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‘Yes, you may be a walking scandal. And your family may be utterly insane, and your personality may be better suited to the position of librarian rather than Sheikha...but I promise you, after we have grown closer these past weeks, that you are the woman I would choose over and over again.’
She forgot to breathe, hardly believing what she had just heard. As she watched, he moved closer, coming down on one knee in front of her.
‘Cressida... If you truly want to end this marriage, I promise that I will not force you to stay. I have spent so long trying to control everyone and everything around me. Trying to find some sort of peace within myself.’ He took her hand, his eyes never leaving hers. ‘But I cannot promise that I won’t spend every day finding new ways to beg you to come back to me for the rest of my life.’
‘Why would you do that?’ she breathed.
‘Because, while I may have been too afraid to realise my feelings for you before, I know them now. I will not give up on fighting to win your heart. I was afraid to let you all the way in, for fear I would need you too much. It seems laughable now, really, trying to resist my own destiny.’
‘You said you don’t believe in fate or soulmates.’ She felt her insides shake at the look in his eyes, at the sensation that the ground might fall away from under her at any moment.
‘Is it not more than coincidence that in a club full of people, in a city with a population twice the size of my entire kingdom...that you would choose me?’
He took a deep breath. ‘I realised something today. From the moment I held you in my arms on that dance floor the first night we met, I felt peace. That was what I was running from. I had been so used to feeling at war within myself that feeling your warmth calming me was terrifying. It was as though you took a grip of the darkness in my soul and forced me out into the light again. If that is not love, I don’t know what is.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Cressida breathed, feeling her hands tremble as he raised one to his lips.
‘Say that you will stay by my side. Not just as my Sheikha and my wife, but as my true partner in life. My love.’
It was the romantic proposal she had never received, she realised. She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling.
‘Nothing would make me happier than to stay by your side.’ She lowered herself to her knees in front of him, placing one hand on his cheek. ‘But I need to be true to myself as well as to my love for you.’
He frowned but she continued quickly, ‘I cannot just be a silent figure in a pretty dress by your side. I want to use my skills to help people, to do good in the world.’
A slow smile lit up the darkness in his eyes. ‘I will support you in whatever you wish to do with that wonderful brain of yours. You may count on me to stand silently by your side and look pretty in the process.’
She felt the last shred of resistance melt away as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. He responded by pulling her deep into the circle of his arms, surrounding her with his strength. She felt it in his kiss, the raw power of his love for her. She had not known that this was the missing piece of her heart until he had come into her life and showed her what it meant to be supported and loved for who she was. That she was enough. For Cressida, there could be no greater gift.
EPILOGUE
Six months later...
THE PARISIAN HOTEL ballroom was full to bursting with members of royalty and celebrities alike. Everyone had joined to celebrate the wedding of the year with the most scandalous royal family of the decade. Cressida watched as her sister walked onto the dance floor, accompanied by her handsome new husband for their first dance. ‘Olivia looks so happy,’ she murmured.
‘Roman was never much of a dancer; it appears he has taken lessons.’ Khal laughed.
‘I will never understand the relationship you two have.’ Cressida raised one brow.
‘Nor would I expect you to.’ He smiled. ‘We are both as complicated as each other, but underneath we will always be friends. Brothers now, I suppose.’
‘A strange family set-up, if ever I knew one.’ She laughed huskily in her throat, gasping as she felt Khal lean in and lay a kiss on the nape of her neck.
‘The party is practically over now; surely we can slip away unnoticed?’ he murmured playfully, his teeth nipping the side of her ear.
‘I am not going anywhere alone with you, Your Highness, not after how little sleep I got last night with you sharing my bed once more.’
Khal had been away for a week while he launched the grand tourism season in the now thriving city of Valar. She had been forced to return early from a trip to South America with the literacy foundation and remain on bed rest at the palace for reasons that they could not yet disclose
to the public.
‘I hope I did not truly exhaust you?’ Genuine concern filled his features as he turned her to look at him. ‘You know the doctor said that you needed to rest as much as possible for a couple of weeks.’
Cressida found herself laying one hand across the gentle swell of her stomach in an unconscious show of maternal protection. ‘The intense sickness has seemed to ease now that we have got through the first few months. I heard the first trimester is the most difficult.’
Khal nodded, a tight smile crossing his features. His change of heart regarding a family of their own had come as an enormous surprise to Cressida. She had fully intended to respect Khal’s wishes to remain without natural heirs, despite knowing that deep down she longed to become a mother some day. But as he had relaxed into the ease of their relationship, she had noticed he tended to worry less and less about things he could not control.
It was not effortless for him. He was a natural protector, after all. It seemed his urge to protect those he loved also included a wish to have children of his own. She had been only too happy to fulfil her wifely duties in that regard, rejoicing when she had fallen pregnant almost immediately. She had not told either of her sisters yet, especially knowing that Olivia’s wedding was so close. She did not want to detract from the day.
