Page 25 of The Earl That Got Away (Sirens in Silk #2)
Chapter Twenty
Before
Philadelphia
N aila stared at the bracelet on her wrist, admiring the way the gold caught the sun. She ran a finger over its single pearl adornment. “It’s the most beautiful thing anyone has ever given me.”
“You like it then?” Basil asked. “I wanted to get something that matches your other bracelets.”
It fit perfectly with her thin gold bangles. She gave him a shy look. “Thank you.”
He smiled broadly. “It was my pleasure.” He looked happy, excited even, despite the fact that she was going back to New York in a few days.
She sniffed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you are happy to be rid of me.”
He pulled her to him. Her body immediately alerted to the feel of her softness against the sharper planes of his athletic form. “I won’t let you go.”
She sighed, burying her face into his neck, inhaling the scents of him—shaving soap on warm skin. “I wish we could stay like this always.”
“We can,” he insisted.
“But how?” She was unable to bear the thought of saying goodbye to him in a few days. The idea of a looming future without Basil, of returning to her old life in New York, felt empty and pointless.
“I will take care of everything. I have been asking your cousin Eyad about your people’s ways. I will approach your father with the utmost respect and care.”
Alarm rippled through her. “You’ve told Eyad?”
“No, I’ve just asked questions about your family’s customs and ways of doing things.”
“It won’t matter how much you learn. We don’t accept outsiders for marriage.”
“There has to be a way. It might be difficult in the beginning but we will make it through.”
Clinging to him, Naila almost believed it could be true. To think otherwise was too devastating to contemplate. The bracelet on her wrist made a future together feel real somehow. Was the impossible really possible? Could she have Basil and her family?
She pressed herself against him, wanting to meld herself to him so that no one could ever pry them apart. She felt the manly part of him harden against her belly.
“Naila.” His voice was low and rough.
“You feel so good,” she said wistfully. “When you hold me like this I believe we can be together forever.”
He gently put her away from him. “We can be. I know I should wait until I have your father’s permission but—”
She peered into his grave face. “Yes?”
He took both of her hands in his. She was not a small woman but her hands looked impossibly delicate compared to his. “Will you, Miss Naila Darwish, do me the great honor of agreeing to be my wife?”
“You know it’s impossible,” she cried, her heart breaking. “Why would you push me on this?”
“Because what we have is worth fighting for. I love you. With all my heart.” His eyes locked with hers. “But maybe you don’t feel the same?”
She hadn’t wanted to let herself admit it. Even as she’d warned Basil not to get too attached, she’d fallen deeply and irretrievably in love with the man. “I do love you,” she admitted, coming to an important realization. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
“I’ll be by your side every step of the way,” he said urgently. “If it takes a lifetime, I will win over your family. When they see how right we are for each other, they will accept our marriage.”
He gave her such strength. Naila did feel she could do just about anything with Basil by her side. Surely her family wouldn’t banish her for following her heart. They couldn’t stay angry forever.
“Say you’ll do it,” Basil said. “Promise to stay by my side until we are old and gray. I promise my undying loyalty to you.”
She let out a shuddering sigh, still racked with tension and worry about her family’s reaction. But she also knew, in that moment, that her life would be meaningless if she let Basil go. “Yes.” Her eyes teared. “Yes, yes, yes. I will marry you.”
He laughed, swinging her up into his arms, and she was laughing, too, with both relief and excitement.
She’d made the decision and she would never change her mind.
There was no other way. She finally admitted the truth to herself.
She couldn’t live without Basil. It wouldn’t be easy to convince her family, but she would keep the faith with Basil, no matter how long it took.
He stared into her eyes. “May I kiss my bride to be?”
“Why not?” she said coquettishly. “After all, I am practically your wife.”
He swept her up in his arms, kissing her deeply, his tongue exploring her mouth, deep soulful drugging kisses that ratcheted up her body in a way that made her squirm.
Suddenly, she was very afraid. If she lost Basil, she wouldn’t be able to go on. But everything was against them. Everyone in their lives would do their best to tear them away from each other.
She wanted to be inside his skin. She wanted him inside of her. To truly be one together. “Love me like a wife,” she whispered into his ear.
He stiffened. “Naila, surely you don’t mean—”
“I do. Make me your wife in the way that counts. If we are truly committed to each other, let’s go past the point of no return.” If she did this with him, she could never lose her courage, they would be truly bonded. Forever.
“Not here. In a park, up against a tree. It wouldn’t be right.”
She put his hand to her breast. Pressed it there. “Please,” she said. “Now.”
He led her instead to a soft place hidden in a copse of trees and surrounded by blooming flowers.
He laid her gently on the bed of grass and kissed her softly, opening his mouth over hers.
Their tongues tangled in a love dance. “You are going to be my wife,” he murmured against her lips.
“I suppose there’s no real harm in anticipating our vows. ”
“Exactly,” she breathed.
His fingers worked their way under her skirts to touch her intimately. She moaned in his mouth, their lips fused. When he entered her, it wasn’t the physical pain and discomfort that she focused on, but the exquisite relief at having reached the point of no return.
“It is done now,” he said softly as he pushed into her body. “Nothing can part us.”