Protecting the Desert Princess

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Jamila deserves to retire!’ the King snapped.

  ‘The car has just arrived!’ Trinity walked in, smiling, and Layla started hopping on both legs.

  ‘Five minutes?’ she pleaded with her father. ‘Please, can I just have five minutes alone with Mikael?’

  ‘You will see him on your wedding day.’

  ‘Please…’ Layla begged. ‘To know he is in the palace and not be allowed to see him is very cruel to me. Please…’

  ‘Five minutes.’ Her father gave a weary sigh. ‘You,’ he said to Trinity, ‘go with her. And…’ But then Fahid rolled his eyes What was the point? Trinity’s chaperoning skills had got them to this place. ‘Five minutes.’

  Four were spent kissing, which left one minute to quickly take her contraband from Mikael’s toiletries bag.

  ‘You have no idea how hard it was to get these…’

  Mikael rolled his eyes because, just as Layla had on her way to Australia, Mikael had had a little flutter of anxiety at Customs, wondering how he’d explain what he had in his bag.

  Yes, he had packed it himself?

  ‘I had to ask Alina to get them for you…’

  ‘Are she and Demyan here.’

  ‘Yes, and baby Annika. You will see them all at the wedding.’

  He felt more than a touch uncomfortable, handing the packet of pills over, but Layla had insisted she wanted a perfect wedding night and had started retching when Mikael had tried to explain condoms. And she didn’t want a baby just yet.

  ‘You get twelve repeats.’

  ‘Repeats?’

  ‘Twelve months before you go to the doctor. Layla, I am fine if you decide that you do want a baby…’

  ‘I don’t want one yet.’ She popped the shiny packet in her bra. ‘So, a year of taking this every day and there’ll be no baby—it’s like magic…’ She was ecstatic! ‘We can party, we can swim, we can dance.’ But then her face was serious. ‘Thank you. This means a lot to me.’

  Mikael knew she was scared about having a baby, and was just so grateful that he would be there for her if she ever wanted to address those fears.

  Now, though, wasn’t the time.

  There was a wedding to get ready for.

  * * *

  Layla was far from the blushing bride.

  She was glowing and smiling as she walked through the scented gardens on the arm of Fahid towards Mikael, who was dressed in gold robes and a headdress with Demyan and Zahid in silver beside him.

  Trinity was in silver too, and Zahid remembered the last time she had been a bridesmaid as she walked towards him.

  Demyan tried not to catch Alina’s eye, because she kept laughing at the sight of him in robes and head-gear.

  Mikael saw no one except Layla.

  Her dress was gold, and she had on a gold veil, and as she stood beside him Mikael saw that her eyelids had been painted gold too.

  The first time he had seen Layla he had been reminded of the beauty of a new moon.

  Now it felt as if the sun was stepping into his life.

  It was a very short ceremony and there was no kissing the bride! The formal service was followed by a long meal, with laughter and love at the top of the menu and all the promise of the desert for the night.

  As darkness descended Jamila handed Layla a goblet of liquid that should ensure their wedding night was a fertile one, and for the first time Layla’s smile faltered.

  Mikael watched her cheeks burn as she drank it down. She swallowed the drink and then looked to him, and she had never been more grateful for a person who understood her—a person she could be herself with and a wedding night that she did not fear now.

  I feel guilty, her eyes told him.

  It’s fine, said his small smile.

  As they went to leave and say their goodbyes again Layla’s smile wavered as she embraced Jamila, and both women started crying.

  ‘Thank you.’ Mikael said it in Arabic to the old lady, and wished he could say more, but still Layla did not know that there had been a time when Jamila’s love had been all she had had. ‘Thank you for taking such good care of her.’

  ‘Father, please!’ The emotion of the day was catching up with her now, and at the thought of leaving Jamila behind Layla was crying. ‘Why won’t you let Jamila come to Australia with me…?’

  For the last time the King stepped in.

  ‘Layla, Jamila is staying here. You do not have to worry—she will be kept in splendour…’

  ‘But I want her with me!’

  ‘Well, you can’t have her,’ Fahid said. ‘For Jamila has agreed to be my bride.’

  There was a very stunned silence, followed by a shocked gasp from Layla.

  Mikael dared not look at Demyan, for he knew his lips would be twitching—as were Mikael’s.

  Trinity smothered a laugh and Zahid closed his eyes as Fahid broke with tradition and in view of everyone kissed his future bride.

  ‘Congratulations!’ Alina beamed, delighted to see the couple looking so very happy and not comprehending what an incredible shock this was.

  ‘We were going to wait till after the wedding,’ Fahid explained. ‘But you all have what you want, so why not us?’

  ‘Congratulations.’ Zahid spoke next, and even if his voice was a touch strained he was always polite, and he followed tradition and kissed Jamila’s hand.

  ‘Congratulations!’ Trinity was more effusive, and she kissed not just Jamila’s hand but the King’s cheek too, for she had told him herself once that she hoped he would again find love.

  ‘Congratulations,’ Mikael offered, and Jamila raised her hand to him and he did as he had promised he would when in Ishla and followed tradition.

  It was the Princess to his right, though, who was struggling with the news.

  Layla felt Mikael’s hand nudge the small of her back and she looked at Jamila, who gave her a nervous smile which she did not return.

  As more congratulations were offered there were tears filling Jamila’s eyes as still Layla stood rigid.

  ‘This is not Planet Layla,’ Mikael said in a very low voice, and his hand nudged the small of her back again.

  ‘Congratulations,’ Layla forced out through very tense lips, and then kissed Jamila’s hand.

  Fahid gave a small nod of gratitude to Mikael.

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Layla said as she and Mikael headed to a helicopter, and she shook her head, as if to clear it from the unwelcome images dancing before her eyes. ‘I don’t even want to think about it.’

  She let rip, though, when they were in the desert, in their tent and alone.

  Mikael opened champagne as Layla stood swaying in stunned fury. ‘He’s marrying Jamila!’

  ‘Layla…’ Mikael warned.

  ‘Has he lost his mind?’ Layla said.

  ‘Layla, he loves her.’

  ‘My handmaiden—a queen!’

  Mikael had heard enough.

  ‘Layla, you will walk back into that palace happy for them,’ he told her. ‘Your father has done everything to ensure his children are happy—everything…’

  He pointed his finger at her, and when she didn’t smile, when she didn’t make the biting noise she had on the day they had met, Mikael knew she was hurting inside.

  ‘Now you ruin our wedding night,’ she accused him.

  She huffed off to the sleeping area and Mikael called to her.

  ‘It won’t work with me, Layla…’

  He followed her in and was momentarily sidetracked, for he had never seen anything like it. There was nothing more luxurious than a desert sky at night, and with the tent’s roof pulled back they would sleep under the stars in the vast marital bed.

  ‘We are not married till we sleep
together,’ Layla said. ‘You can still change your mind.’

  ‘Nobody’ s talking about changing their mind, but your father deserves to be happy too.’

  ‘What about my mother?’ Layla asked. ‘How long has this been going on?’

  ‘That’s none of our business.’

  ‘Oh, but it is!’ Layla roared. ‘Has he forgotten his Queen?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Mikael said, and he took his bride in his arms and felt her heart racing as she struggled to process the news. He had guessed that it was this, not Jamila’s lowly status, that was at the heart of her distress. ‘Your father loves your mother and always will. I am quite sure of that.’

  ‘How can you be?’

  ‘When I tried to convince your father to allow you to marry me it was as if she was there in the room—talking to him, guiding him. Nothing will take their love away…’

  The most cynical man in the world had confirmed what Layla felt in her heart—that her mother was somehow still there.

  Layla thought about how happy she was and wanted everyone to feel the same—to feel as loved and as content and as excited about the future as she felt now.

  ‘I am happy for Jamila and my father,’ she said. ‘I think it will be awkward, but I am going to try.’

  ‘That’s all you have to do.’

  ‘Will you one day have forgotten me?’ Layla asked.

  ‘Never.’

  ‘What if you hadn’t come for me…?’

  And there was her real fear—and it was scary even to voice it. But they had barely spoken since she had chosen Mikael and now, in his arms, she dared to face up to how terrible tonight might have been had it not been for Mikael.

  ‘I was always coming for you,’ he said to the shell of her ear. ‘I’d have worked out your note, we’d have met online, I’d have lived in Ishla just to be near you…’

  Mikael told her his truth—just not all of it, for he knew he would have appealed to Zahid on the death of the King and, whether she’d been married to another or not, he would one day have made Layla his.

  ‘I would have spent the rest of my life either working out how to be with you or ensuring that you were happy.’

  ‘What made you come when you did?’

  ‘When I found out you loved me there was no question.’

  ‘How could you not have known I loved you?’ Layla frowned. ‘Even if I could not say it, surely you knew…?’ She pulled her head back and saw his eyes. He did not comprehend her words—but then how could he? Layla thought. For Mikael had never known love.

  He would know it every day now.

  It would not just be a year of dancing and kissing, Layla thought as her mouth moved to his. It would be a year of learning about a man who had never loved another—and what a privilege that would be.

  Their first kiss as husband and wife was from another dimension, and knowing they did not have to halt, that they had the blessing of the desert, made it all the more sublime.

  His chin was rough and it did not matter—for they were here in the desert for as long as they desired…and desire they did.

  At every turn, in every intimate moment, Mikael had resisted—and now he did not have to.

  Her tongue was the instigator, for it suckled his, and then she glimpsed Mikael without restraint. He was raising her robe and her hands lifted above her head, for she wanted it gone too.

  She stripped, and so did he, and she stood as his mouth kissed her breasts till she could stand no more, and then they were side by side on the bed.

  He tried to soften the mouth on her breasts but Layla pushed at his head in consent, for she had loathed how they had always had to hold back.

  No more.

  His mouth returned to hers and Layla was breathless—even more so as his hand slid between her thighs, stroking her clitoris as he swallowed the tiny shallow breaths that made Layla dizzy. And as his fingers slowly probed not even his kisses could temper the feel of him stretching her.

  There would be no babies, Layla thought, for she could barely stand one finger…now two…

  ‘It’s okay,’ he said to her grimace, and he was right.

  His mouth was gentle balm as intimately he explored her, and soon it turned divine. Layla felt as if there were a key in the very small of her back that Mikael wound ever tighter with each deep stroke inside. Over and over he stroked, till the key was so taut she thought it might snap, but there was no fear.

  Mikael wanted to ensure she was oiled and ready.

  ‘Please…’ Layla said, because she could not be more ready.

  She was pulling him on top of her, for she wanted to be crushed by him—she wanted Mikael in the most basic of ways that till this moment they had had to deny.

  She made an involuntary biting noise as she felt the first stretch of him and Mikael halted, but then he remembered that was what she did when she was over-excited. He waited for a moan, a protest—for anything that might indicate he should take it more slowly as for the first time he filled her—but Layla was lost in her own pleasure.

  Mikael gave her a moment to acclimatise to the burning inside her body and she didn’t know if her eyes were open or closed, for there were stars on either side.

  ‘I like,’ Layla said, and felt the soft shudder of his half-laugh. And then he started to move and she still liked.

  He moved within her so slowly that she moaned in increasing want. She tasted salt on his neck and passion on his tongue and her hands pressed him in as her hips started to beg.

  ‘I don’t want to be a princess…’

  It was a language of their own. She was not glass—and, though she loved that he treated her as such, in this moment there was no need to. There was just need.

  He had accepted her password, Layla knew, because she felt this most guarded man unwind within her. He gave her himself and no longer held back, each thrust a shot of passion that drove her higher, wound her tighter, until that key was released and Layla’s mind spun as her body concurred with Mikael’s. Even her arms were trembling as he locked her into ecstasy and made her for ever his.

  ‘Now you cannot change your mind,’ Layla said as they came back to earth.

  ‘I was never going to,’ Mikael said, for he needed no get-out clause. He did not care about the small print of the contract they had entered into. ‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked, concerned he had not been gentle enough.

  ‘Hurt me?’ Her eyes widened. ‘That is not hurt. Those nights I thought I had lost you—that was hurt…’

  ‘You’ll never lose me, Layla,’ he said, and he meant it.

  ‘I think we have to do this more than once a week.’

  Mikael stared at the sky and the very full moon and held in his laughter before speaking. ‘Once a week?’

  ‘Jamila said that once a week would suffice. Can we do it more than that?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘How much more?’

  ‘Much, much more.’

  ‘What if those herbs make the pill not work?’

  He looked over to her. ‘I doubt that very much,’ Mikael said, ‘but what do you think would happen if it didn’t work?’

  She thought for a very long time about how she felt right now.

  No, this wasn’t Planet Layla, and yet since she had arrived on Planet Earth something had been missing.

  There had been an ache.

  She didn’t really know what it had been, and now it was as if warm cement had been poured and that void was for ever filled. There was nothing she could not face with Mikael by her side.

  ‘We’d get through it,’ Layla said.

  ‘We would,’ he agreed, and he took her hand and she felt his fingers close around hers.

  ‘I would probably be difficult to live with,’
she warned, and Mikael rolled his eyes as he thought of life with a pregnant Layla.

  ‘Yes, you would be very difficult to live with,’ Mikael said, and then smiled as he thought about the day she had stepped into his chambers and claimed his black heart. ‘But impossible to live without.’

  ‘You say the nicest things.’ She smiled. ‘You are the nicest man.’

  ‘Just make sure you don’t tell anyone,’ Mikael said, ‘or you’ll ruin my reputation.’

  ‘It can be our secret,’ she said, and then stamped her feet in pleasure and did a little horizontal dance in bed as happiness consumed her—for Layla knew she had met true love.

  And Mikael watched on and let her be—delighted by his family.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for a special excerpt from HEIRESS’S DEFIANCE by Lynn Raye Harris.

  Ten years ago one devastating night changed everything for Austin, Hunter and Alex. Now they must each play their part in the revenge against the one man who ruined it all.

  Austin Treffen has the plan… Hunter has the money… Alex has the power!

  Read each of their stories in the captivating Fifth Avenue trilogy,

  only from Harlequin Presents:

  Avenge Me by Maisey Yates (June 2014)

  Scandalize Me by Caitlin Crews (July 2014)

  Expose Me by Kate Hewitt (August 2014)

  And don’t miss the Fifth Avenue prequel that started it all, Take Me, by Maisey Yates!

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