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NasrinWaking up to the empty bed was a bad feeling when I had the best sex of my life. That too, by a handsome stranger. But waking up to an empty bed and a dozen calls from your father and your brothers was worse. “Did someone die?” I said as a greeting when Imran, my younger brother, picked up the call. “Hello to you, too,” he replied enthusiastically, which meant no one had died. How unfortunate. “No one has died. Yet. But you need to cut your visit short and come back home.”I resisted the urge to scoff at the palace he called home. The last time it had ever felt like home was the last night I spent with my mom on her deathbed. If I close my eyes and think hard enough, I can feel her hand gently stroking my hair, her soft voice before she closed her eyes and passed away early in the morning. “Is it serious?” I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat and sitting up. The soreness between my legs was evident as I tried to stifle my gasp, shuffling and sitting up in a comfortable position to relax the tensed muscles in my body. “The Sheikh announced that you, well, more like Maahnoor, have to either accept or reject his proposal in two days.” I could hear the guilt in his heavy voice. My hands clenching into a fist when he continued, “If we fail to answer him, his city will stop the export of vegetables and fruits to our country.”“What? That’s bullshit. He can’t do that. He is a sheikh of a city. Sadiq is the sultan of a country. Does that fool not know the difference between the two?”“Nasrin,” he said. “You don’t understand the influence he has. He is old. Older than father, so people are ready to take his side over ours. We have barely done anything for our country since mother… you know. People haven’t forgotten that.”I squeezed my eyes shut to block out the memories. I blurted, “I… I will be there as soon as I can.”I ended the call before we could exchange goodbyes. If I sat on the bed and kept waiting for a miracle to help me through this, nothing would happen. I knew because I had waited for my mom’s cancer to go away, but it never did. I had to go to Maahnoor and see for myself if there was a way out of it. I had to try. ***There was a small smile on my face since I left the hotel suite in Azmia and closed the door to my room in the palace of Maahnoor. Night had fallen, yet the smile remained. My lovely wife. Adorable drooling face. Handsome husband.Fool. I was a complete fool to keep grinning wildly and clutching the handwritten note to my chest like a teenage girl. We had promised it was a one-night thing. Then why did he have to write the note? I wanted to know what he was thinking when he wrote it, that too with his email. He was a tease. Leaving it up to me to reach out to him if I wanted to. Of course, I wouldn’t send him an email. That seemed utterly ridiculous. I had more serious matters to worry about, like the marriage proposal of a sheikh who could put a wedge between the city and the people of Maahnoor. I didn’t have the time to think about the subject of the email or what to write or if I should tell him my identity, that I am a princess—“No, you can’t,” I talked to myself, shaking my head at my reflection in the mirror. There was already animosity between the two countries and I didn’t know if he was from Azmia, Maahnoor or another country. I couldn’t risk telling him my identity. That too, over an email. I needed the night off to process and think of a plan to reject the marriage proposal and keep the unity of the people of Maahnoor at the same time. Opening the drawer of my old vanity dresser, I opened the ruby box where I kept my mother’s maang tikka. The only sentimental piece that belonged to my mother passed down to me. Promising me to marry the person I wanted to. Without thinking too much about the politics or religion or other’s commands. I pried open the lid, my eyes widening at the empty content of the box. Then I remembered sliding it in my bag before I left for Azmia. But I had kept it in the bedroom’s dresser in a hotel suite, and I hadn’t checked every drawer because I was in a hurry to pack up and leave.I gaped at myself. I did not just lose my mother’s most precious sentimental piece of jewelry.7Zain“Khalid, open the door before I break it!” My guards had been waiting for me outside Jasmine’s suite when I left, asking me if I was okay. Which I was. I had finished the physical training session and answered the questions about my diet to the interviewer even though I wished I was with her, feeding sliced mangoes to her.Rahim had found me after the interview with the magazine, asking me if I had made the person whom I had slept with sign an NDA. After taking one look at my pale face, he asked me for a name which I swore I didn’t know. His only question that bothered me the most was if I had used protection or not. That was why I was panicking and forcing my brother to open the door to his room so I could ask for his help. I was sure he had forgotten all about our little chat back in the club the night before.“Finally!” I said when the door opened, and my face dropped at the sight of the twin princesses. I blinked at them when they offered me a small wave and kissed my brot
8Zain“What is that you are staring at, boy?” I smiled at my jadati (grandmother) who slowly walked towards the dining room. I held her hand as she was seated in a chair, her dark brown eyes fixing on the beautiful piece of jewelry. “Hmm,” she grunted. “Are you asking someone for marriage?” “No,” I said. “I, uh, found this in a drawer of the hotel room. It seemed too precious to let the hotel staff handle it. We are trying to find the owner and return it.” I half lied, praying she wouldn’t pick up on it and pinch my ears. “I have seen a similar piece. This looks just like that with the emerald.”My heart rate picked up. “Where, jadati?” She eyed the maang tikka and looked at me. “Sultana of Maahnoor used to wear it back when your father and Hamid Elbaz were friendly neighbors rather than enemies.”I clenched my jaw thinking about Maahnoor, our neighboring country. Once, a decade ago, it used to be famous for its beautiful sunsets, shimmering palace, sweet foods and jewelry with
9NasrinThe soles of my golden flats and his shiny dark shoes made little to no sound when we walked together on the marble floors of the palace hallway. I couldn’t keep from internally being in awe at every minute detail in the structure of the pillars, the domes, the antique decorations. Each and every little thing gleamed of opulence. Richness. No wonder Azmia was well-known as the Golden country. I had slept with the sultan of the country that bleeds gold, and he had an adorable picture of me drooling on his phone. I certainly knew how to pick a one-night stand.Biting my cheek, I tried to look anywhere but at him. His presence and his aura were a living thing, beckoning me to gaze at him, marvel at his beauty and his leadership. I had seen no one talk like that to my father. Other than me, of course. “The palace gardens are this way,” Zain said, his voice husky, reminding me of the night we had spent together. I followed him, shamelessly staring at the tailor-made suit and p
10Zain“Because, Princess Nasrin, I am asking you to marry me,” I said, my voice echoing in the dark night. Her lush lips parted when she gaped at me. Even shocked, she was a stunning beauty. I hadn’t been able to form any coherent words when I had seen her sitting in the library, her thick hair flowing down her waist, making me want to run my hand through it. Hold it as I whispered filthy things in her ear. What I would do to her if we were alone. Her dark eyes glared at me through the surrounding kohl, illuminating her brown orbs. “Are you asking or ordering, Sultan?” She asked, her tone mocking when she tried so hard not to reject me. I adored it. The way she talked back to me, wanting to reject my proposal with defiance in her eyes. Maybe I was foolish, but I wanted to marry her, see the fire in her eyes every time I wake up next to her. “I am asking, Princess Nasrin.” I smiled at her, “For now.”Her chest heaved when she took a step closer to me, my eyes dropping low at the
11Nasrin“Arrogant prick,” I grumbled under my breath when I rushed towards the palace, far away from the man who would be my husband in a few weeks if I accept his marriage proposal. Even his stupid, divine smelling suit reminded me of his handsome half-smirk. As if he knew I wouldn’t reject him. Couldn’t reject him. But deep down, I knew he was right. All Zain was doing was being honest with me, and I hated how bitter the truth was. I knew that my beautiful country, Maahnoor, was not in good hands when my father appointed my eldest brother, Sadiq, as the sultan. He had made it unbearable for women to work, building clubs and bars when there was a need to build solid roads and schools for girls. Not to mention about my rejection towards all the proposals that no one but a sixty-four-year-old man wanted me. Him or Sultan of Azmia. Despite being thirty-three, Zain had rejected all the proposals from the princesses to rich daughters of sheikhs, royals and even commoners. He didn’t wa
12ZainI was floating into the darkness, my body weightless as it moved like a merman in the water. The fog thick and heavy, my vision blurry when I watched the two little figures. The third figure bigger than the two of them, crouching to talk to them.“No, sweet, it doesn’t hurt much,” she whispered, her voice soft as she caressed little Zain’s cheek and ruffled Khalid’s hair.I frowned, my eyes on her swollen cheek. Childhood me knew what had happened. He had seen it. Tried to stop it and had received a lashing of his own afterwards. “But I saw Father sl—”“I fell down from the stairs, Zain,” her voice wasn’t soft anymore. It didn’t have any emotions. “Take your brother Khalid with you. Quickly before your father finds the both of you and scolds you two.”“But I don’t want to leave you,” Khalid whined, his hands wrapping around her neck. “I don’t want Father to hurt you.”The dark room blurred away, changed into the light room. I knew it was Zara’s nursery. Khalid was watching ove
PART TWO“Every inch of you is divine.” 13NasrinI held in the tremble of my body when I felt the smooth surface of the loofah lowering to my spine. I wanted to arch my back and close my eyes and let him lather me with his veiny hands all day if he wished. I was snapped out of my dirty thoughts when Zain said, “You do not have to accept this marriage, if that’s your wish.”“What?” I turned around to see him. “What do you mean?” I had been so surprised by his words that I had forgotten that I was in the bath. His face flamed when his eyes dropped below my chin, at my bare breasts. My heart thudded wildly when his obsidian eyes darkened, my nipples tightening and turning into hard peaks under his scorching gaze. With flushed cheeks, he looked away, his hand tightening over the loofah he held. He gritted out, “You do not have to accept me as your husband. Reject me if you wish. I… I will help you find a better prince and help your younger brother be the sultan.”I swallowed the lump
14ZainI had to fight off my grin, even though I felt a little guilty for stopping Nasrin from reaching her high. But I needed her to approve of my conditions for the marriage. “Out with it,” she said, glaring at me. With little thought, I brought my glistening fingers to my mouth and tasted her. Met her wide eyes, groaning at the honeyed taste of her. So sweet. So heavenly. I pulled back and licked my lips, her exotic taste lingering in my mouth. “One, I do not want you to have any lovers after marriage. Two, we sleep in the same room. Three, we use protection.”Her eyes blinked at me as if she was pulled out of some daze. Her beautiful caramel eyes narrowed at me. “Is that all?” I nodded and shamelessly raked my eyes over her bare body. Blood flowing south in my body at the sight of her wet curves, her round breasts pink with my kissing and biting. “I wish I could add another condition to have you naked when we are alone, but I do not want to get kicked in my crotch,” I confess