Dare You To Love Me

«31» these broken wings

The possibility of him being the one to have hurt her in such a way... He couldn’t even begin to fathom what he would do.

He tried to think if at any point during the wedding or the night before he had held her by the arms forcefully, but nothing came to mind. His thoughts a jumbled mess. Not knowing whether he had been the one to hurt or not made his heart twist painfully.

“No!” Yaseerah’s eyes widened in alarm, quickly shaking her head, her eyes darting between the scattered items on the floor and his tortured expression.“No, Fou’ad, you didn’t.”

“You will tell me, if I did though, right?” his eyes were manic with desperation and glassy as he looked into her eyes, searching them for a hint of truth. “If I ever hurt you... You’ll—”

“Fou’ad,” she cut him off, taking a hesitant step towards him, every inch of reservation she felt melting away in the face of his distress.

Distress for her.

Distress for something he thought he had done to her.

If Yaseerah hadn’t been in love with him all this while, this moment would have made her fall in love with him. But as it stood, it made her fall for him even harder, breathlessly so.

“It wasn’t you,” she said softly, cupping his cheeks with both of her palms, and forcing him to look at her, to see the truth in her eyes. “It wasn’t you.”

“Then... Who? Give me a name.” Fou’ad pressed, his voice tinged with desperation and fear.

“It’s not what you think, I...” Yaseerah stammered, her voice barely above a whisper, as she dropped her hands away from his face, shifting her weight from one foot to the other uneasily. “I... I fell…” she trailed off again, taking a safe step back, away from his intoxicating scent, and his keen observant eyes.

“Don’t lie to me, Yaseerah, please. Tell me what happened, I need to know, please.”

“It’s nothing, Fou’ad. It was just...”  Yaseerah bit her lip, her gaze dropping to the floor, hesitating for a brief moment. She knew she couldn’t keep the truth from him any longer, but the words as always were stuck in her throat. “Just a misunderstanding. I’m fine, really.”

Fou’ad reached out, gently lifting her chin to meet his gaze. “Who hurt you? Please, don’t keep this from me.”

Tears welled up in Yaseerah’s eyes as she struggled to find the words, and she blinked them back, pushing past the huge lump that had lodged itself in her throat. “It’s... it’s complicated, Fou’ad. Please, I don’t want to get you involved in this.”

“Are you in danger?”

His whispered words had her stomach sinking, a wave of vertigo shivering through her.

All of the air deflated from her body, her forehead pinching in concentration, as she chose her words carefully, trying to avoid lying to him directly.

“Not anymore,” her words rushed out on a shredded breath, prompting a raging fire to erupt inside him, rushing to the surface and searing across his skin.

“Yaseerah...” he swallowed, hesitantly reaching out to touch her but clasping a palm over his lips to keep him from sobbing, or screaming or both.

When she raised her gaze to meet his, the horror she saw etched in those beautiful brown orbs of his made her heart pound so hard it hurt.

“Please, I don’t want to talk about this, not right now at least. I have about a dozen problems I need to sort through. I do not want to open that can of worms, okay?”