Page 53 of Sheikh's Unexpected Triplet Babies

"Good," she said softly, and he glanced at her.

"You sound relieved."

"You turned out to be a great ruler and a good man," she said with a shrug. "Sometimes, though...I wonder if there was a way to be gentler with you and still have you turn out like this."

They were quiet for some time after that, but she could tell he was thinking of what she had said.

Sometimes, Bedelia wondered how close they were to other couples, how other couples might talk about how their children should be brought up. The issue, of course, was that they were so far from normal, so far off the beaten path that she had no idea what normal looked like.

All they could do, she decided, was their best, and in that way, they were probably much like the people all over the world.

While they were sorting out the fact that they were going to be parents, they were also relearning each other. Their touches were light and shy, almost tentative.

They weren't shy, or even scared, but Bedelia thought that they felt new to one another, wary of dark places that might suddenly leap up and trap them, catch them unawares.

It wasn't easy to be careful with the fire that was banked between them. The first few nights, they simply slept in each others’ arms, chaste except for a few gentle kisses and touches. When Jahin had only folded her into his embrace to sleep, she had been a little disappointed, but there was a certain relief there as well. There had been so many emotions running so very hard and hot that they felt strangely tender with one another.

On the night after they had seen the falcons flying, however, she could feel his gaze on her as she came out of the bathroom, her hair still damp from her shower.

He was stripped down to a light pair of linen trousers and a thin tunic. They were a bright white, offering a startling contrast between the crisp cloth and his bronzed skin. She wasn't sure she had ever seen him look so handsome, with his eyes fixed on her and his mouth slightly open.

"What is it?" she asked, blushing slightly. She clasped the edges of the silk robe around her a little more tightly. It was strange. Before, he had known every bit of her body, every moan and every sound she made, but somehow she was shy now.

"I suppose I am thinking of how beautiful you are," he said, never taking his eyes off of her. She thought that if he were really a dragon, he would have been licking his lips.

"You're joking," she said, shaking her head. "You know, I can feel how the pregnancy's changing me. I feel slow and tired, and I know I'm getting bigger. It feels like I am getting bigger every darned day..."

"Do you think that matters to me?" he retorted, taking a few steps towards her. "Do you think that alters your beauty or that it takes away from how important you are to me?"

His words were hypnotic. That had to be it, because she was so mesmerized by them that she didn't even sense him getting closer to her until he was almost touching her. Still, he maintained a distance between them, only reaching out a single finger to feather it down along her cheek. With a slight sigh, she leaned into him, craving his warmth.

"I have never understood why you do not understand your appeal," he said quietly. "You always seem so surprised when I tell you how much I want you, how much I desire you. Surely it is not because I am reticent about my desires. I have shown you over and over again how much I crave you. I have shown you in so many ways..."

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I suppose the world doesn't tell me that pregnant women can be so beautiful, or that plain girls with brown hair can be so desirable."

He snorted, bringing his face down next to hers. She could feel the bare scrape of the slight stubble on his cheek next to hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her ear. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe, and she wanted more than anything to loop her arms around his neck, bring him even closer. Even now, though, she held herself still. The anticipation made her nerves dance, something that was so close to pleasure that she could have moaned.

"The world is wrong, and in so many ways, I suppose it will continue to be wrong. What I see before me is a beautiful woman, one that I have wanted far more than I have ever wanted any other woman. Now, though, I cannot tell if she wants me."

Bedelia's eyes had drifted closed, but at his words, they flew open.

"What do you mean?" she gasped. "Can't you... I mean... I must want you! So very much!"

He raised an eyebrow at her, a slight quirk of humor on his lips. She knew he was teasing her, but there was something dead serious there, something that tugged at her like a dark tide.

"Do you?" he asked softly. "I do not know that, not when you do not touch me, you do not reach for me..."

She knew he was teasing her, but there was something so soft about his voice, so gentle and so oddly wistful, that she couldn't help but reach for him with a cry. She threw her arms around him just as she had been thinking of doing for god knew how long, and she dragged him down for a deep and drugging kiss. The moment his lips touched hers, she could feel something inside her go up in flames. She had wanted him for so long, and now nothing else seemed to matter.

“How could you think I don't want you?” she murmured softly. “I want you more than I want to breathe.”

She heard him let out a breath, and his arms went around her, gathering her up tight in an embrace that felt like what she had wanted for her entire life.

“I want you to understand,” he murmured, “that is exactly the way that I feel about you.”

She started to answer him, but then his mouth was sealed over hers, and his tongue was probing deep, making her feel as if her body was freefalling, tumbling through the sky without any fear because Jahin would always catch her.

"You don't know how much I have missed you," he whispered. "You have no idea how much I have wanted you, how I would wake up at night without understanding why you weren't here..."

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