Wonder was rising in her eyes as he spoke, but with his last words, distress replaced it again. “I don’t feel so triumphant when I remember… Oh, God, what are we going to do? The scandal I caused, no matter the reason—which we can’t ever share—was witnessed firsthand by a thousand guests of the region’s nobility and royalty and God…your family!”
He just smiled serenely. “We’ll just gather them again tonight and have a do-over.”
“Tonight?” Her face was the image of shock and dread.
“Khair’ol berri ‘aajeloh, the best good is swift. Most of the menu is still edible and everyone remains in Azmahar. If they dispersed across the region, getting them back would be quite a chore, especially if they demand they’d actually witness our nuptials with a no-surprises guarantee before they return.”
She buried her face in his chest, tears flowing again. “I don’t know how I’ll ever face anyone in Azmahar or any of your family again.”
He smoothed her hair, soothing her. “Once my family knows everything, you’ll be their favorite heroine. As for anyone else, who cares? They’ll love you, or they don’t matter.”
“They matter to you. That’s all that matters to me.”
“Why don’t you play that little recording I made you? Just to refresh your memory about what matters to me?”
Her hug was almost bruising this time as she mashed herself against him. “Ah, ya habibi…I can’t ever tell you how I felt as I was taking off that dress, as I was leaving the palace and Azmahar, as I imagined what you’d feel when you found me gone. Every mile I traveled was dragging my soul out of me, as it refused to leave you. And then I thought there was no way I wouldn’t lose you and I felt it snap…”
Needing to snap her out of her surrender to anguish, he tickled her. “First, no distance or plots or dragons will ever come between us. You’ll never lose me, and I’ll always find you, will always be with you, no matter what. Second, I suggest we head to the palace the minute we land. We’ll dress up and sit in the kooshah and send everyone video proof of our presence there. We’ll hold that miraculous miniature-palace cake hostage and threaten to demolish it if they don’t come back running. How about that?”
She exploded in his arms, deluged him in kisses and laughter and tears. “Stupendous plan from my incomparable desert knight, owner of my heart and sharer of my soul....”
Laughing out loud, he took her roaming lips, stemming the flow of her adoration. “Save all those descriptions for the vows.”
She rose over him, flushed with emotion, her eyes pulsing that hypnotic silvery glow, which he now knew only he triggered. “I’ll never save any of it. I’ll tell you now, and then and always. I’ll show you and give you and love you with everything that I am, with every breath, for as long as I live.”
Her conviction expanded in his heart, her devotion filled him to his recesses. Gratitude overwhelmed him that he’d been given so many chances to get this right. For this connection, this flesh, this being, everything she was—that was the reason for his existence. For everything.
He was saving that for his vows. Not because he didn’t have more to tell her always, but because he wanted her to hear this particular confession for the first time as he proclaimed it to the world, as he claimed her and was claimed by her, forever.
For now, he gathered her, the flesh of his flesh, to him and whispered against her lips, “Deal, ya hayati, for as long as I live. And I’ll raise you beyond life.”