King of my Heart (Feedback appreciated)

Whole Story

King of my Heart

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one's house for love, it would be utterly scorned. Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (NIV)

Hang my locket around your neck, wear my ring on your finger. Love is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing--it sweeps everything before it. Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, love can't be sold- it's not to be found in the marketplace. Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (MSG)

Prologue

She was cold, tired, and alone. So utterly alone. Without the warmth of anyone's arms to hold her and tell her it was going to be alright. Without the care of anyone's eyes to gaze upon her and take pity. She had been deserted. Left desolate, with not even a name of her own. She was utterly forsaken. 

That was when he came. Tall and handsome, with eyes as kind and as warm as the touch she longed for. Though others had looked at her with disgust he looked at her with pity and love. Taking a hold of her hand, a fact which thrilled her to her very core, he lifted her up and pulled her into the carriage beside him. Wrapping his own cloak around her naked and muddy body, he held her close, letting his warmth become her own.  

At his home he had her cleaned then dressed in the finest garments money could buy. To show his love for her, he lavished her with fine jewels and fabrics softer than anything she'd ever known. Her food was like honey, sweet and filling.  

As his love and affection for her grew so did her beauty and her fame spread across the land as the delight of her husband. He even gave her a name, two names in fact. Beulah, to signify her union with him, and Hephzibah, to remind everyone that she was his delight.  

Even while he did everything for her to make her happy she felt herself growing distant from him. Soon her eyes wandered from him to the handsome courtiers who made up his court. Without his knowledge, or maybe with, she didn't really care, she began to have affairs with them, using her fine baubles to entice them into her bedroom. With each lover she grew more bold, even going so far as to entice those of other nations to come and visit so that she might bestow her favors on them.  

As she carried on in this manner she one day found herself pregnant and was wracked with anguish over what it would mean for her. A child would ruin her glorious figure and she sought to find a way to get rid of it before it marred her body. Somehow her husband got wind of her plans and came in, setting her under house arrest until the child could be born.  

With all love for him turned to hatred at his betrayal she increased in her illicit affairs, turning from hiding them in her bedroom to going so far as flaunting them on the streets where everyone might see and know of her disdain for the one who had once called her favored among women. No longer did she call him lover or friend, but instead referred to him with the most vile words. When her husband had finally had enough he put her away, sending her off with one of her lovers who quickly lost interest in her when he found she had left all her money with her husband. 

It wasn't until she was completely left desolate and found herself again alone and utterly wretched that she returned to her husband. Turning to her with anguish in his eyes he turned her away.