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.