Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“Are you free this afternoon, Your Highness?” Anisah asked casually.
“Depends on why you’re asking, my sweet,” he answered just as casually.
She frowned up at him, and he smiled down at her.
“We can’t continue this way for long, Your Highness.”
“Why not?”
“There are things we have to talk about—-” Like the horrifying fact that I might need to commit myself if it turns out I’m indeed in love with you.
“And we will talk about them,” he assured her smoothly. “In time.”
“But it’s already been a month—-”
“Wrong, my sweet. It’s only been a month, so there is no need to hurry.”
“You asked me to marry you, for real.”
“I did, for real.”
Anisah scowled at the sheikh’s infuriating attempt to reduce their words into a mere game. “We must talk about this, Your Highness. It does not make sense for us to continue with our engagement if we cannot even talk—-”
The sheikh’s expression hardened. “Are you saying you will not be my wife if I do not do as you say?”
“Do not twist my words so!” Anisah’s fingers balled into fists in a fit of frustration. “You know what I am saying—-”
“Nem, anisdi, unfortunately I do, and that is why I have no wish to speak of it.”
The finality in the sheikh’s voice told her that he remained immovable on the topic, but even so, stubborn fool that she was, Anisah still heard herself ask, “Do you truly not wish to hear the words?”
“No, I do not.” He saw her flinch, but he hardened himself against it. He had to, for both their sakes. “How can you not see what is happening here?” he asked wearily. “How can you truly not know, anisdi?” Did she think it was so easy for him to constantly say no to the plea in her lovely eyes? She offered him her body and soul, and God knew how much he wanted – needed – to take it, to own and consume her until she no longer remembered how to exist without him.
But he could not.
Every fucking day in the past month had been fucking fantastic, and that was what terrified him the most. She was still the Anisah who made his blood boil for five hundred different reasons, still the Anisah who could make him laugh, scowl, and groan with desire all at the same time. But...she had also changed. The Anisah of the past month had also been softer and gentler, tenderer – like a warrior goddess who only sheathed her sword and laid her armor down in his company because he was the only man she trusted.
That new Anisah tore him apart every single day because she made him wish for the impossible.
That new Anisah stood before him now, and ah, how he goddamn wished he could close his eyes to reality and let himself succumb to the illusions that now shone in her violet eyes.
But he could not.
He just could not...because her love might not be real, but his was.
“What are you saying, Tarif?”
And maybe just this once...he had to say it. Just this once, he would force her to see the truth, come what fucking may.
“What you think you’re feeling is not what you think it is, Tory. It is merely pity,” Tarif said heavily, “and I do not want it.” She started to shake her head, started to speak, but he lifted a hand to stall her words. “Think about it first, my sweet. Just really think about it – when did you know of your feelings for me? Was it not when you knew of my mother? Does that not tell you something?”
For one moment, Anisah could only stare at him, unable to say a single word because she was scared if she did, she would end up crying. She had wondered, of course she had wondered why he would not want to hear the words, but never she had thought that.
Maybe it made her a fool not to even consider the possibility he would think her feelings as pity, but it simply had not occurred to her. Even before, when she had merely seen him as naught but a playboy – even then, he had never been the kind of man she would pity. Only weak men were to be pitied, and Tarif Al-Atassi had never been a weak man in her eyes.
Ruthless, yes, sinfully, oh absolutely, but never weak –
Never pitiful –
And contrary to what the sheikh thought, learning about his mother had only made Anisah see how much more there was of him to love and look up to.
“You daft man.”
Tarif stiffened at the words.
“Do you not know that your story only made you more beautiful in my eyes? Learning about your past has not made me pity you. If anything, it has made you even more irresistible than you already are, so much so that I wonder if I deserve you—-”