The Royal House of Karedes: The Desert Throne. Annie West
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eyes had smiled down at her with the warmth of spring’s first sun. She’d loved him from that first day.
Now, after thirteen years of trying to forget Kareef’s existence, this one day had brought it all back, times ten. A single word from his deep voice, a single look from his handsome face, and he’d caught up Jasmine’s soul like a fish in his net.
Racing down the hall, she pushed open the first door on her left and ran down the wooden stairs into the courtyard. Cloaked in darkness, she took deep rattling gasps of the warm desert air. She stood beneath the swaying dark palm trees of the garden, beside the dark water shimmering in the silvery moonlight, and wrapped her arms over her thin cotton sundress. She could not allow herself to cry. She could not allow herself to collapse.
Because this time, if she fell, there would be no prince to catch her.
CHAPTER THREE
KAREEF nearly staggered in shock as Jasmine fled the dining room. Jasmine thought he didn’t want her? Didn’t she know her power?
When he heard the double doors bang behind her, he leapt to his feet. With an intake of breath, he pursued her. He saw her disappear through a wooden door in the hallway. The door to the royal garden, forbidden to all but the king’s family. He followed her outside.
He stopped at the foot of the stairs, turning his face up to the night sky. He heard an owl’s distant echoing cry. He felt the warm desert wind against his face, blowing open his white shirt.
He was on the hunt. He no longer felt like a king, constrained by the rigid boundaries of duty and appearance. Suddenly, he felt wild. Uncontrolled. For the first time since he’d returned to the palace in Shafar, he felt like himself again.
No. It had been longer than that since he’d truly felt like himself. Far longer…
Where was she? He looked to the right and left, searching across the dark shadows of trees and shimmering pools of water like a Qusani hawk seeking his prey. Had she disappeared into the night? Did she truly exist only in dreams?
The moonlight cast a silvery glow on the swaying palm trees. He could hear the wind through the leaves, hear the burbling water of the fountain. In the distance, he could hear the Mediterranean pounding beneath the cliffs.
Booms like cannons ricocheted with increasing vigor across the sky. Explosions spiraled like pale flowers of smoke across the night—fireworks provided by the city of Shafar to celebrate his coming coronation. He knew he should be thanking the city council right now, instead of pursuing this ghost from his past—this woman who’d given herself freely to another man.
But not yet. She was still his. She was still his.
He saw a sudden flash of white. He saw her lithe body cross the garden, darting and shimmering between the dark shadows. Silvery moonlight twisted through her onyx hair, causing her short, filmy white gown to glow. She was a creature of seduction, a faerie creature of the night, illuminating it like any man’s fantasy.
Jasmine. How long had he hungered for her? How long had he thirsted, like a man crossing oceans of hot sand?
He stood still, watching her in the moonlight. Afraid to breathe, lest the dream disappear.
His expression hardened as he moved forward.
Too many years of hunger. Too many years of denied desire.
She wished to have her freedom. He would give it to her. But not yet.
Tonight, she was still his.
For this night, she was his to possess.
As he caught up with her, he saw her long dark hair tumbling down her pale, bare shoulders in the moonlight. Shoulders now shaking with silent sobs.
A branch snapped into the grass beneath his foot as he stopped abruptly.
She didn’t turn around, but he knew she’d heard him by the sudden stiffening of her posture.
“I know I shouldn’t be here.” Her voice was sodden, muffled. “Have you come to kick me out?”
Grabbing her shoulder, he turned her around. “This garden is forbidden to all but the royal family.”
“I know—”
“And you are my wife.”
She looked up at him with a gasp. Her eyes were wide and dark, her tears glimmering in the moonlight like endless pools. “But I can’t be,” she choked out. “You are the king. And I must marry—”
“I know.” His eyes searched hers. “I will give you your divorce, Jasmine.”
“You will?”
“Yes,” he said in a low voice. “But not yet.”
“What do you want from me?” she whispered.
His hand tightened on her bare shoulder. What did he want?
He wanted to strip the flimsy dress off her body and lay her down beneath him in the moist, cool grass. He wanted to close his eyes and feel her wholly in his grasp, to feel the beat of her heart and warmth of her skin.
He wanted to kiss her senseless, to lick and suckle every inch of her naked body, from that slender, delicate neck to her full breasts, down her tiny waist to the wide sweep of her hips.
He wanted to dip his tongue into every crevice of her, to taste and bite every delicious curve. To savor the spicy sweetness of her skin until he could bear it no longer, while he plunged himself into her so hard and deeply that he would never resurface again.
Part of him—the civilized part—knew it was wrong. Jasmine was another man’s betrothed. And she was under his protection.
But as he held her in his arms…Kareef was no longer a civilized man.
“You,” he growled in reply. “I want you.”
“No,” she gasped. Her brown eyes shimmered with fear. “We can’t!”
He breathed in her scent of spice and blood oranges and something more, something distinctly her, the intoxicating feminine warmth of her skin. He smelled the fragrant night-blooming jasmine, and he didn’t bother to answer. He just lowered his head to kiss her.
With a jagged intake of breath, she turned her head away, toward the darkness of the trees.
He put his hand on her cheek. “Look at me, Jasmine.”
She stubbornly refused.
“Look at me!” He twisted his hands into her hair, forcing her compliance. He lifted her chin, looking down into her face. “You are my wife. You cannot refuse what we both desire.”
She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. Moonlight illuminated a trail of tears streaking down her pale skin.
“No,” she whispered, trembling in his hands. “I cannot deny what you say.”
He felt her surrender. Gloried in it. His calloused hand stroked her bare arm. Her skin felt soft, so soft beneath his fingertips. Just touching her face, as he breathed in her delicious scent, caused a sizzle like fire to spread through his veins. He felt her shudder beneath his touch.
Kareef was king of the land, but there was one thing that had always been beyond his control. One thing that had always been more powerful than his own strength.
His desire for her.
She made his blood boil with longing. Her memory had driven him half-mad with the unsatisfied desire of thirteen years.
And now…she was in his arms.
He looked down at Jasmine’s beautiful face with a shudder of longing. Holding her close, he cupped her chin. Lowering his head, he kissed her closed eyelids with a feather-light brush of his lips.
Then, with a hunger he could barely control, he slowly lowered