Chapter 52: B

"I'm sorry, Mairam." He said with the softest tone he had ever used on her, yet Maryam seemed untouched by those words. She might as well kill him if she could. "And I'm not leaving here until you accept my apology and even smile at me, please." She rolled her eyes at that and scoffed, turning away from him while she wrapped her hands around her chest to show him that she wasn t going to relent.
"It s not like you care whether your apology is accepted by me or not. You can easily act like I'm not here and continue to live your life, it s so easy to do that. So please, I have an assignment to submit tomorrow, give my books back and leave, that s all I ask for." She was fuming as she spoke and Na im smiled warmly at her. Even though the way she treated him pained his heart, but he loved the fact that she cared enough for him to be angry just because she hadn't seen him in two weeks.
"I do, trust me it will mean a lot to me tonight. I'm so sorry, you can do whatever you want to do to me. Vent on me, Mairam, you can even beat me if you want to, just please forgive me, please?" He silently begged and it seemed to him that his words were slowly getting to her. But she stood up and was about to leave without a word when he pulled her down and got her perched on his laps.
Maryam bulged her eyes out as though this was the first time she had ever sat on his laps. Proximity with this man was the last thing she wanted, he should just get out of her life like he had initially planned. And even though she knew that would hurt her like hell would, she would get used to it in no time. But she hated the way he thought he could walk in and out of her life the way he pleased and she had no choice but to run into his arms whenever he came back, because she had missed him so much to show him that she was angry at him.
"Let go of me please. I need to sleep since you aren t giving me the books." She said and clenched her eyes shut because she knew if she made the mistake of looking into those eyes, she might even forget the reason she was angry at him in the first place.
Instead of him to do what she had asked of him, Na im pulled her to his body and hugged her warmly to his chest. He felt the way she kept struggling to get out of his hold, but he held her so firm that Maryam had no choice but to lay quiet on his chest as she felt something moving in her heart. She had missed him badly and she wanted to keep on being with him for the rest of her life. But whenever she remembered that he was going to divorce her one time in the future, she felt as though her world had been turned upside down and all she did was cried to relieve herself of the pain she always felt.
Na im placed his head on her shoulder when he heard the way she softly cried and he closed his eyes as he felt as though with each drop of her tears, there were fire droplets dripping in his heart along with her tears in his soul. He tightened his hold on her and brought her closer to his chest while she cried even harder and Na im wished he would be able to cry with her too.
He felt as she tightly held his jallabiya while she cried even more on his chest. "I ve missed you so much that my chest hurts so much." Her lips trembled as she spoke and Na im felt as his heart tightened in his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Hoor. I shouldn t have stayed that long without coming to see you, it has been so painful for me as well. Will you forgive your Noory?" She was silent and her body had stopped trembling with her tears. Na im slightly lifted her body and stared at her face, "Please, Mairam, I promise not to do it again."
She was hesitatingly looking at him but Maryam realized this man might as well get more power over her own self. She slightly nodded her head, her tears cascading freely on her cheeks and he smiled at her through the cloud of emotions the darkened his heart. He didn't know what he felt for her, but it hurt to see her cry and he regretted each day he had wasted without seeing her beautiful face.
He used his thumb and began clearing her tears while she watched him with keen eyes and when he was done, Na im tried to smile at her. He didn t want the whole night to be gloomy for them, he wanted to talk, laugh and play with her until he felt it was time to go back to his chamber. "You look older and a bit more matured than the last time I saw you." He pointed out and she smiled at him.
"That s what Bilkisu says everyday, that I'm growing up so fast." He chucked at that and slightly trailed his eyes down to her body. That was when he noticed that she was wearing her pajamas and it just occurred to him that he had never noticed the way her chest looked until today.
He had to peel his eyes away from there the moment he saw them and forced himself to only stare at her face for the remaining of the night. He knew he came there with the strict intention of not even kissing her lips, yet, Na im was certain if he stared longer than a minute at her chest, he might do something much more than a kiss to her.
"You ve grown, I have to agree with Bilkisu." She only smiled innocently at him and placed both hands on his shoulders as they stared intently into each others eyes.
"Did you miss me too?" She asked with a pout adorning her lips and Na im realized everything she did or he saw was going to be a torture to him.
He nodded his head at her and took her hand and placed it right above his heart, "I did, so much that it hurts here too. That s why I ran to see you because I felt like dying when I didn t." She seemed so pleased by his words as she stared at the place he had kept her hand.
"Your heart beats so fast, but mine is slow." Before Na im knew what she was about to do, Maryam had already placed his hand on top of her blossoming and lush bosom above her heart while she innocently looked at him, waiting to hear what he thought about the way her heart beat. "Did you feel it? It s not beating so fast like yours." She said when he stayed there for some minutes without being able to say a word.
"That s because you re not feeling what I'm feeling right now." He said the words while staring right into her eyes and his hand was still feeling the softness of her bosom. "I guess I have no other choice, Hoor." He merged their lips before she took her next breath and Na im had to surge in a breath at the ecstasy he felt that swarmed his entire body at once. She moaned softly before she kissed him back, realizing that along the things she missed about him, his kiss was there too. They spoke about how much they missed each other through their lips, through the way they passionately sync their lips and when he took possession of her tongue, Na im knew he had intended himself to have a sleepless night today. But nevertheless, it was worth more than just his sleep.
...
They heard a gasp escaped someone s lips and Na im forced himself to break his mouth from hers and when Bilkisu stared back at them with fear in her mind as she had her palms covering over her mouth, wondering whether what she had seen was real or not, Na im knew it was about time he told Bilkisu that Maryam was his wife. He had seen the looks she always flashed him whenever she saw them sitting close to each other but this was more than something he would brush past and act like he didn't see it.
He cleared his throat and when Maryam tried to get down from his laps, not being able to look up at Bilkisu, he pinned her there and wrapped his arms gently around her waist to keep her in place. "Have a sit." He ordered and Bilkisu found her jelly-like body seated on the sofa, not minding the prince was sitting on the carpet for her to have the nerve to do that. But she was so shocked that she couldn t even speak.
She knew they were so close with each other but she had never thought that it had come to this stage, tears sprang from her eyes as she cursed at herself for not telling Maryam enough about the implications and the islamic rulings of letting someone that wasn t your Muharram to touch you. And the way she had found them, Bilkisu wouldn t have doubted it if someone told her that they have been intimate with each other before.
Na im saw the tears on her face and sighed, he didn t want to, but he had to tell this woman that he was married to Maryam to avoid being suspected of anything by her. He knew that her opinion didn't matter about him but nevertheless, he wanted to clear his name in her concise. "I understand that you d be shocked after what you ve witnessed, but she s my wife." Bilkisu nearly fell from the sofa and he had to hide his chuckle. He knew whoever heard that from him would be even more shocked than she was, but that was the truth. Everywhere he would go and no matter who was in front of him, Maryam was his wife.
She began to shake her head unbelievably, "I can t believe this. I mean, I m sorry, Your Highness, but you can't say she s your wife just because I caught you doing that to an innocent girl." She stood to her feet, her tears still rushing down to her cheeks as anger raged in her. "Get down from his laps, Maryam! What did I tell you about being close to any man? You d get pregnant and everyone will hate you and run away from you, himself included." She sounded like her sister would, if she had seen them the way Bilkisu did and without knowing that they were married.