Page 53 of Her Vow to Be His Desert Queen

Once, she’d thought that getting him to sign it had been the stupidest thing she’d ever done.

Now she knew it was the best decision she’d ever made.

EPILOGUE

KHALILLOOKEDOVERthe crowded ballroom to see if he could spot his beautiful wife.

Everyone was here for his marriage celebration ball and his staff had outdone themselves. Sidonie had insisted it be in the throne room because that was where they had been married and also because the tiles were beautiful. He’d agreed, and so now his throne room was full of light and music and people laughing. Exactly as he’d hoped when he’d first come to get Sidonie from England a month earlier.

She had taken to being his queen like a duck to water, helping him to organise the redistribution of wealth to his populace, drawing on her charity and management experience in order for the whole process to run smoothly. And it did.

Her charity, too, was making waves in Europe, helping disadvantaged children everywhere, and soon they would be launching it in the States, with a fundraising ball planned in New York at Christmas.

Managing her new role as Queen with her charity commitments was a big job, but Sidonie was an excellent manager of both her own time and other people’s, far better than he was. Already she had every single person in his court eating out of her hand.

Galen and Solace had a little crowd of people around them, while Augustine kept checking his watch and looking irritated. Apparently he was waiting for Freddie, his personal assistant. She’d got delayed in London by something and wouldn’t be back until much later.

Cool fingers suddenly gripped his.

Khalil frowned and turned, only to find Sidonie’s green eyes looking back at him.

She was magnificent tonight in the green gown she’d had especially designed, an off-the-shoulder number that laid bare her pale shoulders and with sweeping silken skirts. And gleaming in the hollow of her throat was the delicate little golden sunburst necklace he’d presented to her just before the ball had started, in reminder of a very private, very personal memory they shared. She’d cried and he’d kissed away her tears.

His breath caught at her loveliness.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

But she only smiled mysteriously and pulled at his hand, drawing him over behind one of the pillars, where it was quieter.

‘What,ya hayati?’ Sudden concern tightened inside him. ‘Are you well?’

Sidonie’s smile was radiant. ‘I’m well. I’m very well.’ Then she closed the space between them, put her hands on his chest and rose up on her toes. ‘I’m also very pregnant,’ she whispered in his ear.

He didn’t know what it was that went through him, a lightning strike of emotion that rooted him to the spot. And then, as her lips brushed his ear, he understood.

Happiness. It was happiness.

‘Sidonie,’ he whispered back. ‘My sunshine. You make me so very happy.’

He’d thought his heart was made of stone until she’d taught him his mistake.

It wasn’t made of stone.

It was made of love.

There was no doubt at all in his mind.