Dirty Wild Sultan 18+ A Steamy Marriage of Convenience Royal Romance

8

8

Zain

"What is that you are staring at, boy?"

I smiled at my jadati (grandmother) who slowly walked towards the dining room. I held her hand as she was seated in a chair, her dark brown eyes fixing on the beautiful piece of jewelry.

"Hmm," she grunted. "Are you asking someone for marriage?"

"No," I said. "I, uh, found this in a drawer of the hotel room. It seemed too precious to let the hotel staff handle it. We are trying to find the owner and return it."

I half lied, praying she wouldn't pick up on it and pinch my ears.

"I have seen a similar piece. This looks just like that with the emerald."

My heart rate picked up. "Where, jadati?"

She eyed the maang tikka and looked at me. "Sultana of Maahnoor used to wear it back when your father and Hamid Elbaz were friendly neighbors rather than enemies."

I clenched my jaw thinking about Maahnoor, our neighboring country. Once, a decade ago, it used to be famous for its beautiful sunsets, shimmering palace, sweet foods and jewelry with intricate designs like the one I held. But that was before Hamid Elbaz became corrupted, ruling it, taking the name of Maahnoor to shreds.

I shook off the animosity between Azmia and Maahnoor and asked my grandmother, "If Sultana wore it, then it must have been kept in the palace?"

I looked at the jewelry again. Was the woman in gold truly the owner of a royal heirloom?

"Rumor has it that she gave it to her daughter before she passed away," Grandma tsked, shaking her head. "Poor daughter was left alone in that palace with her three brothers and Hamid. I wonder what she is doing nowadays."

"You mean the Princess?"

"Who else, boy? That maang tikka belongs to Princess Nasrin Elbaz of Maahnoor," she said. "You better return it to her, ignoring the animosity between the two countries for this instant. It must be very dear to her."

Princess Nasrin...

My heart fell to my stomach as I stared in horror at the emerald diamond and the golden jewelry. It belonged to the Princess of Maahnoor, daughter of Hamid Elbaz. My father's nemesis, that meant my nemesis. My country's nemesis.

I certainly couldn't have picked a better partner to have sex with, even if I wanted.

***

"Are you sure they do not have any weapons with them?" Zayed, my brother's close friend and the Sheikh of Azmia, asked Rahim in a weary tone.

It had been a week since I'd learned that the maang tikka belonged to Princess Nasrin and I may have slept with her. Without protection.

I had invited Hamid Elbaz, her father, and the Princess herself to the palace for a meeting. A meeting was not the term my advisor, Rahim, would use. He made sure it seemed more like a talk for marriage between me and Nasrin. I had scoffed at that idea. I could never marry someone from Maahnoor, let alone their princess. The reason was my annoyance towards Hamid Elbaz and the current Sultan of Maahnoor, his eldest son, who was accused of sexual harassment towards a young man.

Also, there was that little hatred brimming between our two countries. I didn't know the details of what happened between my father and her father, but it was enough to make me aware that if I married Nasrin, people would talk. Wondering why I bothered to marry a princess from Maahnoor when I was getting marriage proposals from far better countries.