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She blinked, her heart stalling for a long beat.
Follow your heart.
The words of Amber Braithwaite’s faded inscription came back to her. And her mind might be telling her that she was crazy to consider ever forgiving this man for what he had done, but her heart was telling her that she would be a fool to let the man she loved walk away.
‘What are you saying?’ she whispered, keeping her voice even, afraid to show emotion in case she was wrong. ‘Is the man who said he would never marry asking me to marry him?’
He slowly shook his head. ‘I knew I had no right to ask. I knew it would be impossible for you to love me after all that has happened.’
‘Yes,’ she said softly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said on a sigh, sounding defeated. ‘I have wasted your time, but I had to ask.’
‘Kadar, I said yes.’
He frowned and it made her smile. ‘I love you. I did my best to hate you, and I did, and more than a little. But it didn’t stop me loving you. I don’t know if it’s possible to do that. I don’t think it’s something I can switch off like a tap. It’s there and there’s nothing, it seems, that I can do about it.’
‘You love me, after everything that’s happened?’
‘I know,’ she said, grinning now, because this supremely confident man had never looked more vulnerable or mortal. ‘It’s mad, but I do, and yes, I will marry you.’
And he growled like the Kadar of old as he swung the front door shut and collected her in his arms to kiss her.
His kiss was like coming home, his body hard and so familiar, warm and welcoming. With mouths and bodies meshed, she steered him to her room and her narrow single bed and as they peeled off their clothes they peeled away the layers of their past, all the wrongs and the misunderstandings and the pain, until there was nothing left but their love to bind them together.
EPILOGUE
THEY WERE MARRIED in Melbourne four months later, when the heat of the Australian summer had given way to the balmy days of autumn. Amber’s father proudly waited to walk her down the aisle of the old Melbourne city church, Amber wearing a gown of lace that flared from the hips in a silk skirt that floated about her legs.
Kadar waited nervously, exchanging small talk with his best man, Rashid, and Amber’s younger brother beside him. In the rows behind sat his friends, Zoltan and Bahir and their families. And finally, when he thought he could stand the waiting no longer, the music started, and he dragged in a deep breath. Rashid slapped him on the back. ‘This is it,’ he said, and Kadar turned.
One at a time Amber’s two bridesmaids walked down the aisle, her two cousins, Tash’s older sisters. He’d met them several times now, their names on the tip of his tongue, right until he saw the woman walking behind on her father’s arm.
The woman he loved and there was only one name he could remember.
Amber.
She looked like a goddess in a gown that made her look as if she were floating down the aisle towards him, her blond hair coiled up high behind her head, her blue eyes sparkling and her smile wide as she nodded to the guests as she passed.
And on her wrist was the bracelet that had once graced a Sultan’s favourite, the stones sparkling in their gold setting.
And then her eyes connected with his and it was as if she had flicked a switch as her face lit up, her smile electric, her eyes dazzling, and he knew he was the luckiest man alive.
‘Beautiful,’ he whispered to her as she joined him at the front. ‘I love you.’
And she smiled and whispered back those words to him as the ceremony that would begin their lives together as man and wife got under way.
He was still holding hands with Amber while her mother and her friends hugged her, when Kadar’s friends, Zoltan and Bahir, with their wives, Aisha and Marina, were the first to congratulate him after the ceremony. ‘Another desert brother down,’ said Zoltan. ‘Bahir and I wondered how long it would take either of you two to come to your senses.’
‘You sure made us wait long enough,’ Bahir said.
Rashid joined his desert brothers and their wives. ‘I guess this makes me the winner, huh?’ and the three friends looked at each other and laughed.
‘If you say so,’ said Kadar.
His new wife joined the group. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked, and Kadar pulled her close and pressed his lips to her forehead. ‘Rashid’s funny.’
