Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
On Malik’s birthday, Vanna hosted a small intimate dinner in their private wing, with only the other four young sheikhs as their guests. She was quietly hoping that this would be the night the two would make up, but instead everyone’s jaws ended up dropping when Malik and Kyria took their seats at opposite ends of the table, as far apart from each other as possible. Vanna did a quick mental tally and almost let out a gasp. This would make it ten days in a row. Ten, dear God! This was the longest those two were at odds, and she wondered uneasily if this was far more serious than she had thought.
As soon as dinner ended, Vanna sent a politely worded summons to her younger son and paced the length of her room while waiting. She waited and waited, and her temper simmered hotter all the while, knowing that Malik was doing this deliberately to let her know that he preferred she mind her own business.
Ha!
Too bad for him, she was his mother, and it was her God-given right to meddle until the day she died.
When Malik finally entered her room, she managed to wait only until the door closed behind him before snapping, “Have you lost your manners that you do not mind making your own mother wait?”
“If I say yes,” he drawled, “will you give me leave so that I may search for my missing manners?”
Vanna threw her son a fuming look. “This is not the time to be funny, Malik.”
But this only made his lips twist in a sardonic smile. “And you think I don’t know this?”
Oh!
Her mouth formed an O of dismayed surprise as she saw the look in his eyes.
“It’s over, Mother.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered, stricken.
“She doesn’t want me,” the sheikh said quietly. “That is all you need to know, and this will be the last time we speak of it.” Malik spun away without another word, the door shutting closed with a thud of such painful finality behind him that it made Vanna jerk.
Outside, Malik strode down the hallway at a brisk, grim pace. He was going to fuck his brains out with the first willing woman he found, and he would keep doing it until he had thrown out every piece of her that was lodged in his heart.
As Malik left the palace in a quest to thoroughly annihilate his feelings, the girl whom he sought to forget was doing the opposite. Curled up in her bed, Kyria allowed her tears to fall under the cover of darkness. She missed Malik, but she felt she had lost the right to be close to him again. His coldness hurt, but more than that, it made her feel ashamed. Almost two weeks had passed and even now she could still vividly recall with humiliating clarity how his touch made her feel.
She shouldn’t have felt such pleasure, but she had. She should have moved away, but she hadn’t. As such, all of this was her fault, and now only one question remained.
What to do about it?
Kyria fell asleep before she could decide on an answer, but unbeknownst to her (and Malik for that matter), the same question was being asked in another part of the castle, where Vanna was currently in a secret meeting with Altair and her nephews.
Should they or should they not interfere?
The five of them weighed the pros and cons, and in the end their verdict was unanimous. Painful as it was to see both Malik and Kyria struggling, this might be the final test that the two needed to overcome. Whatever it was that had them at odds, it might be for the best. Malik had really never allowed himself to see anyone else, and whether Kyria knew this or not, she hadn’t been able to see anyone else beyond Malik either. But things had changed, and now only time would be able to tell if they were truly for each other.
TIME HEALED ALL WOUNDS or so they said, but what few ever cared to add was that some wounds could be picky. Some wounds needed a certain time to heal and unfortunately for both Malik and Kyria, that time hadn’t come yet. For the sheikh, his temporary remedy was in devoting himself to his role as minister in the newly formed cabinet of Khalil, now the Emir Sheikh of Ramil. He kept himself as busy as he could, and what free time was left was divided between his breeding business and finding more women to fuck.
For Kyria, her options were more limited as Khalil was still in the process of reversing the kingdom’s outdated laws that tended to heavily police the actions of women. She poured all her time and effort in her studies, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted to be so tired that the moment she’d get in bed, she’d fall asleep and not even have the energy to dream. It wasn’t her favorite thing these days, dreaming, mostly because when she did, it would always be about Malik and that morning.