Olivia Gates - The Desert Lord’s Bride

He chuckled, trailed kisses up her back. “And I’ll give you a wedding from another time, another realm. A One Thousand and One Nights reproduction the likes of which the kingdom has never seen.”

She turned, alarm firing her eyes. “But you saw how I handled attending a sophisticated party and wearing an elaborate gown. I’d die if I embarrassed you in front of the whole world.”

“Uh, about that…” And he confessed his setup.

After he’d borne her punishment in delight, she looked up from her revenge, flushed and excited, before her face fell again. “Still…those events can take endless planning and we’d probably see nothing of each other for weeks. Didn’t you pledge every minute to me?” Her flush deepened as she hastened to add, “Not that I want you tied to my side or anything, but think of all the minutes we’d waste chasing our tails during the hectic preparations.”

“We’re both in luck, since Farooq’s wife, Carmen, is apparently an event-planner fairy. I bet she’ll wave her magic wand and free all those precious minutes for us. I promised you everything, ya mashoogati. And you’ll have it all.”

“I already have it all…uh, how do you say habibati and mashoogati, for a man?”

He kissed one hand. “Habibi.” Then the other. “Mashoogi.”

And she kissed both of his, tears of joy filling her eyes. “I already have it all, ya habibi. I have you, ya mashoogi. ”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “And how you do.”

She feathered them open, attempting a teasing smile. “How?”

“I’ll show you how. You have fifty years?”

She sighed, kissed his neck. “For starters.”

“You’re too generous, ya farah rohi. And you’re too lenient. You should have drawn out my torment.”

She gave his jaw a sharp nip, giggled at his indrawn breath of pained pleasure. “You’re into S and M?”

“I want you to get satisfaction.”

“Oh, I did. I do. How I do.”

“Show me.”

She showed him. And as he drowned in her love and pleasure and magnanimity, in her, he knew beyond a doubt. She would always show him. She was the reason he’d been made how he was, so he’d love her, be hers.

He thanked God again for the crisis that had brought them together. For all the things that had conspired to give them the gift of each other.

And now, the miracle of their love had been given new life…