Protecting the Desert Heir

She moved as if to sit in her own seat but he pulled her down into his lap instead, nuzzling her neck until her breath caught. He pressed himself against the seam of her bottom, and she laughed.

“You’re insatiable.” But she sounded proud.

Content, he thought. They were content, and it was nothing like settling. It was like flying. Soaring through ten years and headed for ten more. Headed straight for forever.

“Only for you, my little one,” he murmured against her ear. “Always for you.”

They had not always had it easy, these past ten years. They had failed each other, hurt each other. The world was not always gentle and it was easy to lose each other in the whirl of children and responsibilities, even in a palace with fleets of nurses and around-the-clock staff.

But they had always had love. And love brought them back to each other, over and over again.

Rihad had learned to treat her less as a subject and more like a partner. Or he tried. She, in turn, had learned how to trust him.

This was intimacy, in all its complicated glory, of the soul and of the flesh. Lovers become parents, a king and his queen, a man and his woman. This was the magnificently double-edged sword of truly being known by another, across whole years.

In truth, he loved every bit of it.

And he still liked to show her how much.

“They’re kissing.” It was Aarib’s disgusted little-boy voice, more piercing than usual, or perhaps Rihad wanted to be interrupted less in that moment.

“They do that a lot,” replied Leyla, in her world-weary older-sister voice. “A lot.”

“Why did we have more children?” Sterling asked him, laughing. “Whose terrible idea was that?”

But then she kissed him once more, and he saw moisture glistening in her lovely blue eyes. He ran his hand over her cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much, Rihad.”

“For what?” he asked quietly.

“For everything,” Sterling said, fiercely. “For giving me our family. For being my family.”

She rose to go to the children then, and he let her leave, fully aware that she had no reason to thank him. She was the heart of this wondrous little tangle of theirs, love and trust and wonder, tears and scrapes and sudden furies.

Their heart. His heart.

His, Rihad thought. Forever.

And he was the king. His will was law.