Malik: Desert Sheikh Romance

by Marian Tee

  A quick glance at the clock told her that it was a few minutes past four in the morning, and her brows furrowed as she wondered where the sheikh could have gone. Picking up the sheikh’s discarded shirt from the carpet, she put it on before padding out of the room.

  Kyria found the sheikh in the balcony, and her steps came into a halt. He had changed into a thin long-sleeved shirt and woolen pants, and he was bent over the rails, looking so deep in thought, she suddenly felt unsure of the right to intrude.

  As if sensing her presence, he suddenly turned towards her, and caught by surprise, Kyria’s lips curved into a tremulous smile. “M-Marhava.”

  He didn’t say a word, his arms only opening, and tears stung her eyes.

  Malik’s chest tightened as Kyria flew to him without the slightest hesitation, and his arms closed around her in a hard, inescapable embrace.

  “What are you doing so up early?” she whispered.

  “My jet’s scheduled to take off in a couple of hours.”

  She pulled away. “So soon?”

  He nodded.

  Thinking that it had to do something with the king’s private call last night, she said simply, “I’ll get packing then.” She started to turn around, her mind already racing at how she’d be able to finish everything she had to do before leaving. She would have to contact the university online regarding her transcript, and then---

  The sheikh caught hold of her arm and slowly spun her back to face him, and the bleak look she glimpsed in his dark eyes made Kyria draw her breath. “What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.

  “You misunderstood, Ky.”

  “About what?”

  “I’m flying back to Ramil today.”

  Oh.

  “But you’re staying here.”

  “I see.” But that wasn’t quite the truth. She stared down at the fingers that were still wrapped around her wrist as her mind started to break. She worked hard to make sense of what he was saying but she just couldn’t. Without lifting her head, she whispered, “Was it all a lie?”

  Malik whitened. “God, no. Never.”

  And yet---

  “Then why won’t you say the words now?”

  The sheikh didn’t speak.

  She raised her head. “M-Malik?” And when he simply looked at her, Kyria could feel her eyes start to sting. “Malik, I don’t understand.”

  “Not just yet,” the sheikh said hoarsely. “I can’t say the words just yet.”

  Ah.

  “Do you understand now?”

  She bit her lip hard, but it didn’t work. Her lip just kept trembling, and she was miserably certain she would do something embarrassing any moment now.

  “Yesterday, someone from my staff brought to my attention about certain actions your university was taking. They planned to have you attend a disciplinary hearing concerning your relationship with me.”

  His words swirled around her. A part of her knew they were important, but the larger part of her didn’t care.

  “I pre-empted things. I contacted them last night and made it clear that nothing’s happening between us. I told them I was leaving today, and Farica de Konigh is the one I’m interested in.”

  She tried. God knew how hard she tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

  “You, on the other hand, would remain here and continue your studies as an ordinary student.”

  But all she could think about was the way his fingers around her wrist was starting to loosen---

  “Sametanira?” Did you hear me?

  And when his fingers were gone and her arm had to fall against her side, she felt as if Malik had just pushed her away.

  “Kyria?”

  She forced herself to meet his eyes.

  The sheikh whitened.

  So much pain.

  Too much damn pain.

  And when she started to speak, he realized why---

  “It’s j-just like---” Kyria wetted her lips. “This is just like when my parents died.”

  “God, Kyria---” He tried to reach for her, and the sheikh’s chest tightened in pain when she jerked away from him. “

  “One moment we were happy, we were c-complete, and then s-suddenly, they were just gone.”

  He watched her work hard to make herself smile, and the sight gutted him.

  “And this…this is like that. E-exactly like that. One moment, you’re telling me I’m all you were waiting for, but when I became yours---”

  He saw her blink fast to keep the tears back, and it nearly drove him to his knees.

  “You don’t want me anymore---”

  “No.” The word was torn from Malik’s throat. “Kyria, no. You know it’s not like that. You know it’s not.” His voice became ragged. “You have to know it’s not like that. Even without the words – you have to fucking know---”

  Even as her own pain ate her alive, she couldn’t bear to see the torment on Malik’s face, and she let out a choking, despairing laugh. “Oh, Malik.” And she found herself stumbling forward---

  He caught her in his arms. “Please,” he said hoarsely. “Please tell me you understand I’m doing this for you.”

  Heaven to be in the arms of the man she loved…

  But it was also hell, because the man she loved didn’t believe she loved him.

  She cupped his face with trembling hands. “I know,” she said shakily. “It’s as you think. It’s impossible for me not to know that you’re doing this for me. That you’re hurting yourself for me. But Malik---” Her voice caught. “Can’t you also see that if you let them win now, it will be the same again and again? Can’t you believe me now…when I tell you I love you? Can’t you trust me now?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  And when the sheikh slowly took hold of her hands to pull it down, she found herself crying.

  “But I have to do this.”

  Because she knew she had lost.

  “Two years,” he said dully. “Let’s give it two years, until you graduate. If you don’t want to give us two more years, then this could be the other way around, too – perhaps you don’t trust yourself to keep loving me while we’re apart?”

  He waited for her to speak, but all she did was cry.

  “Is that it, Kyria?” His voice was harsh with all the fears he had started to harbor, ever since a seven-year-old girl came to his life.

  The silence continued, as painful as the tears that flowed endlessly down her face.

  But when she finally spoke, it was not what he had ever imagined she would say.

  “Oh, Malik.”

  It was the saddest way he had ever heard his name said, and the sound haunted him every moment after. There were no goodbyes when it was time for him to leave the hotel. Kyria had returned to her dorm, and even though he knew he was a fool for hoping, he had waited for her to show up at the airport for one last glimpse –

  But of course, she didn’t come.

  On his long, solitary flight back to the kingdom, the sound of his name on her lips remained close to his heart, a knife in his chest that he couldn’t make himself pull out. Because if the pain were gone, then it would mean that he had to face the fact that he had lost her all over again---

  And he didn’t want that.

  Back in Ramil, Vanna had prepared a welcome dinner for him, and of course all the other sheikhs, along with Harper, were in attendance. He told them without preamble what happened, knowing that they would find out sooner or later. “I have to give her one last chance,” he said flatly, “to think things through.”

  None of them spoke a word, none of them telling him he was right or wrong to have done it. Rather, they only looked at him the exact same way Kyria had. It was as if they knew, like she knew, that it was just as Hadwin said.

  Some things in life a person must inevitably learn to face.

  And while that made sense, Malik wished he were goddamn certain what those things were.

  Days passed.

  Malik went back to his work an
d forced himself to act like nothing had happened, and he had never had a taste of the most beautiful of tomorrows, never had a glimpse of what he had always dreamed of. Most times, he would think he was okay, but then he would hear the phone ring, and his heart would smash against his chest, thinking that it could be her.

  But it never was.

  More time passed. Interest in his dating life eventually waned, and although occasionally there would be follow-up coverage on both Kyria and Farica, the reports mostly had to do with the unexpected friendship that had sprung between the two women. Both were often photographed together in recent times, and rumors had started to spread about Kyria possibly catching the eye of one of the men from the royal family of Contini.

  She was clearly moving on, just as it should be. It was how things were always supposed to be. He knew this. He fucking knew this. And yet the emptiness of his life remained a burden he couldn’t seem to shake off.

  When Kyria had left the kingdom for university, the two years that they had been apart hadn’t been like this at all. He had managed to survive those years by simply drowning himself in work, so why couldn’t he do the same thing now?

  Why couldn’t he make himself let her go, dammit?

  The answer eluded him, despite all the countless sleepless nights the sheikh spent chasing it, and in his desperation he found himself doing the one thing he had always hated to do, and on Vanna’s birthday of all times---

  “Was I wrong?” Malik asked harshly. “Was I wrong to ask for these two years?”

  His mother pretended to wipe away a tear. “My baby boy is talking about his feelings. I might just cry.”

  The other sheikhs smirked even as Malik leveled a deadly look at Vanna.

  “Oh, stop looking at me like you want to kill me, Malik. I’m only joking because if I don’t, I really might end up crying---” Her voice broke off, and then the older woman angrily snatched the napkin on her lap to dab the corners of her eyes. She so hated to weep, and furious at Malik for making her teary-eyed, she muttered, “You’re an idiot.”

  “If I am,” Malik said silkily, “it’s probably because I have a lunatic for a mother.”

  Vanna let out a gasp. “You hateful boy!” She threw her dinner napkin at him, but of course her younger son caught this handily, and her teeth gnashed. “It’s that attitude of yours,” she raged, “the very reason why you’re in this predicament.”

  Knowing that the two were about to get in a pointless slanging match, Altair directed a warning glance at Malik before turning to Vanna. “Mother, calm yourself.” His tone came out smoothly enough, which was good, considering he was also doing his best to repress his smile. Seeing the two quarrel like they always did reminded him of Hadwin’s last words to him, a few days before his father had died of his injuries.

  Be the voice of reason between those two, Hadwin had told him. Your mother and baby brother will hate to hear this, but the two of them are too much alike, and it’s why they often end up butting heads. Their love and honor are such they can do the most unthinkable things…

  And of course, Hadwin was right, like he always was.

  In their mother’s case, Vanna had fought tooth and nail for the palace to approve her marriage to a humble soldier from Greece, even threatening to give up her birthright if the crown didn’t recognize Hadwin as her husband.

  And now, in Malik’s case it was practically the same, only he was doing the opposite. He had forced himself to leave Kyria, thinking it was for the best.

  Glancing at his younger brother, he asked quietly, “Do you remember two years ago when you allowed Kyria to study abroad? Back then, we had made it clear that her leaving would be your decision. Do you remember?”

  Malik gave his brother a clipped nod. “What of it?”

  “In those two years, she hadn’t a single clue of how you felt about her, and the two of you didn’t exactly part in good terms. Do you remember?”

  Malik shot Altair an impatient glance. “Of course I remember. Again, what of it?”

  “Had Kyria ever spoken to you about those two years while you were in St. Valentine?”

  Malik’s jaw clenched. “She did.”

  “And what did she say?”

  Kyria’s words returned to his mind.

  Do you think I didn’t try?

  It was one of my most important goals in the past two years, Malik.

  But just the thought alone of going out on a date with another guy made my skin crawl---

  Malik stiffened.

  Altair spoke again, his voice firmer. “What did she say, Malik?”

  Malik couldn’t speak.

  “May I make a guess then?” his brother asked quietly. “Perhaps, in not so many words, she had told you that she hadn’t been the slightest bit interested in dating anyone else. Despite not having any reason to be faithful to you, despite not having any awareness of how you felt about her, she had still stayed faithful, had she not? And I know some may say that was only a matter of circumstance, that perhaps it was only because she hadn’t met the right person yet, but everyone at this table knows that isn’t true.”

  Malik whitened.

  “Kyria had already met the right one, and in those two years, she was already in love with you. She might not have known it, but she was already in love with you, just as a part of you knew…even when she was a child. You already found the right one for you.”

  “Cheesy.” Harper’s whispered word cut the silence in the room. “That’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Altair---” She choked back a sob. “So why the hell am I crying?” Her words ended with a wail and tearful sniffle. The sound broke the tension in the room, and Malik’s cousins laughed while a grinning Khalil drew his queen into his lap so she could cry on his chest.

  “I hate you, Altair.” Vanna’s tone was waspish and shaky at the same time. “Didn’t I tell you I hate crying?” She turned to her younger son with red-rimmed eyes. “And you! Do you---” The older woman broke off.

  Malik’s eyes were too darn bright.

  Too, too bright for the kind of man he was.

  And as was her wont, even after all these years, Vanna found herself helplessly calling out to her husband the moment she encountered something she didn’t know how to handle. Hadwin, help me. She was used to seeing Malik angry or aloof, used to having her younger son needle her to death. But she didn’t think she could ever get used to seeing her younger son this vulnerable. Tell me what I must do.

  And as always, her beloved did not fail her. My love, just do what you always do.

  Well then---

  If that was what he believed she should do, then so be it.

  Vanna stood up, marched to where Malik was seated, and as soon as his head lifted up, she gave him a good hard whack to his head the way she used to often do, back when he was a precocious child doing his best to flirt with all the women in the palace.

  The whacking sound echoed in the vast dining hall, leaving everyone in the room stunned.

  “What the hell, Mother?”

  “Exactly,” she snapped. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, just sitting there and acting like there’s no Contini prince that can steal Kyria away?” Her voice shook, but she forced herself to continue. “You get it now, don’t you?” Vanna yelled. “You lied to yourself. You lied to her. You lied about whom these two years are for, and it’s not for Kyria! She’s already proven in the past two years her love won’t waver. These two years were for you, and it’s time you grow a pair of balls---”

  Harper choked.

  “---and accept that.” Vanna angrily planted her hands on her hips. “So once again, I’m asking you – what the hell do you think you’re doing, just---” She let out a shriek of surprise when Malik suddenly shot to his feet and swept her up in a bear hug, high enough for her feet to dangle in the air.

  “You hateful boy!”

  Malik laughed, but the sound was hoarse and raw. He let her down, but his arms only tightened aroun
d his mother, and when he spoke, his quiet words were just for her. “Thank you, Mama.”

  And then he was walking away, her beautiful, kind, selfless son---

  A man who had wanted these two more years because he only wanted more for Kyria, and he could not believe that what he offered the girl he loved would ever be enough---

  This time, Vanna could no longer stop the tears. We did good, didn’t we, Hadwin?

  Yes we did, my love.

  The flight back to Contini was quiet, the sheikh preferring to spend the entire journey in silence. He contemplated, somewhat wearily and desperately, of the things he could say, the things he should say, but somehow no words seemed right. Somehow, no apology seemed enough.

  What everyone had said was true.

  He had asked for Kyria to prove her love to him, when in truth there shouldn’t even have been a need for her to prove it. Everything he had said about Kyria possibly finding someone else – all fucking lies.

  Because the simple painful truth was – he had failed her.

  He had imagined what it would be like for Kyria, had known that the disciplinary hearing would just be one of the endless ways in which the world would do its best to taint what they have and turn something precious into something vile and foul---

  Just that first sign of trouble had been enough, and he had bolted like a gutless bridegroom struck with cold feet.

  And with that, he had failed her.

  It didn’t matter that he had the noblest reasons and had truly believed he could never be worthy of her love.

  He had still failed her.

  He was supposed to be the older one between them, the one who should have been wiser and stronger, and yet he had failed her.

  It was early morning when the sheikh’s private jet landed in St. Valentine’s airport, and a grim-faced Malik ran down the steps, indifferent to the heavy downpour that greeted him as soon as he stepped out.

  Emmanuel winced at the sight of the sheikh leaving without even a single umbrella. “Sheikh, hold on---”

  “No need, old man.” Malik waved a dismissive hand without breaking stride. Emmanuel of all people should know how urgent his business was here. He still had no fucking idea what to do or say to have her take him back, but for now all he knew was that he had to at least try. He had loved her for as long as he could remember. He had to make her see that he was only human, but if she forgave him for being an idiot, he would never make the same mistake again. He would---