‘Good luck with that,’ Cat murmured, her smile widening as she watched Zane finish buttoning up his daughter’s sleep suit, then stand and lift the little girl—who was still chortling and kicking—onto his broad shoulder.
‘Do you doubt my ability to get my own daughter to obey me, woman?’ Zane raised an amused eyebrow as he stroked his daughter’s back, attempting to calm the baby down after all the activity—without a lot of success.
‘Absolutely,’ she said.
‘We’ll just see about that,’ he replied. The sensual look he gave was one she recognised—but one she now knew hid a wealth of compassion and tenderness. ‘I’m the Sheikh. My women obey my every command.’
‘If you say so, Your Divine Majesty,’ Cat said with a mocking smile.
‘I’ll be back in a few minutes,’ he announced, busy rocking their daughter—who was starting to protest in earnest now at the prospect of actually having to do what her father told her for once. ‘And when I return I expect you to be waiting for me. Naked.’ His eyes darkened. ‘So we can have that very important discussion,’ he finished, then sent her a provocative wink before striding out of their room.
The room they had shared ever since her aborted attempt to run away from him.
A delicious heat rushed through Cat’s body as she flopped back on the bed, still smiling—rather smugly now. It was going to take him longer than a few minutes to settle Kaliah, because their daughter was as headstrong as her father. But by the time Zane came back, she would be more than ready for that very important discussion.
As she waited, listening to Zane patiently attempting to soothe his fretful daughter to sleep in the room next to theirs, she decided it really didn’t matter when Sheikh Zane Ali Nawari Khan had changed from the moody, intimidating man she had first met into a playful, protective and devoted father and the gorgeous, supportive and equally devoted husband and lover she adored so much today. Because all that really mattered was that he belonged to her and Kaliah and all the other children she hoped they would have together some day.
And that they belonged to him.
* * *