AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I deserve it,” she said, to herself as much as him. But she didn’t know now what she thought she deserved. It was tangled up in all this heat. In him. “And I will fight for it. I will not simply become your docile princess.”
He gripped her hard by the shoulders, his hands biting into her. “What is it you want? Do you want the moon? Is that it?”
Ya amar.
His moon. He had called her that before. It was a memory that haunted her, for there was no other word for it. The kind of memory that kept her trapped. The kind that made it so no other man ever piqued her interest.
The kind that let him into her dreams.
“Shall I climb up there and pull it down for you?” he continued, a rough rage in his voice she didn’t understand. “I cannot do that any more than I can grant you your freedom. This is a set path.”
“I wish to be allowed to retain my work. I wish to have freedom. I will not be kept in a palace as a symbol. I’m more than a symbol. If this is to be my life, then this life must contain all that I desire.”
“And that is?”
“My career, as I said. But I will need the freedom to travel.”
“And if you escape?”
“That is simply it. I cannot be treated like a prisoner. If I’m not treated like a prisoner, perhaps I will not behave as one. But if I am, then I promise that is all you will get from me.”
“What do you need here, now?”
“I need a computer. I need access to email and the internet. I need a phone. I cannot be kept away from the outside world.”
“Once we get to my country. Then you may have those things. But not before then.”
“If you do not trust me...”
“You just tried to run away out to the middle of the desert at night. You could’ve been bitten by a viper. Worse. There are jackals out here. You would make a nice meal for them.”
“I told you. I’m not afraid.”
“Perhaps you were not afraid because you have never seen someone die. But I have, Ariel. I fear it. I saw no peace in it.”
She was silenced by that. “But you will give me those things when we’re back at the palace?”
“Yes.”
“And if Riyaz does not wish for me to have these things?”
“Riyaz is having to learn how to... Be a real boy. For lack of a better way of describing it. He will acquiesce to what I tell him is appropriate.”
“You are certain?”
“I will see that it is so. I told you, this is not a punishment. It is the fulfillment of what is right. I am not holding you captive.”
“Am I free to go?”
“No. But you are not...in danger. No harm will come to you. My aim is not to crush you. We will continue to discuss the terms of this as we await further clarity on the situation.”
And she knew that she had won a victory. She knew that the wildness of the desert, the wildness in her, the way that they echoed around and within each other, but it was the truth of who she was. That it was what she was meant to be. She had to listen to the wildness at her core.
That wildness would guide her. And it would make sure she had a life. Even if...
Her thoughts trailed off. He was still touching her. His hands on her shoulders. His face close. He was beautiful. This man who was her enemy. This man who held her captive.
And she did not mean held her captive by holding her prisoner. But rather, kept her captivated by the intensity in his dark gaze.
