Somehow they got him out of his damp clothing and then he was under the furs with her, their hot limbs tangling together as they rolled together beneath the covers. She ended up on top, straddling him, sinking down on top of him until they both groaned with the rightness of it.
“Sheridan,” he gasped, gazing up at her, his expression filled with so much more than simply heat.
She lowered her mouth to his, kissed him tenderly, teasing it out until neither of them could stand it a moment longer. He gripped her hips and drove up into her while she rode him faster and faster.
They came together, gasping and crying out as the flame rolled through them. And then they collapsed into each other’s arms with soft caresses and even softer kisses.
“I love you, Rashid,” she said shyly, and he squeezed her tight. She could feel his smile against her hair.
“I love you, too, Sheridan. You keep me grounded.”
“You mean I keep your ego in check,” she said, laughing.
“That, too.” He stroked his fingers up and down her arm. “I didn’t know how lost I was until you entered my life.”
“And I didn’t know I would find home with a man who lived in such a different world than my own. But I did.”
“Do you like it here?” he asked, and she thought he seemed a little hesitant. As if it worried him.
“I love it more every day. But the truth is I would love any place in this world so long as you were there. You are my home. You.”
He squeezed her to him and they said nothing for a long while. But then they began to talk and they spent the evening speaking softly about so many things, and then they made love again, tenderly, before falling asleep curled tightly together.
They would return to the city in a few days and Rashid would issue the proclamation, at their public wedding ceremony, that Sheridan was to be his queen and not just a princess consort. He would deal with the council and they would learn to be happy. In time, they would come to love Queen Sheri, as they called her, as fiercely as if she had been born one of their own.
But tonight was precisely how the royal couple would spend every night for the rest of their lives. Curled together, complete in each other. First, last and always.