But what she’d felt for her own injuries was a mere twinge compared to what she felt now for his.
Every scar on his body was the evidence of what should have broken him. But he’d only grown invincible, indomitable.
There was no doubt left in her. That was finally the whole mutilating truth. The answer to her every question and doubt.
He’d truly thought Hassan had been responsible for his father’s death, for his enslavement. If anyone had ever had reason to employ subterfuge to gain his ends, it was Numair.
But there was no trace of subterfuge anymore. She just knew it. This was everything he’d hidden from her. And she no longer had any doubt that what they’d shared had never been among the deceptions.
It had all been real.
As unthinkable as everything else had been, he loved her. As deeply and completely as she loved him. No. Far more, just as he’d said. Her love had been so fickle, she hadn’t even given him the benefit of the doubt.
A lung-tearing sob of shame ripped through her.
And in the next instant she was in the haven of his arms, his feverish, trembling lips all over her face and head. Every sob that shook her seemed to rack him in agony.
“Don’t do this to yourself,” he whispered. “I’m not worth it.”
She struggled out of his embrace, and his arms fell to his sides with a look of absolute despair. He thought she was rejecting him still.
And she pounced on him, squeezed him until she felt her arms would snap. Her tears were a deluge on his chest. “You’re worth everything. The world isn’t enough to do you justice.”
It was his turn to push away so he could gape at her, incomprehension on his face. “But I thought...”
“Whatever you thought was wrong. I was only hurt because I didn’t know the truth. If only you’d told me...” She stopped, wiped furiously at the flood of tears, remorse submerging her. “No, I had no excuse to behave as I did. I am the guilty one here, not you, since you had every right to keep your secret. What happened to you is so enormous, I’ll live my life unable to fully grasp it all. But I loved you, and at the very first test of that love, I failed you.”
He stared at her, stunned, everything inside him on full display for the first time.
Then he choked, “Loved? In the past tense.”
“Ya Ullah, no. Every single moment in time. Even when I thought I’d never be with you again, I knew I’d never stop loving you, yearning for you. I loved you from the first moment, and I’ll love you till my very last breath.”
A single tear escaped one of his eyes that had turned dark jade as he stared at her, almost panting as hard as she was. As if still afraid to let himself believe, to allow himself relief.
Then he reached out an unsteady hand to cup her cheek. “I need you to understand one thing. Then you can make this declaration again once you’ve heard it. I wasn’t exaggerating. After a lifetime of emotional deep freeze, you’ve decimated all my barriers and hurled me into an inferno, one I need to burn in for the rest of my life. I will love you single-mindedly, ferociously...till my very last breath.”
She hurled herself at him again, rained tears and kisses all over every part of him she could reach. “Yes, yes, please, love me just like that. It’s how I love you...” Her heart twisted again. “Even though I don’t deserve you.”
He hauled her off the ground and crashed his lips over hers, swallowing her contrition and self-blame.
By the time he raised his head, hers was spinning, her body racked with the wildfire of reclamation and her soul with the grief of agony and guilt.
“Never shed any more tears for anything if you love me, ya hayati, ya galbi. You are my life and my heart. When I thought I lost you, I thought my life was over. But it has all turned out for the best. This way we’ve found each other in spite of everything, making what we have all that more unique and unstoppable. It was even my despair over your rejection then disappearance that drove me to finally remember the vital memory that exonerated Hassan and put my demons to rest at last.”