His Pregnant Prisoner

Part 24

Shock propelled Nakayla out of his arms. "You're..."

Joking...she'd been about to say but the word disappeared as she looked at him.

Without a hint of shadow, his gaze gleamed golden. Every line of his face said he'd made up his mind.

He wanted to marry her. God, he would be her husband...

The very word felt strangely exciting in her mind, so possessive, and so irrevocably final. For she knew in her very bones that Karim didn't make the decision lightly.

Shivers spewed in her muscles. And they were as much out of excitement as they were out of fear.

"I would not joke. My anger from the past clouded my judgment until now."

"Because you don't want the same fate as you suffered for our child?" Of course, that's why.

Clasping her hand with his, he pulled her close. "That's what made me think of marriage, yes. But it was just the spark that ignited it. It is right for us in so many ways.

"If I had acknowledged my disturbing propensity to forget all rationale and judgment when it comes to you, I'd have realized where this was heading long ago."

Her heart threatened to shove out of her chest, so hard and loud it thumped. She didn't need love. She herself barely knew it. But that he would make this commitment to her, it made her blood pound in her veins. "Somehow, I don't think it's a compliment to be associated with low judgment."

"That is all you will get out of me," he quipped and her mouth went dry.

"What about Tahiti? About me being an American and not fitting in your world... What about all that virgin bride stuff and alliances that will bring..."

What about you and me, the question came unbidden to her lips.

But there was no just them, she told herself.

Those two months in New York, that had been stolen time.

Until it had changed both their lives forever.

Clasping her hand tight in his, Karim said, "You pay too much attention to the palace gossip, Nakayla. I thought you above that kind of thing." Her pulse raced under his thumb. "Have you ever heard any of that from my mouth?" When she shook her head, he nodded. "The Sheikha cannot be susceptible to rumors for there will be many who'll want to sway you to their side," he said, arrogant confidence dripping from his pores. "In any case, I will train you in our ways."She scrunched her nose at him. "I'm not a pet to be sent off to training. Nothing will make me into the kind of wife or the woman Tahiti will expect me to be, Karim."

His large hands were now on her shoulders, his breath feathering her face. "Your life will change in a number of ways, but I'm confident that you will handle it all. Independence is one thing, Nakayla. Marrying the Sheikh of Tahiti, another."

Hand tucked under her chin, he lifted her head up until she looked at him. Pressed his mouth to her temple, "I need you, Nakayla. Unlike anything or anyone else in the world."

Everything within her, every urge she had ever repressed came out to play when it was this man who looked at her as if she was his sanity, as if she could calm him, as if she could rebalance his world.

That he needed her had always been her downfall.

She took his hand in hers. "This will work only if you promise me one thing, Karim."