His voice broke off as the princess suddenly threw herself in his arms, and before he could ask her what was wrong, she had already raised herself on her toes to whisper just two words in Altair's ear.
Trust me.
Chapter Twelve
Dear Mama,
I can see how much he wants to trust me. He thinks I don't know it, but I can feel his struggle every moment we're together. And I know, Mama. I know the day will come when he'll trust me and love me. But until then, I won't lose hope.
A NEW CHAPTER BEGAN in Altair and Safiya's entwined lives, and in the first few weeks, a part of Altair had just been waiting for the princess to make him suffer. To hurt him the way he had hurt her. And if she had done that, he would not have thought any less of her for it.
But she did not.
If his fault was being too cynical, hers was being too nice. He remembered a conversation he had with Yara once, and after pointlessly groping for something more eloquent, his cousin had finally decided to stick with something painfully basic.
Safiya is nice, alshaykh.
At that time, he had thought the word inadequate. Prosaic even, and dubious. But now he knew. Now he understood exactly what Yara meant.
Safiya was nice.
So nice, in fact, that the moment he had apologized, she had forgiven him, and went out of her way to make him feel that the past was completely forgotten, and they were now working with a clean slate. Since he had admitted to having difficulty trusting her, Safiya had been the one to insist moving in to Ramil's military base.
Since it's next to impossible for me to make mischief here, the princess had explained, you might now find it easier to trust me.
She was that nice.
So damn nice she had taken his distrust in stride and proactively worked to help him get past it.
So fucking nice...that it tore at him.
Because even with everything that the princess was doing, the loss of Hadwin haunted him still, and so a small part of him remained out of her reach.
And that part...
That part of him was like a fucking demon that infested the back of his mind. Just lurking in the shadows and biding its time until it was time to rear its ugly head and rip Altair apart.
WEEKS TURNED INTO MONTHS, and Altair found himself struggling with a new problem which, in hindsight, he should've expected from the start.
Back when Safiya still lived in Mushriq, it had been easier for the sheikh to curb his sexual desires and keep himself from claiming her virginity. Since there was still a part of him that did not completely trust the princess, it also made him unable to feel he had the right to possess her body.
But now that she was living under the same roof as he was?
Torture.
The very best and worst kind, and from the very first night she had moved in, Altair had found himself unable to sleep. Thoughts of the princess sleeping in a room right next to his had him taking cold showers every damn night. It was a remedy that used to work, but nowadays, all it managed was make his arousal subside for a few minutes...and then it was back up again, his cock straining and throbbing painfully for Safiya's virginal pussy.
Day after day, his hunger for her flesh grew, and it did not help at all that the princess had taken to parading her body in front of him in peignoirs that barely covered anything. If they were not so sheer they were practically transparent, they would be cut so low that her beautiful tits seemed in danger of falling out at any second.
He wanted her so much it was driving him crazy, but still he held himself back. He wanted her. Needed her. Was more than halfway to falling in love with her. But until he was unable to say he trusted her completely—-
He just could not...and would not...take what should only be claimed by someone who belonged to her heart and soul.
SAFIYA WAS NOT THE type to complain or take things for granted. The life she had led made it impossible for her to do so even if she wanted to. But lately, she had become increasingly restless and frustrated, and there were even a few shameful instances when she found herself actually lashing out against the sheikh for no reason.
There was just something about him that had started rubbing her wrong, but when she closed her eyes and tried to imagine a life without the sheikh, the thought alone had her heart breaking into pieces. She loved him still, that much was clear. So why then did her leash on her temper drastically shorten every time she was in the sheikh's company?