Heir to a Desert Legacy - By Maisey Yates Page 0,70

there, just listening to the beat of his heart for a moment.

“Chloe,” he said, sifting his fingers through her hair. “Don’t you understand? I didn’t find myself in the desert, because you weren’t there. I found myself with you. And it frightened me. I didn’t recognize the feeling, the fear, because it had been so long since I’d been allowed to feel it, but that’s what it was.”

She lifted her head so that she could look at him, could look into his eyes. They weren’t flat now, they were shining.

“Do you know what I was afraid of, Chloe?”

“What?” she whispered.

“Not of enemies. Not like I thought. That’s what I was told, why I was told I couldn’t feel. But the simple truth is, the enemies of my people harmed my body, but it was Kalid who scarred my soul. Kalid who used my emotion against me. Everything that gave me happiness he saw taken from me. Everything I wanted, he held out of my reach. Every emotion I had he exposed as a weakness and he used it to bend me to his will. To make me into the man, into the thing, that he wanted. His personal super soldier. A machine who might as well have metal in his chest instead of a beating heart. Everyone I cared about has used my emotions against me, and with you, Chloe, I had no defenses.”

“Oh, Sayid...”

“Do you know how badly I needed that?” he asked. “With you, I could be powerless, and you didn’t use it against me. That first night, when you tied me to the bed...”

“At your request,” she said.

“At my request,” he said. “I found freedom in giving control to someone else. In letting go for a moment, of all the things, all of the conditioning I’d been subjected to. And then, on the beach...I was undone, Chloe. I couldn’t handle what you made me feel.”

“And I pushed you.”

“I needed to be pushed. I thought...since I had to take over as ruler...I thought I was breaking. It wasn’t me that was breaking. It was those walls, those damned walls that I’ve been trapped behind for most of my life.”

“I was asking things of you that I shouldn’t have. I was asking you to be something I needed, instead of asking you what you needed.”

“You,” he said, his voice rough, “I needed you. I still do. I will, forever. Because I can be exposed to you. Because you set me free.”

“I feel like all I’ve done is take things from you,” she said. “You...you made me feel so safe. You let me bind your hands when you’ve been through that before in such awful circumstances. You married me so that I could have Aden. You...you’ve taken all my fear and my pain, you’ve given me something totally new. A fresh start, a new way to look at love.”

“I’m so happy to hear you say that, habibti, because before you, there was a hole inside of me, and I was certain, certain that I must have stolen from you in order to fill it. Because I’m not empty anymore, Chloe.”

“Maybe that’s what love is supposed to be, Sayid. It doesn’t take, it only adds more.”

“I think you’re right.”

“I know that was my experience with Aden. As much as it cost me, and at first it felt like a cost, to have him, just loving him gave me back so much more.”

Sayid took in a shuddering breath. “Aden,” he said. “And you. It seems like far too much for a man like me to have. It seems so much more than I deserve.”

“No, Sayid. It’s everything you’ve always deserved, everything that was stolen from you.”

“You make me believe it,” he said. “You make me feel...I have never felt like I was worth anything. I’ve never felt like my life mattered. But when I look into your eyes, I know that it does.”

“It does,” she whispered, pain, pain for all he had been through, constricting her throat. “You matter so much. Not because of what you can give the world, although you’ve given so much, and will always give more, but because of what you give to me. Because of what you’ll give to Aden.”

“I want...” his voice was husky, choked, “I want to be his father. To be your husband. To be your family.”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “I want that, too.”

“I love you, Chloe. With you, everything makes sense. With you, I don’t feel like I’m trapped inside of