Tamed: The Barbarian King Read Free Page A

At all the guests watching the king surreptitiously beneath the white pavilion. Then he looked back at Jasmine, and it all faded away. He couldn’t see anything but the beauty of her face—the endless darkness of her eyes.
    “Nima’s staying in New York now, living in my apartment, trying to wrap her head around the thought that she will soon be a mother.” She blinked back tears. “My baby sister. When she showed up on my doorstep two days ago, I suddenly realized how much time I’d lost. Thirteen years without my family.” Her voice cracked. “No money can replace that.”
    “So you got engaged to Umar Hajjar,” he said quietly. He narrowed his eyes. “Do you love him?”
    With a sigh, she rubbed her neck. “When my fathersent me away thirteen years ago,” she whispered, “he said not to bother coming home again. Not until I was a respectable married woman.”
    Kareef set his jaw, furious as he glared at her. “So that’s why you got engaged?” he bit out. “To please your father?”
    She looked up at him, hatred suddenly blazing in her eyes.
    “What do you care? You washed your hands of me long ago. In a few days I’ll be married and out of your life forever.” She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered. “So leave me alone. Go get yourself crowned. Sire.”
    In all the years he’d known Jasmine, he’d never heard that bitter tone from her lips. But could he blame her? What she’d gone through would make any woman’s soul grow brittle. Her young spirit had been so happy and bright, but he’d crushed that long ago. His hands tightened as he leaned forward over the table.
    “But Jasmine,” he said in a low voice, “you have to know that I—”
    “Forgive me,” Umar Hajjar interrupted, his voice high and strained. They turned almost guiltily to find him standing behind them. “My children’s nanny was on the phone. There is an emergency. I must go.”
    “Oh no!” Jasmine rose to her feet anxiously. “I will come with you.”
    Umar held up his hand. “I must go alone.”
    “What? Why? Please, Umar,” she begged. “Let me come with you. You might need my help!”
    “No,” he said harshly. His eyes fell upon Kareef. “My king, I ask you to take Jasmine under your protection.”
    “No! Absolutely not!” she cried, too loudly. Guests turned to look.
    “Jasmine,” Umar cautioned in a low, hard voice, “do not create a scene.”
    She swallowed. “I won’t,” she choked out softly. Her dark eyes glimmered, pleading with him as they turned away from the crowd. “Just don’t leave me with the king.”
    “Why?” her fiancé demanded.
    She licked her lips, glancing at Kareef beneath trembling lashes. “Though he is king…he is also still a man.”
    “Don’t be foolish, Jasmine. He’s the king!” Umar said. “His word is unbreakable. His honor is respected across the world. He—”
    “No, she is right,” Kareef interrupted. He looked down at Jasmine with glittering eyes. “Though I am king,” he said in a low, dangerous voice, “I am also still a man.”
    Her long, black eyelashes swept across her pale cheeks as she visibly trembled beneath his gaze.
    “And I would trust you with my life,” Umar said stoutly. “Please. You must take her, sire.”
    Kareef slowly turned to his old friend. Bring Jasmine back to the royal palace? Beneath the same roof? The gleaming palace already felt like a prison with its thick walls, when Kareef hungered for the wide freedom of the desert. He couldn’t imagine being trapped in that gilded cage with the additional torture of Jasmine’s company—under his protection as he waited for her to marry another man!
    “No,” he said coldly. “She cannot stay at the palace. It’s impossible.”
    But even as Jasmine exhaled in relief, Umar pressed his lips together. “She cannot stay unchaperoned here until we are married. It would be improper. I have my children to consider.”
    “Send her home to her family.”
    “It will be far more