Page 9 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

Now, though, the need to see her face eclipses every other thought.

Jazmina twirls across the hall, but the other woman, almost as if she senses how she’s captivated me, stays right in my line of sight.

I know the dance is nearing its end, and just then, the woman who’s held me prisoner with her beauty moves closer.

She turns her back, quickening her pace, her hips rolling faster, as if she’s forgotten the crowd and surrendered to the music’s spell.

I want to go to her, grab her by the hips, brush her hair aside, and bite the soft skin of her neck, but my thoughts shatter when she finally turns, looking straight at me.

I could never forget those eyes.

Adeela.

The girl who ran from me just hours ago, who, even fully covered, managed to stir something in me, now stands before me, a living embodiment of temptation.

The entire room fades away, as if someone silenced the world and left only the two of us.

I’ve been with many women, but the mix of innocence and sensuality radiating from her leaves me dizzy, enslaved by desire and unable to look away, hungry to lose myself in her allure.

Knowing who she is now—the daughter of one of my father’s senior advisors—she shouldn’t even be meeting my eyes. Yet that’s exactly what she’s doing, as if she can’t stop herself, as if she’s dancing only for me.

My blood burns, lust clouding reason.

I’ve always known what I wanted and how to get it, but for the first time in my life, I’m faced with something I can’t have.

No matter how fiercely I desire Adeela, more than I’ve ever wanted any woman, she’s forbidden to me.

She’s more than beautiful. She’s perfect. But I’ll never say it out loud because she’s beyond my reach.

Getting involved with Adeela without a formal courtship would ruin her forever in our society, turning her into a pariah.

The only way to have her would be to commit publicly. To marry her.

And I will never give up my freedom. No matter how breathtaking this girl is.

Chapter 5

Rheadur

One year and ten months later

“What are we going to do?”

“Have faith. I’ll figure something out,” Jazmina says, and I try to hold on to her certainty, but it’s getting harder to believe.

Almost two years ago, we were full of plans for the future. But all of that vanished like smoke in the air the moment her older brother, now Sheikh Naim, took the throne.

Our country, which under the former sheikh—the beloved Kamran—had been considered progressive when it came to women’s rights, has now been thrown a hundred years back in time.

He hasn’t reinstated the burqa as we feared, but we can no longer walk the streets without a chador[19], when before, the hijab was optional.

Because of these new restrictions, tourism has plummeted.

Of course, the idea of Jazmina and me studying in England is completely out of reach now, which also means I have no idea when I’ll see my mother again.

After the sheikh’s birthday celebration, the former ruler granted both of us permission to attend university abroad, despite Naim and my father’s opposition. Somehow, the two of them managed to convince Kamran that we needed to be older, since we were only seventeen at the time.

“Now, without the internet, we can’t even search for my mother anymore.”