"He's dead."
Maram stirred. "Serves him right for stealing my wine." She eyed Gwandoya's corpse. "Far too easy a death for the man who kidnapped me and killed Hasan. Throw his body into the gutter, to be devoured by stray dogs. It is no better than he deserves."
The Sultan sagged in relief at the sound of her voice. "Whatever you wish, Maram. We will postpone this wedding until you are well, and you shall have your apartments here so that my guards can keep you from further harm."
"No." Maram struggled to sit up, then aimed a glare at her father. "I will live in the palace my husband gave me, with him, and I will marry him on the morrow. Anyone who seeks to steal Aladdin from me again will suffer a worse fate than him." She pointed at Gwandoya.
The Sultan looked taken aback. Then, slowly, he said, "Whatever you wish."
THIRTY-FOUR
Maram had attended many feasts in her life, but she never wanted one to finish as much as her wedding feast. Courtiers gushing over her dress, fawning over Aladdin, or exclaiming over delicacies they had never tasted before barely registered in her thoughts, for all that occupied her mind was the man beside her.
Finally, the Sultan commanded the guests to form a triumphal arch for the departing couple, and she and Aladdin were allowed to leave. She ran beside him as though her feet had wings, through the arch and all the way home. Guards stood at the gates now, a gift from her father, but she had eyes for only one man. A man whose hand she held tight in her own as she led him to the best bedchamber, a room she had not entered until now.
An enormous bed occupied most of it, piled with enough pillows and coverlets to sleep a small harem, for it was a bed fit for a king. Fit for her pretend prince and her, certainly.
She paused only long enough to kiss Aladdin deeply before she started shedding her clothes, not stopping until the layers of silk and linen lay on the floor. She lifted her chin. "Now, you must make love to me," she said.
He laughed. "As my princess commands."
She shook her head. "I am not a princess any more. Not truly. I am your wife, and nothing more." She'd never felt so free.
Finally, he tugged his tunic over his head and left it with her clothes. "You are everything to me. A princess, a queen...a woman to worship. I would do anything for you, princess or no."
She smiled. "Then lie down."
Her eyes drank in every inch of his naked body as he stretched out on the bed, his head pillowed on his folded arms as he stared straight back at her. Her husband was no soft courtier, or over-muscled knight. No, he was lean and hard, with no extra flesh or muscle that a man did not need.
"I can't make love to you while I am here and you are over there," he said, beckoning. "Come here, my beautiful wife, so that I can show you just how much I love you."
She grinned and crawled across the bed, stalking like a lioness. "Two nights ago you had your turn. Now it is mine." With practised ease and considerable pleasure, she straddled him, guiding him inside her until he filled her completely. "Oh yes. This is what I've longed for. All those nights, I dreamed..."
"As did I." His hands curved around her hips, cupping her bottom, as he drove deeper inside her.
They moved together in perfect harmony, two parts of one glorious being, not stopping the first time she screamed his name, but when she felt her second climax building, he slowed.
"I cannot resist you any longer, Maram. I must...I must..." His words dissolved into a groan of pure pleasure as she clenched around him, catapulting her own body into another longed-for climax.
When she caught her breath, she finished for him: "We must do this every night we are together, for as long as we live."
Aladdin laughed, stroking his fingers across her breast. "You are stealing my wishes, just as you have stolen my heart."
She kissed him, long and hard. "Granting them, more like. With Amani gone, all you have is me."
The silver ring on his finger caught her nipple, sending a jolt through her. "You are all I ever need. I have nothing left to wish for."
She rose. "I wish for a bath. Will you join me in the bathhouse?"
"Only if you will grant a wish there that I have longed for since the day I met you."
Making love to Aladdin in the water. Maram shivered in delicious anticipation. "Now who's stealing wishes?"
He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bathhouse, and Maram sighed blissfully, knowing there was nowhere else she would rather be, and truly nothing else she could wish for.
If you'd like to read the tale of Anahita and the REAL Prince of Tasnim, check out Kiss: Frog Prince Retold HERE (http://www.demelzacarlton.com/fairytale/#Kiss).
If you'd like to read what happened to Amani after he was freed to find Briska, it's in Melt: Snow Queen Retold HERE (http://www.demelzacarlton.com/fairytale/#Melt)
Queen Margareta of Beacon Isle finds her happily ever after in Silence: Little Mermaid Retold HERE (http://www.demelzacarlton.com/fairytale/#Silence)
And Vardan, Margareta's grandson, meets his match in Enchant: Beauty and the Beast Retold, which you can get FREE HERE.
If you're looking for more of Demelza's medieval fairytales, you can find the rest of the series HERE (http://www.demelzacarlton.com/fairytale/).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.
She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by her suspense thriller Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn't leave her alone.
Want to know more? You can follow Demelza on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ , YouTube or her website, Demelza Carlton's Place at: www.demelzacarlton.com
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