In the opulent halls of a grand palace, love and loyalty are put to the ultimate test. Amidst royal duties and hidden agendas, two people navigate a web of deception and passion, discovering that the most dangerous betrayals often come from within t...
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The sunlight streamed through the curtains, warming the room in a soft glow. I blinked away slowly, my mind still hazy from sleep. For a moment, I couldn't quite remember why my heart was pounding in my chest, why everything felt different.
And then it hit me.
Last night. The kiss.
I looked to my side, and there she was — Aira. Her dark hair spilled across the pillow, her face calm and peaceful in sleep. My chest tightened as the memory of her lips against mine came rushing back, unbidden and unwelcome. That hadn’t been part of the plan.
I was supposed to be playing my role. Drawing her closer to me, making her trust me, yes. But kissing her like that? With such raw intensity? That wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I was meant to stay in control.
But something had snapped inside me when she looked at me with those eyes — vulnerable yet resilient, hopeful but still cautious. I couldn’t help myself. I kissed her, and for a fleeting moment, everything else disappeared.
For the first time in months, the calculations in my head, the manipulations, the endless game of strategy I had been playing — all of it faded. It was just her and me. And that terrified me.
Aira stirred in her sleep. She then hugged me by keeping her head on my chest. I felt as if my oxygen had been cut off. I looked at her to find her sleeping peacefully on my chest. A hair strand disturbed her sleep. I carefully forwarded my hand to put it away.
I then eyed her face from top to bottom. She was really beautiful. Perfectly built. Her beauty was distracting and I was surely getting distracted.
“What are you doing to me, Ya Qalbi,” I said while looking at her.
Aira stirred beside me, her eyes fluttering open. The second our gazes met, my heart skipped a beat again. What was happening to me? I had always prided myself on keeping my emotions in check, on being able to read people and use their weaknesses to my advantage. But now… now I was losing that control.
She smiled, just a small curve of her lips, but it was enough to unravel something inside me all over again.
“Good morning,” she whispered, her voice soft and a little unsure.
“Morning,” I replied, my tone coming out more clipped than I intended.
Aira’s smile faltered slightly, and I immediately regretted my cold response. I had been so tender with her last night, and now… now I was back to the version of me she had grown used to. Distant. Closed off.
But that was the only way I knew how to be.
Last night wasn’t supposed to happen. It had been a moment of weakness, of slipping out of the carefully constructed mask I had been wearing since we got married. I couldn’t afford to fall for her, to lose myself in her.
