Jamal woke up feeling a hot searing pain rising from his left arm and right stomach. His whole body felt like something heavy had been placed on it. He opened his eyes to find someone resting on him. Who had dared to do that, despite knowing that he hated being touched?
"Get up this instance, if you still want to live." He commanded the person.
When Jamal didn't get any response from the person holding him tightly, he rolled the person to the floor roughly. He was surprised to find a knife firmly holding itself in his arm, he yanked it out and threw it across the floor. That was when his eyes fell on the person he had handled roughly.
Looking at Roksolana on the floor, the fresh injury on his arm, and the knife on the floor, Jamal was able to connect the whole picture. She had attempted to end his life again. Jamal realized that something must have happened to make her fall unconscious and fail in her new mission.
Grunting, he got up and got medicines and bandages from the medicine cabinet. After cleaning up the wound and bandaging himself, he examined his stomach. Seeing fresh blood oozing out of the bandage, he took off the soaked bandage and used a fresh bandage.
He heard the door unlocked, and looked up to find Sodeeq standing by the door trying to figure out what was going on. Jamal knew when the situation registered itself in his best friend's mind when the other man's eyes widened. He saw Sodeeq running towards him and smiled.
"Laillah. I leave you alone with her for a few minutes and you already have another injury?" The man asked, examining the wound on his arm.
"I'm fine. It's just a scratch," Jamal told him.
"Let me put her somewhere else. Far from you, Sultan," Sodeeq tried to convince him.
"No!" Jamal shouted, a little too forceful. "Just get me a rope to tie her with." He finished.
Sodeeq looked at Roksolana with a murdering gaze before going out of the room. In a minute, he was back with a rope long and thick enough to tie a lion. Without a word, he began to tie the one who the rope was meant for. He was done in a matter of five minutes and out of the door again, leaving Jamal to his thoughts.
Jamal looked at Roksolana's unmoving body and sighed. As a Muslim sultanate that served Allah, women were nothing in the community, other than tools for childbearing. Yet, this was a woman who was skilled in fighting and did not wear a hijab or clothing meant for women. Jamal could not deny that he was fascinated by her. After all, she was the first woman to ever injure him. And that too, twice in a single day.
If he was honest to himself, he would say that he had been fascinated by her while in her sultanate. Her cloth had clung to her in all the right places, showing the perfect curves of her hips and her exquisite long legs. Even though her hair was packed into a pony, Jamal had been fascinated by the way it flowed with her movements. She was a beautiful woman and he wanted to be with her. He had underestimated her earlier when they fought because of her beauty. He hadn't been willing to kill her because of her beautiful face too. He had hesitated to kill her family because he saw the sadness that crossed her beautiful face and he had wanted to erase that.
Jamal was surprised to find himself getting aroused by the thoughts of the woman. He who has a harem full of concubines. He could have any woman he cares for, regardless of her status or who she belonged to. He wasn't starved for s*x. Even when he wasn't interested in having s*x, the women tempted him with their bodies, until he could no longer hold his urges. He had even had s*x with 2 women at a time before. But, here was a woman who made him feel like he's been s*x starved for days. Mere looking at her unconscious form on the floor made him wish he could tear off her clothes and have his way with her.
Jamal knew that he had to get out of the room while he still had little control over his treacherous body. He stood up and moved to the door, opening it. Taking one last glance at Roksolana, he went out of the cabin and closed the door firmly behind him.