Captured For The Sultan’s Pleasure

As Jamal kept running with an unconscious Roksolana in his arms, he kept praying to Allah that she had merely fainted because of either fright or how she had witnessed the death of her captor and not because Aamil had done something wrong to her before his arrival at the scene. When he heard Roksolana whimpering a little as he kept running, he slowed down in his run.

He still blamed himself for the torture she went through. If he had noticed that she was missing all those times that she had been gone, then he would have looked for her everywhere. If he had listened to her and reasons about why she kept asking those weird questions about Sodeeq, then he would have guessed that something was fishy somewhere. If he had searched for her a little harder all through the night, then he might have been able to find her a lot sooner than he did.

And to think that he wanted to turn away from the building because he had been suspecting the wrong person makes him want to slap himself countless times until his cheeks were red and swollen. If one of his men hadn’t stopped him from going, if he had acted stubborn like he always did before, then his woman would have been dead before he found out the truth of the matter.

He would never have been able to forgive himself, that was for sure. If he hadn’t gotten to her earlier and something awful had happened to her because of the old grudge someone had toward him, then he would have killed himself too as that would be the only thing tjatcoiod stop the pain he would have felt in his heart. Even now that she wasn’t dead and she was only unconscious, he already felt like he might breathe his last at any minute from then.

“Sultan!”

Jamal heard someone scream his name and he looked up. When he saw one of the men that had the outfit of Asleem’s army rushing towards him, he stopped and waited for the man to get to where he was.

“What happened to Lady Roksolana?” the man asked, sounding very worried.

“Get me Aabdeen! Now!” the Sultan screamed at the man.

Without waiting for an answer from the man, Jamal hurried away, straight to his mansion. When the royal soldiers he placed around the mansion saw him, three of them rushed to open the door for him and he went inside. Once he was in, he went straight to his room, placed the woman in his arms on the bed. He sat down beside the bed and he held one of her hands while he waited for Aabdeen to make an appearance.

“Sultan.”

He heard Aabdeen’s voice reach out to him and he stood up instantly.

“She fainted. Help me wake her up, will you?” Jamal told the man and he held the other man’s hands in plea.

Aabdeeen rushed over to the still unconscious Roksolana and he began to examine her. All the while, the Sultan stood so close to him that Aabdeen was sure that the Sultan might murder him if he gave a bad news. After Aabdeen had carried out the necessary test, he held Roksolana by the wrist to check her pulse. He looked at the Sultan in a surprised manner but he didn’t say anything.

“What happened?” Jamal asked, feeling very worried.

Instead of replying to the question the Sultan just asked, Aabdeen moved two of his fingers to Roksolana’s neck and he let the fingers remain there for a while. When he finally removed the fingers, he sighed loudly before he let his gaze fall on the worried Sultan.

“What happened, Aabdeen?” Sultan Jamal asked the other man again.

“Alhamdulillahi,” the other man replied with a big grin.

“What happened?!” the Sultan asked a little forcefully this time.

“She merely fainted due to shock, Sultan. She should be awake very soon, so don’t fret over that,” Aabdeen told him.

The Sultan let out some air. He sat down on the bed Roksolana was and held her hand in his left hand while he kept caressing the back of her hand with his right hand.

“But, I did find something else,” Aabdeen said. He had decided to wait until the Sultan was a little bit calm before stating his observation. The moment the Sultan heard those words though, he stopped caressing her hand and his eyes shot up at him in such a menacing way that Aabdeen knew would have made any other person wet their trousers in fear.

“Didn’t you just say that she was fine?” the Sultan asked him.

“Yes, I did,” Aabdeen replied with a shrug of his shoulder.

“Are you toying with me right now, Sultan Aabdeen?!” Jamal yelled.

“No,” Aabdeen chuckled. “What I found out was the fact that Lady Roksolana was pregnant,” he finally told the Sultan.

Jamal dropped the hand he was holding immediately and he stood up. He felt like he was dreaming, so he must have heard the physician wrongly. Roksolana was pregnant? He asked himself. His eyes went straight to her stomach and he felt himself touching her there before he could stop himself. The moment his hand landed on her stomach, he refused to lift the hand away.

“Are you sure about this?” the Sultan asked, his voice full of emotions.

“I come from the Jedi sultanate and we are known for our physician skills, Sultan. So, be rest assured and know that I could never be wrong about this,” Aabdeen told him.

“I’m going to be a father? An Abbu?” the Sultan asked again.

It was like he hadn’t believed everything that the man before him had said but he knew that the man was right. Aabdeen had never gone wrong with any of the tests he had carried out before and Jamal knew that the man would never say something as important as that if he wasn’t completely sure.

It was just that in all his life, he had never felt the need to gather a child before; not even once. The thought had only seemed to take root in him ever since the night he had gotten intimate with Roksolana and despite that, he had tried not to give in to his will. It wasn’t because he hadn’t wanted Roksolana to be the mother of his child but he had wanted to tell her how he felt about her first and let her decide if she wanted to be with him.

But now that she was pregnant with his child, it seemed like the choice was already taken out of her hands. Jamal chuckled to himself as he thought about that little fact. He finally lifted his hand from her stomach and dropped it on her cheek, cradling the skin softly. He was happy because he knew that now that she was pregnant, she wouldn’t leave him and go anyway again. She was his entirely.

“I’ll leave you and Lady Roksolana then,” Aabdeen said, breaking the Sultan’s thought.

“Alright,” the Sultan answered with a smile.

Aabdeen bowed his head slightly and he made to walk away.

“I promise to help you fight the men disturbing your sultanate, dear friend,” Jamal told him.

“Thank you for your help, Sultan Jamal,” Aabdeen answered.

“Call me Jamal from now, Aabdeen. It would make me feel better knowing that you think of me as a friend also,” the Sultan told.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

“You know one thing, Jamal? You’ve changed a lot from when I first met you,” Aabdeen said to the Sultan with a wide grin.

Jamal looked at the woman still sleeping on his bed and he smiled.

“It’s because of her,” he replied to Aabdeen. “You are also a part of the reason for my change, Aabdeen and I’ll forever be grateful to Allah for making me cross paths with both of you,” he finished.

Aabdeen simply smiled at Jamal and he went out, leaving the two couples alone. When he got downstairs, he met his sister, Azeezat, and the rude maid who was a friend to Roksolana, Seyiddah, waiting there for news about their friend. Sodeeq and Asleem were also there, waiting. Likewise, Lady Roksolana’s father and her brother. The second in command general, Hassan, was also there.

“How is she?” the maid asked him first.

Aabdeen turned to look at her face and he saw deep concern for her friend radiating there in her eyes. His eyes fell to her stomach and he found himself wishing that he could experience the same joy Sultan Jamal just did. When he realized the route his thoughts had taken, he cleared his throat and shot an angry look at Seyiddah. Why was she always occupying his mind whenever he thought about important things?

“Don’t talk to me, woman.” He sneered at her.

“Don’t be so rude to a woman, Sultan Aabdeen,” Hassan reprimanded him.

“She’s nothing but a maid,” Aabdeen shot back at the man.

“She’s not a maid, Sultan. She’s a Lady and she is my sister,” Hassan told him.

Aabdeen shot a surprised look at Seyiddah who looked surprised as well.

“You’re a Lady? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, astonished.

“Like you told me you were the Sultan?” she retorted.

“You don’t get to talk back to me, woman!” Aabdeen grunted at her.

“Aabdeen!” His sister called in a clear warning tone.

Aabdeen took the warning and completely ignored Seyiddah. How dare she turn out to be a Lady? Every time he had found himself thinking about her before, he had always killed the thoughts by reminding himself that she was only a maid and the fact that a Sultan and a maid could never be together. Now that she was a lady, he had nothing to keep himself in check.

Jamal sat by Roksolana’s side for fifteen minutes more before he felt her hand move in his direction slightly. He looked at her face and saw that she was widely awake and he quickly helped her up. Once she was up, he checked her body again thoroughly to make sure that there was no injury that had escaped Aabdeen’s eyes earlier. When he was sure that she was fine, he kissed her lightly on the lips.

“Dawn, I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. You didn’t have to suffer in the hands of Aamil nor did you have to see Aamil dying like that,” he told her.

Roksolana looked around to be sure about where she was. When she saw that she was in the Sultan’s room, she relaxed a little and looked at who had spoken. When she saw that it was Jamal, she relaxed her nerves completely and hugged him tightly. When she had seen Sodeeq killing that wicked man, her stomach had felt queasy and her nerves had kicked in and she had struggled to breath which was why she had fainted.

Although that wasn’t the first time she had seen someone die, she had still felt terrible to see the end of the man. She didn’t know why that had happened to her though but she knew she never wanted to face such an anxiety ever again. Or maybe she had fainted out of relief, because she had thought that she would be meeting her end in the hands of the man before help had arrived.

“Are you okay?” Jamal asked her, holding her a little too tight than she found comfortable but she didn’t mind.

“I am fine, Jamal. I was just shocked over what happened,” she told him.

“It was all my fault, Dawn and I’m truly sorry about that,” he told her.

“Do you now believe me when I told you about all those things I heard and the attempts that man and Lady Miriam made over your life?” Roksolana asked.