Page 41 of Dirty Wild Sultan

Zain laughed, the husky, soft sound tickling over my cheek. I loved the sound of his laugh, the sight of his white teeth and the small crinkles of his eyes. It was so sincere and raw and adorable that I wished I could take a picture of him.

“We will be adventurous, but not in the sense you are thinking, you naughty girl.” He grinned.

“You’re no fun,” I mocked, kissing him on the lips before pulling away. I had to turn away from him to hide the rising blush on my neck when I made my way to the door, hoping he wouldn’t notice the tremble in my legs.

He had kissed me out of the blue. He was not what I had in mind for marrying the Sultan of Azmia. I had thought of the worst, about him and how he would treat me, but Zain was nothing like that. Guilt washed over me as I left the study, the guard bowing at me before he entered the room.

* * *

Zara wouldn’t openher door when I went to check up on her. Her maid and guards had warned me that the Princess didn’t want to be disturbed, but I didn’t care. I knew something had happened and wanted to make sure she was okay. Her silence meant that she was not.

I tried not to worry, knowing she would come out of her shell on her own and maybe even chastise her brothers.

I would have asked Zain what had happened, but I didn’t want to be nosy, and he was busy. Khalid, too, had shut himself in his studio to paint.

That evening, I had finished getting freshened up after spending the day in the vet clinic and was smelling like soap and baby powder when Zain entered our room. He asked me if I was ready. I tried to ignore the butterflies in my belly when he took my hand in his.

“Do you want to tell me about what happened this morning?” I asked, wanting to know about the feud between the siblings.

Zain smirked at me. “Which part, wife? The one when you snuggled up to me or when I came inside your mouth or when we were about to have se—”

My cheeks warmed, and I looked away, wishing the ground would swallow me up. “I didn’t mean…that. I was talking about Zara.”

His smirk slipped off. “Khalid found out about her sneaking away, and it was pure agony to see both of them angry with each other.”

Even though Zara and Zain were close, she was closer to Khalid.

“She went out of the palace?”

Zain flickered his eyes to me and said, “Yes, on New Year’s Eve, the night before her birthday. I had allowed her to go to our club with Khalid, with us, knowing well that he would keep his eyes on her and make sure she was safe. I had even doubled her security—”

“But?”

“She fooled the guards by dressing up as a maid. She went to a different club on her own.”

She was smart, kind, beautiful, and cunning. Was there anything that girl couldn’t do?

He squeezed my hand, “Stop smiling.”

I grinned. “I am wondering how clever she is to convince her maid to play along with it and even trick the guards. Was she safe at this other club she went to?”

Zain sighed, looking at the blue sky when we walked out of the palace. “We are not sure. She said she was safe, but that club is a tourist spot. Khalid realized she didn’t once meet him at our club, so he looked for all the surveillance footage and found her talking to some… some man at the club.”

Oh. I could understand why they were both mad. Being overprotective brothers, they thought some stranger had tainted their little sister.

“Was she hurt?” I asked, my voice clipped.

“No, if she was… I would have made sure he can never walk and talk again. She didn’t tell us about what happened afterwards, but we both suspect what must have happened.”

I held his fists, caressing the knuckles, and met his dark eyes, furious and guilty. “Give her some space and time, Zain. She is young—”

“She is nineteen. She should know better than to mingle all night with some strange man.”

“Zain,” I said. “Give her some time. She will apologize to you for sneaking out, but you need to stop restricting her to the palace. She won’t grow up or get to enjoy her life if you keep her locked in these walls, no matter how beautiful it is.”

“I don’t keep her locked,” he said. “I allow her to go out.”

“With her guards,” I pointed out. “Ask her if she has any friends other than the guards or maids who always surround her everywhere she goes.”

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