Desert Rogues Part 2 (88 page)

He moved closer but didn't touch her. “I learned to write very early,” he told her. “My tutors marveled at my ability to grasp the concept. What they didn't know is that I had been waiting since I realized what writing was. I knew that if I could get a letter to my mother, if I could explain that I was alone, that I loved and needed her, she would come and be with me.”

Kiley felt her heart crumble. As Rafiq spoke, she pictured the lonely little boy, abandoned by his parents, growing up in the company of the palace staff. Somehow this proud, strong man had survived, had
thrived.

“What happened?” she asked, already suspecting the answer.

“It took her several months to write me back, and when she did, she told me to ask my father for a pony. She said he was plenty rich and would give it to me.”

Kiley set Fari on the floor, then rushed toward Rafiq and wrapped her arms around him. “I'm so sorry,” she whispered. “I wish I could go back in time and beat up both your parents. Or at the very least, find you and take care of you myself.”

He kissed the top of her head, then touched her chin so that she looked at him. “I do not.”

“Why?”

“Because I would rather have you as my wife today than as my babysitter twenty-five years ago.”

“But the little boy needed so much love.”

“So does the man.”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“This man needs your love with a desperation he cannot describe.” He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, then kissed her mouth. “I need you, Kiley. I need you to love me, to keep loving me. I need you to show me what is possible. What we can have together. What we can be.”

“Rafiq.”

Her chest tightened until it was difficult to breathe. Was this the first crack in the shell? A way to get through to him? Oh, please, let it be so.

His dark eyes stared into hers. “All my life I've held myself back from the people closest to me. No one was allowed to be in a position to hurt me again.”

“I would never do that,” she breathed.

“I know.”

“I love you.”

He gazed at her for a long time, then kissed her again. “I know,” he said at last.

Hope burst forth and made her want to laugh with happiness. “You believe me? You believe that love is possible?”

“With you.”

Was it wrong to want it all? “Could you love me?”

In a movement that stunned her, in a moment she would treasure for the rest of her life, Kiley watched as Prince Rafiq of Lucia-Serrat fell to his knees. He grasped her around her thighs and buried his face in her stomach. She felt the tension in his body, the battle that raged.

How she ached for him, for
them.
If only he could—

“I love you,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Dear God, I love you, Kiley.”

She dropped next to him and pulled him close. He held on to her as if he would never let her go.

“I love you, too,” she whispered into his ear. “I think longer than I should have. Perhaps since I first met you, which, given my former engagement, is fairly tacky.”

He raised his head and smiled at her. The powerful emotions in his eyes, the love there, was so bright it nearly blinded her.

“Imagine if you hadn't caught Eric cheating,” he said.

“No. I don't want to do that. I don't want to imagine any future without you.”

“Nor do I.” He touched his chest. “I feel a release. The walls are crumbling.”

Tears filled her eyes, but for the first time in days, they were happy ones. She clung to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her.

“Just hold me,” she whispered. “I never want to let go.”

“Eventually you will have to. Fari will need to be walked and fed. We will get hungry ourselves.”

She straightened and shoved him back. “We're having a moment here. It's not every day the future Crown Prince of Lucia-Serrat tells me he loves me.”

He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. “Yes, it is,” he murmured. “So many times a day, you will grow tired of hearing it.”

She was so happy, she could have floated. “That's not going to happen.” She grinned. “So I guess the wedding's back on.”

“No.”

“What?”

“Don't marry me,” he told her. “Wait until I have proved myself.”

“What?” she repeated. “Are you crazy?”

“A little. I want you to be sure. I want you to know that I mean what I say. That this isn't a trick to get you to the altar.”

She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “There's going to be a wedding when we planned.”

“No, Kiley. My way is better.”

She raised her eyes to the heavens. “I'm going to have to kill him. I see that now and I apologize in advance. I'll probably go to prison but it will be worth it.”

He stood and picked her up in his arms. “Before you get out the swords or however it is you plan to do me in, I want to make love with you several thousand times.”

She settled an arm around his neck and relaxed against him. “Okay, but just so we're clear, there's going to be a wedding.”

“We shall see.”

T
here was a wedding and it was held on the originally scheduled date in the beautiful church on the island of Lucia-Serrat. The fall weather was perfect, warm and sunny during the day and cool and clear at night.

The royal families from both El Bahar and Bahania attended, and there were whispers that the bride of the king of El Bahar, who was also the mother of the Prince of Thieves, was with child. At her age, that was both a miracle and a scandal. King Givon and Queen Cala weren't talking, but their glow of happiness gave them away.

Kiley and Rafiq attended many parties in their honor. She found herself meeting princes and princesses she had only read about in magazines. But all were gracious and accepting. The crown prince of El Bahar bemoaned the beauty of his now-teenage stepdaughter and he was furious to find her flirting with the youngest brother of Princess Billie of Bahania.

The wife of the Prince of Thieves offered an incredible Ming dynasty vase collection as a wedding gift without being clear on where it had come from. Princess Dora of El Bahar exchanged phone numbers with Princess Daphne of Bahania, and Kiley felt as if she'd fallen into the middle of a very exciting, very royal soap opera.

Kiley could have been intimidated by her new friends and relatives, but when she saw the light of love in the men's eyes, the same love she saw in Rafiq's, she knew there was nothing to fear. These strong, powerful kings and princes weren't all that different from other men. They worked, they worried, they loved. The desert blood that flowed through their bodies made them loyal unto death, and she couldn't wait to be a part of all that.

On the morning of her wedding, her sisters and her mother helped her into her beautiful white gown. There were buttons to fasten, shoes to slip into and a tiara to anchor to her short hair. Rafiq had sent sapphires to match her eyes, rubies to represent his heart and a diamond necklace to bind them together always.

At last it was time. Ann and Heather walked down the aisle first, then Kiley linked arms with her father and they moved toward the entrance to the church.

“You sure about this?” her father joked. “We could still make a run for it.”

She laughed. “I love you, Daddy. I'll miss you and mom so much, but this is where I belong.”

He kissed her cheek. “I always knew you were a princess, honey. I just didn't know you were going to get a crown to go with it.”

The tall doors to the church opened, and Kiley and her father stepped inside.

There were nearly five hundred guests in attendance. Music swelled to the high rafters, and sunlight poured through the stained-glass windows. But Kiley didn't see any of it. For her there was only one person there. A man who waited, who loved her.

Rafiq stood at the end of the long aisle, and she had to remind herself to walk slowly. A bride racing to her groom would give the press too much to talk about.

So she took small steps and smiled at the guests, but in her heart she waited to be with her prince. And when she finally stood next to him, he took her hands and gazed at her.

“I'm going to be saying it for all the world to hear,” he told her quietly, “but I want to say it to you first. I love you, Kiley.”

“I love you, too.” She smiled. “I was thinking about how all this started. With that very unusual question.”

He grinned. “As it happens, I'm not looking for a mistress. I'm looking for a wife. Interested?”

“Oh, yeah.”

The minister cleared his throat. “The wedding?”

Rafiq squeezed her fingers. “Sure. Let's do that.”

The old man smiled, then spoke in a solemn voice. “Dearly beloved…”