Lilah expelled a soft breath. “I wanted to see you too.”
He nodded and then laughed. “God, we’re just circling around this, aren’t we?” He gripped her face with both hands and stared into her eyes. “I am so in love with you.” She stared at him with obvious consternation and he leaned closer. “It’s all I came here to say. I don’t know how you feel. I don’t know what you want. But you need to know that I want to share my life with you.”
Lilah dropped her head down, pressing her forehead against his chest. “I have no clue what I should say now.”
He nodded, his hope refusing to burn out. “What do you want?” He ran his hands over her back, consoling her through her pajamas. “Don’t think about how to get it and how we’ll make it work. Just start with what you want and we’ll work backwards.”
“I want …” A frown tugged at her lips. “I want you to be happy. I want you to be able to live your life. Without media. Without security. Without a mile-long list of official appointments. I want you to be able to go to little cabins in the woods any time the spirit moves you. I want you to be able to fish and exist without intrusion.”
“This is what you want for me,” he admonished gently. “And I can tell you that none of that matters a bit if it also means I can’t have you.”
She dismissed the assertion easily. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You cannot possibly imagine what life is like in my world.”
“I have seen how you live. And it doesn’t scare me. Nothing scares me except the idea of walking out that door again.” He put an arm around her waist, drawing her back to the sofa to sit beside him. “I have walked away from you. You have walked away from me. And yet here we are, madly in love and desperate to be together. Right?”
She swallowed. Was there any sense in denying it? “Will? That day we left the forest … I was desperate then to tell you how I felt. But I hoped that by denying my feelings you would move on faster.”
“I can’t move on from you,” he said gently. “And I don’t want to. I know what it is to take this leap of faith. I loved my wife, Lilah. And I lost her. For years I thought I would never know love nor happiness again. Meeting you has brought me back to life. You have lifted my soul. The only way I will ever let you go is if you promise me, honestly, that you will be happier without me. That you truly don’t want me in your life.”
Lilah stared at his handsome face and felt all the tiny pieces of her soul click into place like magnets in a tin. “I am miserable without you,” she admitted shakily. “Miserable.” And now she talked freely, aware she had already crossed past any threshold of common sense. “I spoke to Kiral. Not about you.” Her cheeks flushed. “But about my life. He was very good. He understood what I was saying. He was the one who suggested I come and spend some time in New York.”
“He did, huh?”
“So I’m here. Exploring. Existing. But the problem is, I’m still miserable. Because you’re not with me.”
He laughed. “Well, I’m here now.”
She nodded. “I don’t know how to tell him about you. About us.”
Will pulled a face. “Lilah, I have a confession.”
She stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
“I spoke to your brother.”
Lilah jerked away, her eyes enormous in her pretty face. “You … when? What do you mean?”
His expression was unusually contrite and despite her anxiety it made her ache to reach out and hold him close. “After you left tonight.”
“Will.” Her heart was racing and her blood was burning her body. Her whole face was flushed. “Why? What did you say?”
“I told him everything.”
“Everything?” She demanded.
“Well, not everything.” He laughed self-consciously. “If you had been happy, I wouldn’t have done it. But seeing you as devastated as I am … I had to do it.”
“I can’t believe it. Will, you had no right …”
“Didn’t I?”
“What exactly did you tell him?” She turned to face him more fully.
“I told him that I fell in love with you that night we met. That I thought you felt the same way. And that, with his permission, I wanted to ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.”
“Oh no.” She dipped her head forward. A fever ran through her blood. Panic assailed her. She was so beset by emotions that she barely registered the suggestion of marriage. “Was he furious?”
Will chose his words carefully. “He was surprised. I think he was a little hurt that we had kept it from him. And yes, initially perhaps he was angry too.”
“He was?”
“At me. Not you.” He stroked her cheek. “I’m older, honey, and I’ve been around. I suspect he was worried I took advantage of you.”
“You didn’t,” she whispered. “If anything, it was me doing the advantage-taking.”
“Perhaps I should have told him that,” Will pretended to ponder, earning a look of shame from Lilah. “I’m kidding!” He put his hand on her knee. “I have no doubt that he would have preferred you to make a more suitable match. Not because he wants you to garner greater political importance. But because he thinks I’m not … right for you.”
“How can he think that? You are perfect for me. You are my match in every way. He talks to me of fate and destiny, and how we must meet ours. Doesn’t he realize that I met my fate the night he sent you to me?”
Will was very still. He stared at her with a dawning sense of wonder. But Lilah was still talking, “He found his bride! He found his love. And yet he doubts my ability to do the same?”
“Initially, perhaps,” he said, when words finally came into his mind. “But Abigail was very helpful in talking him around.”
Lilah’s smile was unconscious. Her sister-in-law would have argued Lilah’s case for her. Of course she would have! Just as Lilah had argued for Abi, when Kiral had been behaving in a pig-headed and stubborn manner.
“I should have told him,” Lilah said softly. “You should never have had to do that.”
Will shook his head. “I don’t care about that. I care only about what happens next.”
She nodded slowly. “And what happens next?”
His smile took her breath away. “We’re going to do it.”
“Do what?”
“Life. This. No more running. No excuses.”
She smiled back at him, her tummy lurching with anticipation. She was on the edge of a cliff, but if she stepped off it, she wouldn’t fall. No. She would fly. Will was her wings and he would carry her anywhere she wanted to go. “No more running.”
“Unless it’s down an aisle, straight into my arms.”
She laughed softly. “Will Wright, was that really a proposal?”
He looked at her gravely and shook his head. “Not yet.”
But two days later, in the cabin they’d first fallen in love, Will knelt before Lilah and held her hand in his. “I have no kingdom and no fortune. I am here before you with only my heart to offer you; my true heart. But if you agree to marry me, Jalilah Mazroui, I will serve you and worship you for all time. And you will always, forever, have my heart in your hands.”
Lilah, in the midst of zipping out of the snow-suit, stared at him in completely shock. “That’s my proposal?” She mumbled, her cheeks pink and her eyes huge.
“Marry me,” he nodded, gripping her hands in his and lifting them to his mouth. He kissed them with gentle hope. “Please.”
She crouched down in front of him so they were at eye-level. “You really, truly want to marry me? Knowing what my life is like? What your life would be like?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him in bemusement and finally, she nodded. “I have not a single doubt then that we should do this.”
“And soon,” he grinned, kissing her with all the love that burned through his heart. “And forever.”
EPILOGUE
In the end, their wedding was far more elaborate and
grandiose than either would have wished. While Kiral was willing to dispense with many of the protocols Lilah had, at one time believed essential, the formality of their marriage was not one he could sacrifice.
“It’s a sign of respect. To one another and to our people and traditions.”
And he’d been right. Marrying as they had, in a ceremony that lasted all afternoon and evening, surrounded by hundreds of guests including their loved ones and well-wishers, had started their marriage with the air of magic and wonder that it deserved. Harry had been a key guest, sitting up front, beaming at them both. Lilah had seen him dab at his eyes throughout the processing and all she’d wanted was to halt the ceremony and pull him into a big bear hug.
His heart was enormous, and he’d welcomed her into it.
Lilah didn’t want to replace Maddie.
No one could do that; not to Harry and not to Will. Lilah wanted to honour Maddie. She wanted to live her life to the fullest, knowing that every day she lived and breathed and loved Will with all her soul was a day in which Maddie would be smiling down from somewhere.
Will’s voice brought her focus back to the present, and to the man she was agreeing to marry today. “We met reluctantly. Neither of us particularly looked forward to the event.” The crowd laughed a little. “You were sick of journalists and their invasive questions, and I had no interest in a princess from a beautiful, faraway Kingdom. I expected you to be vapid and dull.” Lilah’s eyes glistened with tears but she laughed. “Until the door opened and I saw you. You were grace and temperance,” he said, neatly altering the phrase he’d used at the time. “You were beauty and compassion, kindness and wit. I sat opposite you, and I asked you question after question, and all I could think was that I’d met you: the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with.” He squeezed her hands. “When you followed me off the edge of the building, I knew we could go anywhere together.” The crowd laughed once more, the mystery of her daring rescue had never been made public. “I pledge myself to you, Jalilah Mazroui, for all the days we have. Whether many or few, nothing matters more to me than being here, with you.”
She had her own vows prepared but she didn’t trust herself to speak. She pressed a hand to her chest and breathed out with a sound of complete surrender. “And that is what I get for falling in love with someone who writes beautiful words for a living.” She shook her head as their guests yet again laughed quietly. In the audience, Kiral couldn’t help but contrast the ceremony with his own. Though he and Abigail had loved one another deeply, their wedding had been surrounded by resentment and pain too. There was none of that here.
Just pure, blinding joy.
“I would follow you anywhere,” she agreed with his closing sentence. “I …” She shut her mouth, waiting for the tears to leave her throat. But they didn’t. She shook her head and laughed tremulously. “I fought this because I was so terrified of what I felt. I didn’t just love you, William Wright. I liked you and I respected you and I admired you. I saw your soul, and I saw your grief, and I wondered if I could ever be what you need. If I could ever answer the questions that you were asking.” She squeezed his hand. “But marriage isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about promising that we’ll always try. That we’ll jump off buildings together whenever we need to. That we’ll trust and talk and never again run from one another.”
The crowd erupted in applause as Will, overcome by his bride’s words, leaned down and kissed her passionately. It was completely unexpected and bucked every protocol but even the Anaiso overseeing their commitment smiled fondly.
The ceremony was followed by a ball, and it went for hours and hours. The moon was dipping down towards its bed, pulling the blankets of dawn behind it, when finally Lilah caught herself yawning deeply.
“You are worn out,” Will said softly, holding her tight to his chest. She fit against him so perfectly that he couldn’t help but smile.
She nodded. “Starting a new life is tiring.”
“Let’s get you to bed, princess.” He lifted her off the ground and kissed her gently, before placing her gently by his side. But his arm was firm around her and took her weight, so that she almost glided out of the ballroom. As they approached the doors, Kiral and Abi halted their process. Despite the lateness of the hour, they were looking wide awake and as perfectly elegant as always.
“We have a surprise for you,” Abi said gloatingly, her frame showing the signs of her second pregnancy.
“A surprise?” Lilah stifled a yawn and leaned close to her husband. “What is it?
Abi laughed. “You look exhausted.”
“Weddings are tiring,” Lilah confirmed.
“Tell me about it.”
“It won’t take long,” Kiral smiled apologetically at Will. “Abigail has been excited about this all day.”
“Here.” Abi reached into her clutch bag and pulled out a photograph. It was of a simple building on the edge of a creek, surrounded by pomegranate trees and poplars.
“A … postcard?” Lilah asked, frowning quizzically before handing it to Will.
“No. It’s our wedding present to you,” Abi grinned.
“The house, not the card.” Kiral transferred his attention to Will. “It’s an hour south of the city, on a large parcel of land. There is a security perimeter and while you’re in residence guards will be stationed on the boundary of the property. But the rest will be private. Just for the two of you.”
“And any children …” Abi grinned at Lilah, who flushed beet-red.
“We know you don’t wish to live in the palace,” Kiral said simply. “Your safety is paramount, of course, but your happiness matters too. I thought this would be a compromise.”
Lilah nodded. It had been an emotional day and this last gesture of sweetness was almost too much to bear.
“It’s perfect,” she smiled. “As long as you promise to visit us often.”
“Not too often,” Abi laughed. “A chopper can take you tomorrow to explore it for yourself. And Harry has already offered to accompany you on that trip,” Abigail laughed kindly. “Make any changes you see fit, of course.”
“Thank you both.” Lilah kissed them on the cheek and then returned to nuzzle into her husband’s side.
“For now, I think my wife needs to sleep a week,” Will grinned. “Good night.”
Kiral watched them go, a sense of satisfaction braiding through him. He had known, the night Will saved Lilah, that destiny had held a hand in those acts. Their rightness for one another was apparent to anyone who knew them. They were fated for one another as surely as he and Abigail had been.
And fate had been good to these two orphans, who’d been cast adrift to rule a nation and bear the weight of its people on their shoulders. To have found their places in the hearts of people such as Abigail and Will was an honour that Kiral could never have hoped for.
He felt the love that surrounded him and he smiled.
The future shone as brightly as the stars overhead.
THE END
Following is an excerpt from The Sheikh’s Secret Baby, Part One of The Delani Royal Family Series.
THE SHEIKH’S SECRET BABY
Clare Connelly
All the characters in this book are fictitious and have no existence outside the author’s imagination. They have no relation to anyone bearing the same name or names and are pure invention.
All rights reserved. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reprinted by any means without permission of the Author.
The illustration on the cover of this book features model/s and bears no relation to the characters described within.
First published 2016
(c) Clare Connelly
Photo Credit: dollarphotoclub.com/
Contact Clare:
http://www.clareconnelly.co.uk
Blog: http://clarewriteslove.wordpress.com/
Email: [email protected]
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“The baby was more than just that; the infant was Hope.
A birth of newness and a promise of stability –
With his arrival came splendour and wealth and the kingdom was blessed once more.”
- The tale of The First Sheikh of Delani, 17 A.D
PROLOGUE
“The wedding is off.”
Four words, so simple and precise, seemed to reverberate around the ceremonial temple with undue force.
From where she sat in the front row, Jalilah couldn’t see the response her brother’s statement had wrought.
But she could feel it.
Murmured words raced at her like a high-speed train.
He was upset.
Not many in the room would be able to discern that fact, but Lilah knew him well.
His handsome face was grim, his expression intentionally kept blank, but there was something in his eyes that Lilah alone understood. A muscle flexed in his jaw and his shoulders were tense.
She clasped her hands in her lap and leaned forward subconsciously. What’s happened? She said the silent incantation over and over, until his eyes clashed fiercely with hers.
She stood without meaning to, and as she moved towards him, the room silenced. A simple look from her brother stilled her movement.
“The wedding is off.” This time, he addressed the words straight at her, before sweeping from the room with the confidence that came naturally to a man such as him. He had been born to power and that power ran through his veins as blood did mere mortals.
For as long as she could remember, this wedding had been spoken of. The union between the dashing, powerful Kiral Mazroui and the stunning princess Melania of the distant kingdom of Assing had been planned for almost their entire lives.
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