Claire Delacroix Read Online Free

clearly a demand. Kira’s trepidation rose as Johannes responded quickly in kind, the third man’s dark eyes bright in the shadows as he watched.
    “What is this about?” she demanded, her uncertainty making her speak more sharply than was her custom.
    The tall man’s eyes narrowed speculatively and he spoke tersely to Johannes. The way his gaze wandered over Kira sent reluctant color rising over her cheeks.
    She was not that sort of woman.
    Kira lifted her chin indignantly and boldly held his gaze. She knew that her heavy, draped and hooded djellaba thrown over her high-necked kurta was demure beyond even the current mode, and that her full chalwar trousers hid all but her ankles from view. No need had she to tempt the glances of men in town, for that, too, bore the price of her father’s lash.
    Was that amusement briefly flickering in the warrior’s eyes? Kira dismissed her whimsical thought out of hand, knowing intuitively that a sense of humor would not be an attribute of this rough warrior. Indeed, she had not found it an attribute of men in general, unless they mocked at another’s expense.
    “He wants to know when your father will return,” Johannes translated. Kira shrugged in response.
    “Just last week ‘twas that he left,” she confessed, incapable of tearing her gaze away from those scrutinizing eyes even though she felt that they bored into her very soul. “No less than a month could his journey require.”
    The warrior nodded curtly, apparently having understood the gist of her response from her gesture, and barked an order to Johannes. The scholar raised imploring eyes to Kira.
    “Some pearls he needs valued immediately for the Mongol khan,” he whispered. Kira felt her eyes widen in surprise despite her determination to keep her thoughts hidden.
    Mongols. ‘Twas true, then. Her gaze flicked reluctantly back to the third man with his characteristically Eastern features as though to verify her original suspicions.
    When the Asiatic man grinned wickedly, Kira inhaled sharply. Her gaze danced back to the tall man seemingly of its own accord. He was watching her with that unnervingly silent scrutiny. Kira took a slow breath as she came to terms with Johannes’ revelation.
    No need had she to look into either pair of cold eyes again to know that these men would slaughter anyone who did not do their bidding. ‘Twas all part of their daily business, she had little doubt.
    No wonder Johannes was terrified.
    But she would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her fear.
    Kira drew herself up straighter and endeavored to look confident of her own abilities. No heart had she for abandoning Johannes to this forbidding man’s disapproval.
    “A rough value can I give him of the gems,” she offered, the strength of her voice surprising her. Johannes translated her words and Kira took a deep breath, willing her heartbeat to slow. Truly she hoped that she could fulfill this task.
    And her father thought that he had left her a test of her abilities. Kira licked her lips nervously as the warrior slowly slid a small pouch from his tunic. Could she do this? In truth there was little choice now. The warrior said something directly to her and Kira was forced to meet his compelling gaze once more though she did not understand his words.
    “He says that the way pearls drop from your lips when you speak is a sign you can be trusted,” Johannes supplied.
    Kira swallowed with difficulty, knowing that she dare not reveal the truth of what he had obviously misinterpreted. She reached for the bulging velvet pouch, startled at the jolt that tripped over her skin when the warrior’s rough fingertips brushed hers.
    His skin was warm.
    Suddenly Kira was aware of him in a much more intimate sense than she would have preferred. The unexpected contact and the faint waft of his musky scent awakened something within Kira that would have been better left slumbering.
    She snatched the bag and backed hastily away, hating the