The Sheik and the Runaway Princess Read Online Free Page A

from an open saddlebag, then poured herself a full cup of the steaming liquid. It was hot and strong enough to grow hair.
    “Perfect,” she breathed.
    Kardal moved around the fire to stand next to her. He wore his robe open over his shirt and trousers. The long covering flowed behind him with each step.
    “I’m surprised you like it,” he said. “Most westerners and many women find it too strong.”
    “Too strong isn’t possible,” she said after sipping again. “I like coffee I can stand a spoon in.”
    “No lattes or mocha cappuccinos?”
    What? Humor from the great and mysterious Kardal? She smiled slightly. “Not even on a bet.”
    He motioned for her to follow him to the edge of their camp. Once there he put his hands on his hips and stared down at her as if she were a particularly unappealing bug. So much for the moment of bonding over coffee.
    “Something must be done with you,” he announced.
    “What? You don’t want to spend the rest of your days traveling with me throughout the desert? And here I thought you enjoyed tying me up and making me sleep on the hard ground.”
    He raised his dark eyebrows. “You have more spirit than you did last night.”
    “Not surprising. I’m rested, I have coffee. Despite rumors to the contrary, I’m a creature of simple wants.”
    The curl of his mouth indicated that he didn’t believe her.
    “We have three choices,” he told her. “We can kill you and leave your body here in the desert. We can sell you as a slave or we can ransom you to your family.”
    She nearly choked on her coffee, barely able to believe he meant what he said. Although the edge of determination in his voice told her that he did.
    “Can I see what’s behind curtain number four?” she asked when she could finally speak. Here she’d been thinking ol’ Kardal wasn’t so bad and he was talking about killing her and leaving her remains for whatever animals lived out here.
    Of course if they were going to kill her wouldn’t they have already done it? Sleeping with her tied up next to him had to have been just as uncomfortable for Kardal as it had been for her.
    “Eliminating death as an option,” she said cautiously, “I don’t think I’d make an especially good slave.”
    “I had considered that. Of course a good beating would change that.”
    “And what would a bad beating do?” she murmured.
    “Which would you prefer?”
    She stared at him. “A good or a bad beating? Neither, thank you.” She couldn’t believe they were discussing this. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening. That she was standing in the middle of the Bahanian desert discussing the physical abuse of her person.
    “I meant,” he said slowly, as if she weren’t very bright, “which of the three do you prefer?”
    “It’s my choice? How democratic.”
    “I am trying to be fair.”
    She grimaced. Obviously he’d missed the sarcasm she’d attempted to interject into her words. “Fair would be giving me a horse and some supplies, then pointing me in the right direction.”
    “You’ve already lost your own horse and camel. Why would I trust you with stock of mine?”
    She didn’t like the question so she ignored it. There was no point in protesting that the loss of her horse and camel had been more because of the storm than because she’d done something wrong.
    “I do not want to be killed,” she said at last when it became apparent he really was waiting for her to choose her fate. “And I have no desire to be any man’s slave.” Nor did she want to return to the palace and marry the troll prince. Unfortunately there wasn’t much choice.
    She wondered if her father would bother to pay a ransom for her. He might if for no other reason than it would look bad for him if he didn’t. Now if one of his precious cats had been kidnapped, the entire kingdom would be in an uproar until it was returned.
    It was very sad, she thought to herself, that her place in her father’s affection was