to be alone with me?”
“Yes,” she breathed, hardly able to know what she was saying. “No.”
He suddenly leaned back on his hip. “Surely you’re not afraid?”
Terrified was more like it, but she would never admit that in a million years. “I’m not afraid of you. I’ve never been afraid of you!”
“So there’s no reason to refuse. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
When he touched her, she had a difficult time concentrating. “Why—why would you take me to the desert?”
He gave her a slow-rising smile. “You’re under my…protection. I take you as my duty.”
She stared at that sensual smile. How could he be so cruel? Didn’t he realize how desire tormented her?
No, how could he? His bed was likely filled with a new woman every night.
As he stroked her cheek, she looked up at him with pleading eyes. “No,” she choked out. “I won’t go.”
“I can’t divorce you unless we go to the desert,” he said quietly, looking down at her. “The jewel is there.”
She blinked. The emerald. Of course they needed that for their divorce.
And to think she’d actually imagined he was going to whisk her off to the desert for some kind of seduction. Ridiculous. Even if Kareef wanted her, he wouldn’t take a long journey across the country just to seduce the woman he’d abandoned years ago. Not when half the women of this city were eagerly begging for the new king to sample their charms!
She truly had lost her mind to think she’d be that special to him. But still—the idea of being alone with him frightened her. “You have so many diplomatic duties here for your coming coronation,” she said. “Surely you can send someone to get it?”
“There are some things a man prefers to do himself,” he said evenly. “Even if he is king.” He raised a dark eyebrow. “And I’m taking you with me.”
She licked her lips. “All…all right.”
She couldn’t leave any question mark that might cast doubt on the legality of her new marriage to Umar. What choice did she have?
A slightly hysterical bubble of laughter escaped her. She could just imagine her father’s face if he found out that she was married to the king!
“What is making you smile?” Kareef demanded.
“I was just imagining my father’s face if I told him we’d been married for the last thirteen years. Do you think he’d find that respectable enough?”
Kareef paused, then laughed with her in a deep baritone, his eyes bright. “And Hajjar would find a way to incorporate the royal Qusani coat of arms onto his flag, or at least his business card.”
For a moment, they grinned at each other.
Then Jasmine’s smile faded. “Except no one must ever know I’ve been your wife.”
His eyes darkened. “Because?”
“There must be no scandal against the new king’s name. Not after the grief of your uncle’s death—the shock of your cousin’s abdication.” She shook her head. “The people of Qusay have been through enough in the last few weeks to last a lifetime.” She took a deep breath, raising her eyes to his. “And you must think of your bride.”
He frowned. “My bride? What bride?”
“The bride you will soon take, in your duty as king.”
He stared at her, clenching his jaw.
“A royal princess,” she said. “With a perfect reputation.”
He looked away.
“A beautiful virgin to give you children,” she continued, plumbing every depth of her own misery. “To be your queen and give you heirs. You will marry her, give her plump-cheeked, blue-eyed babies, and the whole country will rejoice.”
He jerked his head back to look at her, and his blue eyes seemed to glitter in the moonlight.
“Yes, Jasmine. Is that what you want to hear? Yes. I must take a royal virgin to be my queen. She will give me heirs. It is required of me as king. The Al’Ramiz lineage goes back a thousand years. I must have children of my own bloodline. I will have them. Does that satisfy you?”
Her heart pounded painfully in her throat.
“Yes,” she choked out. “It’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
Exactly what she needed: the finally crushing blow to any glimmer of hope. The brief illusion of being young again, of going back to the time they were in love, was gone.
Kareef wasn’t hers anymore. Married or not, he had never truly been hers.
A night breeze cut through the courtyard, causing her hair to whip darkly across her face. She heard the plaintive call of owls in the shadowy darkness. The spice and warmth of the air whirled around Jasmine. The memory of his touch a moment ago still burned her cheek.
She heard servants calling his name, louder this time. Any moment now, the servants would find them.
With a deep breath, Kareef stepped toward her.
“But the day of my marriage is far away,” he said, tucking her hair gently behind her ear. “And we will take the time we have. Tomorrow, I will take you to the desert.”
She shivered at his touch. “And there you will divorce me?”
He smiled, and the dark hunger in his eyes made her tremble. “Good night, my jewel.” Lowering his head, he kissed her cheek. “Until tomorrow.”
“Yes,” she whispered, pulling away. As the servants found Kareef, exclaiming excitedly that his brother, Tahir, had been found, she hurried back to her tiny room in the servants’ wing. She ran until she was out of breath. But even as she collapsed on her small bed, she could still feel Kareef behind her, still feel his lips on hers.
She knew what awaited her tomorrow. She knew it by the dark hunger she’d seen in his eyes. He meant to take her in the desert. To take her in his bed.
No! She would not—would not—surrender!
CHAPTER FOUR
IT WAS high noon the next day when Kareef arrived at Qusay International Airport.
He’d spent the whole morning in meetings with advisers and undersecretaries, signing papers and discussing upcoming treaties. But he’d smiled all morning. He couldn’t stop anticipating the pleasure that was to come.
Tonight, he would finally have Jasmine in his bed.
Kissing her last night had been incredible. If his servants hadn’t come out into the garden to find him—something he could not
