Chapter Eight
THE DRIVE TO THE SCHOOLtook an eternity.
Mik’hail sat rigid in the backseat of the car, the crumpled letter still clutched in his fist, his mind racing with all the things he needed to say to her. All the things he should have said weeks ago, before he’d ruined everything with his cowardice.
I’m destined to be with another man.
The words burned through him, stoking a fury he could barely contain.
She wasn’t destined for anyone but him. She had been his from the moment she’d curtsied before him and called him ‘akh’with that teasing sparkle in her eyes. His from the moment she’d kissed his cheek and made his whole world tilt on its axis.
HisBriar.
And tonight, he would make sure she knew it.
The dormitory matron tried to stop him when he arrived at the doorstep of her building—
“Your Highness, visiting hours are over, and the young ladies are preparing for bed—”
But Mik’hail didn’t even break stride. “Which room is Lady Aurora’s?”
“I really must insist—”
He turned to look at her, and whatever she saw in his face made her go pale.
“End of the hall,” she whispered. “Last door on the right.”
“Thank you.” Manners should not be forgotten, not even when he had a ward to discipline and reclaim. But when he reached her room, he also didn’t bother knocking...because manners could also be temporarily set aside, depending on how important the mission one meant to accomplish.
And the mission he was on right now?
It spelled the difference between living and merely existing, and when he entered the room and finally saw her—
Aurora.
The sheikh knew he was exactly where he needed to be the moment his gaze fell on the girl who had so easily captured his heart without even trying.
She stood frozen by the window, wrapped in nothing but a thin robe, her damp hair falling in waves around her shoulders. She must have just come from the shower, her skin still flushed from the heat, and the sight of her stole the breath from his lungs.
So beautiful.
So achingly, impossibly beautiful.
And she thought she belonged to someone else.
“Your Highness?” Her voice was strained. “What are you—”
