Prue swallowed hard. "Then it's all good, isn't it? We can all move on—-"
"Stop it!" Khadem could barely breathe now. "I can already feel you starting to move on, and I don't want you to move on." He cupped her face and forced her to look into his eyes. "I love you, Prue. I loved you the first time I saw you, and I never stopped—-"
Prue wished she could believe him, but he had hurt her so much with his coldness.
"Please, Prue. I love you. I'm sorry I was an ass earlier, but I love you—-"
Prue could no longer stop her tears from falling. "Khadem—-"
"Don't say my name if you're going to make it sound like you're leaving me," Khadem said rawly. "I can change, Prue. I will change. Just tell me what you want, and I'll do it. I'll be the kind of man you can be proud of. I can even change my fucking name so you won't have to worry that you'll be the wife of a bas—-"
"Stop."
Prue's cry killed whatever hope Khadem had left at holding on to her. It was truly over, he thought dully, and it was all his fault.
Prue was finding it so hard to stop herself from crying. She knew from what Saif had told her that the one thing Khadem refused to do for Alanna was to change his name in order to be legitimate. Being an Al-Masri had been a matter of pride, honor, and principle to Khadem, and for him to be willing to turn his back on his heritage just to be with her—-
Khadem sucked his breath when Prue suddenly curled her arms around his neck.
"Will you promise me something?"
His arms closed around her in a fierce embrace. "Anything, Prue. Anything."
"I don't want you to change, Khadem. I would never want you to change because I love you as you are, but..."
Prue felt a shudder rock Khadem's powerful frame at her words, and her own body trembled violently at the strength of her emotions.
She slowly leaned back until she could look into his eyes. "Can you promise to wait?" A smile wobbled over her lips. "I honestly don't know how long it would take, but I just want you to wait for me to be strong enough so that I can defend myself, and you'll never need to go to such lengths to protect me."
Ah, fuck.
Khadem could feel his own eyes start to burn.
She could've asked him to stop protecting her, but she hadn't. Because Prue had meant it when she said that she didn't want him to change, and she knew that asking him to do nothing if she was hurt was no different from asking him to stop being himself.
Prue was that one woman he had thought was impossible to find.
Prue was truly his angel, the one woman in this world who loved him as he was, sheikh, bastard, and monster all rolled into one—-
Prue reached up to touch his cheek. "Are you crying?"
But right now, those words of hers just made Khadem want to be a fucking monster, period.
"Shut up," he snarled. "It's the wind—-"
"But there aren't any windows open," Prue protested. "I think you're really crying—-"
Khadem's mouth slammed down on hers, and as she gasped against his lips, Prue also heard him say silkily, "Seeing as you seem so fond with the idea of crying, how about we have everyone hear you cry out...when I finally claim what's mine?"
Prue wasn't even given a chance to answer, with Khadem already sweeping her up in his arms, and the last thing she saw was Khadem's harem of female admirers glaring at her just before finding herself in what appeared to be...a changing room for babies and their diapers?
"Um..."
Prue looked around her uncertainly. That was a changing table in one corner and a gigantic play pen with waist-high railings. That play pen alone was the size of her entire bedroom—-
"Khadem!"
She could only gasp his name out as he threw her right inside the play pen...before climbing over the rail to join her.
"W-What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm sure you have an idea or two," Khadem said with a devilish grin.
Oh my God.
Prue was back on her feet in a flash, but before she could even try to climb over the railing and escape, Khadem had already pulled her back down to the bed, and his fingers were making short work of her clothes.
"Khadem!"
There went her shirt, her jeans, and no matter how hard she struggled, her underwear soon joined the discarded pile of clothes that Khadem had tossed out.
Prue shook her head in disbelief as Khadem got rid of his blazer and unbuckled his belt. "You can't be...oh."
Khadem couldn't help but laugh at the way Prue's voice trailed off the moment she saw him take his shirt off. She was now staring rather dreamily at his chest, and by the time he was standing fully naked before her, Prue looked as if she was in a daze.