Prince Samir and Nazmi were lying side by side under the red silk sheets of his bed. The weight of the word 'trust' was sitting heavily on both of their minds, suffocating them as though they had been buried alive deep within the sand.
After Nazmi said it, the two of them fell into thoughtful silence; the kind of silence that settled like a thick fog.
She knew she needed to be forthright. As far as she could tell, the Third Prince valued honesty more than any other virtue… and truthfully, she was the same.
She looked at him apprehensively. After a few long moments, she managed to muster the courage to speak "I would like you remove this collar, or at least tell me how."
Nazmi had expected a cold, sardonic response like every other time she had attempted to talk with him. Instead, she was met with a pensive frown.
"I do not wish to remove it," he said. "Could we come to a compromise?"
