. It is yours. It is something I wanted to do for you.”
“Why?”
The question popped out of her mouth without her thinking of it, and the moment it was in the air between them, she would have done almost anything to call it back. It was too much, it was too new, she couldn't expect—
“Many reasons,” Abir said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “First, of course I want you to finish your play. You have been working on it for so long, and it deserves a chance to shine, for you to really give it what you want. Second, this place is beautiful, and you are beautiful. You should always be among beautiful things.”
“Abir—”
“And I want you to have it, Lia, because I love you, and I want you to have everything your heart desires, whether it is related to the children or no.”
He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as easily as he might say that the sky was blue or that water was wet.
Lia felt as if her heart was simply too full. It was ready to burst, and then it would go spilling all over the place, what a mess, and then where would they be? If she started to talk, she knew she would make a hash of it, and so she simply threw her arms around Abir, pulling him down for a kiss that said everything she couldn't quite figure out how to say yet.
They kissed, lost in all of it as the world spun around them, and then Lia gasped as Abir's hands came down over her rear, scooping her up close to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her, not to the bedroom as she had thought he would, but out behind the house.
“Abir, I have to be too heavy—”
“It's nothing at all, and this is quicker.”
“Quicker than what, just tell me what—”
She gasped as he set her crossways in the hammock hung behind the house, reaching over to flip on the porch heater that was positioned right next to it. Full dark had fallen, and the temperature had dropped with it. The heater whirred to life beside them, and then Abir was kissing her again, so hard her mouth felt bruised and tender, so passionately that she knew she might feel it for the rest of her life. She felt as if she were on a river, being carried away, and the only thing that mattered was that this river was taking her to the man she loved, the man she had always loved no matter what lay between them.
“What are you doing?” she whimpered as he turned her head to get access to her neck. “Someone is going to see.”
“Not out here,” he said. “We're a long way from anything, and there's no light to show us at our fun. But Lia, look up.”
Obediently, she did as he said, and then she gasped. There were a handful of stars visible in Queens, but it was nothing like this. The autumn sky sparkled madly with diamonds, more than she had seen in years, and they took her breath away, became part of what Abir was doing to her and with her.
“Keep looking at the stars, sweetheart,” he murmured, undoing her shirt button by button. “I want you drunk on the sky...”
“Poet,” she teased, and then she gasped because her shirt was completely open to him, revealing her bra and her belly, and he was working on her jeans now sliding them down her hips and taking her panties with them. She knew how cold it could get this time of year, but the heater took the cold away entirely, leaving her bathing in warmth with Abir's body over hers.
He stripped off her shoes and socks before pulling down her jeans and panties. Soon enough, she was naked below the waist, and maybe she should have been alarmed, but with Abir, there was nothing but pleasure, nothing but a hot melting sweetness as he stepped between her bare legs, her toes swinging above the paved floor.
“You are so perfect like this,” he murmured softly. “So perfect. So often today while you were working, I thought about what it might be to simply walk over to where you sat and start kissing you, pull all of this gorgeous hair aside and kiss your neck and your shoulders...”
“You should have done that,” she murmured, and Abir's laugh was warm against her skin.
“I remember what happened when I did that back when you were at school,” he said with slight smirk. “I remember having random things thrown at me and being told to wait until you were done.”
“Oh you remember that,” Lia groaned, and it struck in her a lovely way that this was now something they could joke about. Their past was no longer a strange and sore thing around which they had to tiptoe. Instead it was something shared, overwhelmed with enough kindness and good memories that it was only what it was, a good time with an unfortunate set of occurrences. If it was an end, it might have been tragic, but now, in Abir's arms, she knew that it was only a pause, only a brief moment in the lives they would share together.
“I do,” Abir said. “I decided to wait until it was safe.”
Between her legs, his clothed, powerful body made her feel deliciously small and feminine, and she stretched out, so soft and sweet and perfectly willing to take the pleasure he gave her. She gazed hungrily at him as he unfastened his trousers, never taking her eyes from his body as he leaned forward to rest partially on top of her. The hammock swung a little under their combined weight, but it held steady, and she whimpered as the hard blunt tip of his cock probed against her opening.
“I want you right now,” she murmured, t
winning her arms around his neck, but he only smiled.
“Not yet. You're not ready yet.”
“And you know my body so much better than I do?” she teased.
“Let's say I know it well enough to know how to do the job right.”
She started to laugh at him, but then he swept the tip of his cock from the top of her slit down to her opening and back again, making her whimper with newfound need. She had been ready before, but it seemed as if Abir wanted to make doubly and perhaps even triply sure. He rocked over her until her eyes were shut tight and her whimpers high and plaintive, almost shocked at the depth of her pleasure when she was with him.
It wasn't until she had begged him twice more that he finally gave in and sheathed himself in her body, and for a moment, they were both still, hanging on to each other, simply feeling the wonder of being so perfectly joined.
“Oh, Abir,” Lia murmured, and then he started to move, drawing all the way back to her opening before surging back in, not stopping until there was no space at all between them. He repeated the motion with a rock-steady beat, and all that mattered was how she clung to him, how much she needed this.
The motion of the hammock followed the motion of their bodies. While Abir's feet stayed planted firmly on the ground, he could push the hammock just slightly with his thrusts, moving Lia exactly as he liked. There was nothing for her to hang on to, and nestled in the motion of the hammock the only thing that Lia knew was pleasure. This was what this man was to her, this and so much more. He made her feel good, but she knew that was only the start of it, and unable to bear being separate from him, she wrapped her arms around his body and dragged him close to her.
Now they were rocking together, every slight motion sending a corresponding shiver of need through her.
This is what I have wanted, Lia thought. “This is what I have always wanted.”
In some distant corner of her mind, she realized that she was chanting Abir's name over and over again, a plea and a celebration, and faster than she would have thought possible she was shaking, quivering with need that was on the verge of being fulfilled.
“Oh... Oh that's good,” she groaned, and she tried to cling to Abir. She didn't want to climax, not without him, but he looked down into her eyes.
“It's all right,” he whispered. “Let go. I'll catch you every time, I swear it.”
All it took were those words. In that moment, it was as if something in her heart healed when it had been broken before. She had given up on doing anything but clinging to Abir, and her eyes drifted open to stare at the stars overhead. Who in the world had ever known that there were so many stars or so many beautiful ones before? Not her.
As her climax descended on her, as she started to shake and cling to Abir's strong shoulders, the only thing she could do was look at the stars.
They've been here so long, and they'll be here long after we were gone. No, no, that's not right, we're never going to be gone. Some part of us, our love will always be here. We'll echo each other and only fall in love all the more.
When she cried out, the pleasure going higher than she could ever have anticipated, Abir echoed her, his hard body pushing into her one more time and shaking as much as she had. Without hesitation, she threw her arms around him because she knew that he needed this steadiness as much as she did, and they cried out each other's names, unable to get close enough.
The power in their release rendered them both speechless for a moment, and for what felt like forever, Lia simply basked in the power of what they could do together, how much he cared for her, and how much she needed him. After her pleasure had faded a little, however, Lia found that there was a thought that was nibbling at the back of her mind, and she lifted her head, looking down at where Abir was slumped over her.
“Am I too heavy?” he asked, sounding just a little dazed. “I could stand up—”
“Ha, no, you're perfect. I love you.”
That made him lift his head, looking down at her with surprise.
“Lia...”
“You said it before. This isn't me saying it to you as if I was worried you would leave or guilty because you said it first. I just needed a little more time to realize it. So. I love you. I love all of the trees and stars and the stream we found today. I love all of it, but I love you the most. I love you.”
For a moment, Abir's face was perfectly still, and then his mouth came over hers. They had shared passionate kisses before, but this one was wild in its intensity and its depths. It felt good, so good, and she would have given herself to him again then and there if he hadn't scooped her up in his arms again.
“Come inside,” he whispered. “I want to make love to you again, but this time I want to have all of you. I want you to be next to me and naked, I want you on top of me, I want you to shout with pleasure.”
“That all sounds very good to me!” Lia laughed, and then she was carried into the cabin.
They lazed around the cabin on Sunday. Lia thought she should get some more writing done, but for the moment, it was more important to cling to Abir, to sleepily and lazily make love to him, to hold him and to allow herself to be held.
They talked constantly now, moving back and forth in their shared history. He wanted to know what he had missed with the children, and though there was a sting to some of it, there was a feeling of balm as well, as if difficult wounds were being healed with their talk.
Then it was time to leave the cabin – her cabin – Lia realized with a sense of pride and pleasure, and they were loading things into the car, getting ready for the long drive back.
“Hm, I'll have to see what the city does about these roads when it snows,” Abir said dubiously. “They might be slicker than preferred.”
“You worry too much,” Lia said, lazing back into the seat. “Let's find out what the kids did to my brother and his wife.”
They drove back into the city, and Lia drifted off into a soft doze as Abir drove, unable to remember a time when she hadn't been so very loved and safe.
Chapter 11
Abir
As it turned out, Tony and Lauren hadn't been scared off of having kids by having all three triplets over the weekend. The kids came back a little more hyper and rambunctious than they had left, but Abir figured it was the way of things, and they calmed down after a few days at home.
A few weeks passed, the weather got steadily colder, and Abir realized that he was thinking of home more often than not. He had brought it up with Lia a few times, the idea of going back to Shujae for the winter, but she had seemed reluctant. It was true that the publisher was hitting its busy season, with releases for winter and spring taking up all their time.
“I want to,” Lia said finally. “I do. I have always wanted to see where you came from, and for the kids, I mean, well, it's their heritage, isn't it? I'm just so busy right now and so worn out... but soon, all right? You can hold me to that.”
Abir put away the idea that she was nervous about going to Shujae. Of course any woman would be, traveling with three young children under the age of five. He resolved to make it as simple for her as he could, for the jet to be available, to have whatever he needed at the palace to make her comfortable.
Another man might have balked at her reluctance, but he thought he understood. She had been on her own so long, she thought she would have to manage all of it on her own. He resolved to show her that that had changed, and that she wasn't alone any longer. He was here, and he would always help her.
Around the middle of November, he thought things were going well. The kids all had passports in preparation for international travel, they had been exposed to some traditional Shujae dishes, things were going well – and then the article came out.
Abir first realized something was wrong when he checked his planner that Monday morning. His planner was coordinated between his chief of security, his liaison with parliament and his personal secretary, all of whom were back home in Shujae. They were almost nine hours ahead
of him, so when he checked his planner first thing in the morning, he was startled to see a notice from his secretary directing him in terse terms to call immediately.
When he did, Chirag answered immediately, and didn't bother with their usual greetings and small talk.
“This just broke a few hours ago,” Chirag said. “I have the palace press on standby until you've made a decision on how you want to handle things.”
Abir snorted with irritation. On the floor above, it sounded like Lia was waking the kids up. He was hoping that they would get to go out to the park before the weather froze over entirely, and he was hoping this wouldn't take too long.
“Chirag, calm down and just send me—”
He frowned at the document that Chirag had sent over. It was a screen grab from the site of one of Shujae's more reputable newspapers, and he stared at the headline.
Sheikh Abir's Proposal to Shira Shadid – The Return of Romance
“Are you joking with me?” he demanded. “Is this some kind of prank?”
“Unfortunately not,” Chirag said, sounding more than a little ragged. “Apparently her husband left her, and she decided that she might like to be sheikha after all. We're fairly certain that this is something she or her father orchestrated.”
“Shut them down,” Abir said tersely. “It's not true, there's no way—”
“Begging your pardon, Sheikh Abir, but it's not that simple. Her father is of course part of that trade coalition that you have been putting together, and he has sent a message stating that their favors he might be disposed to offer if you are willing to let bygones be bygones.”
Being a sheikh meant dealing with frustrations of this sort all the time. Of course it did. He fought with parliament for the rights of his people and the future of his country. He dealt with publicity and people all looking over his shoulder. It was a luxurious life, but his parents would have been the first to admit that it could be a hard one as well, something that took more than it gave and in the end could cost you too much.
