At the Sheikh's Bidding(40)

Erin stared at him, shocked beyond  words. ‘But … but why?' she faltered   at last. ‘I thought that you were to  rule until Kazim is older? You are   the King's only son, and it is your  duty.'

Zahir shook his head. ‘My first duty is to my wife, and my  father   agrees. Although even if he did not I would still be here with  you.   Don't you understand, kalila?' he said urgently. ‘You are more    important to me than Qubbah, my father-everything. You, me and Kazim, we    are a family, and the only thing I want is for us to be together. You    love it here at Ingledean, and so we will live here, have our  children   here-' He broke off when her face flushed with betraying  colour and   waited for her to speak, but Erin suddenly seemed  determined not to look   at him.

‘Kazim … ' she whispered. ‘You shouldn't have left him. He'll be distraught without either of us at the palace.'

‘I didn't leave him,' Zahir said quietly. ‘He's here at Ingledean. Alice has taken him to play in the orchard.'

‘Kazim's here!' With a cry Erin tore out of Zahir's grasp and flew across the garden, desperate to find her son.

But  as she reached the gate his words finally pierced the air of   unreality  that had settled on her when he had appeared in the garden   and she spun  round, her heart contracting when she saw him slumped   dejectedly on the  bench with his head bowed.

‘You love me?' she said slowly, still unable to believe she had heard him right. ‘You would really give up everything for me?'

‘You are everything, kalila, and without you I have nothing.'

His  head was still lowered, and she walked back to him and dropped to   her  knees so that she could look into his face. To her astonishment she   saw  that his eyes were wet, the flare of pain in their dark depths so   raw  that a lump formed in her throat. She brushed her fingers shakily   over  his lashes. ‘You love me,' she whispered, wonderment flooding   through  her.

‘More than life,' he confessed, his voice thick with  emotion. ‘Your   devotion to Kazim is one of the reasons I adore you,  kalila, but I am   ashamed to say that sometimes I am jealous that he has a  place in your   heart and I do not. I suppose you think that's pathetic,  huh? To be   jealous of a three-year-old?' he said heavily.

Erin  ran her fingers over his cheekbones, traced his square jaw and   brushed a  feather-light caress across his lips. ‘You don't need to be   jealous of  Kazim,' she told him gently, feeling a little bubble of   happiness form  inside her. ‘My heart is big enough for both of you. But   you, Zahir, you  are the love of my life, the other half to my soul.   The first time I  saw you here at Ingledean I knew you were the person I   had been waiting  for all my life-the only man I will ever love.'


For a few  seconds he simply stared at her, a nerve jumping in his   cheek. But then,  with a groan that seemed to come from the depths of   his soul, he lifted  her onto his knees, his hands tangling in her hair   as he claimed her  mouth in a kiss that told her more clearly than  words  that he would love  her for eternity.

‘Kalila, I missed you so much this past month  that I hurt,' he growled   when he finally released her mouth. He trailed  his lips down her   throat, his fingers fumbling to unfasten her blouse  and then push the   material aside so that he could press hot, urgent  kisses over the   creamy swell of her breasts.

He dispensed with  her bra and somehow, without Erin realising how they   had got there, they  were lying on the grass, and Zahir was kissing her   hungrily while he  tugged her skirt over her hips. ‘Perhaps our first   child will be  conceived here at Ingledean,' he said huskily, making no   apology for his  desperate need to make love to her as he tugged at  the  zip of his jeans  and stroked a gentle probing hand between her  thighs.                       
       
           



       

‘He or she  will be born in Qubbah, which will be our home, where our   child's  father and brother will one day rule,' Erin stated firmly, her   smile  taking his breath away as she welcomed him into her. ‘We'll  bring  our  child here to Ingledean for holidays. But as for him or her  being   conceived here-' She broke off as he thrust into her, building  her   pleasure to a crescendo. ‘I'm afraid it's too late for that. I am    already expecting your baby. A true child of the desert.'

‘Habibti … '  Zahir's voice shook with emotion as he claimed her mouth in a   kiss of  tender passion and vowed to love her, Kazim, and all the   children he  prayed they would one day have, for the rest of their lives   and beyond.