Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
For Kyria, nothing was more important than seeing her family happy and keeping it that way. It was her goal, her reason for living, and for the most part keeping them happy was fairly easy to figure out. To please Altair, she did her best to excel in school. To please Vanna, she obeyed all the rules that went with the palace’s restrictive lifestyle. With those two, what she needed to do was clear-cut.
Unfortunately, it was the complete opposite with Malik.
The youngest Al-Atassi sheikh was her most favorite person in the world, and for as long as she could remember, Malik was always there to be what she needed.
As a child, she would be playing alone in her room, and just as loneliness struck, he would appear by the doorway with his usual lazy grin, asking if her afternoon tea party had room for one more. She would be quietly struggling with her homework, and just when she was about to give up, he would come knocking on the door and pop his head in. Need a tutor? And when she found herself missing her parents, he would be there to take her in his arms, and he always knew the right thing to say. You can cry, Ky. It doesn’t mean you love us less or love them more. You cry simply because you love them.
He was her everything, really, and it was for this reason that her inability to be of use to Malik troubled her so. Because she had never thought to keep anything secret from him, Malik knew everything there was to know about her. In contrast, the passage of time only showed her how she knew so little of him, and no matter what she did or said, Malik seemed hell-bent on keeping a part of himself out of her reach.
Countless times, she would glimpse loneliness in his eyes, haunting and devastating in its depth, and it always made her want to cry. Why was he lonely? Was there nothing she could do to make him happy? Was there nothing he needed of her?
There were days when she would despair, thinking that she would never find the answers to these questions.
But she did, eventually, and the answers changed her world for good.
LOVE, THE ROMANTIC kind, was something she never cared to think of. Kyria herself didn’t quite understand why this was so, but knowing that it could only cause her family to worry, she simply made herself go through the motions. She pretended to like the same boys the other girls in school liked and said yes every time she was invited to be someone’s date to a prom. She found it utterly bothersome, to be honest, but she also knew better than to speak the truth, not even to Malik. The Al-Atassis took their responsibilities so seriously that if they realized she had zero interest in having a relationship, she knew they’d blame themselves for it. She knew they would think that they had done something wrong in raising her, when ironically it was the opposite. They had done everything right, had made her life so perfect, that Kyria simply didn’t see any reason why she’d need another man in her life.
If she were ever to like someone that way, he would have to compare to both her brothers, and she honestly didn’t think that was possible. Who could be stronger than Altair, kinder and wiser than Malik? And of course they had to be as extraordinarily handsome as the two, too. In truth, the only men who could hold a candle to them were the other Al-Atassi sheikhs – and they didn’t count since she looked upon them as brothers as well.
The more she thought about it, the more she believed it probable she would lead a spinster’s life, and she didn't mind at all. She could already envision it, her keeping Vanna company at the palace while they doted on the beautiful children that Altair and Malik would eventually sire.
It was a good life.
But it was not to be.
IF LOVE WAS SOMETHING she spared a thought about once in a blue moon, sex was something Kyria never really thought of at all. She knew of course what went down, knew that her brothers were no saints who didn’t indulge in it. She was curious about it, but she was also all too conscious about the possible consequences. She would rather die a virgin than risk becoming a disgrace to her family, and this led to Kyria developing a reputation for being somewhat of a prude, despite her going out on dates with other guys.
Another thing she became known for in school was her closeness to the Al-Atassi sheikhs. With every year that passed, more and more girls pestered her for any information she could dish out on them, and on her graduation day, the girls in her class were practically down on their knees begging for a souvenir photo of the sheikhs.