An Illicit Temptation by Jeannie Lin Read Free Book Online Page A

with such tender care that it broke her heart.
    She opened her eyes. He held her gaze the entire time as his
movements became rough and his breath shallow. He climaxed like that, still
watching her.
    This time, she was the first to turn away. She had to. She was
starting to wonder and she was starting to dream.
    Kwan-Li slipped abruptly out of her as she sat up. Dao fumbled
with the clasps on her garment, staring down at her hands rather than at him.
Her heart was beating too fast and there was no way to escape. In his eyes, she
had seen both a promise and a demand and she was frightened of how he made her
hope for more. Maybe princesses could dream, but she couldn’t.
    After a long pause, she could hear Kwan-Li getting up as well.
The silence grew oppressive.
    “Princess.”
    She turned to see him raised onto his knees beside the rugs and
blankets that served as her bed. His pupils were dark, his face a mask. He knew
something was wrong.
    She fought to keep her voice steady. A low throb of pleasure
still vibrated through her. “You should know this changes nothing.”
    A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I would not presume it would.”
    Dao could see the anger that vibrated through him.
    “I am still marrying the khagan,” she said, gathering up her
hair.
    She suddenly wanted more than anything to set herself right:
her hair, her clothing. If she could wash the scent of him from her skin, she
would. He’d somehow gotten inside her, mind and body, and the memory was too
hard to fight. She needed to get out of the confines of the tent and remove all
other reminders of what they had done. She didn’t regret it, she just needed it
finished. This was how affairs were conducted, weren’t they?
    “Your clan negotiated this alliance. You have a duty,” she
reminded him. She struggled with the hairpins. “I have a duty.”
    “Everything that you are saying is true,” he said
tonelessly.
    Dao didn’t realize she had her hands clenched. She released
them and let the blood flow back into her fingertips. “I told you. I didn’t want
my first lover to be a stranger.”
    Why was she explaining herself? Men were known to love and then
turn away from one breath to the next.
    He closed each clasp on his deel methodically, one after the other, all the while watching her with the eyes of a
hawk. “The princess can rely on this humble servant to be discreet.” His mouth
twisted over the words.
    Did he think she considered him beneath her? The horror of it
made her blood run cold. The Kwan-Li she had come to know took nothing lightly.
Not a kiss, not a single word. Surely not a night like the one they’d spent.
    “I’m not a princess,” she blurted out.
    He blinked at her. His frown deepened as he rose to his full
height and came to stand over her. “Not a princess?” he asked slowly.
    Her heart raced. “I haven’t a drop of royal blood. I was given
the title by imperial decree—or rather my master’s daughter was, but Pearl ran
away so I came in her place. But I am still a princess by decree,” she amended.
“Your treaty will still be honored.”
    “Such lies! Send a false princess to the barbarians. How would
they know the difference?”
    His hair was untied and there was something powerful and
frighteningly beautiful about him as he glared at her. She was no longer
pretending and he was no longer restrained by civility.
    “Did you really think every alliance bride was truly a
princess?” she asked impatiently.
    “The imperial court thinks it can play whatever trick it wants
to on the ignorant Khitans.”
    She narrowed her gaze at him. “A trick? Like pledging loyalty
to both the Uyghurs and the Tang Empire at the same time?” she snapped.
    He fell silent.
    “Why did you choose to speak now?” he asked finally.
    Because she’d grown to respect him. Because what they had
between them was changing too quickly for her to catch her breath. No man had
ever taken such good care of her or shown her such