“Sametanira?” Did you hear me?

Rayyan cursed under his breath when he realized he had let his thoughts drift away from the meeting, and even worse was the fact that the Emir Sheikh had caught him doing it.

“Maehdina.” I’m sorry.

A frown marred Khalil’s forehead as he studied the other man. It was unlike Rayyan at all to be distracted, and yet in the past few months, that was exactly the way the kingdom’s finance chief had been acting.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked finally.

“La.” No.

Khalil had expected as much, and when he joined his wife in bed that night, he was disconcerted to hear Harper voicing the same concerns he had. “Don’t you think something’s going on with Rayyan?”

Rolling his wife to her back, Khalil gazed down at his queen with a scowl of mock distrust. “Should I be concerned that you are thinking of another man while you’re in bed with me?”

Harper rolled her eyes. “I’m serious.” She gave him a little push, and the king obliged her silent command, allowing her to reverse their positions and letting her roll on top of him. “He normally bites my head off for the smallest of things, but these days…”

Smoothing the lines on her forehead, he said quietly, “It’s how he is.” He paused. “Or rather – and you will never hear any of us saying this in Rayyan’s presence – it is what his parents forced him to be.”

Harper sat up in surprise. “Princess Rowena or Prince Anthony?”

“Both.” Pushing himself up, the king leaned against the headboard and pulled his wife to his side. “They’re good parents…”

“But they make better politicians?” She barely knew the couple, but what she had read about them was enough to tell her they would never win any parenting awards.

“There’s no question about how much they love Rayyan, but work always come first with them.” Khalil’s tone was flat. “What’s worse is how they’ve done their best to shape Rayyan’s mind similarly. Even when we were young, Rayyan had never been the type to get into trouble. He was the perfect son, the perfect student, the perfect prince – he knew that if he made the smallest mistake, people would blame it on his parents’ absence, which would then prevent them from doing their duty.”

“And God forbid that happens, right?” Harper asked sarcastically.

“Rayyan would have considered it a personal failure if his parents were made to appear neglectful.”

“Which they actually were,” Harper grumbled. “Right?”

“I’m only telling you this so you can understand…”

“Not to bother asking him if he’s fine,” Harper finished for her husband.

“Because aside from making him clamp up even more, it will also make your liege and lord---”

“Ha!”

“Jealous and possessive---”

Harper gasped as her husband suddenly lifted her up from his side. “With the way you’re spending too much time worrying about another man---”

A moment later, he had lowered her onto him, and she let out another gasp as she found herself suddenly impaled on Khalil’s throbbing manhood.

“K-Khalil…”

Her head fell back, and she couldn’t help squeezing her eyes shut as he pulled her down until he was all the way in, the swollen head of his cock knocking against the wall of her womb.

“Nem.” Yes. And clasping her hips, he began to move her up and down, grating out, “My name is the only one you should think of.”

“It is---” Another gasp as she started to bounce on his cock, and her body began to tighten in the most delicious way.

“Let other women worry about Rayyan, I’m sure he has more than enough of them.”

Harper could no longer answer, a cry spilling out of her as the king caught her nipple in his mouth, sucking hard as her inner muscles closed around his cock.

In another part of the palace, Rayyan let out a sneeze, feeling like someone had suddenly walked on his grave. Either he was coming down with a rare cold, he thought absently, or there was a person out there holding a grudge against him.

His phone vibrated then, alerting him to a new message, and his lips tightened when he saw the sender’s name.

Cecile: I know you said not to do anything rash, but it’s been six months.

Cecile: And nothing’s changed.

Cecile: I just thought you should know.

Rayyan deleted the messages as soon as he read them. It was strange, how after all these years of wishing he could hear from Cecile, he was unable to say a single word in return, now that she was finally speaking to him again.

Half a year had passed since Cecile wept in his arms, speaking of how much she still loved him, and while the memory never failed to turn his world upside down and remind him of their bittersweet past, a part of him remained distant and untouched – because it belonged to someone else.

That part of him was just as concerned about the passage of time, but for a far different reason.

Six months, as Cecile had said.

Half a year since Cecile walked back into his life, and Hyacinth had walked out of his.

Just six damn months, and yet a shattering amount of changes seemed to have taken place in that short span of time. Hyacinth had celebrated her eighteenth birthday, and she had made Gadi return his gift unopened. She had also graduated from high school and moved out of the palace to board in one of the university’s dormitories.

For all intents and purposes, Hyacinth looked as if she had already gotten settled in her new life. He had Aisha enroll in the same university she was in, and the undercover agent was nothing if not thorough with her periodic reports.

Ms. Kahveci is doing very well academically, and she appears to have found herself a small but loyal circle of friends.

Ms. Kahveci has not asked me anything about Your Highness.

Ms. Kahveci recently joined the university’s media club and has been seen several times in the company of its editor in chief, Marwan Bseiso.

Was it a simple lack of closure that made him constantly think of her? Or had she managed to steal one of the broken pieces of his heart and made it her own? May Allah help him, but for her sake, he fucking hoped he would never succumb to the urge of finding out why.

Because if he did…

If she ever fucking came back…

Even knowing that she was better off without him, if he saw that she still wanted him back, he would never let her go.