Shadow and Light

28

The Shadow

We wandered back to our own room, it was midnight, I hadn't realised I had spent so many hours just walking and talking with him in this palace.

He would occasionally tell me the historical meaning of an art piece or who the person in the paintings is. After spending the whole evening with him, I had realised he was too...simple, he liked art, music, his favourite hobby was strolling in the garden. He didn't have any favourite dishes, he liked everything except brinjal.

We had talked about ourselves, as a person, not as a king of this nation and an assassin, and I didn't hate what I heard about him. He was very open about his life, but I knew he was telling the truth but he was omitting some parts, but I didn't care enough to ask him, he was keenly listening to me when I told him about my life, how I killed how I killed.

And rather than punishing me, he was giving me tips as to what I could have done, I knew something was truly wrong, but I chose to ignore it, because why ruin a perfectly good evening.

I washed up, changed clothes and by the time I went back in the bedroom, he was already there, his chest naked, a book in his lamp. He was so engrossed in the words written on dead trees; he didn't even notice I was standing there.

A blush crept up on my face and neck, when I saw his beautifully sculpted body up close, his chest was sprayed with hair, that trailed down under his pants. My eyes kept going up and down, until, "Like what you see?" his hoarse voice reached my ears.

"N...No, I was just thinking how shameless you are that you are naked in front of a woman" I said and looked sideways, in an attempt to not meet his eyes. "Not just some woman" he said, I looked at him, and gulped, "My wife" he added.

"Who you forcefully married" I objected, trying to keep my calm.

"I remember I did not have to use any force or whatsoever" he titled his head, his lower lip out. I took a deep breath.

"You are such a pain" I smiled, and got into bed. Both our sides were separated by a curtain but after last night, I put pillows in between both of us as to not repeat the same mistake.

"Also, I am not fully naked, because if I were, you wouldn't be on that side of the bed" he added, still engrossed in his book, a smile playing on his face.

When I registered what he had said, my eyes grew wide, "You...have no shame" I said and hit him with a pillow, once, twice, multiple times until he paid attention to me and grabbed my wrist.

"Don't force me to do something that we both wont like" he whispered, my heart beat shot up, I knew something was wrong, because I could feel something in between my legs which wasn't supposed to be there.

"Fine, let me sleep" I said and jerked my hand away from his wrist. I blew my side of the candles out with the use of a fan and went to sleep, but I couldn't shake his words away from my conscious.

"Because if I were, you wouldn't be on that side of the bed..."

His words kept ringing in my head until his side of the candles also blew out and he went to sleep, naked, right beside me.

"What sort of a test is this God?" I whispered under my breath when I realised, I wanted to be on his side of the bed...with him.

The next morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn, I sighed with relief when I found I had confined myself to my side of the bed. I took away the pillows from between us and looked at him.

His face peaceful, his eyelashes were long, his lips were beautiful, his jaw looked like it could cut paper, his hair were long and black, with few strands of grey.