“Yes,” he said.
A single tear slid from my eye as I continued. “And when I’m stubborn, and refuse to bend to your will, will you always use a gentle hand to bend me back into place?”
“Always,” he continued.
“And will you always promise to love our children, and always be the beast I have fallen so utterly and hopelessly in love with?”
“I promise,” he whispered as he lowered his mouth to kiss my forehead, which seared its print into my soul for all times.
“You didn’t wait very long before asking me again, Ryder,” I whispered.
“I never wait when there is something I want as much as this; as much as I want you.”
“I’ll marry you,” I replied and claimed his lips.
He pulled away and spoke softly. “I really had been planning to ask you to be my Queen for some time; it just didn’t seem right to rush this thing between us after I broke off the engagement to Abiageal. Do you know that the men brought me hundreds of rings, but I didn’t think any of them suited you? I needed something as beautiful as the woman who would wear it. I decided that I couldn’t give you just any ring, it had to fit you and had to be created from something that we both shared.”
I watched as he walked over to a wild vine growing against the wall that had beautiful electric blue flowers growing on it and plucked a thin tendril from the vine and began to fashion it into a band. He then plucked a single blue flower from the vine and set it on the band. Next he moved his fingers and the flower and vine turned into gold, which he continued to bend until it was fashioned as a ring. The way his eyes turned to fire and his lips tipped up in the corners told me this wasn’t his first attempt. When he’d finished with the ring, he pulled droplets of water from the pool and as I watched them, lost in his hypnotic magical show, they turned into a large round diamond before my eyes that he dropped into the center of the flower. Several smaller droplets appeared and he placed the smaller ones around the band, until it was the most exquisite thing I’d ever seen.
“As I said; I wanted something as beautiful as my bride,” he whispered and slid the band onto my finger.
“It’s perfect, Ryder,” I whispered. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes.
“Good, now come on. I don’t plan to fuck you in the sand,” he replied wickedly as he dragged me behind him.
I laughed as I ran to keep up with him. We rounded a corner, and I paused in shock. There in the middle of an opening with stars high above us in the sky was an abandoned stone room, with steps that led up to where a huge bed was placed on a dais. Around it were even more candles; the steps had candles embedded in them as well, which created a lit path to where the bed was waiting invitingly. Four huge pillars looked as if they held the sky up, and around them was silk of the same color of blue like the one Ryder had used to blindfold me.
“You did all of this for me just to get me to say yes?” I asked.
“No, I did all of this for you. I’m seducing you, Synthia,” he smiled wickedly. “And I plan to make love to you the first time, and then I plan to fuck you hard.”
Chapter Seventeen
I was led up the stairs until I stood before the satin draped bed that was covered in pillows. Like most beds associated with Ryder, it was huge. As I approached the bed, rose petals rained down from the sky. I smiled as I brought my hand out to catch one, and then lifted it to my nose to inhale the fragrance deeply.