Stud by Cheryl Brooks Read Free Book Online Page A

over to a partially built structure that looked more like hills than a castle. “Your sand needs to be wet, princess,” he observed. “Here, let me show you.”
    Spending the next hour or so with Saree had an unexpected effect on Tarq; he was enjoying himself enormously until he realized he’d never played with a child since becoming an adult himself. He had fathered hundreds of children and had never played with any of them. Not one.
    His mind had been diverted from thoughts of Lucy by the child’s antics, but this realization brought her back to the forefront with a palpable jolt. She wasn’t even pregnant yet and he was already thinking about playing with their children—except that they probably wouldn’t be girls. Tarq’s tendency to sire males suddenly became a flaw rather than a desirable attribute. To have daughters with eyes like Lucy’s—daughters that he would gladly give his life to protect—would be worth more to him than a thousand males conceived with other women.
    This notion hit Tarq with the force of a stun blast as a sense of loss, of utter and complete futility, flooded through him. Lucy would never want him as her mate—he was too stupid and… used. No woman would want a man who had been so unselective in the past, would she? Tarq had been with hundreds of women, but he still didn’t completely understand the way their minds worked, with the result that he probably couldn’t predict what she would do or say. Of course, this was assuming that he could ever bring himself to ask the question—if he even knew what the question was.
    Saree must have sensed his distress with all the intuition of womanhood, for she paused at her task, gazing at him curiously. “Do you need a nap?” As if suddenly overcome by weariness herself, she yawned.
    Tarq chuckled. “I think you might be the one who needs a nap.” Glancing up, he saw her mother approaching. “Your mother probably thinks so too.”
    Frowning as her mother held out her hand, Saree shook her head but was unable to stifle another huge yawn. “But the castle isn’t finished,” she protested.
    “I’ll finish it, princess,” Tarq promised. “It will be waiting for you when you come back.”
    Her expression changed to a pout, but there was real fear mixed in. “If the bad king’s soldiers don’t knock it down.”
    Tarq thought it sad that even a small child expected the worst, but then he had seen enough horrors to know children were not immune to danger—even in a peaceful village like this. His own home had been very peaceful, until it was invaded.
    Tarq didn’t know what to say. “I can’t promise they won’t,” he said finally, “but I’ll finish it anyway.”
    “You don’t have to do that,” Saree’s mother said. “She can work on it later.”
    Tarq shook his head. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
    What the woman made of that, Tarq never knew, but Saree seemed pleased, which was the only thing that mattered. They lingered for a short time while Tarq went right on building turrets and towers until the castle was waist high—a strong fortress to protect Princess Saree.
    In truth, he knew quite well that walls of sand wouldn’t protect anyone, but he hoped Saree had a dad who loved and protected her, not like Lucy’s who made her life miserable—or at least not as happy as it could have been. He desperately wanted to see Lucy again, but he didn’t want to arouse any suspicions, and showing up at their restaurant for every meal would probably do just that.
    So wrapped up in thoughts of Lucy and the task at hand, Tarq almost didn’t notice when they left him, or how Saree’s mother had affected him—or, rather, how she hadn’t affected him. The scent of her desire was there, but it hadn’t aroused him at all.
    ***
    Lucy got through the day somehow, though her moods swung wildly from elation to irritation to regret to breathless anticipation and back again. The day before had passed slowly,