Claimed by the Sheikh by Rachael Thomas Read Free Book Online Page B

marriage as much as I do.’
    She clenched her teeth, biting back the retort. How could he think she wanted to please her family after they’d disowned her? There was no going back; they’d made that quite clear. ‘I don’t have a family, thanks to you.’
    He looked at her and a question sparked in his eyes but he said nothing, his silence goading her, making her press home her point.
    â€˜You saw to that when you sent me back to them. They were so horrified and ashamed that you’d turned your back on me, they sent me to England.’ But England hadn’t quite been the punishment intended. She’d met distant relations of her grandmother’s and there had gained the strength to move to Paris, a city that had always entranced her.
    It still hurt like hell to think of her father’s proud face, barely able to conceal his disappointment. Her marriage, he’d told her, hadn’t achieved anything but disgrace as far as he was concerned. If her husband had turned her away after one night, her father had raged, then he too had no option but to send her away.
    Amber looked at the passing streets, the impressive Eiffel Tower as it rose skywards above the city. She hadn’t even made it there, let alone the galleries and museums. But she hadn’t expected to be leaving so soon.
    â€˜They shouldn’t have done that.’ Kazim finally spoke, his voice velvety-smooth yet hard-edged, and she reluctantly dragged her gaze from the beautiful city. ‘Your father got what he wanted out of our union. His lands are now very prosperous.’
    She shook her head. ‘You don’t understand, Kazim.’
    â€˜What is there to understand?’ His expression hardened as he looked at her before returning his attention to his phone. Seconds later he spoke into the phone in his native tongue and, like a chant, it wound its way around her, tugging at her memories. It took her back to the days when she’d been happy, the long lazy days of childhood spent in her father’s homeland, Quarazmir, to a time when all had been right in her world. At least until she’d been sent to boarding school in England to enable her to learn more of her English heritage, something her father had insisted upon and her mother had fought hard against.
    Amber pushed those thoughts aside as Kazim finished his call, slipped the phone back inside his jacket pocket and looked at her. ‘The jet is ready and waiting. We shall be there in little more than an hour.’
    â€˜An hour? I thought we were going to Barazbin.’ Confusion pushed aside her daydreams of times long since passed, sharply bringing the present into focus.
    â€˜I am on my way to England. I have business to conclude before returning to Barazbin.’
    Shock ricocheted through her like a pinball. He hadn’t come to Paris especially for her. He’d just stopped off on his journey as if she was nothing more than an irritating loose end that needed tying up. Anger quickly followed the shock and she clenched her fingers tightly in her lap, her nails biting into her palms.
    â€˜You should have told me. I could have made better plans for leaving.’
Or not left at all
. Then she remembered Claude and what he stood to gain from her deal with this devil. Guilt tore through her once again. She was doing this for Claude and Annie, not for herself and never for Kazim. As soon as she could, she would leave Barazbin and her marriage behind.
    â€˜What plans would they have been? To slip away, assume a new identity and take on another job in an equally unsavoury establishment?’ Although his deep voice was courteous there was an underlying patronising kick in it.
    She blushed. He’d guessed her thoughts but she kept her voice light, trying to provoke a reaction from him, to shake his rigid composure. ‘Would you rather I had told everyone who I was?’
    â€˜No.’ His voice was brusque as she sat