AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I meant every word,” I say heatedly, clasping her fists and pulling her face to mine to get her to be quiet. “Look into my eyes and tell me if I am a liar.”
She goes soft and in my eyes she can see everything she means to me. “Djoser...he said...you only have woman for reproduction...” She licks her lips. “Is it true?”
“Yes.” When her eyes flare, I clasp her face. “But not with you. You I will keep.” I drag a breath to calm the frantic beating of my heart. “Will my woman let me keep her?”
She has to let me have her. Without her I’ll be mindless, hollow and dried out. My woman is the only one who can breathe me back into life and waking up in the middle of the night and not hearing her sweet breaths next to me will feel like sinking into an abyss. Before Kenna, I relished, loved my life and didn’t hesitate to enjoy it. Now that I’ve met her, I realize how little that was, how pointless. Instead I find meaning in straw-colored hair, deep eyes and a spirited mouth.
When she weakly nods, I fill with relief and she moans when I slant my lips over hers, knowing we’ll have to move soon because of the sandstorm but this moment with her is too precious to interrupt.
“I love you, Kenna,” I rasp. “Love me back.” I brush my mouth over hers. “Please.”
“Of course I love you,” she whispers. “I ran but I barely even knew where I was going, already missing you like crazy.” She gives a heartbreaking smile. “I love you back so much, Xerxes.”
“You’ve saved me from death,” I add, with a curling of my lips. “Now I won’t have to use that dagger on myself.” Smiling at the intensity, she buries her face in my chest and I kiss the top of her head. “Come home with me.”
Looking up into my eyes, she takes my hand, giving it a squeeze and I know that she forever will be mine.
Epilogue
Xerxes-Seven years later
“Scorpius,” my oldest one says and I hide a grin when the second grimaces, jumping up and down.
“No, I want them to name him Santa Clause.”
“Santa Clause isn’t a real name!”
“Neither is Scorpius!”
“Settle down,” I urge as I pace back and forth outside of the mahogany door. “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Xerxes.”
They all groan, all six of our daughters and the youngest one does grabby hands at me for me to pick her up and I hold her, looking at my family with pride. There are so many of us and another one is on the way. Kenna is giving birth, screaming like a wildcat behind the door and it makes me grind my jaw from worry.
She’s the one who insists on having them. I was ready to be done after the first child, surprised over how relieved I was it wasn’t a boy. A boy would mean he’d have to become like me, but our daughters, they’ll never experience that life. They’ll always stay sheltered like Kenna and it’s how I’ve come to prefer it.
When our family began expanding, we built a small palace in the oasis and we’ve been living here ever since. I keep them protected from my other life, keep the daggers hidden and whenever any of our daughters gets suspicious and asks what I do, I tell them I work in merchandise which always pulls a laugh out of Kenna.
Our wedding was a small ceremony in the desert and we had to fly out her family and friends. None of them gave their blessing, trying to convince Kenna almost up to the ceremony that marrying me was a bad idea but Kenna refused to listen to them.
My woman loves me for me and not for what I do. And she loves our life out here and has never expressed any wishes of going back. Sand runs in her veins now, the same way it does in mine. I hide a grimace when Kenna lets out another scream and I rock my daughter, knowing that if the doctor didn’t do anything to ease Kenna’s pain, I’ll kill him myself before the night is over.
We wait a couple of minutes more and then Kenna lets out a long mewl and there’s a sound of another scream. A small, cranky one and my heart speeds up in my chest. Fuck...just please don’t let it be a boy.
I leave my daughters with their sitter and burst through the room. Kenna is sitting in the poster bed, her face flushed and she’s holding a bundle in her arms. Her eyes are plastered on the babe before she looks up and her face splits in a smile and now her eyes are on me.
“Congratulations,” the doctor says dryly, packing up his instruments. “It’s another one.”
Another one...does that mean...
I rush over to the bed, sitting down on the edge and brush Kenna’s hair out of the way. “Is it...?” I ask and my throat strains because I can barely speak.
“A girl,” she whispers, putting the babe in my arms and I cover her with my robes. “How relieved are you?”
My eyes snap to hers. “You know about that?” I’ve never told Kenna about my struggles with having an offspring that’s supposed to follow my footsteps. When we first met it was what I thought was important but it wasn’t my driving force. My driving force was making Kenna mine, cementing her to me and with our ever expanding family, I think she’s been pretty cemented by now.
She nods. “You looked like you were almost going to implode from relief,” she sniggers and she’s the only one allowed to tease me. She strokes the babe over her head. “What do you say? Are we gonna pull the plug?”
“And just play around for the rest of our lives?” I ask. My eyes roll back in my head. “I’ve been wanting to hear that from your lips for years now.”
Kenna laughs, pulling me in for a kiss and our lips meet, making me groan at her taste. “Missed you,” I moan. “Took you too long to push out the kid.”
“How about you do it next time?” she teases and I cup her neck, before burying my face in her throat.
“No next time, remember? Just you and me from now on.” I groan because I can’t wait to have her all to myself. “You’ve done your job, woman. Now, just let me enjoy you fulltime.”
“As you wish,” she nods and our bodies will come together every night from now on, no interruptions. I look up at my beautiful wife that shines like gold in the light of the room and my heart cleaves. Our story began with me buying her but I was sold from the moment I saw her. And I’ll forever be hers.
The End
