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He had done everything an orphan who had been thrust into power could have done

And his prize was in that huge tent set just a little apart from the rest of the encampment, the path to the entrance flanked by a row of lanterns

Tonight, he belonged in that tent, truly, with his wife Even his father’s wife, banished to the fortress in the old city could not contest his place here

The histling through the sands, the dark desert sky, and the harsh, unforgiving desert, he was a part of this land finally And it filled every inch of him with a profound joy, an unquenchable fire

He acknowledged Ahuard with a nod She wouldn’t like that they were so close by, the errant thought dropped into his head Not for what he had on his ht with a smile

But he wouldn’t dismiss the on the knife-edge of desire, his rationality and the civilized veneer like the slippery sand under his feet

Before his next breath, he was standing inside the tent, at the foot of the vast bed Numerous lanterns were lit all around the room and he wondered if she had been afraid of the pitch-darkness that was a desert night

There she lay, his wife

Still in the turquoise dress that had so lovingly hinted at those lithe curves She slept on her side, the silk scrunched up to her knees, displaying toned calves

Deep red henna swirled over her feet and hands She was ht with a prie like he had never known before

His breath coht of her Her hair haphazardly framed her face, a mirror of the spirited, independent woman The bodice of the dress dipped at her chest, her folded arlobes of her breasts

Need ripped through hi him absolutely unraveled on a level he didn’t understand

Shedding his long tunic, he left his cotton trousers on Much as he couldn’t wait to feel her silken flesh against all of him, he didn’t want to spook her when she was in such a deep sleep

Slowly, he lowered his body onto the bed, shifted to his side and gathered her to him

Mu, she came to him, pliant and soft in a way she never hen she ake, her dainty fingers drifting over his abdoroan burst deep from inside him

Purring like a cat, she tucked herself against him, the scent of roses and her skin a sensory heaven He hissed out a breath, the brush of her thigh against his sending shafts of heat through him

Ya Allah, he had forgotten how fragile she had always been Constantly pitted against that tough, self-sufficient exterior she presented, the delicate bones of her body and lithe curvesbrute