The RoyalHOUSE OF KAREDES
Desert Throne
A royal family, torn apart by pride and a lust for power, reunited by passion
The coronation diamond is missing! Whether by seduction, blackmail or marriage, the jewel must be found. Secrets and sins from the past are revealed and desire, love and passion war with royal duty.
JENNIE LUCAS
TRISH MOREY
ANNIE WEST
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF KAREDES
January 2014
The Royal House of Karedes: Two Kingdoms
Sandra Marton
Sharon Kendrick
Marion Lennox
February 2014
The Royal House of Karedes: Two Crowns
Kate Hewitt
Chantelle Shaw
Melanie Milburne
March 2014
The Royal House of Karedes: One Family
Natalie Anderson
Carol Marinelli
Carol Marinelli
April 2014
The Royal House of Karedes: The Desert Throne
Jennie Lucas
Trish Morey
Annie West
The Royal House of Karedes: The Desert Throne
Tamed: The Barbarian King
Jennie Lucas
Forbidden: The Sheikh’s Virgin
Trish Morey
Scandal: His Majesty’s Love-Child
Annie West
JENNIE LUCAS grew up dreaming about faraway lands. At fifteen, hungry for experience beyond the borders of her small Idaho city, she went to a Connecticut boarding school on a scholarship. She took her first solo trip to Europe at sixteen, then put off college and travelled around the US, supporting herself with jobs as diverse as gas station cashier and newspaper advertising assistant.
At twenty-two she met the man who would be her husband. After their marriage, she graduated from Kent State with a degree in English. Seven years after she started writing, she got the magical call from London that turned her into a published author.
Since then life has been hectic, with a new writing career, a sexy husband and two babies under two, but she’s having a wonderful (albeit sleepless) time. She loves immersing herself in dramatic, glamorous, passionate stories. Maybe she can’t physically travel to Morocco or Spain right now, but for a few hours a day, while her children are sleeping, she can be there in her books.
Jennie loves to hear from her readers. You can visit her website at www.jennielucas.com, or drop her a note at [email protected]
To my fellow authors of this series:
Carol Marinelli, Trish Morey and Annie West.
You girls rock!
Plus an extra heap of thanks to Trish Morey, who’s the one who got me into all this trouble in the first place.
CHAPTER ONE
MARRYING a man she didn’t love was surprisingly easy, Jasmine Kouri thought as she handed her empty champagne flute to a passing waiter. Why had she wasted so much time struggling to be alone? She should have done this a year ago.
Her engagement party was in full force. All of Qusay’s high society—everyone who’d once scorned her—was now milling beneath the white pavilion on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, sipping Cristal in solid gold flutes as they toasted her engagement to the second richest man in Qusay.
Her fiancé had spared no expense. Jasmine’s fifteencarat diamond ring scattered prisms and rainbows of refracted sunlight every time she moved her left hand. It was also very heavy, and the pale green chiffon dress he’d chosen for her in Paris felt hot as her skirts swirled in the desert wind. Across the wide grassy vista, the turrets of his sprawling Italianate mansion flew red flags emblazoned with his personal crest.
Then again, Umar Hajjar never spared any expense—on anything. Everything he owned, from his world-class racehorses to his homes around the world, proclaimed his money and prestige. He’d pursued Jasmine for a year in New York, and yesterday, she’d suddenly accepted his proposal. This party was Umar’s first step in making the people of Qusay forget her old scandal. He would shape Jasmine into his perfect bride, the same as he trained a promising colt into a winner: at any cost.
But that wasn’t why Jasmine’s heart was pounding as she looked anxiously through the crowds in the pavilion. She didn’t care about money. She was after something far more precious.
Jewel-laden socialites pressed forward to congratulate her, including some whose vicious gossip had ruined her when she was young and defenseless. But it would be bad manners to remember that now, so Jasmine just thanked them and smiled until her cheeks hurt.
Then she caught her breath as she saw the people she’d been waiting for.
Her family.
The last time she’d seen them, Jasmine had been a scared sixteen-year-old girl, packed off into poverty and exile by her harsh, heartbroken father and quietly weeping mother. Now because of this marriage, no one would ever be able hurt Jasmine—or her family—ever again.
With a joyful cry, she held her arms wide, and her grown-up sisters ran to embrace her.
“I’m proud of you, my daughter,” her father said gruffly, patting her on the shoulder. “At last you’ve done well.”
“Oh, my precious child.” Her mother hugged her tearfully, kissing her cheek. “It’s too long you’ve been away!”
Both her parents had grown older. Her proud father was stooped, her mother gray. The sisters Jasmine remembered as
