The Royal House of Karedes: The Desert Throne: Tamed: The Barbarian King / Forbidden: The Sheikh's Virgin / Scandal: His Majesty's Love-Child. Annie West

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СКАЧАТЬ must she be a virgin?” Kareef demanded.

      “So no one can ever doubt that your children are yours,” he replied, sounding surprised. “You must have an undisputed heir.”

      Kareef clenched his jaw. “You will not negotiate a bride for me. I forbid it.”

      The vizier returned his look with gleaming, canny eyes. “Because your interests are elsewhere?”

      Kareef looked at him narrowly, wondering how much he already knew. The vizier’s spies were everywhere. He cared so obsessively about the security of the country, personal privacy meant nothing to the man. “What do you mean?”

      His dark eyes affixed on Kareef. “It would be a grave mistake to insult Umar Hajjar, my king,” he said quietly. “I’ve heard he is returning from Paris tonight.”

      Paris. So Kareef’s suspicions had been right. Hajjar had been spending time with his French mistress.

      And Kareef was expected to give up Jasmine to a man who did not even care enough to be loyal to her?

      Too angry to be fair, he clenched his hands. “I have no intention of insulting Hajjar. He is my friend. He saved my life.”

      “Yes. Quite.” The older man cleared his throat. “The royal banquet begins soon, sire. Ambassadors and foreign princes have come from all over the world to celebrate your impending coronation. You will not wish to be late.”

      Kareef ground his teeth. Making small talk with people he didn’t care about? “I will attend in my own time.”

      The vizier tugged his beard. “It’s just a pity you don’t have your future bride on your arm for such a social event,” he sighed, then brightened. “Princess Lara du Plessis is attending with her father. She is a possibility as well. She’s very beautiful—”

      “No marriage,” Kareef barked out. His mind already on Jasmine, he turned to go.

      “You will find her in the royal garden,” the vizier called sourly behind him. “Where she does not deserve to be.”

      Kareef whirled to face him.

      Jasmine was right. There were no secrets in the palace. Akmal Al’Sayr knew them all.

       Except one.

      He did not know Kareef was already married.

      “You will call off your spies,” he said grimly. “Leave her in peace.”

      Akmal’s mouth twisted sharply downward, his lips disappearing into his long gray beard as he fell into dutiful silence.

      “And find her a place at the banquet.”

      The vizier looked unhappier still, his slender body drooping like a frown. But he hung his head beneath his sovereign’s decree. “Yes, sire.” He looked up, his beady eyes glittering. “But she can never be more to you than a mistress. The people would never accept such a woman as your wife, a woman who’s had so many lovers she threw herself from a horse to lose her nameless, ill-gotten child—”

      Red covered Kareef’s gaze. In two strides, he’d grabbed the other man’s throat.

      “It was an accident,” he hissed. “An accident. And as for her many lovers, she’s had only one. Me. Do you understand, Al’Sayr? I was her lover. The only one.”

      The older man’s eyes started to bulge before Kareef regained control. He let him go. The vizier leaned over, holding his throat and coughing.

      “Never speak of her that way again,” he spat out. With a growl still on his lips, Kareef whirled away in murderous fury, striding down the hall in his robes.

      His heart was still pounding with rage when he found Jasmine in the royal garden in the twilight, sleeping on a cushioned seat in a shady, quiet bower. A book was folded upside down unheeded in her lap. He stopped, staring down at her, marveling again at her beauty.

      She slept peacefully, like a child. The wind blew softly through the trees, rattling the leaves, brushing loose tendrils of dark hair across her face. She was wearing a fitted black sweater over a high-necked white shirt and a long black skirt. And below that—red canvas sneakers.

      Her lovely face was bare of makeup, and beautiful in its natural simplicity. Modest, simple, like a maid. She looked the part of a perfect wife and mother—the perfect heart of any man’s home. Of his home.

      He took a deep breath, calming down beneath the influence of her sweet purity, of her innocence. He smiled down at her. Then his gaze fell upon her hand, and he saw she still wore Hajjar’s diamond upon her finger.

      Jasmine’s dark brown eyes fluttered open. A smile lit up her face when she saw him. Her smile struck through his soul.

      “Kareef.” The sweet lilt of her voice washed over him like a wave of water. “Oh, how I’ve missed you today!”

      He sat next to her, taking her hands in his own. “I thought the day would never end.”

      “And once again, you’ve caught me in the royal garden.” Her expression became bashful, apologetic. “Where I should not be.”

      “The garden is yours,” he said roughly. “You have the right.”

      She tried to smile at him, but her expression faltered. She looked down at her hand, twisting the ring on her finger. “For now.”

      A spasm of unexpected jealousy went through him as he looked at that ring, the physical mark of another man’s ownership. “Take that off.”

      She looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

      “Take it off.”

      “No.”

      “You’re not going to marry him tomorrow.”

      Her expression became mutinous. “I am.” She rose to her feet. “And if you can’t accept that—”

      “We won’t talk about it now, then.” He caught her wrist. “Just come to the royal banquet with me tonight.”

      She looked down at his hand on her wrist.

      “This is how we would be discreet?” she said. “Beside each other at the banquet, as lovers for all the world to see?” She shook her head. He saw tears in her eyes. “Admit I was right,” she whispered. “The palace separates us already. Let’s end this cleanly. We must part.”

      He looked at her with a heavy heart. How could he change her mind, when he himself could feel the truth of her words?

      But taking a deep breath, he shook his head. “One more night.”

      “It won’t change anything.”

      “Attend the banquet with me. Give me one last chance to change your mind, to convince you not to marry him. One last night.” He set his jaw. “Then, if you still wish to wed him—I will say farewell.”

      He СКАЧАТЬ