The Sheikh's Destiny (24 page)
He suddenly sank with her in front of the extinguished fireplace where they’d shared such ecstasies, his face trembling, his eyes filling. “You did far less than what I deserved. And your family made up for everything they’d ever done by having you. I might even love them for it.”
A laugh of incredulity burst through the upheaval. “Now don’t go overboard. But whatever you do,
I
will never forgive them.”
He held her face between those callused hands that embodied tenderness and cherishing. “I need you to believe that one touch, one smile, one moment with you
has
atoned for all their crimes, has healed all my injuries. All I want now is for you to forget this and be at peace. If I have you, I have everything, past, present and future. I want only to be your lover and husband and father of our child.”
“And king of Azmahar,” she blurted out.
“Azmahar deserves someone unscarred inside and out.”
“Azmahar needs
you.
And it’s your destiny to rule the kingdom you defended and almost died for, the kingdom you’ve taken back from the brink of destruction and will now lead to prosperity. And that kingdom chose you. Like I did. Because you
are
the absolute best. Even your rivals think that. Hell, even Amjad thinks that. You
must
take your throne.”
“On my life and honor, I will do anything you ever demand. But why not wait and see if I am the best choice for Azmahar?”
As she started to launch into another argument, he kissed her, silenced everything but the need to merge with him.
Not knowing how, she found herself where he’d first made her his as he came on top of her on the mattress she’d made him return after she’d found it far superior to any bed.
The next forever was consumed in finding their way back to each other, body, heart and soul.
What felt like a lifetime of bliss later, he moved her sweat- and pleasure-drenched body on top of his, caressed her all over, paying special attention to the belly that was starting to round.
“About the throne...” she began.
He cut her off. “About the honeymoon we never had. How about you tell me where you want to have it?”
She dove deeper into his embrace. “Right here. But...”
“There are too many reasons not to think of the throne now.”
“Your PTSD flared up on my account. It should subside now.”
“Even if it does, I can’t be king. I need to be with you through your pregnancy and during our baby’s birth and first months. I
will
make up for both of our lifetimes of alienation.”
She ran adoring hands and eyes down his beloved face. “
Then
you’ll consider taking the throne?”
“How about we take this one day at a time?” He gave her back the words she’d given him in what felt like another life. “Let’s just savor this. What’s the rush?”
“Uh...a kingdom with no king?”
He waved it away. “Haidar and Jalal will hold down the fort. It’s good training in case one of them ends up on the throne.”
As she opened her mouth, everything inside her stopped. At a sight she’d thought she’d never see.
Rashid’s first full smile.
“How’s that?” He tickled her out of her swooning. “Am I doing it right?”
She melted even more. “If I thought your scowl heart-stopping, your smile is possibly life-threatening.”
And he treated her to another first, his unbridled guffaw.
“Ahh...” She lost all cohesion. “I’m gonna die!”
Still exposing her to the incomparable beauty of his grin, he countered, “You’re gonna live. To love me and be loved by me.”
Joy inundated her, that true ease had finally entered his heart and made his smile ready and laughter possible.
Deciding not to push for the throne for now, she grinned widely back. “All I ever wanted is to be yours, and for you to be mine.”
He illuminated her whole world and being with his delight and devotion. “Done. And done.”
Epilogue
H
aidar and Jalal scowled at Rashid.
He only raised serene eyes to them, grinning, delighted at how that still fazed them.
Haidar blinked, as if to clear his eyes from a burst of light, and bit off the words, “You said a couple of months.”
“And when was
six
months ever ‘a couple’?” Jalal added, folding his arms over his chest, looking as unsettled at seeing him smile.
“You were both once intent on taking on the job permanently. What’s so difficult about doing so for half a year?”
Haidar huffed. “Since you landed the bid, we rearranged our lives accordingly, and you ran and left us holding the baby.”
He shrugged. “I did so
I
can hold my and Laylah’s baby. And I’m not holding anything else until I do.”
“Just give us a straight answer, damn you,” Haidar growled before sitting next to him, grabbing his shoulder, looking deeply into his eyes. “Are you really okay now?”
“Far better than you can imagine.” Rashid smiled at him, an act that came so easily to him now. “I have my own miracle. And she’s providing me with another one...in about a week’s time.”
Jalal sat on his other side. “
Then
we can be allowed to have a piece of you? You can be a husband, a father and a friend, too, you know. We’ve tried it and it works.”
Rashid grinned at him. “If I don’t expire of happiness when our baby boy is born, I’ll squeeze you, and the throne, onto my list of priorities.”
Haidar rolled his eyes. “Once we could never get you to crack a joke, now you’re almost rivaling Amjad, your biggest fan and our biggest pain in the ass, in being irreverent. Laylah isn’t a miracle worker, she’s a saboteur.”
“You found out my true agenda!”
As Haidar and Jalal turned whimsical gazes to their ribbing cousin, Rashid filled his sight with Laylah as she waddled down the stairs of their loft. She became more beautiful with every passing day.
Firelight beamed off the brooch she almost always wore. His
mahr.
What he considered his mother’s gift to her.
He had another gift for her now. One from
her
mother.
He rose, looking at Haidar and Jalal. “It’s a good thing you’re here to hear this. I just learned this moments before you barged in.” His arms went around Laylah, the one being who encompassed the world to him. “I’ve been reinvestigating this ever since you came back to me. And today I made sure. Your mother had nothing to do with my kidnapping.”
Tears surged into her eyes as her whole face trembled. “You’re not just—just...”
“I only ever hid things I thought were no longer relevant, but I never and will never lie to you,
ya mashoogati.
It’s the truth. You can have your mother back now.”
He received an armful of sobbing love and thankfulness in utmost gratitude, before he turned to Haidar and Jalal.
“I’m sorry,
ya shabaab,
but your mother was solely responsible for this.” At their pained, resigned looks, he added, “But she didn’t order my mutilation, or death, after they extracted the information. Her orders were to get the information without damaging me, then keep me prisoner until she carried out her plan. What they did was their own payback to me. I’d been responsible for their imprisonment or that of their relatives.”
Haidar frowned. “Are you saying this to make us feel better?”
“With Sondoss as your mother, I doubt that’s possible.” At their grimaces, he grinned, making them do a hilarious double take. “Seriously, she’s not as bad as I thought she was. She has lines she won’t cross, which makes her dangerous and misguided but not a hardened criminal. As far as I’m concerned this—” he indicated his scar “—isn’t her doing. So I basically forgive her. And so should you.”
Haidar groaned. “It’s a miracle we’re so well-adjusted.”
Jalal’s eyes widened. “You’re talking about us?” He shook his head as he rose, put his hand on Rashid’s shoulder. “The only reason we’re not as dangerous as our mother is because we found you so early on. And before we strayed too much after you left us, we found Roxanne and Lujayn.”
Haidar rose, huffed a mirthless laugh. “That
was
a couple more catastrophes averted, thanks to the right people at the right time. So...” He placed a hand on Rashid’s other shoulder. “Right
man,
when will you take your kingdom off our hands?”
“Uh...never?” As they all exploded in protests, he smirked. “I meant it’s never going to be totally off your hands. Even after I take the throne, you’ll share it with me. You pick your titles.”
Jalal shook him in mock panic. “Please, not heir and spare. Harres and Shaheen suffer untold horrors being Amjad’s.”
“My heir is right here.” He lovingly caressed Laylah’s round belly, soaked up her adoration. “You can be anything and everything else.”
“
Sokrunn ya rubb—
thank God!” Haidar pretended relief. “But we’ll have to get back to you on that,
after
Roxanne and Lujayn tell us exactly what we’ll be, and what we’ll do.”
Rashid laughed. “A very wise if terminally annoying king once told me that a man can’t call himself that until a woman has him totally whipped.”
Haidar guffawed. “We’re the manliest men who ever lived then.”
Rashid looked down at Laylah, loving her, thanking the fates for her with every heartbeat. “
No
one is manlier than me.”
A contest of anecdotes proving who was manlier followed, after which they settled everything else.
When he returned from seeing Haidar and Jalal off, he came down on the floor beside Laylah as she stretched on the couch, rubbing and kissing her belly soothingly.
Sighing her pleasure, she drew her hands luxuriantly through the hair that now brushed his neck. “Thank you,
ya rohi.
”
“I’m the one who’s thankful I could give you this.”
“I’m not only thanking you for doing all this in the hope of exonerating my mother of the one crime I would have never forgiven her for, or for giving me the chance to rebuild my relationship with her. I’m thanking you for being you, for being mine.”
“You thank me for that every day. You spoil me.”
“Tough. I will keep on thanking you. But then you do the same. Now give me the straight answer you didn’t give the guys.”
“I
am
doing a lot for Azmahar from here. But I will only go back there with our whole family accounted for. Whether to be king or not remains to be seen. This is the destiny I care about—being yours, and our baby’s.”
“The throne is the other half of your destiny!” She pulled him up to her by his hair. “Didn’t you claim to be the ‘manliest’ man there is? Prove it. Say it is and that you’ll take it.”
Taking her lips, taking her into his arms and heart, he smiled his pledge. “
Amrek, ya habibati.
As you command, my love. It is, and I will.”
Laughing delightedly, she enfolded him back in her arms and heart. “Good man.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from
Up Close and Personal
by Maureen Child
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One
“L
aura, I know you’re in there!”
Ronan Connolly pounded on the brightly painted blue front door a few more times, then paused to listen. Not a sound from inside the house, though he knew too well that Laura was in there. Hell, he could practically
feel
her, standing just on the other side of the damned door.
Bloody hardheaded woman. How had he ever thought that quality attractive? Now that attractive hardheadedness had come back to bite him in the ass.
Seconds ticked past and there was no sound from within, which only irritated him further. He glanced at the sunshine-yellow Volkswagen parked alongside the house—her car—then glared again at the still-closed front door.
“You won’t convince me you’re not at home. Your bloody car is parked in the street, Laura.”
Her voice came then, muffled but clear. “It’s a driveway in America, Ronan. You’re not in Ireland, remember?”
“More’s the pity.” He scrubbed one hand across his face and rolled his eyes in frustration. If they were in Ireland right now, he’d have half the village of Dunley on his side and he’d bloody well get her to open the damned door.
