by Lia Lee
“Love?” she whispered. She could barely believe what she had heard, but he nodded, as humble as a knight that ever came for the Holy Grail.
“Yes,” he said. Though he stood as proud and as tall as ever, there was a part of him that couldn't meet her eyes.
“It is love that I feel, and I am sorry if this was not what you intended or what you wanted. This is a thing that has happened in spite of me, and in spite of your wishes, and if you want me to never speak of it to you again, I can do that.”
“Aladdin...”
“Let me finish, please. You know who I am, and you know what I have to offer. I would have thought that that spoke for itself a few weeks ago, but then I met you. If you will marry me, Charlotte, I will offer you more than my position, my power, and my money. Instead, I will give you all the love that it is in me to give. I will offer you the sweetness of my days and the passions of my night. I will care for you and cherish you with every moment that I am breathing, and I will never allow you to come to harm.”
He took a deep breath. She could tell that he was shaking a little. She wanted to comfort him, but she only looked wide-eyed at him, her heart beating so fast that she thought it might come out of her chest.
“Charlotte, you are and always will be the love of my life,” he said. “Please, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Almost shyly, he brought a velvet black box out from behind him. As if she were in a trance, she watched him open it to reveal the glittering gem that lay inside. It was a ring that had one large diamond and a halo of smaller diamonds. The sheer beauty of it stunned her for a moment, and then she pushed it aside to throw herself into Aladdin's arms.
“Of course I love you,” she whispered. “Of course I will be yours. I have already thought of you as mine, and now you are only telling me something that my heart knew a long time ago.”
She clung to him with every ounce of strength in her, shaking with silent sobs. He clung to her tightly, refusing to let go.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
It was as if the words, which had been so long caught in her throat, were free now, and she could not stop saying them. She knew who she was and where she stood, and she knew that from now on, she and Aladdin would stand side by side.
She pulled back just long enough to laugh a little as he pushed the ring onto her finger.
“It's lovely,” she said, “but you are the far finer prize.”
He grinned with pleasure and relief, kissing her soundly. Through it all, he held her as if he couldn't believe that she was truly his. For a moment, she ached at the pain and the worry she had caused him, for she could see it now. They had both been resisting, hiding from what they thought the other wanted. Now that they were together, truly together, she knew that her fears and doubts were in the past. They could heal each other.
“I belong with you,” he growled. “This much I know. We belong together, and I never want anything to pull us apart.”
She nodded, clinging to him.
“We'll go to Abu Dhabi,” he was saying softly. “We will return to my homeland, and you will meet my family. My mother and father will love you, and then we shall be married.”
She choked back on a laugh.
“Oh, god, Aladdin...how pregnant will I be when I get married? I'll be an utterly enormous bride.”
He laughed.
“Perfect,” he said magnanimously. “You will be lovely, full of our child and glowing. Or perhaps we will simply wait, and then our son or daughter could be in our wedding pictures.”
She laughed, shaking her head.
“I think our child's going to be a girl,” she said, looking up at him adoringly. She could envision him hovering protectively over a small girl as she played or studied. She could imagine him carrying their daughter into the ocean to look at the waves and tucking her in at night. The thought was so wonderful that it made her heart swell with love, and she had to fight back tears again.
“Do you?” he asked with a grin. “The UAE has had its share of warrior princesses. Our little one will be the next.”
“I don't know what lies in the future for our little one,” she said after a moment. “Perhaps she will want to fulfill her role as princess, or perhaps she will want to run away to New York to be a working professional. She may be sweet, or she may be a little spitfire who makes us doubt everything we ever knew, or she could be both.”
“She might be all those things, yes.”
“But one thing that I know will be true for this little girl, and for that, Aladdin, I am so, so grateful.”
She looked up into his green eyes, meeting his inquiring gaze with a tremulous smile.
“I know, beyond a doubt in this world, that she will be loved. So will I. So will you.”
He kissed her then, taking her breath away, and in that moment, she knew that this would be their forever.
THE END!
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