Annie West - Royals Untamed!

Her heart broke at the thought, but she knew it would be harder and a much bigger heartbreak if she stayed with him any longer. She shouldn’t have agreed to return to Barazbin. ‘You should never have come to find me, Kazim.’

‘I was a fool for thinking you could be part of my life, part of the future of Barazbin. A damn fool.’ His angry words resounded around the rich heavy fabric and her legs weakened until she thought she was going to collapse into a heap in the middle of the cushions.

‘I was the fool for ever agreeing to the marriage in the first place.’ Anger fizzed into her veins, giving life to new strength. ‘I don’t want to be a burdensome duty for anyone. I just want to be happy.’

‘Happy.’ That one word, spoken with his heavy accent, seemed to shake the whole tent and she glanced around her as every piece of the fabric wall moved and swayed. ‘To be happy is not on our wish list, Amber. We have a duty to our countries, our families.’

‘Just like you had a duty to seduce me with tender caresses and sweet words? Was it your duty to secure the future of Barazbin by producing an heir—without informing me?’ She glared at him, hands on hips, the rising tide of anger peaking. ‘Well, I am sorry to tell you, but there will not be an heir as on those nights we spent together I was using contraception.’

He rounded on her so fast she stepped back into the scattered pillows, almost stumbling on them. ‘Yet more deception.’ His angry words were slow and purposeful. ‘Is there no end to the lengths you will go to?’

‘If you had told me before I agreed to return with you that producing an heir was necessary I would have told you I couldn’t do that.’ She watched as his face hardened, his lips pressing into a thin line. ‘I would have said no, no matter what tantalising blackmail you used.’

‘Your accusation of blackmail is becoming tiresome.’ He stepped ever closer to her, towering over her, but she refused to be intimidated and stood her ground, looking up into his face and deep into the depths of his eyes, now so glacial. ‘But I cannot tolerate your deception.’

‘My deception!’ Amber gasped out the words and, as if in echo to her shock, the fabric walls billowed again with the fury of a force far greater than their anger. Shouts could be heard, orders being barked out and people running. She watched as he looked around, saw his eyes narrow in suspicion and then his jaw clench. She wanted to reach out to him, to ask him for reassurance but, from the worried look on his face, she doubted he could give her any.

She knew the wind had picked up. She might have spent most of her adult life in Europe, but she knew the desert winds were capable of coming out of nowhere. Kazim’s earlier talk of the ever changing desert came back to her, and the panicked shouts of men outside worried her. Something was very wrong.

* * *

Kazim looked around him, his attention diverted by the way the tent billowed in, making the gold fabric shimmer in the light from the lantern. The wind had picked up but something far worse was happening out there. His gaze rested again on Amber, the anger he’d experienced at her deception receding like the tide. He’d brought her to the desert and could well have put her in danger. Once again, someone he was close to was going to be hurt. He adamantly refused to look deeper into that thought.

‘Stay here.’ He took hold of her arms and forced her to look at him. ‘Do you hear me? Stay here.’

‘What is it?’ she asked, her words laced with panic. He knew he’d scared her more than necessary.

‘I will be back in a few minutes but, whatever you do, stay here.’ He injected as much urgency into his voice as possible and the heat of her arms beneath his hands grounded him somehow.

Before he had time to reconsider he left her, tossing aside the curtain to her quarters roughly, and made his way to the main entrance of the tent, now secured for the night. Quickly he opened it and one look outside told him all he needed to know. Nature was taunting them with the threat of a sandstorm, but the frenzied activities of the nomads suggested only one thing.

They were under attack.

‘Kazim?’

He swore and turned to face Amber as she now stood in the main living quarters. ‘Can you ever do as you are told?’ With harsh movements he secured the tent entrance again and hoped the rebels wouldn’t attack in full force. He was torn. Stay with Amber or go to the nomads?

‘What’s happening?’ Her voice quivered with fear but he was still angry that she hadn’t heeded his warning and stayed where she was. In her quarters at the back of the tent was the best place for both of them to be.

‘A desert storm is threatening.’

‘But it could get worse, right?’ She looked at him, her face imploring him to tell the truth. Truth! Would she know what that was?

‘It already has.’

‘What do you mean?’ Panic entered her voice once again, and guilt tugged at him.

‘The rebels are out there too. Attack is imminent.’

Her eyes widened in shock, but she didn’t say anything.

Quickly, he took her arm and propelled her towards her quarters. ‘We will go back to where I told you to stay and sit it out. That is the safest and best option.’ His hand locked around hers, almost dragging her back into her quarters as the fabric walls billowed and the wind wailed mournfully around them.

He pulled her down onto the bed, tossing aside some of the cushions in exasperation. ‘We just wait and hope. The threatening storm may be our saviour.’

‘That’s it?’ she snapped and turned to face him, suddenly so very close that his chest tightened and for a moment he couldn’t say anything. ‘That’s your master plan?’

Amber clung to his arm and he closed his eyes against the raging emotions inside him. She was seeking his protection; even if she didn’t utter a word, her actions told him that. His mind raced back in time, to the moment he’d failed to protect his mother. He could hear her scream and feel the fiery pain in his chest as he was pushed against the sharp corner of a marble statue pedestal.

‘Kazim, someone’s trying to get in.’ Amber’s panicked words hurtled him back to the present and he leapt to his feet, preparing to defend.

Relief surged through him as the son of the nomad elder rushed in, his words as hurried as his entrance.

‘What is it?’ Amber asked as the nomad quickly left. ‘Do you need to go?’

He shook his head, trying to regain his usual control, thankful that the wind had played its part to their advantage. ‘They have gone. It seems the wind is mistress of the desert tonight.’

She sighed in relief. ‘Are you sure they won’t come back?’

‘Not tonight,’ he said as he sat next to her, wanting to hold her. ‘All we need to worry about now is the wind and staying safe.’

‘Are you trying to seduce me?’ she teased and his pulse rate rocketed into overdrive.

‘I would not be deceitful enough to use the cover of an impending storm—neither would I need to.’ He looked deep into her eyes, trying to fathom the emotions that were buried within them. The truth was: he did want to seduce her. With every cell in his body he wanted her; despite everything, he still craved the release being with her could give him.

The intensity of that lust was something he’d never experienced before. Usually the novelty of a woman wore off once he’d bedded her, but with Amber it was different. Was that because he’d waited so long to claim her, to then discover that she too had waited and that she was truly his?

‘I wasn’t trying to deceive you, Kazim,’ she said softly as her gaze lowered, those long lashes covering her eyes, hiding her soul from his scrutiny. But her apology only raised more questions.