Then it was another life. Their new life together, and they were merged as one, rocking together, riding the aftershocks, sharing the descent.
Then, as she always did, she both surprised and delighted him. “That was one hell of an inauguration at the very entrance of our new home. Who needs breaking a bottle across the threshold when you can shatter your bride with pleasure?”
Squeezing her tighter, he looked down at her, his heart soaring at the total satisfaction in her eyes. “I am one for better alternatives.”
“That was the best. You redefine mind-blowing with every performance. I’m not even sure my head is still in place.”
Chuckling, proud and grateful that he could satisfy her that fully, he gathered his sated bride into his arms and strode through the still-foreign terrain of their new home.
Reaching their bedroom suite, he laid her down on the twelve-foot four-poster bed draped in bedcovers the color of her flesh and sheets the color of her hair. She nestled into him and went still, soaking in the fusion of their souls and flesh.
Thankfulness seeped out in a long sigh. “One of the incredible things about your size is that I can bundle you all up and contain you.”
She burrowed her face into his chest. “Not fair. I want to contain you, too.”
Tightening his arms around her, he pledged, “You have. You do.”
*
“It is such a relief to be back home in Zohayd.”
Kanza looked up from her laptop as Johara waddled toward her, just about to pop.
Johara and her family had returned to Zohayd since her wedding to Aram two months ago. Their stay in New York had only been on Aram’s account. The moment he’d come to Zohayd, they’d run home.
She smiled at her friend and now new sister-in-law. “I would have never agreed before, but with Aram, Zohayd has become the home it never was to me.”
Johara, looking exhausted just crossing their new base of operations, plopped down beside her on the couch. “We knew you’d end up together.”
Kanza’s smile widened. “Then you knew something I didn’t. I had no idea, or even hope, for the longest time.”
“Yeah.” Johara nodded absently, leafing through the latest status report. “When the situation revolves around you, it’s hard to have a clear enough head to see the potential. But Shaheen and I knew you’d be perfect for each other and gave you a little shove.”
Her smile faltered. “You did? When was that?”
Johara raised her head, unfocused. Then she blinked. “Oh, the night I sent you to look for that file.”
A suspicion mushroomed then solidified into conviction within the same heartbeat. “There was no file, was there?”
Johara gave her a sheepish look. “Nope. I just had to get you both in one place.”
Unease stirred as the incident that had changed her life was rewritten. “You sent him to look for the nonexistent file, too, so he’d stumble on me. You set us up.”
Johara waved dismissively. “Oh, I just had you meet.”
The unease tightened. “Did Aram realize what you did?”
“I’m sure he did when he found you there on his same mission.”
So why had he given her different reasons when she’d asked him point-blank what he’d been doing there?
But… “He could have just thought you asked me to do the same thing. He had no reason to think you were setting us up.”
“Of course he did. Shaheen had suggested y
ou to him only a couple of weeks before.”
“Suggested me…how?”