A Secret Birthright(61)

He rolled her over, pressed his flesh onto her every exposed inch, driving her into the bed. “Then you were mine, then you were not, then you were my wife, but not really, then you set me free, when my freedom lies in making you mine, in being yours.”

“You mean…you really wanted…this?” she gasped.

“Want is a flimsy, insubstantial emotion. Does it feel like this to you?” He pressed the red-hot length of his erection, of every cabled muscle and sinew into her. Nothing flimsy or insubstantial there; everything invincible, enduring.

“I meant…you told me the marriage was only for Ryan, and to fulfill Hesham’s last request.”

“What would you tell the woman you were disintegrating for, if she looked like she was breaking up inside with grief and guilt, if you thought it was over your dead brother, and that she was hating you and herself for succumbing to your seduction and her needs? And when you’re buried under misconceptions, would you tell her, and yourself, to get over that trivial matter of a beloved dead lover and brother, demand she be your wife for real?”

She gaped at him. And gaped some more. What he was saying…

Everything she hadn’t been creative enough, daring enough, to hope for. His own version of her own misconceptions.

But one thing she couldn’t get her head around yet. “You mean…you would have asked me to marry you…anyway?”

“Why so disbelieving? You wanted me from the moment you saw me, too. And you wanted me forever because it was how I wanted you. But I wasn’t going to propose yet because I thought I first had to battle your issues with my family’s clout and your fear of being a kept woman. Little did I know that, although those might have been considerations under other circumstances, you were only bound on sacrificing your heart for Ryan’s safety.”

She shook a head spinning with the revelations and realizations. “Fareed…I—I…can’t…”

“Yes, you can, Gwen. Like you let me go, to be noble and self-sacrificing again, you can take me back. I’m giving you all that I am again, this time when you know it’s all for you. Because I fell in love with you from that first moment, thought I’d be alone forever if I didn’t have you.”

“Fareed, oh, my love…”

He captured her hot gasp. “Say this again.”

“I might never say anything else ever again. I’ve loved you from that first moment, too, knew that if I can’t have you, I’d never want anyone else. Then…”

“Then everything happened. But we found each other again, and this, what we share, is worth every heartache we endured getting here, earning it. And even though Hesham and Lyn are gone, they left us Ryan, the most beautiful part of them. We’ll continue to love them both in him, and he’ll have us both to love.”

“He…uh…might soon have more…people to love,” she mumbled.

He stared at her. “You mean…”

She felt a flush spreading over her. “Too early to be sure, but…most probably.” She hid her face into his chest, burning. “That’s why I never mentioned protection. I wanted to have your baby, thought it would be all I had of you.”

He turned her face up to his, his smile delight itself. “Same here.” Then whimsy quirked his lips. “I shudder to think what more complications we could have had if we weren’t already on the same wavelength.”

She pulled his head down to hers, took his lips in a kiss that pledged him everything, melded them for life. “I’ll tell you all I can think of. You. All of you. Your flesh in mine, your pleasure, your happiness, your existence.”

And he joined them, took her, gave her, pledged back, “Then take all of me, for life, ya hayati. For you are my life.”

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