Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,88

also made me notice how everything around me was super-organized and everything was very neat, even those silly traditions. Well, some of them. A few of them.

Crazily, I liked the way I was bonding with Mona more each day.

The prince then asked me if I wanted to take that tour of our wing, and I eagerly agreed. My mind forgot everything bad with every new room I saw. Everything was decorated perfectly. And there was nothing I couldn’t love. The rooms were pretty, each one of them. The three guest rooms, the three sitting rooms, the two dining rooms and the two living rooms. The kids’ rooms were what made my heart flutter inside of my chest; they were too cute and just adorable. Two rooms with two beds, each.

Imagining that those could’ve been rooms for my kids made it hard for me not to tear up. I’d always loved kids and I’d wanted them forever. And even if those rooms weren’t meant for my kids, I still couldn’t help my motherly hormones or whatever inside of me that made my heart ache with longing and hope.

I had a scarf over my shoulders when the prince snuck us out once again, but this time it wasn’t down and under the palace–nope, it was on top of it. We got there with hidden ladders behind the secret doors, and the sight from up there was magical.

The sky was beautiful shades of orange and red, and the sun looked amazingly stunning with its perfect round shape and the outstanding golden color. The prince made a little comment about it that made me blush, saying that it was the same beautiful color as my locks.

We watched as the sun disappeared more moment by moment, saying a silent goodbye as it hid behind the clouds, making space for the moon and changing the day right before our eyes into night, something that, like star-gazing and mountain climbing, I hadn’t paid that much attention to before in my life. I had no idea how I was so blind to such beautiful things around me.

“You really like nature, huh?” I asked the prince as I studied him while he studied the sky. It was really inspiring, to learn that this powerful man had such a tender soul that loved to watch the sun as it set and as it rose, loved to gaze at the stars, loved the sky when it was blue and when it was black. Someone who had the whole world in his hands, yet liked simple things that many people didn’t even care the slightest for.

“I adore it,” he simply replied, and I had to smile, hugging the scarf to my chest in comfort.

“So, nature is your passion?” I asked, tilting my head to the side, wondering if he liked horses more or nature.

“Along with other things, yeah,” he said with his eyes still gazing away at the sky. I wondered about those other things and what they were, his next question snapping me out of my thoughts.

“What about you, Pretending Princess?” His tone was teasing and his narrowed eyes and lopsided smile were playful, both making me blush hard and look away.

It was so easy to read him this time, because he wasn’t trying to hide it. And I completely understood why with the tone and the look. My questions were those of someone who was curious to get to know the other. It was as if I was doing the very thing I’d told him earlier before I fell asleep that I would never do: be friends with him. And I wondered if my mood swings–as they must’ve appeared to him to be–were giving him whiplash yet.

But it really wasn’t that simple. I wasn’t just moody, with my mood shifting easily and so much, it was just hard inside of me, and hard to explain. The prince was someone interesting; he was very kind, caring, smart and handsome, simply any girl’s dream. But he was a Muslim. A part inside of me wanted to get to know him and maybe really be friends. Sometimes I even thought–with all of the chemistry and my attraction to him–that we could be even more. But every time I thought that, I could never help the feeling of being a cheater. As if I was betraying the two people I loved the most, even more than my own parents. And I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t go on. It was easy to pull away,