Tamed: The Barbarian King Read Online Free Page A

bedroom! In some parts of the country, you would be required to marry me!”
    He gave a low laugh. “It’s a good thing we’re in the city, then.”
    “Don’t you dare! Don’t you realize how gossip can spread?”
    “My servants can be trusted.”
    She shook her head fiercely. “How do you know?”
    “One servant betrayed us, Jasmine. One.” His eyes glinted. “And I made him pay. Marwan—”
    “I’m not going to argue with you!” she nearly shrieked, grabbing a pillow off her bed and lifting it over her head. The dress fell to the floor but she barely noticed. Modesty was inconsequential compared to the blaze of her fury. “Just get out!”
    He looked at her body in the white cotton bra and panties. She felt his gaze upon her bare skin from her collarbone to the curve of her breasts, down her flat belly to her naked thighs. Her mouth went dry.
    Then, slowly, he met her gaze. “You’re threatening me with a pillow, Jasmine?”
    Since he was a foot taller and probably eighty pounds heavier than her, she could see why that would seem like a joke. It only made her more angry. “Do you need a handwritten request? Get out!”
    “When you agree to join me for dinner.”
    Staring at him, a jittery nervousness pulsed through her. The last time she’d seen Kareef, he’d been barely eighteen, the king’s eldest nephew, slender and tall and fine. She’d been the bookish eldest daughter of the king’s adviser; he’d been a wild, reckless horse racer with a vulnerable heart and joyful laugh.
    But he’d changed since then. He was no longer a boy; he’d become a man. A dangerous one.
    His once-friendly blue eyes were now ruthless; the formerly vibrant expression on his handsome, rugged face had become tightly controlled. His once-lanky frame had gained strength. Even the muscle of his body proclaimed him a king. He could probably pick up someone like Umar and toss him through the air like a javelin. She’d never seen any man on earth with shoulders like Kareef’s.
    But the biggest change was the grim darkness she now saw beneath his gaze. She could sense the cold warrior hidden beneath his deeply tanned skin. He had only the thinnest veneer of civilization left. The danger both attracted her…and frightened her.
    It doesn’t matter , she told herself desperately. In a few days she would become Umar’s wife and she would never have to see Kareef again. If she could just make it to her wedding…
    “So you’ll join me?” he said coldly.
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “Come anyway. We have…something to discuss.”
    “No,” she said desperately. “We don’t.”
    He lowered a dark eyebrow. “Do I really have to say it?”
    She swallowed. No. She knew exactly what he was talking about. She’d just told herself many times that it didn’t matter, that it didn’t count, that it had just been a few whispered words between kisses.
    The pillow dropped from her hands. She wrapped her arms around her body, glancing toward the deepening shadows of the garden. She whispered, “It’s all in the past.”
    “The past is always with us.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him take a single step toward her. “You know you cannot marry him.”
    Oh my God, Kareef was going to touch her! If he did—if he reached out and took her hand—she was afraid of how her body would react. Only her anger was keeping her hands wrapped around her own waist, when some uncivilized part of her longed to stroke the dark curl of his hair, the roughness of his jawline, to touch the hard muscles and discover the man he had become….
    With a harsh intake of breath, she held up her hand sharply, keeping him at a distance.
    “All right!” she bit out. “I’ll join you for your fancy dinner if you’ll just leave!”
    His blue eyes held hers. “It won’t be fancy. Simple and quiet.”
    “Right.” She didn’t believe him for a second. She’d never seen any Al’Ramiz king dine with fewer than fifty people and ten courses of