Would she have any reason left when he was through with her?
“They agreed that you can marry me and remain king?” she paraphrased slowly, as if to make sure she hadn’t imagined hearing it. Then she shouted, “So why did you abdicate?”
He smiled in indulgence at her distraught reaction. “Simply because I would have married you, then barely seen you, as duties deluged me in a totally different sphere from the one you move in as a doctor. They tried to convince me I could still be a doctor, work with you, but I realistically know I can’t be both a hands-on doctor and a king, and I had to choose. Not only you as my life-mate, but the kind of life we’ll lead together.
“I chose the only life where we’ll be happy, together and fulfilled. What I have to offer the world of medicine and healthcare is something no one else can. My cousin is a better statesman than I am. It was decreed that he won’t make pivotal decisions without my approval, that I’ll still have massive sway in the kingdom. And I plan to use that power, with you, to be the driving force behind advancement and moderation.
“We’ll be together, living each day to the full in each other’s nearness and nurturing, doing what we do best, being healers. Though we may have to take it a bit easier when each of our children is too young. I hope to have one more.”
And she wept. Felt like she’d dissolve.
What he was saying, what he’d done was so huge it left her shocked, mute, awed, humbled, elated. Oppressed.
She launched herself at him, sobbed the excess of emotions into his chest. “How did I ever deserve all that? How can I ever deserve that?”
“Without the least effort,” he insisted, all pride and indulgence. “Just being yourself, the woman who enslaved me with your selflessness and courage and generosity from the first moment. The woman who owns me by right of saving my life, by right of giving me my first real taste of what life means. My life started for real after we met. I only ever knew every heart-rending emotion with you and on your account. And you are the only one who shares my vision, my drive, my soul. Together we’ll be an unstoppable force for good.” He hugged her fiercely. “It’s a relief you’re giving me a child, ya rohi. I hope a daughter, who can act as a safety valve for the dangerous accumulation of love I have for you.” He pinched her cheek softly. “I wouldn’t want to exhaust you.”
Stumbling deeper in stunned, humble ecstasy, drowning, soaring with so many things that she’d need her lifetime to fully register and savor them, Jay hugged him, took his lips.
“Our child will have to be satisfied with a separate reservoir of love,” she said, her voice ragged, drenched in tears and smiles. “My love for you is all yours. As for exhausting me, no way. In fact, I’m so well rested it constitutes an emergency. You should do something about it.”
And he did. How he did.
After one more rocketing journey to their private place in heaven, melted with pleasure and security in his arms, she mumbled, “I’ll have to disappoint you on one account. Your firstborn will regretfully be the wrong gender. And that sounds so weird now I said it out loud. I thought you desert knights valued male firstborns above all things.”
He winced. “Not this desert knight. I was really hoping our first foray into parenthood wouldn’t involve one of those unmanageable male Aal Hamdaans. The females, like my aunts, are simply exquisite.” He suddenly hugged her exuberantly. “You’d better start practicing how to give birth to Damhoor’s future king.”
She gaped at him. “Wha—?”
“Aih, they let me abdicate only with the promise that my firstborn son would be king, that my cousin would act as regent until he came of age. They want the line of Munsoor Aal Hamdaan to be reinstated on the throne as soon as possible.”
And she spluttered, unable to deal with yet another dizzying, devastating development. He brought an end to her distress in another searing kiss.
“I promise to teach you everything about raising a king.” He stopped, rose on his outstretched arms to look down on her nakedness as she lay half-fainting with pleasure and shock. “But what am I saying? You already know all you need to know. You’ve already tamed and enslaved one, made him wish to be only king of your heart.”
She put him straight. “You are king of my life, and beyond.” Pride and joy flared in his eyes. And for some reason she thought this the right time to tell him another thing. “And I want to train to be a surgeon.”
His golden eyes sparkled down on her with pride, becoming blinding. “So you’re going to be a full-time lover, wife, mother to a king, doctor, but you want more?”
“Yes. This is the only way I can fully share with you all the responsibilities and experiences in our work.”
He closed his eyes, as if in pain. “Ya Ullah, so there is more. More awe, more gratitude, more love. Always will be, with you.” He took her lips in a pledging kiss, withdrew. “You can be anything you want to be. You can have anything in the world. You can have the very world, ya janaani.”
She surged up, kissed him all over his face. “I already have it. I have you.”
His eyes singed her down to her soul, with his esh’g. “You have me, ya mashoogati. How you do.”
And he spent the rest of the night, pledged to spend the rest of his life, showing her just how.