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“I canceled the ceremony at the last moment. So Khalid suggested a toast to the future.” He scowled. “Now I see it was a future where he and Laila would rule.”
Beth looked dazed. “How did they intend to claim the throne?”
“He probably intended to announce the wedding and my unexpected, sudden death. Then he’d claim the throne as the only male heir left, consolidating power by marrying the new queen.”
“How dare he?” she cried furiously.
“But they failed.” Omar looked down at her with tears in his eyes. “Because of you.”
Beth was dressed in the same jeans and T-shirt she’d left the palace in, a day and a half before. Her eyes were tired, her glorious light brown hair frosted silver by moonlight. He’d never seen anyone who looked so beautiful, or more like a queen. He took a shuddering breath.
“You burst into my life like a flame,” he whispered. He cupped her cheek, looking at her luminous face in the flickering torchlight of the garden. “Like the sun.”
He felt her tremble beneath his touch, saw her lips part and her breasts rise and fall quickly beneath the T-shirt. “Omar...there’s something I have to tell you.”
“There’s something I have to tell you, too. Something I should have said long ago.” He met her gaze. “It doesn’t matter what your name is, Beth. In my heart, from the moment I saw you in Paris, I knew you were the one.”
“You did?” she said faintly.
“You have won the hearts of my people.” He straightened. “I offer you the whole city. The love of an entire nation.”
“It’s not the nation’s love I need,” she said in a low voice.
The meaning of her words exploded in his heart, and he fell to his knees before her.
“I offer you my love, as well.” Taking her hands in his own, he looked up at her. “You are strong and honest and fierce. You are the woman I want. I love you, Beth. And I will strive every day to...”
He looked away.
“To what?” she breathed.
He looked up at her. His eyes were blurry with tears as he spoke the truth from his heart. “To be worthy of you. If you’ll just give me a chance to earn your love...”
“Earn my love? You can’t.” His heart fell to the ground, until she choked out, “It’s already yours. I was coming back to you even before Rayah called. To tell you I love you.”
A thrill went through his heart.
“You love me?” he whispered, searching her gaze.
Wordlessly, she nodded, smiling though her tears.
Omar didn’t remember how he got to his feet. Afterwards, he remembered only the sensation of flying. When he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, he soared.
For the first time in his life, he truly felt like a king.
* * *
A year later, spring had finally arrived in Samarqara. Spring, and Beth’s sister.
“They’re beautiful,” Edith breathed, looking down at one-month-old Tariq in Beth’s arms.
“The most beautiful babies in the world,” Omar agreed, with his typical modesty where his newborn twins were concerned. He looked down at the baby snuggled in his own arms, Nyah, who was just two minutes younger than her brother.
“Twins,” Edith said wryly, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe it.”
Sitting in a shady spot in the palace garden, beside the newly blooming flowers beneath the palm trees, Beth looked up at her sister fondly. “Think of all the fun they’ll have.”
“The fun’s already begun,” Omar said with a grin, stretching his arm along the top of the bench behind his wife. “I thought the kingdom went crazy at Beth’s coronation...”
