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When he looked into her eyes he could see the glimmer of another tear on her cheek, and he wiped it away with the tip of a gentle fingertip
Laura bit her lip 'Oh, Xavier,' she gulped 'I love you so much '
He looked down into her emerald eyes, so clear and bright, shining with an emotion she no longer had to hide, and his heart turned over with love 'I know that, too,' he said softly.
EPILOGUE
DESERT WEDDING FOR SHEIKH'S ILLEGITIMATE SON!
The press had gone wild—it was the biggest international story in years Xavier's Parisian apartment was staked out by representatives from the media, so that in the end he and Laura had to employ a firm of heavies to keep them away
They had tried to keep the wedding and its location a secret, but inevitably—with an event of this magnitude—it was boun
d to leak out Kharastan was set to have its first big royal wedding in decades Its people had taken the Sheikh's son to their hearts, and they adored his beautiful bride-to-be, with her sunset-coloured hair and eyes the colour of the forests.
'Did that surprise you?' Laura asked Xavier curiously one morning 'That they should so quickly accept you, in view of the strange circumstances of your birth?
Xavier shook his head 'During the month I spent there after you had gone they got to know me a little, and as time goes by they shall know me better still' He smiled 'But their approval has been my father's reward for his loyalty to his late wife, and for the just and fairway he has ruled the land '
They were lying in bed, in the huge apartment whose windows reflected the shimmering light of the Seine, and every so often Laura would hold up her hand to admire the whacking great square-cut emerald engagement ring which glittered on her finger—and which Xavier said mirrored perfectly the colour of her eyes.
In a month's time—when the plans were ready to be finalised—the two of them would fly out to Kharastan for their wedding, and a honeymoon in the countryside afterwards.
She turned to him and stroked the bare flesh of his shoulder thoughtfully Is this all happening too quickly, do you think'?'
'No Do you?'
She shook her head and smiled 'I want to be your wife, Xavier More than anything else in the world '
He smiled, touched his fingertips to her lips 'Well, then—I want that, too I want to make you legally mine—to bind you to me for the rest of our days '
Laura shivered as she heard his masterful intent and snuggled up to him, thinking that life couldn't get much more perfect than this.
She had gone to Paris with the intention of finding her own apartment and her own job—but work had quickly come her way, courtesy of Xavier, and surely only a stubborn fool would have turned it away?
She had tried looking for an apartment on her own, too—and, interestingly, the area she'd liked best was the Marais, where Xavier had grown up which was now one of the smartest areas in the city. But then she'd realised that she didn't want to spend nights apart, and neither did he. She wanted to be there in the mornings, and there in the evenings, and at all the other times in between. The two of them together seemed almost preordained—as if anything else but Xavier and Laura as a couple was unimaginable. And when Xavier had asked her to marry him one sunlit morning as they walked out to buy baguettes for breakfast, she had burst into tears of joy.
It was soon—she knew that and he knew that—but there was a reason for that, unspoken but understood. His father was still alive, and Xavier wanted to show the Sheikh that there was going to be continuity in his illegitimate son's life. That he was marrying someone the Sheikh had met, and of whom he approved.
At least the question of inheriting the kingdom was not an issue—Giovanni was older than Xavier.
'Thank heavens for that,' Laura had murmured with genuine gratitude when she'd found out. 'I wonder if he's going to reply to the invitation to our wedding? I really hope he does come—I'd like to meet him '
At the mention of Giovanni, his half-brother, Xavier felt his heart leap with a joy tempered by trepidation. But Laura had taught him not to fear his feelings anymore—to let them in and just go with the flow.
She had taught him that, and so much else. But the most important thing she had taught him was how to love.
