Page 62 of Dirty Wild Sultan

“Because I love you.”

Nasrin almost dropped the bottle and gaped at me. I continued, “I love you and I am sorry that it took me so long to realize. I-I wanted to let you know how I feel about you. You don’t have to say it back, of course. Only when you are ready and comfortable.”

She parted her lips and shook her head as if she was surprised. “Zain, I… I don’t know w—”

“Nasrin, open this door now!” The guards yelled and her doors shook. I heard Elena’s soft whistle of warning and I knew my presence was known to the guards of Maahnoor.

“You have to leave, now!” Nasrin helped me up and took me to the balcony.

“Is that it?” I asked, my voice small. “I can’t leave. I want to spend more time with you. Come with me, Nasrin. You don’t have to return my feelings, but come with me. Let me keep you safe. Please, come to Azmia.”

The guards yelling got louder, and I knew I had to leave if I wanted to get out alive. But I couldn’t move. I had promised myself that I would bring Nasrin back with me. No matter what happened.

“Zain,” she whispered my name as if it was the answer I needed.

I understood. My promise to myself didn’t matter because she didn’t want to come with me. It was her choice.

“It’s okay,” I lied and forced a smile as I stepped back and dived off the balcony with the help of a wall when the guards broke the door.

28

Nasrin

“It’s okay,” Zain lied as his eyes met mine briefly before he dived, my heart lurching in my throat at the sight of him falling down. I glanced down, watching him run in the empty hallway and turned back, hiding the bottle of the perfume when guards stormed in my room.

I couldn’t believe that he was here. His scent of cologne lingered in the air. I answered numbly to the guards, pointing towards the gardens when they asked me where the Sultan of Azmia was hiding.

Please be safe.

Zain was here, and he had confessed that he loved me.I love you. I never knew such a sweet sound existed until I heard him whisper those words. He came all the way from Azmia to my room to sneak me away back to Azmia, and I hadn’t even given him a proper reply before he left.

“They found him near the gates!” The guards shouted, making me snap my head at them.

Zain would be as good as dead if the guards of Maahnoor found him. They were angry with Azmia for taking my father as hostage when he came to visit me for lunch that day. They knew my father was wrong, but they considered it a crime to take a guest as a hostage. If my father was going to die, they would kill Zain too if—

No. I wouldn’t let him die. I couldn’t.

I followed the guards with a shawl wrapped around me. I couldn’t believe the number of guards that were unconscious in the dim hallways. The stench of copper and sweat mingled in the air as I ran downstairs towards the gates, my eyes searching for my husband.

“Zain!” I yelled when I saw him fighting the guards of Maahnoor. His face was covered in dirt with a slash of blood on his cheek. The number of his guards was very small compared to our guards.

No, no, no.

“Nasrin, what are you doing here?” Sadiq commanded.

“Trying to stop this madness,” I said, storming towards the gates, but he wrapped his hand around my arm, stopping me. “Let me go, Sadiq!”

“We are taking the Sultan of Azmia as hostage and will return him to his home if Azmia returns our father,” Sadiq said, his eyes cold.

I laughed, trying to free myself from his hold. “Are you listening to yourself? Use your fucking head for once. Our father killed his mothers and Zain didn’t plunge a sword through his chest when he confessed his crimes. He let the council decide our father’s fate because he is a sultan. If you care about being a good leader, you will stop our guards and let him go, because he has never hurt us.”

“I can’t do that, Nasrin. You don’t know what it takes to be a sul—”

“I am so tired of hearing your bullshit. Take some accountability before you ruin your country.” I bit his arm. He hissed, dropping my hand as I ran towards the gates, waving through the sand that flew around, chaos and shouting surrounding me.

I found Zain struggling to fight when the angry guards kept pouncing on him. It was madness.

“Stop!” I shouted as loud as I could, weaving between the fighters and ducking until I pushed away the angry guards from Zain who breathed heavily, blood and cuts all over his body. “Stay back!”

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