Special Deliveries: Heir To His Legacy: Heir to a Desert Legacy. Elizabeth Lane

sixteen a grown man…”

      “In Attar it is different,” he said, his tone hard and cold as ice.

      If she left, this was Aden’s family. His closest family. There would be no warmth from his uncle.

      “It would just be a legal marriage, right?”

      He nodded once. “I have no desire for a wife. And it is traditional for the royal couple to have separate quarters.”

      “Rashid and Tamara didn’t.”

      “They were unusual. Theirs was a love match, and Tamara’s American sensibilities colored the way they did things.”

      “Rashid never struck me as being very traditional.”

      “He wasn’t. It was one reason he gravitated to Tamara.”

      “But we…”

      “We will be a traditional Attari couple. It will be no hardship. In fact, it will come as little surprise that you’re the woman I select as my queen. You demonstrated bravery, the desire to protect Aden at all costs. Love is not always a factor in marriages here, particularly not royal marriages. No one will expect it.”

      Chloe swallowed hard, the earlier image of her parents branded in her mind. “Can I think about it?”

      “Of course.” He looked at her as though he expected thinking about it would only take a few moments of her time.

      “Not with you watching me.”

      “It is quite clear-cut. The only thing you’re finding difficult is your emotional connection to the idea of marriage. And I have no such emotional idea. About marriage or anything else.”

      “I’m sure you don’t. But it’s not just that…” She looked up at him, his eyes boring into hers, gripping her, holding her. Stealing her words.

      “You’ll be able to finish your schooling. I spoke to the president of the university about you continuing on in your studies from Attar, and I provided you with this space so that you could work easily.”

      Anger came to her rescue, demolishing the fear, demolishing the strange attraction that seemed to pull her to him. “You… you what?”

      “There is no need to thank me.”

      “I’m not going to thank you! You called the president of the university? And you told him I would be completing my studies from here without even speaking to me?”

      “You told me you wanted to stay already.”

      “And you told me no.”

      “And I changed my mind when I found the solution to the problem.”

      Chloe felt as if her head might explode. “But I didn’t agree to anything.”

      “Naturally, Chloe, we both know you will say yes. You want to be with Aden and this is the most practical way to go about it. This is the best thing. The best way for me to keep the nation whole, intact until Aden takes the throne.”

      “You don’t know that I’ll say yes,” she said.

      “Yes, I do. And when I told Dr. Schultz that you were staying here to marry me and become the sheikha of Attar he was naturally very supportive.”

      “You told him I was going to marry you?” She put her hands on her face and started pacing. “Oh… I’m going to have a stroke.”

      “No, you aren’t.”

      Her head snapped back up. “Oh? I’m not? Well, I guess you would know since you seem to know exactly what I’m going to do at all times. Do you have any more brilliant insights into me for me? Oh, all powerful Sheikh, please reveal to me, the poor, little, feebleminded woman, my desires.”

      “You are being overdramatic now, Chloe.”

      “I am not. I am being exactly as dramatic as the situation demands.”

      “What is the difference between you living here in a room in the palace, and you living here in a room in the palace with a title and a marriage certificate? Practically, for you, there will be very little difference.”

      “Marriage honestly means nothing to you?”

      “It is nothing more than a social construct. Without emotion or obligation to remain faithful, why should it mean anything? I do not want a wife, and you certainly won’t be filling the position. You will be here for Aden, which will be to your benefit. And you will be here for public events, which, I will not lie, will be for mine. But I will require nothing from you in terms of what a man wants from a wife. I don’t need a place in your bed, neither do I wish for you to give me children.”

      “Good, because I don’t want that stuff, either.” She ignored the little kick that went through her body at the mention of being in bed together. Ignored it so well it was almost as if it hadn’t happened. Because it didn’t mean anything. Nothing at all. “I can’t believe you. You arrogant, controlling…”

      “Decisive,” he finished. “I am decisive. You said what you wanted and I set out to find a solution that would work. More than work, I have found one that will benefit us both. I suggest you thank me, rather than verbally abusing me.”

      “I think your ego can stand it.”

      “I don’t have an ego, Chloe. I see things as they are, as they need to be in order to work. It’s not about ego, it’s about knowing my place in life and ensuring that I meet every obligation. I will do it for Aden and when you are my wife, I will do it for you.”

      When, not if.

      Chloe felt as though she was breaking apart inside. Like the world, the world she knew anyway, had cracked and was shattering around her, taking away any sense of certainty, any idea of where the right path was.

      She was standing in the dark, wishing she had a lantern so she could find her way.

      But she had a feeling there was no right way. Not now. There was only the way that would hurt the least, the way she could best manage.

      If only she knew for certain which direction that was. Because one choice would lead her back to Oregon, back to her life as she’d planned it since she was a teenager. But it would lead her away from Aden.

      And the other way would lead her straight into the lion’s den. Straight into the thing she feared the most.

      But she would be here. Would be with her child.

      And he really could be hers. No more holding herself slightly at a distance to keep herself from breaking.

      She swallowed, fear, grief, making her throat tight, making it hard to breathe.

      And in the darkness, she saw the light. It came with an image of Aden. Because in that instance she realized that out of every desire she had, that one would never lessen. The connection with him would never fade.

      Jobs would change, what she wanted in terms of work would change. The people in her life would come and go. She would move out of her apartment, and lose her attachment to the old one. She would complete her doctorate and find new, more challenging goals.

      But no matter what changed in that part of her life, no matter where her priorities shifted to, her love for Aden would remain. It would be the constant, no matter what she was surrounded by. And if she chose to leave, the grief, the pain at being separated, would be the companion to that love.

      She couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear the idea of embracing ephemeral, temporary things for the one connection she had that had ever felt real. Permanent. For the only family she had.

      It was more than even that now, more than just a desire for her family. Aden was her son. No matter what the truth might be genetically, the truth of her emotions was that he was nothing other than her own child.

      “All right, Sayid, I will marry you,” she said, the words