easing. The heat was waning. And when my eyelids felt lighter, I opened them.
I wasn’t in the sunroom anymore, I was in a bed I’d never slept in before. It was a bit dark in the room, and pitch black outside the window.
On the other side of me there wasn’t a window, but there was a shockingly beautiful sight. The shocking part wasn’t related to the beauty–I’d already known of that. Nor was it the fact that the prince was lying in the bed beside me–sleeping. What shocked me was the fact that I found myself comforted by his closeness, and that deep down inside me, I wondered what it’d feel like to wake up to this face every morning. Forever.
It’s human nature. When you’re starving: you eat. When you’re thirsty: you drink. When you find something really beautiful: you like to own…you touch.
It’s human nature. That was my answer, my excuse to myself when my hand moved of its own accord to touch the prince’s face—his cheek. It was the spot right under his left eye, an inch above the hairline of his stubbly beard—his cheekbone. It looked so soft, so tender, but not in an out-of-place kind of way, no, it looked perfect, even on such a strong, powerful man.
‘It’s human nature’ was the lie I told myself to avoid freaking out by admitting that I was feeling something wrong, something I shouldn’t be feeling, something that wasn’t just right. I knew I was falling into a trap that was set for me to fall in, but I was stronger than that, I shouldn’t fall, I wouldn’t fall.
‘It’s human nature’ I believed.
‘It’s nothing,’ I convinced myself.
‘Just curiosity,’ I promised.
‘Nothing is wrong,’ I lied.
There was just something about finding him sleeping so peacefully beside me that made my heart swell, a feeling of something strange snapped inside of me, and I couldn’t deny I enjoyed the sight, nor that I questioned my sanity for enjoying it. I mean, the guy was dangerous, I just knew he was. If we looked at it from a different side, it’d look like I was kidnapped, and even though he wasn’t the one to kidnap me, he still kept me trapped in here even after he knew I didn’t like it. I should fear him more, try to escape faster, not try to touch and wonder about my feelings while looking at the beauty of his features!
I was losing my mind, and I needed to get it together.
When I was pulling my hand back to where it was, I noticed something that I wasn’t aware of before: my arm was bare, and after a quick glance under the covers, I realized that I wasn’t in the clothes I was wearing earlier. I was in a night gown.
My breaths hitched, and my chest raised and fell rapidly with it. My heart beat so fast, it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. My throat went so dry, as I was breathing mostly through my mouth and not my nose. My head was spinning, playing scenarios of the prince and what he did, along with how I was put on that gown, that were too racy for my liking, all of the scenes in my head were bad, ugly, and it made the tears tingle in my eyes.
I sat up quickly, my head spinning even more at my sudden movement, holding the thin cover that was already over my body up to my neck, fear consuming my every thought.
The mattress shifting underneath me must’ve woken the prince up, because at the very next second he sat up on the bed, too, and faced me. When my panicked eyes moved to meet his, I saw relief filling them.
“You’re awake! Alhamdulilah! Alhamdulilah!” he said.
I gripped the cover tighter to my chest, “What did you do to me?” I choked out, tears streaming down my cheeks, terror filling my heart.
Did he drug me?
Did he undress me?
Did he rape me?
God! Oh, God!
I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach, aching in my chest. I was so scared, so, so scared.
“What?”
“What did you do to me?” My voice was broken, heart bleeding.
He just stared at me, confusion covering his features, and a frown deepened on his forehead.
“Did you drug me? Was it in the food? Of course, it was. That’s why you didn’t eat!”
His features changed from confusion, to shock, and then it was anger, the same shade of fury I saw in the morning following the