‘But...you were forced to marry me. My father—’
‘Thinks you need to take this inside,’ he said gruffly, directing them both towards the hut. ‘And perhaps you should come and see me afterwards, Your Highness,’ her father hesitated, ‘about that other business.’
Did he mean the kidnapping?
‘No, need sir. And the name’s Zach.’
Her father nodded once. ‘Mohamed.’
Shaking with the rush of emotions surging through her, Farah let Zach lead her inside her home, part of her desperate to play it safe and send him away and part of her aching to believe him.
‘Our marriage was forced on the both of us, Farah, but there is nothing forced about the way I feel about you or how miserable I’ve been since you left.’ He cupped her face in his hands and bent to kiss her with such tenderness it made her heart catch. ‘I love you, habiba. I was just too much of a coward to tell you. And I have to believe that after the way you gave yourself to me, after everything that we shared together, that you have feelings for me, too. That you’ll come back to me and give our marriage another chance.’
‘Oh, Zach.’ A lump formed in her throat as she looked up at him. She had tried to avoid the pain of love her whole life, yet that was all she had felt since she had walked away from him. Deep down she knew that if she didn’t take this leap of faith, that if she didn’t fight the insecurities that had made her feel less than her whole life she would never know the joy of truly living. ‘I love you, too. I love you so much I can’t believe it. I can’t—’ She stopped talking and kissed him until they were both breathless and dizzy.
‘I love you, Farah. I didn’t know it was possible to love someone this much.’
‘But you let me go.’
‘You asked me to and I had given you my word that if you ever wanted to leave then I would not come after you.’
Farah groaned. ‘That would be one of the only times you’ve ever done what I asked.’
‘Not true. In Ibiza I did everything you asked. I watched cheesy movies for you.’
‘But why were you so distant these past few weeks? I thought it was because you wanted a way out of our marriage. That you were starting to resent it. To resent me.’
He gathered her close and kissed her again, kissed her until she couldn’t think. ‘I didn’t resent you but I could tell you were holding something back and I didn’t know how to reach out to you.’ He sighed and stroked his thumbs across her cheekbones. ‘The truth is, I wanted you so badly I started to doubt myself.’
‘You?’
‘Yes, me.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘Love, I have learned, is not the comfortable, easy emotion I had once envisioned. It’s hot and powerful and it brought me to my knees. You brought me to my knees.’
Farah stroked her hand over his stubble, revelling in the fact that she could touch him freely. ‘You know, when we first met you annoyed me so much I wanted to do exactly that.’
He smiled. ‘Is that a fact? You should be careful what you wish for, habiba...’
‘Because you just might get it.’ She laughed. ‘I’m so happy, Zach. I never thought I would feel like this with a man.’
He pulled her in tighter against him. ‘You don’t feel like this with a man. You feel like this with me.’
A secret smile formed on her lips. ‘So that self-doubt you were talking about...?’
‘A blip on the radar. A blip that you have eradicated.’
‘I’m glad,’ she said, suddenly serious. ‘And I’m glad you changed your mind about coming after me. Because without you...without you...’
Tears formed on the ends of her lashes and he used his thumbs to wipe them away. ‘You are my destiny, Farah.’ He leaned back to look down at her. ‘You’re the reason I returned to Bakaan five years ago and you’re the reason I no longer want to leave. You light up my life, habiba, in a way I’ve been looking for my whole life and never thought I’d find.’
‘Oh, Zach, take me home,’ she whispered.
‘To the palace?’
‘To wherever you are.’ She curled her hands around his neck. ‘I never want to be parted from you again.’
‘Good. Because I never plan to let you go again.’
He sealed his promise with a soul deep kiss that was filled with joy and the promise of a wonderful future, and Farah knew that her mighty prince was truly a man she could rely on for the rest of her life.