I set her in the back seat and buckle her in before taking my place beside her.
“You’re in Paris with Kaled?”
She nods.
“To the heliport,” I say to the driver.
“I don’t want to leave yet!”
I don’t look at her. I’m too pissed, and I can’t even pinpoint the exact reason, though I have a clue. “Let’s make this easier for both of us: I’m taking you back to Paris before your actions get you in trouble with your father and your people.”
That finally shuts her up, thank God, because even though I now know who she is, it hasn’t reduced my desire one inch.
I spend the entire time on the way to the helicopter and during the flight in silence, and through my peripheral vision, I see she’s fallen asleep. Thank God.
My reaction to the green-eyed beauty beside me takes me by surprise. The best thing I can do is keep miles of distance between us.
Little do I know that fate has plans for me—several, actually.
Chapter 5
Rheadur
One and a half years later
“Are you really sure about this, Jazmina? The world out there can be very dangerous,” Adeela says.
How do I explain to my best friend that my time to leave is long overdue?
I’m craving life.
I waited for things to settle in my country. Kaled is now our sheikh, and he’s married Adeela. Their little boy, Tajj, has been born, and now I finally feel free to leave Rheadur and forge my own path.
I’m leaving sort of on bad terms with my mother, who of course is against it. Not that she’s ever supported any decision I’ve made, so I wasn’t expecting anything different. My father is a good husband to his wives—today only two are left of the original four[15]—and he’s relatively liberal, but even so, my mother has never tried to express her own wants. Always apathetic, always agreeing with everything.
Naturally, with a personality that lets others decide even the smallest things about her life, she would never understand my desire for change.
“Adeela, danger exists everywhere. Maybe after a few months, I’ll regret it and want to come home, but I need to give myself the chance to at least try.”
It’s not the first time we’ve had this conversation, nor the first time she’s tried to talk me out of it. I love her like a sister, and I know she means well, but she needs to understand how different we are. In Rheadur, Adeela, now married and a mother, has everything she ever dreamed of, while I still don’t know what I want for myself.
Last week, my father hinted at the idea of marrying me off to one of the single princes of a neighboring country, but I can’t imagine binding myself to someone I don’t love, marrying only because it would be a good match or a strong alliance for my family.
Maybe Adeela doesn’t understand because she got lucky and married the man she loved, but how am I supposed to think about marriage when none of the eligible men, either in Rheadur or in the surrounding emirates, interest me?
I’d like the chance to at least know what it’s like to kiss a man without needing to form an eternal bond with him afterward, but I’m certain that in my country, that’s impossible. Actually, even abroad I’ll have to be very discreet so I don’t embarrass my father or my brother, my beloved sheikh.
“What are you hoping to find?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t you ever dreamed of a different life?”
“Far from my father, yes. But it had nothing to do with the country or our customs.”
I nod. No one needs to be an expert in relationships to see that Adeela is happy, both because she’s in love with my brother and because she embraces the rules of Rheadur.
“And now you have the world in your hands,” I say, smiling.
“Yes. My love and my son. A career, and on top of all that, we’re slowly managing to reinstate women’s rights in our nation. I feel fulfilled, Jazmina.”