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‘I...what do you mean...our lives?’
His nostrils flared and for the first time in a very long time, he seemed at a loss for words. At a loss, full stop. But his eyes...oh, God, his eyes devoured her. In a way that siphoned all of her breath. Risked dampening down the righteous anger she should be fanning—
No.
‘You know what? It doesn’t matter what you mean—’
‘Doesn’t it?’ Soft words, no less ground-shaking for their impact. ‘You’ve freed yourself from the shackles of conditional love. Don’t you want to fight for what you truly want now?’
‘Tahir.’
Those eyes burnished brighter. ‘I believe you when you say you didn’t wish for things to unfold and end the way they did. So do the present and future not reallymatter?’
‘I can’t...they can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘You know why not. I’m—’
‘If you call yourself a nobody one more time, I’ll commission my best architect in Jukrat to build a dungeon just to throw you in until you come to your senses,’ he promised through gritted teeth.
Her head snapped up, a little bit of that anger igniting to life. ‘I wasn’t going to call myself a nobody. I am somebody. I’m my own person. That person is a realist. This...whatever is going on between us...it’s a fairy tale. I’ve woken up. You need to wake up too.’
His chest expanded on a deep breath, his jaw softening a touch. The flames in his eyes morphed. No less powerful but deeper. The kind that promised to burn brighter. Longer. Eternally? ‘There she is. The woman who owned me even before I ever clapped eyes on her. The woman no other has ever been able to hold a candle to.’
She gasped. ‘Tahir.’
His fist curled hard as if he was physically restraining himself from reaching for her, from acting on the possessive need surging like rip tides in his eyes. ‘You keep saying my name like that and I won’t be responsible for my actions. We need to clear this up once and for all because I never want to revisit it again.’
Warmth rushed at her, threatening to overwhelm the cold loneliness. But could she trust it? She shook her head. ‘Did you not hear what I just said? This isn’t real. It can’t be. You went from preparing to say goodbye to me in a matter of hours to asking me to be your queen. And you know what changed within those hours? The tiniest possibility that I might be pregnant. Tell me why I shouldn’t think it was a knee-jerk reaction triggered by the need to claim your child. Tell me how that’s not another form of conditional possession that makes me surplus to requirements?’
‘It wasn’t,’ he answered, his voice as deep as the earth’s crust and just as unshakable. ‘Do you want to know the first time I imagined you wearing my crown?’ he challenged again. He took a single step towards her then froze again. ‘I knew within a minute of meeting you twelve years ago that you were exceptional. Bold and unafraid and so damned alive, I couldn’t not fall under your spell.’ He took a long, deep breath. ‘More than the sex and the conversation and the giving heart I knew you possessed, you gave me hope. Made me believe I could be a better version of myself, a better version for the woman I wanted to be my queen, even back then. That hope...that spell hasn’t waned, Lauren.’
She shook her head again. ‘That’s just it, don’t you see? Spells by their very definition don’t last for ever! We put ourselves in a pressure cooker of twenty-four hours. You’ll be a fool to believe it’ll be sustainable beyond—’
‘Beyond what? Twenty-four hours? Twelve years? A lifetime? I’m prepared to test it. Are you?’ he dared.
‘No! I can’t... I won’t do that to you.’
He exhaled harshly. ‘Why not? Why are you so hell-bent on saving me from this perceived path you think will lead to misery?’
‘Because I...’ She froze. Her throat locked tight. She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, pretend his eyes weren’t blazing at her. That he wasn’t closing the gap between them, leaving her no room to escape her thoughts. Her very real, far too potent emotions that shook every cell in her being.
‘Because you what,habibti?’ he crooned softly, his breath washing over her forehead as he leaned close, fusing his essence with hers.
When she shook her head, her eyes wide open because, self-preservation be damned, she wasn’t going to miss a moment of this, the tiniest self-deprecating smile kicked up the corner of his velvet-smooth lips before he was all purpose and danger again.
Before his lips were caressing her face, lingering on her lips, taking another breath before he said, ‘I’ll go first, shall I?’ He didn’t wait for her response. Every muscle in his body was set on one purpose. ‘Personally, I think twelve years is more than enough. Don’t you? I regret, deeply, that most of it was wasted being bitter and unforgiving and far too invested in feeling aggrieved. Believing the future you hoped for has been taken away from you for ever has a way of doing that to a man.’
Lauren knew her mouth was gaping but she couldn’t quite bring herself to correct herself. Tahir didn’t seem to mind though. The ferocious look in his eyes didn’t abate one little bit.
‘I told you that my family lawyers took care of shutting down most of the tabloids within weeks of what happened. What I tried to say back in the desert tonight was that there was nothing to forgive becauseIshould’ve acted differently too. I had the palace PR machine and a team of investigators I could’ve used to discover the real truth. But I let my father deal with it. I marinated in my bitterness to justify everything that was done to me when I knew deep down you weren’t capable of such duplicity. For that, we lost a dozen years. I didn’t need a year to know the kind of ruler I would be. Or that those months with you were special. My deepest regret through it all was being separated from you.’
That crack came again, sharper. Harder. And again it was replaced by something stronger. Durable. The everlasting kind that said it wouldn’t break or be subject to conditions or whims. It was so overwhelming, tears filled her eyes. ‘Oh, God. I can’t believe... Tahir.’
He closed the gap, finally. Brushed her tears away with his thumbs before lowering his head to kiss them away. ‘No tears. Never again. Stay with me,’ he pleaded.
The possibility that this was a dream she’d wake up from soon rendered her speechless. ‘I...’
