It took me a moment to realize what he meant by that.
“Your brother taught her?”
He looked deep into my eyes, “When it comes to love, Princess, rules blur and traditions fade.”
“We’re here,” the prince announced, putting me down and keeping me in front of him after I took off the sandals.
“What are we doing?” I wondered. We were just standing in front of a wall, not doing anything.
“Look closely.”
I did.
“Can you see it?”
I nodded.
“Touch it.”
I did.
“Press.”
When I pressed the square figure that was barely noticeable on the wall, it moved to the side, revealing an electronic panel with ten numbers, from zero to nine.
I turned my head to look at the prince, and he told me to look at it again. His voice was very quiet and very close to my ear. “Do you remember which secret door we took after we left the living room?”
I closed the distance between my eyebrows in concentration. “The first?” I asked.
“Correct,” he said. “Press one.”
I did.
“Do you remember the number of the floor I pressed on the elevator?”
“Fourteen.”
“Press one then four.”
When I did, he asked, “How many tunnels did we take?”
“Two.”
“Very good, Princess.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Two is the last number.”
I smiled at my accomplishment and pressed the number, gasping and flinching, then taking a step back when I heard the loud bang caused by the wall moving up, only stopping when there was a decent gap for us to pass through to the other side.
“Do you want me to go first?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine,” I said, taking the few steps to the other side, finding my legs leading me to a ladder. I fisted the robe in my hand and climbed, pushing a wooden board when it blocked my way.
A cool breeze hit my face and my hood fell as I looked up at the dark sky, taking in everything around me. It looked like a giant garden, almost as big as the one I could see from the window in the bedroom. This one, though, had more flowers and was surrounded by tall trees. The feel of the cool grass underneath me was just as good as the sight. Refreshing and freeing, and it was only then I was glad my heel had broken.
Well, aside from the prince carrying you, holding you so close, and you getting to smell him and hear his heartbeat along with feeling his broad chest and tigh-
Shut up!
“This way, Princess,” the prince told me, his hand gesturing to the right while the other touched the small of my back.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to meet the love of my life,” he smiled.
My breath hitched and I stopped in my tracks, looking at him in disbelief, feeling hurt and humiliated at the same time.
How. Could. He?
“My whores.” He continued.
That was it!
I turned to leave, my blood boiling and my heart clenching, my eyes burning with unshed tears that made my vision blur.
The prince’s hand gripped mine and he pulled me back. I didn’t turn around and struggled with him to let my hand loose.
“Let go!” My voice was full of hurt and my legs were shaking.
“Princess!”
“Let go of me!” I screamed.
My scream was met by a loud noise that sort of scared me. I looked around to where the noise had come from but I still saw nothing, though more noises made me sure of what they were, and what they were coming from.
It was a horse neighing.
Oh!
I looked at the prince with traitorous tears wetting my cheeks. His eyes were watching me and he offered me a small, sad smile. “Do you need me to spell it, Princess?”
I looked down.
“It’s H.O.R.S.E, Jealous, Jealous Princess,” he said, taking my face in his hands and wiping my tears with his thumbs, just like he had done before.
“I’m not jealous,” I whispered, still looking down.
“Come.”
I let him lead the way again as he kept his hold of my hand and started walking toward where he’d pointed a minute ago. A short walk later, the grass underneath my feet turned into sand as we passed through a small fence that circled the garden, and it wasn’t so hard to tell we were standing in front of a stable. A ridiculously huge stable.
“Salma is in number forty-one.” He pointed to the doors with numbers on them.
Salma is a horse?
Huh!
Wait, wait, he left the room, without explaining, and stayed away for hours…for a horse?
“Um, please don’t make any sudden moves or try to touch her; she’s a bit sensitive and insecure,” the prince said, and I nodded, even without knowing what that meant–and with a hundred questions forming in my head.
When we entered Salma’s large stall I was surprised to find a little horse–not a newborn horse, colt or a pony. She was just a little one, short, almost my height. Her coat was colored light brown and the hair of her mane and tail was a darker shade of chestnut; it looked so soft. I wanted to touch it.
“Princess, this is Salma,” the prince smiled while looking at her. I could see how he truly loved her, just by the look in his eyes. He took a few careful steps to stand beside her, then slowly raised his hand to touch her neck, causing her to make a low, but strong neighing. I stayed back.
“She’s beautiful,” I said in a quiet voice, watching his hand as he moved it up and down her neck slowly while looking at her face.
“She is,” he smiled, not stopping his soft rubbing over her brown coat or his loving stare. “I met her a few months ago, right after I came back from the UK. She was being sold at a horse marketplace for such a cheap price, it was shameful,” he sighed. “Salma is a purebred Arabian horse. Her kind is sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially at her young age–she’s only six,” he paused, then looked at me. “S. I. X.” He grinned, causing me to blush and look down, trying to hide my wide, as I remembered my embarrassing freak-out moment the other day.
The prince chuckled, but then continued after a moment, “They told me she was aggressive and hard–almost impossible–to tame, that’s why her price was so low. From only looking at her picture, I wanted her, because I like a challenge,” he winked.
My stomach flipped.
“I met her for the first time when she was brought here, and…” He looked at her for a moment then turned to look at me again. “It was love at first sight.”
My chest tightened.
“Her eyes…they captured my heart like I could never explain. They were fearful, but loving at the same time.” He locked his eyes with me for a moment. “She looked like she wanted to be close, but her mind stopped her from taking a step without being out for the kill.”
The prince sighed again, touching her with both hands now. She bent her head and rubbed it on his chest, causing him to smile big and move his hand through her hair.
“Salma was born for a farmer’s family, and he used to put so much weight and pressure on her that he almost broke her spine,” he said with bitterness filling his voice. “When she got really sick, the lowlife burnt her to force her into working harder, not even bothering to buy another horse to help get things done with her.”
Oh, no!
The prince pointed to her scars, and when I followed his hand, my heart broke for her.
The poor thing…
“But my baby here was so stubborn, she wouldn’t do what he was trying to force her to do, and when it got really serious and he burnt her badly, she taught him how it would feel to have a broken spine–because now he has one,” he said with pride in his voice.
“I did everything I could to get her to like me, but she wouldn’t even let me near her,” he said. “I tried some more, bringing her the best food and trying
to feed her myself. I treated her well, very well, I tried teaching her that I wasn’t him, but nothing…she wouldn’t trust me.
“She barely ate anything for weeks, and I lost any hope that she would ever be mine, no matter how hard I tried.
“I loved her so much, and I wanted the best for her, so…I let her go.”
“You did what?” Even with the shock that was filling me, I still kept my voice quiet. For her.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my whole life,” he said. “But it had to be done.”
“Why?” I asked, not able to understand why he would do that or how he could. He seemed to be really attached to her.
“Don’t you know that saying, Princess?” He looked at me. “If you love someone set them free. If they come back they are yours; if they don’t, they never were.”
I just looked at his gloomy eyes with my sad ones. Sad for him.
“And I loved her so much, I wanted her to be happy–even if it meant that her happiness would be in being away from me.”
I swallowed.
“When she left, it was my turn to hate food; I was really depressed. I knew she’d be okay. She could protect herself, and there is a forest few miles away where she could live if she wanted, but I was selfish enough to wish she would just come back.
“Weeks passed and she hadn’t come back, and I lost hope once more, because I knew that if she came back, it’d only take her five days or so. I was wrong, though: it took her two months because my baby is really stubborn that way,” he grinned. “She only found her way back home tonight.”
His grin was infectious. I grinned back and wondered how it would feel to be loved that much by him, or…touched that caringly by his hands.
The prince left Salma and came closer to where I was standing beside the door. “When Mona mentioned her name, I couldn’t believe it. I just had to see her with my own eyes to truly believe she really was here, that she had come back to me,” he said. “I didn’t think of anything else at all, and I’m sorry for doing so. I hope you understand now, Princess.”
I nodded, smiling a little. “I understand, I really do. It’s okay, I would’ve done the same if I were you.”
He smiled, tucking my hair behind my ear, a gesture I had grown to like a little too much. “One more thing,” he said. “I don’t have a harem.” I stared at him, waiting for him to continue, searching his eyes for the evidence of honesty in his words. “As a matter of fact, there is no ‘harem’ at all–and there hasn’t been for hundreds of years now.”
Huh?
The prince nodded at my disbelieving eyes. “Islam forbids any sexual act outside of marriage. Harems were common before Islam came. Women left from wars with other countries were treated as belongings of the king, and whomever he might gift them to, but they wouldn’t be shared. They were just for one man, so as not to mix the fathering of any children. Islam made releasing those women and giving them their freedom a good deed, a very good deed to become closer to God and earn his forgiveness. With time there were almost none, and with Islam forbidding slavery, they became non-existent.”
Oh!
“Sleeping with any other woman other than your wife is called ‘adultery’ and is a grave sin–something I wouldn’t ever do,” he said sincerely. “Do you understand me, Princess?” His thumb brushed my jawline softly.
Despite my efforts, I couldn’t help my grin. I could only manage to bite both of my lips to keep from smiling too big and breaking my face, but I wasn’t able to hide the tightening in my eyes as they did their own smiling. I nodded, understanding exactly what his words meant, and not being able to prevent the happiness I felt in my heart at the realization. His own smile showed on those stupidly-beautiful lips when he knew I understood what he meant very well.
“Come. Salma needs to rest, and there is someone else I want you to meet.”
“Oh, my God!” I gushed when I heard loud neighing coming from one of the other large stalls. It was very strong, as if the horse was right beside my ear.
The prince chuckled lightly. “He knows the sound of my footsteps, and he’s really happy to hear it,” he explained.
“What’s his name?” I asked as we approached the stall of horse-in-question .
“Ra’ad.”
“Rad?”
“No, Princess, it’s Ra’ad,” he said a bit slower, but he was pronouncing a letter that I couldn’t pronounce no matter what, and I gave up after a few tries.
“What does it mean, anyway?” I asked, defeated. Maybe I could call him by that if I ever had to?
“Thunder.”
“Whoa! Strong name.”
“It is. It fits him very well,” the prince said as he pushed his door open.
I looked inside the room, immediately taking a step back before I even got to take one inside of it. “Holy Mother!” I gasped when I saw the horse, my hand automatically going to my chest to hold my cross, only to remember it was around my wrist. Nonetheless, I still managed to hold it in my hand and to my chest, all freaked-out and wide-eyed from the sight of the horse in front of me.
I heard the prince’s light laugh as he walked closer to the horse. How he wasn’t scared of that huge creature was beyond me.
Rad–Thunder was a very big horse, much bigger than Salma–there was no comparing the two. I think he was even taller than the prince, and the prince was very tall, so you could imagine just how big Thunder was. His coat was pitch black, just like his tail and the mane on his head, and his eyes weren’t any less dark. His look was scary, and the noises he was making frightened me; blinking my fear-widened eyes was out of question.
“Be careful!” I screamed at the prince, taking only a moment to frown at the concern in my voice and the worry in my heart that I was feeling for my perfect stranger, when the horse stood on his back legs, raising his front ones in the air and letting out more of his loud whinnying.
It was only when the horse settled down and the prince’s hands caught his neck, touching and rubbing it up and down, that he finally looked back at me, a knowing look in his tightened eyes. “He’s just greeting me, Princess. Don’t worry.” And the smirk was back on his stupidly-beautiful features.
Oh, the smugness!
I bit my bottom lip and looked down, saying nothing. The prince’s voice was what made me look up again. “It’s the first time I’ve spent so long away from him; I haven’t seen him since the day before the wedding. We’ve spent some time together almost every day since the day he was born.”
His caresses to Thunder’s coat were obviously much stronger than the way he was caressing Salma’s. And from the horse’s reaction to it–the noises and the grinding he was doing into the prince’s shoulder with his head–I could tell that Salma wasn’t that comfortable with the prince, yet. Because unlike her, Thunder’s responses to him were faster, with no hesitation at all.
“Ra’ad was born on my fifth birthday. My grandfather–God rest his soul–gifted him to me. I love him the most,” he smiled big and patted his back strongly.
“He’s twenty?” I asked.
“No, he’s eighteen.”
I frowned. “But you’re twenty-five.”
“Nope, I’m twenty-three.”
“But you said your stepmother died seventeen years ago, and you were eight when it happened.”
“I know what I said,” he smiled smugly. “I was just trying to prove something to myself, sorry about that.”
I looked at him with confusion. “Prove what?”
“That you would ask about the date of my stepmother’s death so you would be able to calculate my age without asking me,” he paused. “Because you care.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You lied.”
“A little white lie, no harm done.”
“That’s lame.”
“So was the way you wanted to learn about my age. You could’ve asked me–you know I would’ve replied–but you didn’t want me to know you were curious about something related
to me, so we’re even.”
“Whatever.” I turned my face away, crossing my arms in front of my chest and blushing hard, embarrassed that he was able to tell the reason behind my question earlier today–or should I say yesterday since it was long after midnight.
He must be really smart to finish medical school at such a young age… or the school system was different in the UK? Whatever…
The prince chuckled at my attitude and when I turned to look at him he was shaking his head, pissing me off with all his smugness.
“Come here, Princess, I want to introduce you to Ra’ad.” He raised his hand in invitation.
“Uh, I’m fine right here. Hey, Thunder…Rad,” I said lamely.
“Come on, Princess. Are you scared of him?”
I nodded slowly, pursing my lips to one side.
“He won’t hurt you, he’s a good boy. Come on.”
I hesitantly took a step inside, then two steps back when Thunder made some noises and moved around a bit.
The prince left him and came beside me, then held my right hand with his. His other hand was on the small of my back, putting me in front of him and urging me to move. “Don’t be scared, Princess. I’ve got you,” he whispered close to my ear.
I swallowed audibly and nodded, taking a deep breath in then one step forward, followed by other hesitant steps until I was right in front of the huge horse.
“I know he looks scary, but I swear to you, he has the most tender heart you could ever find in a horse,” the prince said in a low voice as if he was trying not to disturb Thunder as he drank from some kind of a water tank nearby.
I took another deep breath and let it out, the prince’s words easing my anxiety somewhat.
“Even if he wasn’t, do you think I’d ever let him hurt you? That I’d ever let you near him if I knew he would even think about it?”
I turned my head to the side and looked into his green heaven of eyes, seeing nothing but honesty and sincerity. Our eyes stayed locked for a few moments. He was so close, our noses were almost touching, and the tingle in my chest rose again at his nearness.
“Do you want to touch him?” the prince whispered.
Black Keys Page 17
