Protecting the Desert Princess(90)

                ‘Absolutely.’

                ‘How much more?’

                ‘Much, much more.’

                ‘What if those herbs make the pill not work?’

                He looked over to her. ‘I doubt that very much,’ Mikael said, ‘but what do you think would happen if it didn’t work?’

                She thought for a very long time about how she felt right now.

                No, this wasn’t Planet Layla, and yet since she had arrived on Planet Earth something had been missing.

                There had been an ache.

                She didn’t really know what it had been, and now it was as if warm cement had been poured and that void was for ever filled. There was nothing she could not face with Mikael by her side.

                ‘We’d get through it,’ Layla said.

                ‘We would,’ he agreed, and he took her hand and she felt his fingers close around hers.

                ‘I would probably be difficult to live with,’ she warned, and Mikael rolled his eyes as he thought of life with a pregnant Layla.

                ‘Yes, you would be very difficult to live with,’ Mikael said, and then smiled as he thought about the day she had stepped into his chambers and claimed his black heart. ‘But impossible to live without.’

                ‘You say the nicest things.’ She smiled. ‘You are the nicest man.’

                ‘Just make sure you don’t tell anyone,’ Mikael said, ‘or you’ll ruin my reputation.’

                ‘It can be our secret,’ she said, and then stamped her feet in pleasure and did a little horizontal dance in bed as happiness consumed her—for Layla knew she had met true love.

                And Mikael watched on and let her be—delighted by his family.