Page 70 of The Sheikh's Desert Captive

EPILOGUE

ONE YEAR LATER

"What do think?" Rashid asked gazing out over the garden, here in their summer palace in the north.

Nicole leaned closer to Rashid and wrapped an arm around him, squinting out across the freshly cut lawn, the neatly trimmed borders and clipped branches of the trees. "It's a big improvement on the first time I saw it," she observed.

It was true, she reflected. The garden had been transformed during the spring which had just passed. Instead of the mess she'd seen on her first day in the palace a year before, the garden now looked transformed. The wildness had been tamed; fresh growth had brought beauty to the garden. All the damage of previous years had been repaired. It had come back to life.

Nicole looked up into Rashid's eyes. She could see how much it meant to him. For years, it had symbolized everything he couldn't let go off; every change he'd resisted making. Now it looked the way it was meant to look. The way his father would have wanted. She'd heard Rashid express pride and satisfaction at the work which had been done.

This wasn't the first time they'd come to the summer palace since they'd married. The palace down near Qazhar city had been their main residence since the wedding nine months before. Their life there was a wonderful mix of daytime happiness and nighttime bliss. Rashid had put all his reservations about Qazhar life behind him. Wherever Nicole was happy, it seemed Rashid was also happy.

Every part of being Rashid's wife had lived up to Nicole's expectations. He was a wonderful husband and she knew he always would be.

The wedding had been amazing. Her parents and sisters had been astonished that there would another sheikh wedding in the family. However, once they'd gotten to know Rashid, they'd soon come around to the idea. Nicole knew her family loved Rashid as much as she did.

Well, maybe not as much, she told herself as she looked up at him. No-one could love Rashid as much as she did.

"I think I'm going to like coming up here in the summers," Rashid announced.

Rashid leaned down and kissed Nicole. She'd never get tired of his kisses.

Nicole snuggled up against him. Rashid wrapped his arm around her and held her close.

Nicole looked up at the blue sky. "It's going to be a warm day," she observed.

Rashid gazed down at her. "Remember I told you about those cool parts of the palace?" he asked.

Nicole nodded.

Rashid glanced back at the palace. "What do you say we go inside and cool off together," he suggested.

There was a look in his eye with which she'd become all too familiar. She felt warmth stirring inside her.

"I think that's a good idea," she replied.

And then they started to make their way back inside, arm in arm, and she knew it was going to be another beautiful day.

THE END

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