Page 39 of Seduced by the Sultan (Desert Men of Qurhah 3)

‘Oh, Cat,’ he said softly. ‘You are magnificent.’

‘No, Murat, you’re the one who’s supposed to be magnificent, not me. And...’ Some of her bravado was leaving her now. Suddenly she was feeling very alone—and scared. Scared of the way he could make her feel and scared of how much more he could hurt her. And she couldn’t afford to let him hurt her, not any more. Because she was strong Cat, not weak Cat. She was Cat who didn’t cry and yet these stupid tears were pricking away at the backs of her eyes. ‘It’s a cheap trick to bring me out here into the middle of nowhere, where I’m effectively at your mercy.’

He said nothing, just walked across the room and took her hand, bringing her fingertips to his mouth and leaving them there, so that when he spoke she could feel the warmth of his breath against her skin. And Catrin was appalled to discover that she wasn’t pulling away. That she was just standing there and letting him touch her.

‘And is it a cheap trick to ask you to be my bride, Cat?’ he questioned. ‘To be my Sultana and help me rule over the people of Qurhah for as long as we both shall live?’

Snatching her hand away, she moved away from him again—as if they were both participants in some old-fashioned dance. ‘Do you get some kind of kick out of tormenting me?’ she gritted. ‘When we both know that I can’t be your bride.’

‘Oh, but you can,’ he argued and he was coming towards her once again. Like some persistent wave you saw at the edge of the ocean, he just kept on coming. ‘Sweet habibti of mine—you can. I wouldn’t dream of asking you something as important as this, unless it was possible.’

His shadow loomed over her and she stared up into those night-dark eyes, searching for some sign that he was tricking her. Because she couldn’t risk believing him. She couldn’t risk having all her hopes raised heavenwards and then smashed down again.

‘How is it possible?’ She crossed her arms over her breasts. ‘How?’

‘I spoke to my brother-in-law, Gabe, who is one of the few men I trust. He knew of my dilemma. That I loved you but that my hands were tied. Because how could the Sultan possibly break the law of his own land? I told him about the things you’d said. Things which I’d previously refused to think about, only now I had a reason to think about them very seriously. About modern countries needing to move with the times. And Gabe agreed. He said that it was archaic and unrealistic to expect a law which had been written centuries ago to apply to a modern sultan in a modern age.

‘So I had my attorney general redraft the constitution,’ he continued. ‘It just took it a little time before it all became official. It was rubber-stamped yesterday. And that’s why I have brought you here, Cat. To tell you that I have had the law changed in order to marry you. But also to tell you something else, other than the fact I love you very much.’ He sucked in a deep breath. ‘And that is you have made me more of a man than I thought it was possible to be. You have made me feel things, my beauty. Things that sometimes make me feel almost scared but which at other times fill me with the kind of joy I didn’t believe existed. Most of all, they make me feel alive.’

Her chest felt tight and she could hardly breathe, let alone speak, but that was okay because it seemed that Murat had not yet finished.

‘Shall I tell you what my life feels like without you?’ he questioned. ‘It’s cold and there’s no light any more, as if somebody has covered up the sun. I feel as if part of me is missing—and it’s the best part. I am empty without you, Cat, and I can’t imagine a future if you’re not a part of it. Which is why I am asking you to forgive me for some of my more outrageous behaviour of the past, and to be my wife and let me spend the rest of my life loving you as you should be loved.’

Catrin felt her heart flare as if somebody had just warmed it with a naked flame. She thought about the kindness he’d shown to her mother and the gentleness with which he had treated her when she’d been sick. She saw the look of love in his eyes and it would have been so easy to have capitulated. To have fallen eagerly into his arms and told him that she would marry him, because he was the only man she would ever love.

‘I can’t,’ she said.

At this he rocked back on his heels, black brows knitting together in disbelief as he stared at her and now Catrin could see a touch of his customary arrogance.

‘What do you mean, you can’t? You love me, don’t you, Cat? You may tell me that you don’t, but your eyes can’t hide the fact.’

‘Yes, I love you,’ she said. ‘But I can’t live the kind of life you’re offering me.’

‘You mean that you don’t want to live here? That you cannot bear the thought of being Sultana and bringing up our children in a desert palace?’

The our children bit nearly made her buckle, but Catrin knew she had to be strong.

‘I can’t bear the thought of you having a harem,’ she said quietly. ‘Or keeping mistresses, as you once told me that your father had done.’

‘Mistresses?’ he roared. ‘Do you imagine that there is any woman I could bear to have near to me, unless she was you? Don’t you know how completely you have captured my heart and my body and my soul and made them all your own, my darling one?’

‘Murat—’

‘I love you, Catrin Thomas,’ he whispered. ‘Now, for ever and always. Exclusively. Let me tell you that I want you to be my wife and I will not rest until you have consented.’

She was done then. She couldn’t keep fighting her heart’s desire, not when she wanted and needed him nearly as much as breath itself.

‘Oh, Murat,’ she said. ‘My darling Murat.’

There were tears as she went into his arms but he kissed them all away until there were no tears left. And after a long while, he extinguished all the lamps and led her over to the low divan and it was there, on that warm night in the middle of the desert, that they came together, vowing to love and to cherish each other for the rest of their days.

EPILOGUE

‘READY?’

‘As I’ll ever be.’ Catrin looked up into Murat’s eyes as he gave her hand a squeeze.

‘Scared?’ he questioned.

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