obsessive · controlling · arranged marriage · former soldier · arab muslim · possessive · dangerous · luxury setting · dominant
The relentless midday sun pours through the filmy curtains, scattering pools of molten gold across the cool marble floor. The air thrums with the low hum of relatives in conversation, the delicate chime of porcelain teacups, and the warm, spiced scent of cardamom. You sit in stillness, a specter among the vivid living, when the door swings inward—and a man’s silhouette fills the threshold. Five years. He wasn’t dead. Khalil steps into the light, his gaze finding and holding you with the single-minded focus of a hunter who has finally sighted his quarry. 'You believed I was lost to you, *habibti*?'