As the explosions continued to spiral across the night sky, booming like thunder, he leaned forward and stroked her face.
“I knew,” he said in a low voice. “And so did you.”
The tension altered, humming with a hot awareness that coiled and stretched between them.
Her cheek sizzled where he stroked her. His gaze dropped to her mouth. She felt her body tighten. Her breasts suddenly ached, her nipples taut with longing.
No!
“If we once were married,” she choked out, “speak the words to undo it now. All I care about now…is my family.”
“And what of you?” he said, cupping her face in his strong hands. “What do you want for yourself?”
She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted it with every ounce of her blood and beat of her heart.
But she wouldn’t allow this insane desire to destroy the life that was finally within reach, the family life she hungered to have. She lifted her dark lashes to look into his eyes. “I want a home.” Her voice was as quiet as the whisper of memory. “A family. I want a husband and children of my own.”
A loud crash boomed in the night sky outside them, shaking the palace.
Kareef looked down at her, his eyes suddenly dark as a midnight sea. He dropped his hands from her face. “Umar Hajjar loves his children, his horses and his money—in that order,” he said harshly. “As his wife, you will be valued a distant fourth on his list.”
“He values my connections in America. He thinks I will be the perfect wife—the perfect hostess. That is enough.”
“Not enough for him.”
“What else could he want from me?”
He looked at her.
“You’re a beautiful woman,” he said thickly. “No man could resist you.”
She stared up at him for several heartbeats, then turned away, hiding her face.
“That’s not true,” she said in a low voice. “One man has had no trouble resisting me, Kareef.” She looked up. “You.”
He grabbed her wrist on the table. His fingers tightened on her skin. “You think I don’t want you?”
His voice was dangerous. Low. She felt tension snapping between them, rippling through her body, sharp against every nerve.
Her heart beat frantically in her chest. As he leaned toward her, she breathed in his masculine scent, laced with the flavor of wine and spice. His body, in all its strength and power, was so close to hers. She yearned to lean across the table, to lose everything in one moment of sweet madness and press her mouth against his….
Another loud boom exploded outside. It broke the spell. Made her realize she was perilously close to doing something unforgivable.
Rising to her feet, she stumbled back from the table.
“Divorce me,” she whispered. “If you’ve ever cared about me, Kareef, if I was ever more than a warm body in the night to you…divorce me tonight.”
He stared at her, his jaw tight. Then he shook his head. Tears rose to her eyes and she fought them with all her might.
“You bastard,” she choked out. “You cold-hearted bastard. I’ve known for years you had no heart, but I never thought you could…never thought you would—”
But the tears were starting to fall from her lashes. Turning before he could see them, she shoved open the double doors. They banged loudly against the walls as she fled down the hallway.
“Jasmine! Stop!”
But she didn’t obey. She just ran.
Fireworks boomed outside the tall windows as she raced past the corner where she’d first crashed into Kareef—literally—by sliding on the marble floors in her socks, playing with her sisters. When she slid too fast around the corner, he’d grasped her wrists, catching her before she could fall. His blue eyes had smiled down at her with the warmth of spring’s first sun. She’d loved him from that first day.
Now, after thirteen years of trying to forget Kareef’s existence, this one day had brought it all back, times ten. A single word from his deep voice, a single look from his handsome face, and he’d caught up Jasmine’s soul like a fish in his net.
Racing down the hall, she pushed open the first door on her left and ran down the wooden stairs into the courtyard. Cloaked in darkness, she took deep rattling gasps of the warm desert air. She stood beneath the swaying dark palm trees of the garden, beside the dark water shimmering in the silvery moonlight, and wrapped her arms over her thin cotton sundress. She could not allow herself to cry. She could not allow herself to collapse.
Because this time, if she fell, there would be no prince to catch her.
CHAPTER THREE
KAREEF nearly staggered in shock as Jasmine fled the dining room. Jasmine thought he didn’t want her? Didn’t she know her power?