Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
No more, no more.
She pulled her knees to herself and squeezed her eyes shut.
Images started to form, images she didn’t want to see—-
And she quickly pressed her hands to her eyes, willing the darkness to cover the images.
No more, no more.
But it was no use.
And the tears started to fall.
Oh God, what did he think he was doing? Did he really think she’d want him to throw it all away for her?
A knock sounded on her door, and Harper hastily wiped her tears away, knowing it was the AFK returning from their grocery trip. She had done all she could to persuade them to leave, but the trio had still insisted on camping in her living room and carrying out their duties as her bodyguards.
But when she opened the door—-
Harper promptly tried to shut the door on the sheikh’s face, but his reflexes were far quicker than hers, the sheikh managing to hold the door back and force his way in.
He was here. The sheikh was here. Khalil was here.
He was dressed in the same cream thobe she had glimpsed from the TV, but he looked a lot thinner, his handsome face bearing an unusual sense of gauntness.
She suddenly realized he was locking the door, and it was enough to make her recover from her shock. “How can you even be here?”
He turned around to face her again before answering. “What you watched was a pre-recording.”
“O-oh.” What did that mean? What could that mean?
“You’re wondering how long I had known the wedding wouldn’t push through?” He saw her eyes widen and smiled grimly. “Your face says everything your lips do not speak of, qalifa. And it may not seem like it, but I know you better than you think—-”
“If that’s true,” she said unevenly, “then you should know what I want you to do now.”
Silence.
And she knew she had hurt him.
Tears stung her eyes. “I’m sor—-”
“Don’t apologize.”
“But I hurt you.”
He smiled humorlessly. “And I didn’t?”
Harper dug her fingers into her palms. “You d-didn't mean to.”
His jaw hardened. “I’m the one who have a million things to apologize for.”
“No—-”
“I should never even have asked you to stay and tolerate another wife.”
The savage self-contempt in the sheikh’s voice made Harper dug her fingers deeper into her palms, made her wish she had sharper, longer nails that could hurt her more – hurt her so much that she would no longer notice the way her battered heart had started to beat again, and just because he was here—-
When they both knew he couldn’t stay.
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” she whispered.
“You didn’t have to. You would never have to—-”
“I don’t want to wake up one day and have you hate me because of what you lost.”
“It would never happen.” She started shaking her head and Khalil’s tone became fiercer. “Did you think I didn’t try to see if I could live without you? I tried. I fucking tried. I had to. Being the king was all that meant to me my entire life, but the two months you were gone—-”
“I don’t want to hear any more!”
Harper tried to run away, but the sheikh hauled her into his arms.
“No more!”
She shoved him away, and when it didn’t work, she beat his chest as hard as he could, forcing him to capture her wrists and lock them behind her wrists.
“Harper—-”
She was crying, the tears silently rushing down her cheeks, and the sheikh flinched.
“I know it would be better if I leave you alone,” he said roughly. “I know you’re going to suffer more when you’re with me. But I just can’t live without you—-”
Harper squeezed her eyes shut. “Please. Please stop this.”
“Every time I tried to thought of another day without you by my side, the fucking air around me changes—-”
“PLEASE STOP.”
“And I can’t breathe—-”
“Please.” Harper was sobbing now. “Please stop doing this—-”
“My heart doesn’t beat right—-”
“I don’t want to go back,” Harper screamed.
The sheikh turned ashen, and she nearly broke apart at the look of devastation on his face. She didn’t want to hurt him like this. She loved him, loved him more than she loved anything. But she also knew he could only be himself when he was king—-
“Y-you heard me, so stop this. I don’t want to go back—-”
The sheikh started shaking his head.
Harper bit her lip hard. “I will never want to go back—-”
He released her wrists to grip her shoulders hard. “YOU DO. You do, damn you.” But the desperation in his tone, the wildness in his gaze, told both of them he didn’t seem to believe this any more than she did. “You have to come back to me because I love you—-” He stared at her, willing her to say the words that would tell him he still had hope.
But she only cried as she shook her head—-