Wild Jasmine by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page A

angry voice.
    “I am not,” she replied calmly. “I bleed each month like all women of childbearing age. I am ready. You were not much older than I am now when you first wed.”
    “You know nothing of men, sweet sister,” he murmured, and his hand caressed her silky head. “Besides, I will not let you go, Yasaman. I want you by me when I come into my inheritance. Remember how we spoke on it when you were little?”
    “So you admit I am no longer a child,” she teased him.
    “I admit nothing! Sweet sister, do you not remember the kings and queens of ancient Egypt?” He bent his head and gently kissed her brow.
    “The ones who wed each other in order to keep their bloodline pure? Aye, brother, I remember, but do you not recall our grandmother says that such a thing is unclean?” His arms about her were both exciting and frightening, she decided. Salim, twenty-one years her senior, seemed so sophisticated and worldly.
    “She is a querulous old woman! What does she know of life, my lotus blossom?” He pressed his lips to her temple once again. Allah! How he wanted her! It was madness, he knew, but for several years now he had lusted after his half sisterwith a passion that frightened even him. He seemed to have no control over it, and it had only grown worse as Yasaman had matured and grown more beautiful.
    He had three wives. Man Bai, Amara, and the elegant Nur Jahan. He loved them. Yet still he wanted Yasaman. The thought of another man’s lingham piercing her sweet yoni was more than he could bear. He felt his own member hardening at the thought. Yasaman! The mere thought of her consumed him with a raging, burning passion.
    “Am I to be a spinster then, like our poor sister, Aram-Banu?” Yasaman demanded, shifting nervously at the unfamiliar pressure against her leg.
    “Aram-Banu is a child,” he told her.
    “Aram-Banu is older than I am, Salim!” she retorted spiritedly.
    “In years, aye, sweet sister, but Aram-Banu has the mind of a child. She is too simpleminded to be given to any man for a wife, else Father would have married her off to his advantage long ago.” Reaching out, he cupped her face in his hand. “I cannot bear the thought of losing you, little monkey. Tell Father you will accept no husband now, and stay with me.” He smiled down at her. “You know that I adore you, Yasaman.” He ran his thumb along her full lips. She opened those lips and took his thumb in her mouth, sucking teasingly upon it for a moment. He believed he would lose control entirely as thoughts of her mouth upon a more intimate part of him filled his head. Yet practical instinct told him she was still half a child and had no real knowledge of her effect upon him.
    “There you two are!” Rugaiya Begum had come upon them, although they had not heard her approach. “Yasaman, run along and change your garments. Your father’s messenger has just arrived to say that Akbar is only an hour away.”
    The girl pulled easily from her brother’s grasp and, without so much as a backward glance, hurried off. The prince and the older woman stared at each other a long, hard moment.
    Then Rugaiya Begum said, “Your father and I are going to choose suitors for Yasaman while he is here. It is time we began to consider an advantageous marriage for her.”
    “Under the law, she cannot marry until she is fourteen,” Salim replied. “I think it is much too soon to betroth her.”
    “Your father made the laws, and he can amend them, Salim. I cannot protect Yasaman the way a husband can.” Rugaiya Begum answered him.
    “Does she need protection, lady? Who would harm the Grand Mughal’s daughter?”
    She knew! The bitch had a sharp eye and a keener judgment of his character than any other. Whenever he had gotten in his father’s bad graces over the years, he could always rely upon the ladies of his father’s zenana to aid him. All but Rugaiya Begum. She loved him for his mother’s sake, but unlike the others, even his